1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
12 <!entity p-authors SYSTEM "p-authors.sgml">
13 <!entity p-version "2.9.15">
14 <!entity p-status "beta">
15 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
16 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
17 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
18 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
19 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
20 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
21 <!entity % p-config "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
23 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
24 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
30 This file belongs into
31 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
33 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9 Exp $
35 Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
38 ========================================================================
39 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
40 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
41 ========================================================================
48 <title>Privoxy User Manual</title>
52 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
53 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
54 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
55 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
59 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
63 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
64 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
65 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
66 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
73 <holder>Privoxy Developers</holder>
76 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
78 text goes here ........
90 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
91 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
92 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
98 The <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
99 install, configure and use <ulink
100 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
103 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
105 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
108 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
109 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
110 Please see the <ulink url="contact.html">Contact section</ulink> on how to
111 contact the developers.
115 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
121 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
122 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
124 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
125 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
126 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
127 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
128 configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
129 completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over
130 earlier versions. The target release date for
131 stable v3.0 is <quote>soon</quote> ;-)]]>.
134 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
137 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
138 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
139 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
144 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
145 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
147 In addition to <application>Internet Junkbuster's</application> traditional
148 features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
149 <application>Privoxy</application> provides new features<![%p-not-stable;[,
150 some of them currently under development]]>:
152 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
154 <!-- end boilerplate -->
159 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
162 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
163 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
166 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
167 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
168 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
169 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
174 Note: If you have a previous <application>Junkbuster</application> or
175 <application>Privoxy</application> installation on your system, you
176 will need to remove it. On some platforms, this may be done for you as part
177 of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform). In any case
178 <emphasis>be sure to backup your old configuration if it is valuable to
179 you.</emphasis> See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">note to
180 upgraders</link> section below.
183 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
184 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
186 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
189 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
190 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs</title>
193 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
194 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
195 of configuration files.
199 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
200 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
201 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
202 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods. Note that SuSE will
203 automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
207 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
208 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
209 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
213 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
214 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
215 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
216 automatically, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
220 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
221 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
223 DEBs can be installed with <literal>dpkg -i
224 privoxy_&p-version;-1.deb</literal>, and will use
225 <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of configuration
230 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
231 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
234 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
235 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
236 in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in. We do not
237 use the registry of Windows.
241 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
242 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
245 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
246 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
247 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
251 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
252 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
255 First, make sure that no previous installations of
256 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
257 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
258 system. You can do this by
262 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
263 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
264 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
265 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
269 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
270 into will contain all of the configuration files.
274 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
275 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Max OSX</title>
277 Unzip the downloaded package (you can either double-click on the file
278 in the finder, or on the desktop if you downloaded it there). Then,
279 double-click on the package installer icon and follow the installation
281 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the subdirectory
282 <literal>/Applications/Privoxy.app</literal>.
283 <application>Privoxy</application> will set itself up to start
284 automatically on system bring-up via
285 <literal>/System/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
289 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
290 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
292 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
293 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
294 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
295 remove this directory.
300 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
301 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
304 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
305 is to download the source tarball from our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project
310 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
311 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
312 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
313 CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
314 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
318 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
320 <!-- end boilerplate -->
326 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
328 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
329 <sect1 id="upgradersnote">
330 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
332 There are very significant changes from earlier
333 <application>Junkbuster</application> versions to the current
334 <application>Privoxy</application>. The number, names, syntax, and
335 purposes of configuration files have substantially changed.
336 <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> configuration
337 files will not migrate, <application>Junkbuster 2.9.x</application>
338 and <application>Privoxy</application> configurations will need to be
339 ported. The functionalities of the old <filename>blockfile</filename>,
340 <filename>cookiefile</filename> and <filename>imagelist</filename>
341 are now combined into the <link linkend="actions-file"><quote>actions
342 files</quote></link>.
343 <filename>default.action</filename>, is the main actions file. Local
344 exceptions should best be put into <filename>user.action</filename>.
347 A <link linkend="filter-file"><quote>filter file</quote></link> (typically
348 <filename>default.filter</filename>) is new as of <application>Privoxy
349 2.9.x</application>, and provides some of the new sophistication (explained
350 below). <filename>config</filename> is much the same as before.
353 If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
354 files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
355 When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
356 to the new actions files, please note that even the pattern syntax has
357 changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
358 recommended to use the new configuration files.
361 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
369 The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
375 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
376 important configuration files!
381 <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
382 at the special URL: <ulink
383 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
384 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
385 aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
386 <application>Privoxy</application>.
391 The primary configuration files for cookie management, ad and banner
392 blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
393 configuration are the <link linkend="actions-file">actions
394 files</link>. It is strongly recommended to become familiar with the new
395 actions concept below, before modifying these files. Locally defined rules
396 should go into <filename>user.action</filename>.
401 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
402 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
403 Some installers may not automatically start
404 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
412 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
413 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
419 If upgrading, from versions before 2.9.16, please back up any configuration
420 files. See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">Note to Upgraders</link> Section.
426 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
427 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
434 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
435 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
436 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
437 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
444 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
445 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
446 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
452 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
453 HTTPS proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
454 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
455 (<application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions of
456 <application>Privoxy</application> used port 8000.) See the section <link
457 linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link> below
458 for more details on this.
464 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
470 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
471 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
472 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
473 to no initial configuration is required in most cases.
476 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
477 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
478 <![%draft;[ You might also want to look at the <link
479 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
480 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
487 If you experience ads that slipped through, innocent images that are
488 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
489 <application>Privoxy's</application> behaviour, take a look at the <link
490 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
491 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
492 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
493 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
494 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Anatomy of an
495 Action</link></quote> has hints how to debug actions that
496 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
502 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
503 Developers</link> on how to report bugs or problems with websites or to get
510 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy!
518 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
520 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
521 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
523 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
524 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
527 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
528 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
529 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
532 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
533 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
534 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
537 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
538 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
539 things that were not intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
540 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
541 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
542 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
543 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
544 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
545 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
546 habits and preferences.
549 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
550 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
551 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
552 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
553 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
554 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
555 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
556 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
557 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
558 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
561 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
562 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
563 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
564 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
565 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
568 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
569 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
570 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
571 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
572 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
573 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
574 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
575 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
576 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
581 The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: <literal><link
582 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
583 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>, and
584 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
592 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this action stops
593 any contact between your browser and any URL patterns that match this
594 action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads, but also anything
595 that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply stops any
596 communication with the remote server and sends <application>Privoxy</application>'s
597 own built-in BLOCKED page instead to let you now what has happened.
603 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
604 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
605 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
606 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
607 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
608 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
609 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
610 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
611 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
612 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
613 an entire HTML page in most situations.
620 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
621 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
622 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
623 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
624 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
625 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
628 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
632 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
633 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
638 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
639 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
644 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
645 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
654 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
655 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
656 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
657 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
658 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access. Select the
659 appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
660 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
661 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
662 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
663 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
664 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
665 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
669 A quick and simple step by step example:
677 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
678 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
686 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
691 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
692 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
695 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
697 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
700 <imagedata fileref="../images/files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
703 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
712 You should have a section with only
713 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
714 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
715 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
716 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
717 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
718 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
719 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
720 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
726 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
727 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
728 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
729 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
730 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
731 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
736 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
737 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
745 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
746 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
747 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
748 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
753 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
754 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
755 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
762 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
765 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
767 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
769 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
770 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
771 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is
772 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
773 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
776 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
778 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration (Mozilla)</title>
781 <imagedata fileref="../images/proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
784 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
791 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
792 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
796 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
797 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
798 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton>
800 <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton>
802 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton>
804 <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton>
806 <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
810 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>:
814 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
815 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
816 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton>
818 <guibutton>Internet Properties</guibutton>
820 <guibutton>Connections</guibutton>
822 <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
826 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
827 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
832 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
833 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
834 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
835 <application>Privoxy</application>!
839 <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
840 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
841 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
842 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
843 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
846 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
847 <title>Red Hat and Conectiva</title>
849 We use a script. Note that Red Hat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
850 default. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as
851 its main configuration file.
855 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
860 <sect2 id="start-debian">
861 <title>Debian</title>
863 We use a script. Note that Debian starts Privoxy upon booting per
864 default. It will use the file
865 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
870 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
875 <sect2 id="start-suse">
878 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
879 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
889 <sect2 id="start-windows">
890 <title>Windows</title>
892 Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy. If no configuration file is
893 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
894 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
895 automatically start Privoxy upon booting you PC.
899 <sect2 id="start-unices">
900 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
902 Example Unix startup command:
906 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
911 <sect2 id="start-os2">
914 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
915 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
916 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
917 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
921 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
922 <title>MAX OSX</title>
924 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
925 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually
926 through the Terminal with these commands:
930 cd /Applications/Privoxy.app
936 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
937 <title>AmigaOS</title>
939 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
940 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
941 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
942 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
943 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
944 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
945 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
952 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
956 must find a better place for this paragraph
959 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
960 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
961 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
962 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
963 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
964 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
968 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
969 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
970 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
971 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
972 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
973 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
974 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
975 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
976 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
980 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
981 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
982 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
984 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
985 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
986 popups (explained below).
990 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
991 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
992 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
993 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
994 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
995 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
996 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
997 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
998 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1002 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1003 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1004 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1005 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1006 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1007 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1008 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1009 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1010 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1014 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1015 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1016 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1017 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1018 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1019 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1020 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1024 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1025 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1026 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1027 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1028 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1029 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1034 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <ulink
1035 url="actions-file.html#ACTIONSFILE">read more about the actions concept</ulink>
1036 or even dive deep into the <ulink url="appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">Appendix
1041 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1042 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1043 section <ulink url="contact.html"><quote>Contacting the
1044 Developers</quote></ulink> below.
1049 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1050 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1051 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1053 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1054 command-line options:
1062 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1065 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1070 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1073 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1078 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1081 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1082 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1087 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1091 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1092 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1093 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1094 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1099 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1103 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1104 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1105 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1110 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1113 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1114 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1115 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1116 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1117 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1118 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1129 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1132 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1133 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
1135 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1136 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1137 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1138 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1142 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1145 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
1147 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1148 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1149 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1150 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1151 You will see the following section:
1155 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1158 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1162 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1165 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1168 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1171 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1174 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1182 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1183 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1184 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1185 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1186 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1187 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1191 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1192 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1193 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1194 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1195 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1196 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1197 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1198 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1204 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1209 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1211 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1212 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1214 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1215 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1216 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1217 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1218 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1219 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1223 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1224 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1225 principle configuration files are:
1233 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1234 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1235 on Windows. This is a required file.
1241 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1242 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1243 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1244 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1245 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1246 as many websites as possible.
1249 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1250 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1251 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1252 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1253 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1254 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1255 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is for
1256 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1259 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1261 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1263 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1264 various actions files.
1270 <filename>default.filter</filename> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1271 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1272 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1273 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1274 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1282 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1283 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1284 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1285 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1286 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1287 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1292 The actions files and <filename>default.filter</filename>
1293 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1294 maximum flexibility.
1298 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1299 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1300 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1301 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1302 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1303 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1304 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1309 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1310 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1311 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1312 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1318 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1321 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1324 <title>The Main Configuration File</title>
1327 Again, the main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename> on
1328 Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, and <filename>config.txt</filename> on Windows.
1329 Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of
1330 values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For
1338 <emphasis>confdir /etc/privoxy</emphasis></literallayout>
1344 Assigns the value <literal>/etc/privoxy</literal> to the option
1345 <literal>confdir</literal> and thus indicates that the configuration
1346 directory is named <quote>/etc/privoxy/</quote>.
1350 All options in the config file except for <literal>confdir</literal> and
1351 <literal>logdir</literal> are optional. Watch out in the below description
1352 for what happens if you leave them unset.
1356 The main config file controls all aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>'s
1357 operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter
1358 where you may be surfing).
1362 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1364 <sect2 id="conf-log-loc">
1365 <title>Configuration and Log File Locations</title>
1368 <application>Privoxy</application> can (and normally does) use a number of
1369 other files for additional configuration, help and logging.
1370 This section of the configuration file tells <application>Privoxy</application>
1371 where to find those other files.
1375 The user running Privoxy, must have read permission for all
1376 configuration files, and write permission to any files that would
1377 be modified, such as log files.
1380 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="confdir"><title>confdir</title>
1384 <term>Specifies:</term>
1386 <para>The directory where the other configuration files are located</para>
1390 <term>Type of value:</term>
1392 <para>Path name</para>
1396 <term>Default value:</term>
1398 <para>/etc/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
1402 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1404 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
1411 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
1414 When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
1415 per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of <quote>confdir</quote>.
1416 For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
1417 <filename>confdir/templates</filename>, where the HTML templates for CGI
1418 output reside (e.g. <application>Privoxy's</application> 404 error page).
1426 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logdir"><title>logdir</title>
1430 <term>Specifies:</term>
1433 The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where <filename>logfile</filename> and
1434 <filename>jarfile</filename> are located)
1439 <term>Type of value:</term>
1441 <para>Path name</para>
1445 <term>Default value:</term>
1447 <para>/var/log/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
1451 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1453 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
1460 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
1467 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="actionsfile"><title>
1470 <anchor id="default.action">
1471 <anchor id="standard.action">
1472 <anchor id="user.action">
1473 <!-- Note: slightly modified this section 04/28/02, hal. See NOTE. -->
1476 <term>Specifies:</term>
1479 The <link linkend="actions-file">actions file(s)</link> to use
1484 <term>Type of value:</term>
1486 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal>, without the <literal>.action</literal> suffix</para>
1490 <term>Default values:</term>
1494 <msgtext><literallayout> standard # Internal purposes, no editing recommended</literallayout></msgtext>
1497 <msgtext><literallayout> default # Main actions file</literallayout></msgtext>
1500 <msgtext><literallayout> user # User customizations</literallayout></msgtext>
1506 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1509 No actions are taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
1517 Multiple <literal>actionsfile</literal> lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended!
1520 The default values include standard.action, which is used for internal
1521 purposes and should be loaded, default.action, which is the
1522 <quote>main</quote> actions file maintained by the developers, and
1523 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can make your personal additions.
1526 Actions files are where all the per site and per URL configuration is done for
1527 ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc.
1528 There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without at
1529 least one actions file.
1536 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filterfile"><title>filterfile</title>
1537 <anchor id="default.filter">
1540 <term>Specifies:</term>
1543 The <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link> to use
1548 <term>Type of value:</term>
1550 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1554 <term>Default value:</term>
1556 <para>default.filter (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.filter.txt (Windows)</para>
1560 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1563 No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
1564 <literal>+<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
1565 actions in the actions files are turned neutral.
1573 The <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link> contains content modification
1574 rules that use <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link>. These rules permit
1575 powerful changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable your favorite
1576 JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some
1577 fun replacing <quote>Microsoft</quote> with <quote>MicroSuck</quote> wherever
1578 it appears on a Web page.
1582 <literal>+<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
1583 actions rely on the relevant filter (<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>)
1584 to be defined in the filter file!
1587 A pre-defined filter file called <filename>default.filter</filename> that contains
1588 a bunch of handy filters for common problems is included in the distribution.
1589 See the section on the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
1597 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logfile"><title>logfile</title>
1601 <term>Specifies:</term>
1609 <term>Type of value:</term>
1611 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1615 <term>Default value:</term>
1617 <para>logfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.log (Windows)</para>
1621 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1624 No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (<literal>STDERR</literal>).
1632 The windows version will additionally log to the console.
1635 The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
1636 of detail and number of messages are set with the <literal>debug</literal>
1637 option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
1638 <application>Privoxy</application> (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you
1639 think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it.
1642 Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
1643 periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
1644 (see <quote>man cron</quote>). For Red Hat, a <command>logrotate</command>
1645 script has been included.
1648 On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like <quote>/var/log/privoxy.*
1649 +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup</quote> in <filename>/etc/logfiles</filename>, with
1650 the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the
1651 log, when it exceeds 1M size.
1654 Any log files must be writable by whatever user <application>Privoxy</application>
1655 is being run as (default on UNIX, user id is <quote>privoxy</quote>).
1662 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jarfile"><title>jarfile</title>
1666 <term>Specifies:</term>
1669 The file to store intercepted cookies in
1674 <term>Type of value:</term>
1676 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1680 <term>Default value:</term>
1682 <para>jarfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.jar (Windows)</para>
1686 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1689 Intercepted cookies are not stored at all.
1697 The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
1704 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trustfile"><title>trustfile</title>
1707 <term>Specifies:</term>
1710 The trust file to use
1715 <term>Type of value:</term>
1717 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1721 <term>Default value:</term>
1723 <para><emphasis>Unset (commented out)</emphasis>. When activated: trust (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> trust.txt (Windows)</para>
1727 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1730 The whole trust mechanism is turned off.
1738 The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should
1739 be used with care. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> recommended for the casual user.
1742 If you specify a trust file, <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow
1743 access to sites that are named in the trustfile.
1744 You can also mark sites as trusted referrers (with <literal>+</literal>), with
1745 the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a
1746 trusted referrer was used.
1747 The link target will then be added to the <quote>trustfile</quote>.
1748 Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
1751 If you use <literal>+</literal> operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over time.
1759 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1763 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1765 <sect2 id="local-set-up">
1766 <title>Local Set-up Documentation</title>
1769 If you intend to operate <application>Privoxy</application> for more users
1770 than just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach
1771 you, what you block and why you do that, your policies, etc.
1774 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="user-manual"><title>user-manual</title>
1777 <term>Specifies:</term>
1780 Location of the <application>Privoxy</application> User Manual.
1785 <term>Type of value:</term>
1787 <para>A fully qualified URI</para>
1791 <term>Default value:</term>
1793 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1797 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1800 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/<replaceable class="parameter">version</replaceable>/user-manual/</ulink>
1801 will be used, where <replaceable class="parameter">version</replaceable> is the <application>Privoxy</application> version.
1809 The User Manual URI is used for help links from some of the internal CGI pages.
1810 The manual itself is normally packaged with the binary distributions, so you probably want
1811 to set this to a locally installed copy. For multi-user setups, you could provide a copy on
1812 a local webserver for all your users and use the corresponding URL here.
1818 Unix, in local filesystem:
1821 <screen>user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;/user-manual/</screen>
1824 Any platform, on local webserver (called <quote>local-webserver</quote>):
1827 <screen>user-manual http://local-webserver/privoxy-user-manual/</screen>
1831 If set, this option should be <emphasis>the first option in the config file</emphasis>, because
1832 it is used while the config file is being read.
1840 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trust-info-url"><title>trust-info-url</title>
1844 <term>Specifies:</term>
1847 A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied.
1852 <term>Type of value:</term>
1858 <term>Default value:</term>
1860 <para>Two example URL are provided</para>
1864 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1867 No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
1875 The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been
1876 activated. (See <link linkend="trustfile"><emphasis>trustfile</emphasis></link> above.)
1879 If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
1880 documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here.
1881 Use multiple times for multiple URLs.
1884 The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up
1885 locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place!
1892 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="admin-address"><title>admin-address</title>
1896 <term>Specifies:</term>
1899 An email address to reach the proxy administrator.
1904 <term>Type of value:</term>
1906 <para>Email address</para>
1910 <term>Default value:</term>
1912 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1916 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1919 No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1927 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1928 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1936 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="proxy-info-url"><title>proxy-info-url</title>
1940 <term>Specifies:</term>
1943 A URL to documentation about the local <application>Privoxy</application> setup,
1944 configuration or policies.
1949 <term>Type of value:</term>
1955 <term>Default value:</term>
1957 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1961 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1964 No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1972 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1973 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1977 This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
1985 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1987 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1989 <sect2 id="debugging">
1990 <title>Debugging</title>
1993 These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem.
1994 Note that you might also want to invoke
1995 <application>Privoxy</application> with the <literal>--no-daemon</literal>
1996 command line option when debugging.
1999 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="debug"><title>debug</title>
2003 <term>Specifies:</term>
2006 Key values that determine what information gets logged to the
2007 <link linkend="logfile"><emphasis>logfile</emphasis></link>.
2012 <term>Type of value:</term>
2014 <para>Integer values</para>
2018 <term>Default value:</term>
2020 <para>12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)</para>
2024 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2027 Nothing gets logged.
2035 The available debug levels are:
2039 debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
2040 debug 2 # show each connection status
2041 debug 4 # show I/O status
2042 debug 8 # show header parsing
2043 debug 16 # log all data into the logfile
2044 debug 32 # debug force feature
2045 debug 64 # debug regular expression filter
2046 debug 128 # debug fast redirects
2047 debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
2048 debug 512 # Common Log Format
2049 debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
2050 debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
2051 debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
2055 To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use
2056 multiple <literal>debug</literal> lines.
2059 A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request
2060 as it happens. <emphasis>1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended</emphasis>
2061 so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are probably
2062 only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce
2063 a hell of an output (especially 16).
2067 The reporting of <emphasis>fatal</emphasis> errors (i.e. ones which crash
2068 <application>Privoxy</application>) is always on and cannot be disabled.
2071 If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set <quote>debug
2072 512</quote> <emphasis>ONLY</emphasis> and not enable anything else.
2079 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="single-threaded"><title>single-threaded</title>
2083 <term>Specifies:</term>
2086 Whether to run only one server thread
2091 <term>Type of value:</term>
2093 <para><emphasis>None</emphasis></para>
2097 <term>Default value:</term>
2099 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2103 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2106 Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability to
2107 serve multiple requests simultaneously.
2115 This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never
2116 need to use it. <emphasis>It will drastically reduce performance.</emphasis>
2125 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2127 <sect2 id="access-control">
2128 <title>Access Control and Security</title>
2131 This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
2132 of <application>Privoxy</application>'s configuration.
2135 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="listen-address"><title>listen-address</title>
2139 <term>Specifies:</term>
2142 The IP address and TCP port on which <application>Privoxy</application> will
2143 listen for client requests.
2148 <term>Type of value:</term>
2150 <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">IP-Address</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
2155 <term>Default value:</term>
2157 <para>127.0.0.1:8118</para>
2161 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2164 Bind to 127.0.0.1 (localhost), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended for
2165 home users who run <application>Privoxy</application> on the same machine as
2174 You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
2177 If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
2178 serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
2179 will need to override the default.
2182 If you leave out the IP address, <application>Privoxy</application> will
2183 bind to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable
2184 from the Internet. In that case, consider using <link
2185 linkend="acls">access control lists</link> (ACL's, see below), and/or
2189 If you open <application>Privoxy</application> to untrusted users, you will
2190 also want to turn off the <literal><link
2191 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link></literal> and
2192 <literal><link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link></literal>
2198 <term>Example:</term>
2201 Suppose you are running <application>Privoxy</application> on
2202 a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network
2203 (192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address.
2204 You want it to serve requests from inside only:
2208 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
2216 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="toggle"><title>toggle</title>
2220 <term>Specifies:</term>
2223 Initial state of "toggle" status
2228 <term>Type of value:</term>
2234 <term>Default value:</term>
2240 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2243 Act as if toggled on
2251 If set to 0, <application>Privoxy</application> will start in
2252 <quote>toggled off</quote> mode, i.e. behave like a normal, content-neutral
2253 proxy where all ad blocking, filtering, etc are disabled. See
2254 <literal>enable-remote-toggle</literal> below. This is not really useful
2255 anymore, since toggling is much easier via <ulink
2256 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">the web interface</ulink> than via
2257 editing the <filename>conf</filename> file.
2260 The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
2261 if this option is present.
2269 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-remote-toggle"><title>enable-remote-toggle</title>
2272 <term>Specifies:</term>
2275 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">web-based toggle
2276 feature</ulink> may be used
2281 <term>Type of value:</term>
2287 <term>Default value:</term>
2293 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2296 The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
2304 When toggled off, <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal,
2305 content-neutral proxy, i.e. it acts as if none of the actions applied to
2309 For the time being, access to the toggle feature can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
2310 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
2311 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
2312 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
2313 toggle it for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>
2314 for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
2317 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
2318 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
2326 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-edit-actions"><title>enable-edit-actions</title>
2329 <term>Specifies:</term>
2332 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions
2333 file editor</ulink> may be used
2338 <term>Type of value:</term>
2344 <term>Default value:</term>
2350 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2353 The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
2361 For the time being, access to the editor can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
2362 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
2363 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
2364 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
2365 modify its configuration for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not
2366 recommended</emphasis> for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
2369 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
2370 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
2377 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="acls"><title>
2378 ACLs: permit-access and deny-access</title>
2379 <anchor id="permit-access">
2380 <anchor id="deny-access">
2384 <term>Specifies:</term>
2387 Who can access what.
2392 <term>Type of value:</term>
2395 <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable>]
2396 [<replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable>]]
2399 Where <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable> and
2400 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
2401 DNS names, and <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> and
2402 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable> are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
2403 values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
2404 destination part are optional.
2409 <term>Default value:</term>
2411 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2415 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2418 Don't restrict access further than implied by <literal>listen-address</literal>
2426 Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
2427 administrators, and <emphasis>are not usually needed by individual users</emphasis>.
2428 For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
2429 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens on the localhost
2430 (127.0.0.1) or internal (home) network address by means of the
2431 <link linkend="listen-address"><emphasis>listen-address</emphasis></link>
2435 Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute
2436 for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security
2440 Multiple ACL lines are OK.
2441 If any ACLs are specified, then the <application>Privoxy</application>
2442 talks only to IP addresses that match at least one <literal>permit-access</literal> line
2443 and don't match any subsequent <literal>deny-access</literal> line. In other words, the
2444 last match wins, with the default being <literal>deny-access</literal>.
2447 If <application>Privoxy</application> is using a forwarder (see <literal>forward</literal> below)
2448 for a particular destination URL, the <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>
2449 that is examined is the address of the forwarder and <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the address
2450 of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
2451 <application>Privoxy</application> to determine the IP address of the
2452 ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
2455 You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
2456 time. All DNS names must resolve! You can <emphasis>not</emphasis> use domain patterns
2457 like <quote>*.org</quote> or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
2458 IP addresses, only the first one is used.
2461 Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
2462 if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
2467 <term>Examples:</term>
2470 Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
2471 <literal>listen-address</literal> are set: <quote>localhost</quote>
2472 is OK. The absence of a <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> implies that
2473 <emphasis>all</emphasis> destination addresses are OK:
2477 permit-access localhost
2481 Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
2482 nothing but www.example.com:
2486 permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
2490 Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
2491 with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
2495 permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
2496 deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
2504 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="buffer-limit"><title>buffer-limit</title>
2508 <term>Specifies:</term>
2511 Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
2516 <term>Type of value:</term>
2518 <para>Size in Kbytes</para>
2522 <term>Default value:</term>
2528 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2531 Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
2539 For content filtering, i.e. the <literal>+filter</literal> and
2540 <literal>+deanimate-gif</literal> actions, it is necessary that
2541 <application>Privoxy</application> buffers the entire document body.
2542 This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
2543 data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
2547 When a document buffer size reaches the <literal>buffer-limit</literal>, it is
2548 flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
2549 filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
2550 running, which might require up to <literal>buffer-limit</literal> Kbytes
2551 <emphasis>each</emphasis>, unless you have enabled <quote>single-threaded</quote>
2561 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2564 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2566 <sect2 id="forwarding">
2567 <title>Forwarding</title>
2570 This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
2572 It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
2573 accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains
2574 through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. <ulink
2575 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm</ulink>)
2576 Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
2577 proxy may be necessary because the machine that <application>Privoxy</application>
2578 runs on has no direct Internet access.
2582 Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. <application>Privoxy</application>
2583 supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols.
2586 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward"><title>forward</title>
2589 <term>Specifies:</term>
2592 To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
2597 <term>Type of value:</term>
2600 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2601 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2604 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
2605 chapter on domain matching in the <filename>default.action</filename> file),
2606 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is the address of the parent HTTP proxy
2607 as an IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or as a valid DNS name (or <quote>.</quote> to denote
2608 <quote>no forwarding</quote>, and the optional
2609 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer
2610 values from 1 to 64535
2615 <term>Default value:</term>
2617 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2621 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2624 Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
2632 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2633 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
2636 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2641 <term>Examples:</term>
2644 Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
2648 forward .* anon-proxy.example.org:8080
2653 Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
2654 to that ISP's sites:
2658 forward .*. caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
2659 forward .example-isp.net .
2667 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="socks"><title>
2668 forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a</title>
2669 <anchor id="forward-socks4">
2670 <anchor id="forward-socks4a">
2674 <term>Specifies:</term>
2677 Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
2682 <term>Type of value:</term>
2685 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2686 <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2687 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2690 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
2691 chapter on domain matching in the <filename>default.action</filename> file),
2692 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> and <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>
2693 are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (<replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>
2694 may be <quote>.</quote> to denote <quote>no HTTP forwarding</quote>), and the optional
2695 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
2700 <term>Default value:</term>
2702 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2706 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2709 Don't use SOCKS proxies.
2717 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2720 The difference between <literal>forward-socks4</literal> and <literal>forward-socks4a</literal>
2721 is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
2722 server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
2725 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2726 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
2732 <term>Examples:</term>
2735 From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
2736 <quote>internal</quote> domains, but everything outbound goes through
2737 their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
2742 forward-socks4a .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
2743 forward .example.com .
2747 A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
2751 forward-socks4 .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
2759 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="advanced-forwarding-examples"><title>Advanced Forwarding Examples</title>
2762 If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
2763 only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple <application>Privoxies</application>
2764 which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
2765 <emphasis>your</emphasis> users can see the internal content of all ISPs.
2769 Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
2770 isp-b.net. Both run <application>Privoxy</application>. Their forwarding
2771 configuration can look like this:
2781 forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
2792 forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
2797 Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
2798 host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
2799 of both isp-a and isp-b.
2803 If you intend to chain <application>Privoxy</application> and
2804 <application>squid</application> locally, then chain as
2805 <literal>browser -> squid -> privoxy</literal> is the recommended way.
2809 Assuming that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>squid</application>
2810 run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this:
2815 # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
2816 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
2818 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
2821 # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
2822 always_direct allow ftp
2824 # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
2825 never_direct allow all</screen>
2829 You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to <application>squid</application>'s address and port.
2830 Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult <literal>http_port</literal> in <filename>squid.conf</filename>.
2837 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2840 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2842 <sect2 id="windows-gui">
2843 <title>Windows GUI Options</title>
2845 <application>Privoxy</application> has a number of options specific to the
2846 Windows GUI interface:
2849 <anchor id="activity-animation">
2851 If <quote>activity-animation</quote> is set to 1, the
2852 <application>Privoxy</application> icon will animate when
2853 <quote>Privoxy</quote> is active. To turn off, set to 0.
2860 <emphasis>activity-animation 1</emphasis>
2866 <anchor id="log-messages">
2868 If <quote>log-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2869 <application>Privoxy</application> will log messages to the console
2877 <emphasis>log-messages 1</emphasis>
2883 <anchor id="log-buffer-size">
2885 If <quote>log-buffer-size</quote> is set to 1, the size of the log buffer,
2886 i.e. the amount of memory used for the log messages displayed in the
2887 console window, will be limited to <quote>log-max-lines</quote> (see below).
2891 Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and
2892 eat up all your memory!
2899 <emphasis>log-buffer-size 1</emphasis>
2905 <anchor id="log-max-lines">
2907 <application>log-max-lines</application> is the maximum number of lines held
2908 in the log buffer. See above.
2915 <emphasis>log-max-lines 200</emphasis>
2921 <anchor id="log-highlight-messages">
2923 If <quote>log-highlight-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2924 <application>Privoxy</application> will highlight portions of the log
2925 messages with a bold-faced font:
2932 <emphasis>log-highlight-messages 1</emphasis>
2938 <anchor id="log-font-name">
2940 The font used in the console window:
2947 <emphasis>log-font-name Comic Sans MS</emphasis>
2953 <anchor id="log-font-size">
2955 Font size used in the console window:
2962 <emphasis>log-font-size 8</emphasis>
2968 <anchor id="show-on-task-bar">
2970 <quote>show-on-task-bar</quote> controls whether or not
2971 <application>Privoxy</application> will appear as a button on the Task bar
2979 <emphasis>show-on-task-bar 0</emphasis>
2985 <anchor id="close-button-minimizes">
2987 If <quote>close-button-minimizes</quote> is set to 1, the Windows close
2988 button will minimize <application>Privoxy</application> instead of closing
2989 the program (close with the exit option on the File menu).
2996 <emphasis>close-button-minimizes 1</emphasis>
3002 <anchor id="hide-console">
3004 The <quote>hide-console</quote> option is specific to the MS-Win console
3005 version of <application>Privoxy</application>. If this option is used,
3006 <application>Privoxy</application> will disconnect from and hide the
3014 #<emphasis>hide-console</emphasis>
3023 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3027 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
3029 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
3032 The actions files are used to define what actions
3033 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determine
3034 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
3035 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
3036 are three such files included with <application>Privoxy</application> (as of
3037 version 2.9.15), with differing purposes:
3044 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
3045 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
3046 provide a base level of functionality for
3047 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
3048 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well for users everywhere.
3049 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and making
3055 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
3056 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
3057 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
3058 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
3063 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor,
3064 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
3065 in <filename>default.action</filename>. These have increasing levels of
3066 aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no influence on your browsing unless
3067 you select them explicitly in the editor</emphasis>. It is not recommend
3075 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
3076 file, and are processed in the order they are defined. The content of these
3077 can all be viewed and edited from <ulink
3078 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
3082 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
3083 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
3084 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
3085 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
3086 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
3087 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
3088 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
3089 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
3090 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
3091 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
3092 with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
3093 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
3097 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
3098 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
3099 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
3100 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
3101 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
3105 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3107 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
3109 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
3110 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
3111 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
3112 certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
3113 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
3114 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
3115 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per
3116 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
3117 regularly use and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe
3118 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
3122 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
3123 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
3124 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
3125 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
3129 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3131 <title>How to Edit</title>
3133 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
3134 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
3135 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
3136 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
3137 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
3138 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Advanced</quote>.
3142 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
3143 the actions files. Look at <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly
3149 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
3150 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
3152 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
3153 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
3154 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
3155 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
3156 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
3157 Below that, there is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
3161 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
3162 compared to all patterns in each action file file. Every time it matches, the list of
3163 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
3164 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
3165 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
3166 the effects are aggregated. E.g. a URL might match a regular section with
3167 a heading line of <literal>{
3168 +<ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</ulink> }</literal>,
3169 then later another one with just <literal>{
3170 +<ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">block</ulink> }</literal>, resulting
3171 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply.
3175 You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
3176 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
3180 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
3181 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
3185 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3186 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
3187 <title>Patterns</title>
3189 Generally, a pattern has the form <literal><domain>/<path></literal>,
3190 where both the <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal>
3191 are optional. (This is why the pattern <literal>/</literal> matches all URLs).
3196 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
3199 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
3200 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
3205 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
3208 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
3214 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
3217 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
3218 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
3223 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
3226 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
3227 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
3232 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
3235 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
3236 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
3243 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3244 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
3247 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
3248 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
3254 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
3257 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
3258 <literal>.example.com</literal>
3263 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
3266 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
3267 <literal>www.</literal>
3272 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
3275 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
3276 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
3283 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
3284 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
3285 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
3286 any single character, you can define character classes in square
3287 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
3292 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
3295 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
3296 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
3301 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
3304 matches all of the above, and then some.
3309 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
3312 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
3313 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
3318 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
3321 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
3322 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
3323 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
3324 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
3332 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3335 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3336 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
3339 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
3340 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
3345 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
3346 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
3347 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
3348 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
3349 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
3350 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
3354 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
3355 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
3356 for the beginning of a line).
3360 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
3361 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
3362 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
3363 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
3364 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
3370 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3373 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3375 <sect2 id="actions">
3376 <title>Actions</title>
3378 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
3379 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
3380 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
3381 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
3382 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
3383 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
3384 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
3385 previously applied.</quote>
3390 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
3391 separated by whitespace, like in
3392 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
3393 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
3394 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
3395 of the actions file.
3399 There are three classes of actions:
3406 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
3407 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
3411 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
3412 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
3415 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
3422 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
3427 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
3428 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
3429 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
3432 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
3433 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
3436 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</literal>
3442 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
3443 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
3444 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
3445 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
3446 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
3447 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
3451 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
3452 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
3453 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
3454 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
3457 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
3458 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
3466 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
3467 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
3468 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
3469 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
3470 files will give a good starting point).
3474 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
3475 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
3476 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files). For
3477 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
3478 Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in
3479 <filename>config</filename> (the default installation has three actions
3480 files). It also quite possible for any given URL pattern to match more than
3481 one pattern and thus more than one set of actions!
3484 <!-- start actions listing -->
3486 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
3490 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3491 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
3492 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
3494 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3497 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3499 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
3500 <title>add-header</title>
3504 <term>Typical use:</term>
3506 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
3511 <term>Effect:</term>
3514 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
3521 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3523 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3528 <term>Parameter:</term>
3531 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
3532 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
3542 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
3543 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
3544 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
3551 <term>Example usage:</term>
3554 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
3562 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3563 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
3564 <title>block</title>
3568 <term>Typical use:</term>
3570 <para>Block ads or other obnoxious content</para>
3575 <term>Effect:</term>
3578 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the requests are not
3579 forwarded to the remote server, but answered locally with a substitute page or image,
3580 as determined by the <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>
3581 and <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> actions.
3588 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3590 <para>Boolean.</para>
3595 <term>Parameter:</term>
3605 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
3606 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
3607 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
3608 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
3609 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
3610 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
3611 right now, you can take a look at the
3612 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
3616 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
3617 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
3618 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
3619 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
3620 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
3621 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
3624 It is important to understand this process, in order
3625 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
3626 ads and other unwanted content.
3629 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
3630 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
3631 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
3632 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
3633 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
3639 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3642 <screen>{+block} # Block and replace with "blocked" page
3643 .nasty-stuff.example.com
3645 {+block +handle-as-image} # Block and replace with image
3656 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3657 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3658 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3662 <term>Typical use:</term>
3665 Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
3671 <term>Effect:</term>
3674 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3681 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3683 <para>Boolean.</para>
3688 <term>Parameter:</term>
3700 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
3701 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
3702 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3703 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
3706 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3707 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3708 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set.
3714 <term>Example usage:</term>
3717 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3725 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3726 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3727 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3731 <term>Typical use:</term>
3734 Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
3740 <term>Effect:</term>
3743 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3750 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3752 <para>Boolean.</para>
3757 <term>Parameter:</term>
3769 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
3770 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
3771 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3772 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
3775 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3776 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3777 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3783 <term>Example usage:</term>
3786 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3795 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3796 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3797 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3801 <term>Typical use:</term>
3803 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3808 <term>Effect:</term>
3811 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3818 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3820 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3825 <term>Parameter:</term>
3828 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3837 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3838 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3839 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3840 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3841 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3842 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3845 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3846 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3853 <term>Example usage:</term>
3856 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3863 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3864 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3865 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3869 <term>Typical use:</term>
3871 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3876 <term>Effect:</term>
3879 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3886 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3888 <para>Boolean.</para>
3893 <term>Parameter:</term>
3905 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3906 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3907 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3908 out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
3909 is a chance you might need this action.
3915 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3918 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3919 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3927 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3928 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3929 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3933 <term>Typical use:</term>
3935 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links</para>
3940 <term>Effect:</term>
3943 Cut off all but the last valid URL from requests.
3950 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3952 <para>Boolean.</para>
3957 <term>Parameter:</term>
3969 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3970 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3971 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3972 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3973 <emphasis>http://some.place/click-tracker.cgi?target=http://some.where.else</emphasis>.
3976 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3977 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3978 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3979 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3980 browser ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3984 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3985 It is likely to break some sites. You should expect to need possibly
3986 many exceptions to this action, if it is enabled by default in
3987 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some sites just don't work without
3994 <term>Example usage:</term>
3997 <screen>{+fast-redirects}</screen>
4006 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4007 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
4008 <title>filter</title>
4012 <term>Typical use:</term>
4014 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), do fun text replacements, etc.</para>
4019 <term>Effect:</term>
4022 Text documents, including HTML and JavaScript, to which this action applies, are filtered on-the-fly
4023 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
4030 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4032 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4037 <term>Parameter:</term>
4040 The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>
4041 (typically <filename>default.filter</filename>, set by the
4042 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
4043 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>)
4052 For your convenience, there are a bunch of pre-defined filters available
4053 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the example below for
4057 This is potentially a very powerful feature! But <quote>rolling your own</quote>
4058 filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
4061 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
4062 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
4063 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
4064 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
4065 noticeable on slower connections.
4068 At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
4069 documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
4070 would normally be sent compressed, use the
4071 <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
4072 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
4075 Filtering can achieve some of the effects as the
4076 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4077 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners.
4080 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or improved filters is particularly
4087 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file):</term>
4090 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
4091 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
4094 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
4095 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
4098 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
4099 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)</screen>
4102 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
4103 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come sneaking in the HTML or JS content</screen>
4106 <anchor id="filter-popups">
4107 <screen>+filter{popups} # Kill all popups in JS and HTML</screen>
4110 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
4111 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
4114 <anchor id="filter-fun">
4115 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
4118 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
4119 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
4122 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
4123 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
4126 <anchor id="filter-nimda">
4127 <screen>+filter{nimda} # Remove Nimda (virus) code.</screen>
4130 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
4131 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
4134 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
4135 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"</screen>
4143 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4144 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4145 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4149 <term>Typical use:</term>
4151 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis>)</para>
4156 <term>Effect:</term>
4159 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4160 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4161 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4162 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4163 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4164 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4171 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4173 <para>Boolean.</para>
4178 <term>Parameter:</term>
4190 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4191 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4195 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4196 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4197 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4200 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4201 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4202 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4203 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4209 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4212 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4215 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4217 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4218 # blocked as images:
4220 {+block +handle-as-image}
4221 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
4223 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
4233 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4234 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
4235 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
4239 <term>Typical use:</term>
4241 <para>Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request</para>
4246 <term>Effect:</term>
4249 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
4250 and prevents adding a new one.
4257 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4259 <para>Boolean.</para>
4264 <term>Parameter:</term>
4276 It is fairly safe to leave this on.
4279 This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate forged
4280 <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> headers using random IP addresses from a specified network,
4281 to make successive requests from the same client look like requests from a pool of different
4282 users sharing the same proxy.
4288 <term>Example usage:</term>
4291 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
4299 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4300 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4301 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4305 <term>Typical use:</term>
4307 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4312 <term>Effect:</term>
4315 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4323 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4325 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4330 <term>Parameter:</term>
4333 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4342 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4343 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4347 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4348 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4349 is actually used by a real person.
4352 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4353 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4359 <term>Example usage:</term>
4362 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4363 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4371 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4372 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4373 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4374 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4377 <term>Typical use:</term>
4379 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4384 <term>Effect:</term>
4387 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4388 or replaces it with a forged one.
4395 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4397 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4402 <term>Parameter:</term>
4406 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header completely.</para>
4409 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4412 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4422 <quote>forge</quote> is the preferred option here, since some servers will
4423 not send images back otherwise, in an attempt to prevent their valuable
4424 content from being embedded elsewhere (and hence, without being surrounded
4425 by <emphasis>their</emphasis> banners).
4428 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4429 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4430 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4431 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4432 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4438 <term>Example usage:</term>
4441 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4442 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4450 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4451 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4452 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4456 <term>Typical use:</term>
4458 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4463 <term>Effect:</term>
4466 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4467 in client requests with the specified value.
4474 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4476 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4481 <term>Parameter:</term>
4484 Any user-defined string.
4494 This breaks many web sites that depend on looking at this header in order
4495 to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4496 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> a <ulink
4497 url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
4502 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4503 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4504 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4505 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4506 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4507 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4508 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4509 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4510 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4511 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4512 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4515 This action is scheduled for improvement.
4521 <term>Example usage:</term>
4524 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4532 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4533 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
4534 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
4538 <term>Typical use:</term>
4540 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows</para>
4545 <term>Effect:</term>
4548 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
4549 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
4556 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4558 <para>Boolean.</para>
4563 <term>Parameter:</term>
4575 This action is easily confused with the built-in, hardwired <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
4576 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
4577 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
4578 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
4580 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>popups</replaceable>}</literal>
4584 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
4585 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
4586 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
4587 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
4588 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
4589 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
4592 Killing all pop-ups is a dangerous business. Many shops and banks rely on
4593 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and killing only the unwanted pop-ups
4594 would require artificial intelligence in <application>Privoxy</application>.
4595 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
4596 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
4597 one), you might want to use
4599 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
4605 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
4613 <term>Example usage:</term>
4615 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
4622 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4623 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
4624 <title>limit-connect</title>
4628 <term>Typical use:</term>
4630 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay</para>
4635 <term>Effect:</term>
4638 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
4645 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4647 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4652 <term>Parameter:</term>
4655 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
4656 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
4665 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
4666 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
4667 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
4668 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
4669 for some or all destinations.
4672 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
4673 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
4674 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
4675 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
4676 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
4677 abused as TCP relays very easily.
4680 If you don't know what any of this means, there probably is no reason to
4681 change this one, since the default is already very restrictive.
4687 <term>Example usages:</term>
4689 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
4690 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
4691 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
4693 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
4694 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
4695 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
4696 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK (gaping security hole!)</screen>
4703 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4704 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
4705 <title>prevent-compression</title>
4709 <term>Typical use:</term>
4712 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
4713 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s
4719 <term>Effect:</term>
4722 Adds a header to the request that asks for uncompressed transfer.
4729 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4731 <para>Boolean.</para>
4736 <term>Parameter:</term>
4748 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
4749 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the <literal><link
4750 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
4751 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions to work,
4752 <application>Privoxy</application> needs access to the uncompressed data.
4753 Unfortunately, <application>Privoxy</application> can't yet(!) uncompress, filter, and
4754 re-compress the content on the fly. So if you want to ensure that all websites, including
4755 those that normally compress, can be filtered, you need to use this action.
4758 This will slow down transfers from those websites, though. If you use any of the above-mentioned
4759 actions, you will typically want to use <literal>prevent-compression</literal> in conjunction
4763 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
4764 documents correctly (they send an empty document body). If you use <literal>prevent-compression</literal>
4765 per default, you'll have to add exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
4771 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4774 <screen># Set default:
4776 {+prevent-compression}
4779 # Make exceptions for ill sites:
4781 {-prevent-compression}
4783 www.pclinuxonline.com</screen>
4792 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4793 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
4794 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
4798 <term>Typical use:</term>
4801 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
4807 <term>Effect:</term>
4810 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
4811 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
4818 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4820 <para>Boolean.</para>
4825 <term>Parameter:</term>
4837 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
4840 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
4846 <term>Example usage:</term>
4849 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
4858 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4859 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
4860 <title>send-wafer</title>
4864 <term>Typical use:</term>
4867 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
4873 <term>Effect:</term>
4876 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
4883 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4885 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4890 <term>Parameter:</term>
4893 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
4894 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
4903 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
4904 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
4907 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
4912 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4915 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
4916 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
4924 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4925 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
4926 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
4930 <term>Typical use:</term>
4933 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
4939 <term>Effect:</term>
4942 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> server headers.
4943 Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and forget them in between sessions.
4950 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4952 <para>Boolean.</para>
4957 <term>Parameter:</term>
4969 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
4970 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
4971 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
4974 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
4975 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
4976 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
4977 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
4978 sites, and is the recommended setting.
4981 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
4982 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
4983 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
4984 will be plainly killed.
4987 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
4988 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
4994 <term>Example usage:</term>
4997 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5005 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5006 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5007 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5011 <term>Typical use:</term>
5013 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5018 <term>Effect:</term>
5021 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5022 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5023 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5024 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5025 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5026 sent as a replacement.
5033 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5035 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5040 <term>Parameter:</term>
5045 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5046 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5051 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5052 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5053 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5054 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5059 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5060 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5061 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem (via <quote>file:///</quote> URL).
5064 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5065 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5066 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5067 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5068 it over and over again.
5079 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5080 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5081 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5084 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5085 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5086 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5092 <term>Example usage:</term>
5098 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5101 Redirect to the BSD devil:
5104 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5107 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5110 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5118 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5120 <title>Summary</title>
5122 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
5123 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
5124 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
5125 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
5126 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
5127 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
5133 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5134 <sect2 id="aliases">
5135 <title>Aliases</title>
5137 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
5138 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
5139 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
5140 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
5142 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
5143 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
5144 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
5145 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
5146 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
5150 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
5151 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
5152 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
5153 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
5157 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
5158 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
5159 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
5160 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
5161 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
5162 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
5163 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
5166 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
5167 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
5168 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
5169 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
5170 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
5172 This is likely to change in future versions of <application>Privoxy</application>.
5176 Now let's define some aliases...
5181 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
5183 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
5184 # must be at the top of the actions file!
5188 # These aliases just save typing later:
5189 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5191 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
5192 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5193 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5194 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
5196 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5197 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5199 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
5200 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
5202 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
5204 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
5205 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
5209 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
5210 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
5211 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
5216 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
5217 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
5220 .office.microsoft.com
5221 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5225 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
5229 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5232 # These shops require pop-ups:
5234 {shop -kill-popups -filter{popups}}
5236 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
5240 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are often used for
5241 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require some actions to be disabled
5242 in order to function properly.
5246 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5247 <sect2 id="act-examples">
5248 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
5250 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
5251 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
5252 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
5253 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
5254 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
5255 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
5256 file and see how all these pieces come together:
5259 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
5262 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
5266 <screen># Sample default.action file <developers@privoxy.org></screen>
5270 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
5271 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
5272 change or worry about:
5277 ##########################################################################
5278 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
5279 ##########################################################################
5282 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
5286 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
5287 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
5288 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
5293 ##########################################################################
5295 ##########################################################################
5298 # These aliases just save typing later:
5299 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5301 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
5302 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5303 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5304 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
5306 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5307 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5309 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
5310 shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups</screen>
5314 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
5315 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
5316 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
5317 enable the ones we want.
5321 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
5322 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
5323 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
5324 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
5325 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
5326 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
5327 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
5332 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
5333 no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
5334 to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
5335 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
5336 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
5337 multiple lines with line continuation.
5342 ##########################################################################
5343 # "Defaults" section:
5344 ##########################################################################
5346 -<link linkend="ADD-HEADER">add-header</link> \
5347 -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> \
5348 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> \
5349 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link> \
5350 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
5351 -<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
5352 +<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> \
5353 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
5354 +<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
5355 -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
5356 +<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> \
5357 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
5358 -<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
5359 -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
5360 +<link linkend="FILTER-NIMDA">filter{nimda}</link> \
5361 +<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
5362 -<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
5363 -<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
5364 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
5365 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
5366 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
5367 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
5368 -<link linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT">hide-user-agent</link> \
5369 -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> \
5370 -<link linkend="LIMIT-CONNECT">limit-connect</link> \
5371 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
5372 -<link linkend="SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">send-vanilla-wafer</link> \
5373 -<link linkend="SEND-WAFER">send-wafer</link> \
5374 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
5375 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
5377 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
5381 The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding
5382 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
5383 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
5384 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
5385 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
5386 want to block in later sections.
5387 We will also want to make exceptions from our general pop-up-killing,
5388 and use our defined aliases for that.
5392 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
5393 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
5394 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
5395 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
5396 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
5397 of actions explicitly:
5402 ##########################################################################
5403 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
5404 ##########################################################################
5406 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
5409 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
5410 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com</screen>
5414 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
5415 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
5416 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
5425 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5427 .scan.co.uk</screen>
5431 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
5432 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
5433 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
5434 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
5436 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
5437 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
5438 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
5439 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
5440 chosen in the defaults section:
5445 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
5447 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
5450 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
5454 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
5455 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
5456 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
5461 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
5465 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
5466 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
5467 .nytimes.com</screen>
5471 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
5472 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
5473 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
5474 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
5475 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
5476 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
5477 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
5478 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
5479 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
5485 ##########################################################################
5487 ##########################################################################
5489 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
5490 # blocked further down this file:
5492 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
5493 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
5497 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
5498 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
5499 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
5500 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
5501 <literal>block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
5502 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
5503 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
5504 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
5505 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
5506 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
5507 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
5508 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
5513 # Known ad generators:
5518 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
5519 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
5520 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
5527 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
5528 is to block banners. A huge bunch of them are already <quote>blocked</quote>
5529 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
5530 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
5531 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
5532 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
5533 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
5534 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
5535 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
5538 First comes a bunch of generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
5539 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
5540 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
5541 to keep the example short:
5546 ##########################################################################
5547 # Block these fine banners:
5548 ##########################################################################
5549 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
5557 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
5558 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
5560 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
5562 .hitbox.com</screen>
5566 You wouldn't believe how many advertisers actually call their banner
5567 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
5568 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
5569 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
5572 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
5573 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
5574 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
5575 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
5576 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
5577 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
5581 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
5582 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
5583 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
5584 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
5585 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
5586 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
5587 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
5588 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
5589 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
5590 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
5595 ##########################################################################
5596 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
5597 ##########################################################################
5601 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
5602 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
5603 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
5604 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
5605 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
5606 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
5614 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
5615 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
5619 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
5620 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
5621 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
5622 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
5623 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
5628 # Don't filter code!
5630 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
5632 .sourceforge.net</screen>
5636 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course more
5637 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
5642 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
5645 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
5646 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
5647 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
5648 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
5649 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
5650 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
5651 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
5652 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
5653 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
5654 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
5655 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
5656 to install updated versions from time to time.
5660 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
5661 <filename>user.action</filename>:
5665 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
5669 # My user.action file. <fred@foobar.com></screen>
5673 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
5674 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
5675 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
5680 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
5683 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5684 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
5685 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
5686 shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
5687 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} # (see below)</screen>
5692 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
5693 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
5694 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
5695 <literal>mercy-for-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
5696 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and
5697 processing of cookies to make them temporary.
5702 { mercy-for-cookies }
5707 .redhat.com</screen>
5711 Your bank needs popups and is allergic to some filter, but you don't
5712 know which, so you disable them all:
5717 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> }
5718 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
5722 While browsing the web with <application>Privoxy</application> you
5723 noticed some ads that sneaked through, but you were too lazy to
5724 report them through our fine and easy <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>
5725 system, so you have added them here:
5730 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
5731 www.a-popular-site.com/some/unobvious/path
5732 another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
5736 Note that, assuming the banners in the above example have regular image
5737 extensions (most do),
5738 <literal>+<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link></literal>
5739 need not be specified, since all URLs ending in these extensions will
5740 already have been tagged as images in the relevant section of
5741 <filename>default.action</filename> by now.
5745 Then you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
5746 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
5747 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
5748 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
5749 -- whoa! -- it worked:
5755 .forbes.com</screen>
5759 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
5760 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file. (My colleagues on the team just
5761 don't have a sense of humour, that's why! ;-). So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
5762 update-safe config, once and for all:
5767 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
5768 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
5772 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
5773 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
5774 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
5775 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
5776 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
5780 Finally, you might think about how your favourite free websites are
5781 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
5782 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
5783 sites that you feel provide value to you:
5795 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
5796 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
5797 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>
5803 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5807 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5809 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
5811 <sect1 id="filter-file">
5812 <title>The Filter File</title>
5815 All text substitutions that can be invoked through the
5816 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action
5817 must first be defined in the filter file, which is typically
5818 called <filename>default.filter</filename> and which can be
5819 selected through the <literal>
5820 <link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config
5825 Typical reasons for doing such substitutions are to eliminate
5826 common annoyances in HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
5827 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
5828 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
5829 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
5830 or just to have fun. The possibilities are endless.
5834 Filtering works on any text-based document type, including plain
5835 text, HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
5836 MIME types). Substitutions are made at the source level, so if
5837 you want to <quote>roll your own</quote> filters, you should be
5838 familiar with HTML syntax.
5842 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
5843 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
5844 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with the
5845 <emphasis>keyword</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>, followed by
5846 the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
5847 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
5848 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
5849 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
5850 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
5851 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
5852 user interface</ulink>.
5856 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
5857 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
5858 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
5859 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
5863 A filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
5868 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
5872 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
5873 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
5874 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
5875 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
5876 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
5877 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/pcrs.1.html">PCRS man page</ulink>
5878 for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most notably, the non-standard
5879 option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported, which turns the default
5880 to ungreedy matching.
5884 If you are new to regular expressions, you might want to take a look at
5885 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
5886 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perl.html">Perl
5888 <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlop.html#s-PATTERN-REPLACEMENT-egimosx">the
5889 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
5890 url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
5891 expressions</ulink> in general.
5892 The below examples might also help to get you started.
5895 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
5897 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
5899 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> filter. We have already defined
5900 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
5901 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
5906 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
5910 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
5911 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
5912 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
5913 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
5917 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
5921 Our complete filter now looks like this:
5924 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
5925 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
5929 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
5930 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
5931 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
5937 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
5939 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
5941 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
5945 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
5946 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
5947 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
5948 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
5952 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
5953 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
5954 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
5955 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
5956 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
5960 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
5961 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
5962 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
5963 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
5964 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
5965 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
5966 in the page (and appear in that order).
5970 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
5971 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
5972 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
5973 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
5974 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
5978 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
5979 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
5980 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
5981 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
5982 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
5983 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
5984 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
5985 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
5986 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
5987 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
5988 substitution is global.
5992 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
5993 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
5994 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
5995 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
5996 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
6000 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
6001 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
6002 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
6003 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
6004 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
6005 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
6006 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
6007 Business!"</literal>.
6011 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
6012 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
6013 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
6014 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
6015 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
6016 information anymore.
6020 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
6021 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
6026 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
6028 s/window\.status\s*=\s*['"].*?['"]/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
6032 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
6033 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
6034 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
6035 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
6036 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
6037 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>.
6041 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
6042 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
6043 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
6044 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
6045 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
6046 you move your mouse over links.
6051 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
6053 s/(<body .*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
6058 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
6059 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
6060 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
6061 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
6062 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
6063 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
6068 The last example is from the fun department:
6073 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
6075 # Spice the daily news:
6077 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
6081 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
6082 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
6083 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
6084 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being messed, while
6085 still replacing the word everywhere else.
6090 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
6092 s* industry[ -]leading \
6094 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
6095 | high[ -]performance \
6096 | solutions[ -]based \
6100 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
6105 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
6106 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
6115 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6119 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6121 <sect1 id="templates">
6122 <title>Templates</title>
6124 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
6125 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
6126 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
6127 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
6129 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6130 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
6131 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
6136 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
6137 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
6139 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
6143 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
6144 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. You can
6145 edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want to customize them.
6146 (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual user</emphasis>). Note that
6147 just like in configuration files, lines starting with <literal>#</literal> are
6148 ignored when the templates are filled in.
6152 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
6153 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
6154 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
6155 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
6156 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
6160 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
6161 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
6162 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
6163 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
6164 in in an alpha or beta development stage:
6169 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
6171 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
6173 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
6177 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
6178 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
6179 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
6183 <screen><!-- --></screen>
6187 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
6188 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
6193 All templates refer to a style located at
6194 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
6195 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
6196 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
6197 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
6202 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6206 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6208 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
6211 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
6213 <!-- end boilerplate -->
6217 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6220 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6221 <sect1 id="copyright"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Copyright, License and History</title>
6223 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
6225 <!-- end copyright -->
6227 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6228 <sect2><title>License</title>
6229 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
6231 <!-- end copyright -->
6233 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6236 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6238 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
6239 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
6241 <!-- end history -->
6244 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
6245 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
6247 <!-- end authors -->
6252 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6255 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6256 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
6257 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
6259 <!-- end seealso -->
6264 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6265 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
6268 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6270 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
6272 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
6273 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
6274 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
6275 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
6276 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
6280 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
6281 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
6282 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
6283 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
6287 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
6288 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
6289 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
6290 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
6291 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
6292 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
6293 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
6294 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
6298 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
6299 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
6300 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
6301 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
6302 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
6303 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
6304 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
6305 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
6309 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
6310 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
6311 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
6312 and then some examples:
6317 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
6318 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
6320 </simplelist></para>
6324 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
6327 </simplelist></para>
6331 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
6334 </simplelist></para>
6338 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
6341 </simplelist></para>
6345 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
6346 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
6347 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
6348 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
6349 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
6350 meta-character meaning of any single character).
6352 </simplelist></para>
6356 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
6357 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
6358 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
6359 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
6361 </simplelist></para>
6365 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
6366 or multiple sub-expressions.
6368 </simplelist></para>
6372 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
6373 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
6374 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
6375 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
6376 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
6377 example</quote>, and nothing else.
6379 </simplelist></para>
6382 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
6383 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
6384 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
6385 be more illuminating:
6389 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
6390 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
6391 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
6392 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
6393 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
6394 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
6395 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
6396 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
6397 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
6398 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
6399 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
6400 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
6401 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
6402 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
6407 A now something a little more complex:
6411 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
6412 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
6413 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
6414 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
6415 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
6416 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
6417 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
6422 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
6423 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
6424 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
6425 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
6426 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
6427 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
6428 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
6429 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
6430 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
6431 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
6432 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
6433 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
6434 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
6435 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
6436 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
6437 changing our regular expression to:
6438 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
6443 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
6444 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
6445 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
6446 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
6447 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
6448 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
6449 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
6450 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
6451 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
6452 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
6453 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
6454 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
6455 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
6456 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
6457 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
6458 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
6459 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
6460 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
6461 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
6462 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
6463 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
6464 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
6465 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
6466 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
6467 in the expression anywhere).
6471 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
6472 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
6473 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
6474 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
6475 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
6480 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
6481 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
6485 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
6486 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
6491 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6494 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6496 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
6499 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
6500 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
6501 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
6502 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
6503 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
6504 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
6505 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
6511 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
6512 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
6513 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
6514 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
6527 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
6531 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
6532 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
6533 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
6539 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
6540 editing of actions files:
6544 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
6551 Show the source code version numbers:
6555 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
6562 Show the browser's request headers:
6566 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
6573 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
6577 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
6584 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
6585 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
6589 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
6593 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
6597 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
6602 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
6611 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
6615 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
6616 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
6618 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
6619 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
6620 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
6621 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
6622 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
6623 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
6626 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
6627 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
6628 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
6629 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
6630 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
6631 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
6640 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>
6647 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>
6654 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)
6661 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>
6667 <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>
6672 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
6679 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
6680 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
6681 have more information about bookmarklets.
6690 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6692 <title>Chain of Events</title>
6694 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
6695 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
6702 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
6703 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
6704 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
6710 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
6711 pages (e.g http://p.p/) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
6716 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
6718 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
6719 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
6720 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
6721 is then checked and if it does not match, an
6722 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
6723 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <link
6724 linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
6725 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
6730 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
6731 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
6736 If the URL pattern matches the <link
6737 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
6738 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
6743 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
6744 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
6745 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
6746 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
6752 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
6758 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
6759 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
6760 filtered as deterimined by the
6761 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
6762 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
6763 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
6769 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
6770 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
6771 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
6776 If a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
6778 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
6779 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
6780 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
6781 <filename>default.filter</filename>) are processed against the buffered
6782 content. Filters are applied in the order they are specified in the
6783 <filename>default.filter</filename> file. Animated GIFs, if present, are
6784 reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
6785 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
6786 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
6789 If neither <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
6791 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
6792 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
6793 to the client browser as it becomes available.
6798 As the browser receives the now (probably filtered) page content, it
6799 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
6800 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
6801 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
6802 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
6803 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
6813 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6814 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
6815 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
6818 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
6819 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
6820 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
6821 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
6822 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
6823 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
6824 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
6825 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
6826 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
6831 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
6832 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
6833 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
6834 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!).
6838 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
6839 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
6840 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
6841 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
6845 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
6846 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
6847 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
6848 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
6849 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
6850 the <filename>default.filter</filename> file since this is handled very
6851 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
6852 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
6853 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
6854 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
6855 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
6856 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
6857 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
6862 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
6863 and look at it one section at a time:
6868 Matches for http://google.com:
6870 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
6874 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6875 -crunch-incoming-cookies
6876 +deanimate-gifs{last}
6877 -downgrade-http-version
6881 -filter{shockwave-flash}
6882 -filter{crude-parental}
6883 +filter{html-annoyances}
6884 +filter{js-annoyances}
6885 +filter{content-cookies}
6887 +filter{refresh-tags}
6889 +filter{banners-by-size}
6890 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
6891 +hide-from-header{block}
6892 +hide-referer{forge}
6897 +prevent-compression
6900 +session-cookies-only
6901 +set-image-blocker{pattern} }
6904 { -session-cookies-only }
6910 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
6911 (no matches in this file)
6916 This tells us how we have defined our
6917 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
6918 which ones match for our example, <quote>google.com</quote>. The first listing
6919 is any matches for the <filename>standard.action</filename> file. No hits at
6920 all here on <quote>standard</quote>. Then next is <quote>default</quote>, or
6921 our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line listing,
6922 is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default settings.
6923 If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the section
6924 just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This will apply to
6925 all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
6926 -- <quote>/</quote>.
6930 But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
6931 rules, and then list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions would
6932 apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
6933 <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous cookie setting,
6935 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
6936 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google. The
6937 second turns <emphasis>off</emphasis> any
6939 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
6940 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
6941 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
6942 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
6943 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these two actions
6944 defined somewhere in the lower part of our <filename>default.action</filename>
6945 file, and <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter
6950 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
6954 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
6955 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
6956 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
6967 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6968 -crunch-incoming-cookies
6969 +deanimate-gifs{last}
6970 -downgrade-http-version
6974 -filter{shockwave-flash}
6975 -filter{crude-parental}
6976 +filter{html-annoyances}
6977 +filter{js-annoyances}
6978 +filter{content-cookies}
6980 +filter{refresh-tags}
6982 +filter{banners-by-size}
6983 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
6984 +hide-from-header{block}
6985 +hide-referer{forge}
6990 +prevent-compression
6993 -session-cookies-only
6994 +set-image-blocker{pattern}
6999 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
7000 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>.
7004 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
7010 { +block +handle-as-image }
7013 { +block +handle-as-image }
7016 { +block +handle-as-image }
7022 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
7023 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
7024 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
7025 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<link
7026 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
7027 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
7032 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
7033 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
7034 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
7035 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
7036 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
7037 is done here -- as both a <link
7038 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
7039 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
7041 linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
7042 The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> just simplifies the process and make
7047 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
7048 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
7054 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
7056 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
7060 -crunch-incoming-cookies
7061 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
7063 -downgrade-http-version
7065 +filter{html-annoyances}
7066 +filter{js-annoyances}
7067 +filter{kill-popups}
7070 +filter{banners-by-size}
7073 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
7074 +hide-from-header{block}
7075 +hide-referer{forge}
7079 +prevent-compression
7082 +session-cookies-only
7083 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
7086 { +block +handle-as-image }
7092 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
7093 we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
7094 now add a new action below this that explicitly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
7095 block (<quote>{-block}</quote>) paths with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are
7096 various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
7108 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
7109 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
7113 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
7120 { +block +handle-as-image }
7126 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
7127 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
7128 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
7129 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
7130 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. Try
7131 adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
7139 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
7147 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
7148 <quote>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</quote>.
7149 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
7162 This would probably be most appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>,
7163 for local site exceptions.
7167 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
7168 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
7169 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
7170 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
7179 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
7180 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
7181 Public License as published by the Free Software
7182 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
7183 your option) any later version.
7185 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
7186 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
7187 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
7188 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
7189 License for more details.
7191 The GNU General Public License should be included with
7192 this file. If not, you can view it at
7193 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
7194 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
7195 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
7197 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
7198 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
7199 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
7201 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
7202 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
7204 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
7205 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
7206 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
7208 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
7209 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
7211 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
7212 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
7213 <literal><link> style.
7214 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
7215 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
7216 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
7217 renders them red (bad in TOC).
7219 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
7220 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
7222 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
7225 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
7226 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
7227 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
7229 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
7230 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
7231 - Small changes to Regex appendix
7232 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
7234 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
7235 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
7237 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
7238 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
7240 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
7241 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
7243 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
7244 Extended and further commented the example actions files
7246 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
7247 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
7250 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
7253 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
7254 Restored alphabetical order of actions
7256 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
7257 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
7259 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
7260 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
7262 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
7263 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
7264 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
7266 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
7267 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
7268 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
7269 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
7271 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
7272 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
7274 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
7277 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
7278 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
7279 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
7281 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
7282 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
7284 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
7285 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
7286 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
7288 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
7289 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
7291 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
7292 more structure in starting section
7294 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
7295 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
7296 will probably break links elsewhere :(
7298 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
7299 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
7300 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
7302 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
7303 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
7304 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
7306 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
7307 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
7309 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
7310 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
7311 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
7313 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
7314 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
7315 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
7317 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
7318 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
7320 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
7321 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
7323 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
7324 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
7326 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
7327 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
7329 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
7330 Updated OSX installation section
7331 Added a few English tweaks here an there
7333 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
7334 Re-write actions section.
7336 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
7337 Fix ugly typo (mine).
7339 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
7340 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
7342 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
7343 Added RPM install detail
7345 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
7348 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
7349 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
7351 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
7352 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
7354 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
7355 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
7357 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
7360 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
7361 Proofreading, part one
7363 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
7364 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
7365 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
7367 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
7368 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
7370 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
7371 Add small section on submitting actions.
7373 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
7376 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
7377 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
7379 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
7380 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
7382 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
7385 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
7386 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
7387 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
7388 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
7389 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
7391 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
7392 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
7394 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
7395 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
7397 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
7398 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
7399 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
7400 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
7401 eventually be set by Makefile.
7402 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
7404 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
7405 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
7407 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
7408 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
7410 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
7411 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
7413 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
7414 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
7415 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
7416 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
7418 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
7421 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
7422 Added more to Anatomy section.
7424 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
7425 Touch up intro for new name.
7427 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
7428 we have a new homepage!
7430 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
7431 A few minor catch ups with name change.
7433 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
7434 configure needs to be generated.
7436 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
7437 we are too lazy to make a block-built
7438 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
7440 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
7441 name change related issue.
7443 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
7444 name change. changed filenames.
7446 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
7449 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
7450 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
7451 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
7452 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
7453 comments and remarks to history untouched.
7455 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
7458 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
7459 New section in Appendix.
7461 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
7462 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
7464 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
7465 correct feedback channels
7467 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
7468 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
7470 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
7473 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
7474 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
7476 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
7477 Added imageblock{pattern}.
7479 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
7482 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
7483 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
7485 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
7486 provide correct feedback channels
7488 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
7489 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
7491 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
7492 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
7494 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
7495 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
7497 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
7498 Add new - - user option.
7500 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
7501 Added section on command line options.
7503 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
7504 Changed default port to 8118
7506 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
7507 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
7509 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
7510 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
7511 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
7514 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
7517 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
7518 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
7520 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
7521 Update OS/2 build section
7523 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
7524 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
7525 will work - no other changes are needed.
7527 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
7528 Added a very short section on Templates
7530 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
7531 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
7533 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
7534 Touch ups for *.action files.
7536 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
7539 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
7540 Updates for recent changes.
7542 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
7543 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
7545 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
7546 Correct 2 minor errors
7548 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
7549 *** empty log message ***
7551 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
7552 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
7554 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
7555 wrong url in documentation
7557 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
7558 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
7560 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
7563 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
7566 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
7569 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
7570 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
7572 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
7573 Some additions, and re-arranging.
7575 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
7578 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
7579 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
7581 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
7584 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
7585 source files for junkbuster documentation
7587 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
7588 first proposal of a structure.
7590 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
7591 docs should have an author.
7593 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
7594 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.