1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
12 <!entity p-authors SYSTEM "p-authors.sgml">
13 <!entity config SYSTEM "p-config.sgml">
14 <!entity p-version "3.0.11">
15 <!entity p-status "UNRELEASED">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
30 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
33 This file belongs into
34 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
36 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.89 2008/09/21 15:38:56 fabiankeil Exp $
38 Copyright (C) 2001-2008 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
41 ========================================================================
42 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
43 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
44 ========================================================================
51 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
55 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
56 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
57 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001 - 2008 by
58 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
62 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.89 2008/09/21 15:38:56 fabiankeil Exp $</pubdate>
66 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
67 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
68 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
69 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
82 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
83 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
84 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
90 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
91 install, configure and use <ulink
92 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
95 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
97 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
100 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
101 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
102 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
103 contact the developers.
107 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
113 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
114 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
116 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
117 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
118 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
119 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
120 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
121 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
122 earlier versions. ]]>.
125 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
128 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
129 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
130 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
135 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
136 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
138 In addition to the core
139 features of ad blocking and
140 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
141 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
142 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
143 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
145 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
147 <!-- end boilerplate -->
152 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
155 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
156 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
159 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
160 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
161 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
162 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
168 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
169 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
170 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
171 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
174 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
175 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
177 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
180 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
182 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
183 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and Fedora RPMs</title>
186 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
187 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
188 of configuration files.
192 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
193 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
194 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
195 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
199 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
200 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
201 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
205 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
206 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
207 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
208 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
212 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
213 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian and Ubuntu</title>
215 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
216 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
221 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
222 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
225 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
226 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
227 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
230 Version 3.0.5 beta introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
231 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
232 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
233 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
237 <term>Arguments:</term>
240 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
243 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
249 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
250 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
251 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
252 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
253 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
254 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
255 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
256 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
257 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
258 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
259 write to its log and configuration files.
264 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
265 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris <!--, NetBSD, HP-UX--></title>
268 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
269 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
270 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
274 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
275 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
278 First, make sure that no previous installations of
279 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
280 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
281 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
282 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
288 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
289 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
290 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
291 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
295 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
296 into will contain all of the configuration files.
300 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
301 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OS X</title>
303 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the zip file
304 icon from the Finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
305 Then, double-click on the package installer icon and follow the
306 installation process.
309 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
310 installation (in addition to every time your computer starts up). To
311 prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
312 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
313 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
316 To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the Privoxy Utility
317 for Mac OS X. This application controls the privoxy service (e.g.
318 starting and stopping the service as well as uninstalling the software).
322 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
323 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
325 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
326 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
327 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
328 remove this directory.
332 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
333 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
336 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
337 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
340 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
341 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
344 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
345 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
346 Page</ulink>, but there's no reason to use them unless you're interested in the
347 beta releases which are only available there.
351 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
352 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
354 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
355 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
356 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
357 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
360 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
361 first <literal>emerge --sync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
362 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
366 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
367 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
368 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
374 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
375 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
378 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
379 is to download the source tarball from our
380 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
385 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
386 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
387 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
388 CVS repository</ulink>.
390 deprecated...out of business.
391 or simply download <ulink
392 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
397 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
399 <!-- end boilerplate -->
402 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
403 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
405 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
406 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
407 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
408 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
413 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
414 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
415 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
416 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
420 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
421 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
422 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
423 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
424 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
425 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
433 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
435 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
436 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
437 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
439 There are only a few improvements and new features since
440 <application>Privoxy 3.0.10</application>, the last stable release:
447 The mingw32 version uses mutex locks now which prevents
448 log message corruption under load. As a side effect,
449 the "no thread-safe PRNG" warning could be removed as well.
454 Support for remote toggling is controlled by the configure
455 option --disable-toggle only. In previous versions it also
456 depended on the action editor and thus configuring with the
457 --disable-editor option would disable remote toggling support
463 The hide-forwarded-for-headers action has been replaced with
464 the change-x-forwarded-for{} action which can also be used to
465 add X-Forwarded-For headers. The latter functionality already
466 existed in Privoxy versions prior to 3.0.7 but has been removed
467 as it was often used unintentionally (by not using the
468 hide-forwarded-for-headers action).
475 For a more detailed list of changes please have a look at the ChangeLog.
478 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
480 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
481 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
484 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
485 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
493 The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
494 configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
495 is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
496 <application>diff</application> and maybe <application>patch</application>.
499 There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
500 most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
501 files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
502 to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
503 &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
508 Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
509 including configuration files, therefore you should really save
510 any important configuration files!
515 On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
516 files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
521 <filename>standard.action</filename> now only includes the enabled actions.
522 Not all actions as before.
527 In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
528 You can change that in the <link linkend="DEBUG">debug section</link>
529 of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
530 logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
537 Three other config file settings are now off by default:
538 <link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link>,
539 <link linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
540 and <link linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link>.
541 If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
542 be aware of the security issues involved.
548 The <quote>filter-client-headers</quote> and
549 <quote>filter-server-headers</quote> actions that were introduced with
550 <application>Privoxy 3.0.5</application> to apply content filters to
551 the headers have been removed and replaced with new actions.
553 linkend="whatsnew">What's New section</link> above.
561 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
562 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
563 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
564 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
565 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
566 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
567 settings as yet (see above).
574 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
575 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
576 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
577 standards and past practices. See <ulink
578 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
579 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
580 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
586 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
587 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
588 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
589 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
593 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
597 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
598 to turn off compression for all sites in
599 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
600 <filename>user.action</filename>).
607 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
608 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
609 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
616 Some installers may not automatically start
617 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
628 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
629 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
635 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
636 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
643 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
644 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
645 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
646 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
653 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
654 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
655 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
661 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
662 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
663 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
664 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
665 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
666 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
667 browser from using these protocols.
673 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
674 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
675 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
676 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
682 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
683 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
684 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
685 to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
687 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">web-based action editor</ulink> though.
688 Be sure to read the warnings first.
691 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
692 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
693 You might also want to look at the <link
694 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
695 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
702 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
703 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
704 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
705 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
706 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
707 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
708 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
709 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
710 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
711 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
716 Did anyone test these lately?
720 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
721 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
729 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
730 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
737 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
745 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
747 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
748 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
750 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
751 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
754 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
755 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
756 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
759 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
760 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
761 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
764 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
765 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
766 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
767 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
768 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
769 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
770 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
771 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
772 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
773 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
774 habits and preferences.
777 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
778 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
779 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
780 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
781 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
782 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
783 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
784 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
785 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
786 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
789 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
790 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
791 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
792 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
793 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
796 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
797 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
798 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
799 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
800 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
801 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
802 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
803 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
804 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
805 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
806 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
811 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
812 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
813 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
815 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
816 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
824 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
825 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
826 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
827 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
828 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
829 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
830 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
831 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
837 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
838 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
839 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
840 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
841 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
842 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
843 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
844 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
845 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
846 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
847 an entire HTML page in most situations.
853 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
854 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
855 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
856 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
863 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
864 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
865 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
866 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
867 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
868 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
871 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
875 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
876 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
881 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
882 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
887 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
888 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
897 Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
898 <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal> as well. Filters
899 are very different from <literal><link
900 linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>.
901 A <quote>block</quote> blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
902 are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
903 filter usage: a text replacement of <quote>no-no</quote> for
904 <quote>nasty-word</quote>. That is a very simple example. This process can be
905 used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
906 some pitfalls to be wary off.
910 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
911 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
912 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
913 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
914 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
918 Note that as of <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta the
919 action editor is disabled by default. Check the
920 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions
921 section in the configuration file</ulink> to learn why and in which
922 cases it's safe to enable again.
926 If you decided to enable the action editor, select the appropriate
927 <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
928 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
929 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
930 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
931 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
932 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
933 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
937 A quick and simple step by step example:
945 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
946 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
954 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
959 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
960 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
963 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
965 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
968 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
971 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
980 You should have a section with only
981 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
982 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
983 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
984 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
985 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
986 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
987 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
988 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
994 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
995 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
996 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
997 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
998 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
999 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1004 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1005 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1013 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1014 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1015 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1016 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1021 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1022 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1023 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1026 There are also various
1027 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1028 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1029 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1030 depth in later sections.
1037 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1040 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1041 <sect1 id="startup">
1042 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1044 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1045 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1046 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1047 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1048 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1049 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1053 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1054 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1057 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1059 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1060 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1063 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1066 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1074 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1078 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Network</guibutton> -><guibutton>Connection</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Settings</guibutton>
1083 Or optionally on some platforms:
1087 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1093 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1094 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1099 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1100 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1101 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1106 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-7</application>:
1110 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1114 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1115 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1116 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1117 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1118 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1121 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1123 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1124 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1127 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1130 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1138 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1139 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1140 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1141 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1142 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1143 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1147 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1148 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1149 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1150 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1151 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1154 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1155 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
1157 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
1158 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1163 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1171 # service privoxy start
1176 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1177 <title>Debian</title>
1179 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1180 default. It will use the file
1181 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1186 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1191 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1192 <title>Windows</title>
1194 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1195 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1196 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1197 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1201 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1202 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1203 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1204 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1205 instructions</link> for details.
1209 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1210 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1212 Example Unix startup command:
1216 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1221 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1224 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1225 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1226 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1227 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1231 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1232 <title>Mac OS X</title>
1234 After downloading the privoxy software, unzip the downloaded file by
1235 double-clicking on the zip file icon. Then, double-click on the
1236 installer package icon and follow the installation process.
1239 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
1240 installation. In addition, the privoxy service will automatically
1241 start every time your computer starts up.
1244 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
1245 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
1246 /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
1249 A simple application named Privoxy Utility has been created which
1250 enables administrators to easily start and stop the privoxy service.
1253 In addition, the Privoxy Utility presents a simple way for
1254 administrators to edit the various privoxy config files. A method
1255 to uninstall the software is also available.
1258 An administrator username and password must be supplied in order for
1259 the Privoxy Utility to perform any of the tasks.
1264 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1265 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1267 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1268 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1269 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1270 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1271 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1272 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1273 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1277 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1278 <title>Gentoo</title>
1280 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1281 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1285 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1289 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1290 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1295 rc-update add privoxy default
1303 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1307 must find a better place for this paragraph
1310 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1311 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1312 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1313 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1314 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1315 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1319 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1320 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1321 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1322 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1323 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1324 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1325 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1326 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1327 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1331 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1332 sites is the popup-killing (through <ulink
1333 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>),
1334 because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1335 popups (explained below).
1339 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
1340 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
1341 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1342 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1343 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1344 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1345 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1346 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1347 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1351 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1352 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1353 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1354 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1355 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1356 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1357 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1358 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1359 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1363 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1364 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1365 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1366 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1367 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1368 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1369 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1373 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1374 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1375 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1376 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1377 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1378 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1383 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1384 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1385 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1390 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1391 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1392 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1393 Developers</quote></link> below.
1398 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1399 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1400 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1402 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1403 command-line options:
1411 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1414 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1419 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1422 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1427 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1430 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1431 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1436 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1439 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1440 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1441 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1442 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1447 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1450 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1451 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1452 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1457 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1460 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1461 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1462 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1463 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1469 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
1472 Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
1473 resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
1474 libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
1475 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
1478 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
1479 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
1480 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
1481 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
1487 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1490 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1491 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1492 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1493 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1494 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1495 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1503 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1504 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1505 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1506 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1514 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1517 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1518 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1520 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1521 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1522 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1523 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1527 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1530 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1532 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1533 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1534 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1535 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1536 You will see the following section:
1540 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1543 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1547 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1550 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1553 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1556 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1559 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1562 ▪ <ulink
1563 url="http://www.privoxy.org/&p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1571 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1572 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1573 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1574 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1575 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1576 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1580 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1581 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1582 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1583 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1584 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1585 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1586 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1587 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1592 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
1593 in <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta and later.
1595 <ulink url="config.html">configuration file</ulink> to learn why
1596 and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
1601 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1606 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1608 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1609 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1611 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1612 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1613 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1614 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1615 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1616 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1620 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1621 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1622 principle configuration files are:
1630 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1631 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1632 on Windows. This is a required file.
1638 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1639 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1640 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1641 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1642 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1643 as many websites as possible.
1646 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1647 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1648 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1649 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1650 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1651 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1652 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is only for
1653 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1656 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1658 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1660 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1661 various actions files.
1667 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1668 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1669 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1670 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1671 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1672 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1673 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1674 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1675 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1676 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1677 locally defined filters or customizations.
1685 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
1686 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
1687 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
1691 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1692 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1693 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1694 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1695 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1696 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1697 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
1701 The actions files and filter files
1702 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1703 maximum flexibility.
1707 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1708 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1709 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1710 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1711 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1712 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1713 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1718 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1719 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1720 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1721 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1727 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1730 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1732 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1733 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1734 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1736 <!-- end include -->
1739 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1743 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1745 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1748 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1749 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1750 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1751 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1752 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1753 Each action does something a little different.
1754 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1755 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
1756 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
1760 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1768 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1769 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1770 provide a base level of functionality for
1771 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1772 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well as-is for most users.
1773 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1774 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1775 The user's preferences as set in <filename>standard.action</filename>,
1776 e.g. either <literal>Cautious</literal> (the default),
1777 <literal>Medium</literal>, or <literal>Advanced</literal> (see
1783 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1784 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1785 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1786 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1791 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used only by the web based editor
1792 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
1793 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>,
1794 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1795 in <filename>default.action</filename>.
1798 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
1801 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
1802 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
1803 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
1804 <literal>Cautious</literal> (versions prior to 3.0.5 were set to
1805 <literal>Medium</literal>). New users should try this for a while before
1806 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
1807 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
1808 not working as they should.
1811 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
1812 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
1813 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
1814 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
1815 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
1816 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
1817 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
1818 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
1819 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
1820 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
1821 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
1822 lower sections of this internal page.
1825 It is not recommend to edit the <filename>standard.action</filename> file
1829 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1830 <filename>standard.action</filename> are:
1833 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1834 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1835 <colspec colname=c1>
1836 <colspec colname=c2>
1837 <colspec colname=c3>
1838 <colspec colname=c4>
1841 <entry>Feature</entry>
1842 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1843 <entry>Medium</entry>
1844 <entry>Advanced</entry>
1849 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
1850 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
1851 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
1852 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
1858 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
1859 <entry>medium</entry>
1865 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
1872 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
1878 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
1879 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1880 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1881 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1885 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
1887 <entry>medium</entry>
1888 <entry>medium/high</entry>
1892 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
1894 <entry>session-only</entry>
1899 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
1907 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
1915 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
1922 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
1929 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
1936 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
1943 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
1959 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
1960 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
1961 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
1962 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
1964 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1965 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
1966 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
1967 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
1968 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
1969 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
1970 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
1971 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
1975 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
1976 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
1977 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
1978 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
1979 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
1980 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
1981 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
1982 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
1983 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
1984 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
1985 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
1986 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
1990 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
1991 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
1992 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
1993 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
1994 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
1998 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2000 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2002 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2003 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2004 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2005 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
2006 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
2007 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2008 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2009 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
2010 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2011 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
2012 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2016 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2017 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2018 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2019 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2023 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2025 <title>How to Edit</title>
2027 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2028 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2029 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2030 Note: the config file option <link
2031 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link> must be enabled for
2032 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
2033 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
2034 like <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or
2035 <quote>Advanced</quote>. Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more
2036 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
2037 Experienced users only!
2041 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2042 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2043 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2049 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2050 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2052 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2053 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2054 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2055 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2056 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2057 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2061 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2062 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2063 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2064 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2065 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2069 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2070 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2071 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2072 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2073 then later another one with just <literal>{
2074 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2075 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2076 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2082 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block{Banner ads.}</literal> }
2083 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2085 media.example.com/.*banners
2086 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2090 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
2091 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2095 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2096 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2100 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2101 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2102 <title>Patterns</title>
2104 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2105 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2106 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2107 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2108 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2109 against many similar patterns.
2113 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
2114 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
2115 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
2116 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
2117 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
2118 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
2119 the pattern. This is assumed already!
2122 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
2123 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2124 while the path part uses more flexible
2125 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2126 Expressions</quote></ulink> (POSIX 1003.2).
2131 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2134 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2135 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2136 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2137 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2142 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2145 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2151 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2154 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
2155 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
2160 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2163 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2164 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2169 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
2172 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2173 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2178 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2181 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2182 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2190 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2191 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2194 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2195 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2201 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2204 matches any domain with first-level domain <literal>com</literal>
2205 and second-level domain <literal>example</literal>.
2206 For example <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2207 <literal>example.com</literal> and <literal>foo.bar.baz.example.com</literal>.
2208 Note that it wouldn't match if the second-level domain was <literal>another-example</literal>.
2213 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2216 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2217 <literal>www.</literal> (It also matches the domain
2218 <literal>www</literal> but most of the time that doesn't matter.)
2223 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2226 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2227 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2228 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2229 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2230 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2231 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2232 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2240 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2241 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2242 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2244 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2245 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2246 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2247 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2248 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2249 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2254 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2257 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2258 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2263 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2266 matches all of the above, and then some.
2271 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2274 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2275 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2280 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2283 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2284 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2285 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2286 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2293 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2298 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2301 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2302 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2305 <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>modern</quote> POSIX 1003.2
2306 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2307 Expressions</quote></ulink> for matching the path portion (after the slash),
2308 and is thus more flexible.
2312 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2313 expressions, you also might want to have a look at your operating system's documentation
2314 on regular expressions (try <literal>man re_format</literal>).
2318 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2319 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2320 for the beginning of a line).
2324 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2325 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2326 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2327 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2328 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2333 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2336 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2337 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2338 regular expression. This is redundant
2343 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
2346 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2347 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2348 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2349 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2350 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2351 requirement. It also would match
2352 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2353 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2358 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
2361 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2362 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2363 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2364 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
2369 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2372 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2373 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2374 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2375 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2380 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2383 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2384 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2385 one is limited to common image formats.
2392 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2393 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2398 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2401 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2402 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
2405 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
2406 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
2407 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
2408 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
2412 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
2413 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
2414 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
2415 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
2416 automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
2417 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
2421 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
2422 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
2423 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
2424 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
2425 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
2429 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
2430 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
2431 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
2435 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
2436 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
2437 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
2438 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
2442 For example you could tag client requests which use the
2443 <literal>POST</literal> method,
2444 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
2445 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
2446 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
2447 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
2448 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
2449 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
2450 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
2454 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
2455 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
2456 make too much sense.
2463 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2466 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2468 <sect2 id="actions">
2469 <title>Actions</title>
2471 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2472 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2473 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2474 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2475 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2476 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2477 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2478 previously applied.</quote>
2483 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2484 separated by whitespace, like in
2485 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2486 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2487 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2488 of the actions file.
2492 Actions fall into three categories:
2499 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2500 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2504 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2505 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2508 Example: <literal>+handle-as-image</literal>
2515 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2520 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2521 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2522 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2525 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2526 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2529 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070602 Firefox/2.0.0.4}</literal>
2535 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2536 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2537 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2538 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2539 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2540 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2544 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2545 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2546 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2547 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2550 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2551 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2559 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2560 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2561 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
2562 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2563 files will give a good starting point).
2567 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
2568 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2569 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2570 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2571 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2572 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2573 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2574 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2575 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2579 <!-- start actions listing -->
2581 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2585 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2586 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2587 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2589 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2592 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2594 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2595 <title>add-header</title>
2599 <term>Typical use:</term>
2601 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2606 <term>Effect:</term>
2609 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2616 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2618 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2623 <term>Parameter:</term>
2626 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2627 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2637 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2638 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2639 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2646 <term>Example usage:</term>
2649 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2657 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2658 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2659 <title>block</title>
2663 <term>Typical use:</term>
2665 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
2670 <term>Effect:</term>
2673 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
2674 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
2675 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
2677 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2679 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
2681 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
2689 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2691 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2696 <term>Parameter:</term>
2698 <para>A block reason that should be given to the user.</para>
2706 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2707 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains the block reason given as
2708 parameter, a link to find out why the block action applies, and a click-through
2709 to the blocked content (the latter only if the force feature is available and
2713 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2714 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2715 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2716 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2717 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2718 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2721 It is important to understand this process, in order
2722 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2723 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
2724 upon which various other features depend.
2727 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2728 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2729 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2730 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2731 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2737 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2740 <screen>{+block{No nasty stuff for you.}}
2741 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2742 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2744 {+block{Doubleclick banners.} +handle-as-image}
2745 # Block and replace with image
2749 {+block{Layered ads.} +handle-as-empty-document}
2750 # Block and then ignore
2751 adserver.example.net/.*\.js$</screen>
2761 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2762 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="change-x-forwarded-for">
2763 <title>change-x-forwarded-for</title>
2767 <term>Typical use:</term>
2769 <para>Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
2774 <term>Effect:</term>
2777 Deletes the <quote>X-Forwarded-For:</quote> HTTP header from the client request,
2785 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2787 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2792 <term>Parameter:</term>
2796 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header.</para>
2800 <quote>add</quote> to create the header (or append
2801 the client's IP address to an already existing one).
2812 It is safe and recommended to use <literal>block</literal>.
2815 Forwarding the source address of the request may make
2816 sense in some multi-user setups but is also a privacy risk.
2821 <term>Example usage:</term>
2824 <screen>+change-x-forwarded-for{block}</screen>
2831 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2832 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
2833 <title>client-header-filter</title>
2837 <term>Typical use:</term>
2840 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
2846 <term>Effect:</term>
2849 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2850 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
2857 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2859 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2864 <term>Parameter:</term>
2867 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
2868 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
2877 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
2878 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
2879 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
2880 You can do that by using tags though.
2883 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
2884 and use their output as input.
2887 If the request URL gets changed, &my-app; will detect that and use the new
2888 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
2889 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
2892 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
2893 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
2901 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2905 # Hide Tor exit notation in Host and Referer Headers
2906 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
2917 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2918 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
2919 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
2923 <term>Typical use:</term>
2926 Block requests based on their headers.
2932 <term>Effect:</term>
2935 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2936 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
2944 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2946 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2951 <term>Parameter:</term>
2954 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
2955 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
2964 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
2965 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
2969 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
2970 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
2976 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2980 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
2981 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
2984 # Tagging itself doesn't change the action
2985 # settings, sections with TAG patterns do:
2987 # If it's a download agent, use a different forwarding proxy,
2988 # show the real User-Agent and make sure resume works.
2989 {+forward-override{forward-socks5 10.0.0.2:2222 .} \
2990 -hide-if-modified-since \
2991 -overwrite-last-modified \
2996 TAG:^User-Agent: NetBSD-ftp/
2997 TAG:^User-Agent: Novell ZYPP Installer
2998 TAG:^User-Agent: RPM APT-HTTP/
2999 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/
3000 TAG:^User-Agent: Ubuntu APT-HTTP/
3001 TAG:^User-Agent: MPlayer/
3011 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3012 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
3013 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
3017 <term>Typical use:</term>
3019 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
3024 <term>Effect:</term>
3027 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
3034 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3036 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3041 <term>Parameter:</term>
3053 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
3054 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
3055 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
3056 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
3057 supported by the browser.
3060 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
3061 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
3062 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
3063 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
3064 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
3067 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
3068 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
3069 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
3070 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
3071 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
3074 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
3075 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
3076 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
3077 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
3080 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
3081 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
3082 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
3083 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
3084 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
3087 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
3088 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3089 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
3090 only replace the content types you aimed at.
3093 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
3094 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
3095 more work to get the same precision.
3101 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3104 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
3105 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
3108 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
3109 {-content-type-overwrite}
3110 www.example.net/.*\.css$
3111 www.example.net/.*style
3120 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3121 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
3125 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
3129 <term>Typical use:</term>
3131 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3136 <term>Effect:</term>
3139 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3146 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3148 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3153 <term>Parameter:</term>
3165 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
3166 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
3167 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
3168 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3171 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3172 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3173 they contain the same string.
3176 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3177 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3178 parts of them, you should use a
3179 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
3183 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3190 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3193 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
3194 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
3204 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3205 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
3206 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
3212 <term>Typical use:</term>
3214 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3219 <term>Effect:</term>
3222 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
3229 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3231 <para>Boolean.</para>
3236 <term>Parameter:</term>
3248 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
3249 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3250 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
3251 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3254 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
3255 replacement (unlikely but possible).
3258 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
3259 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
3260 isn't blocked or missing as well.
3263 It is recommended to use this action together with
3264 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
3266 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
3272 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3275 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
3276 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
3277 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
3278 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
3279 +crunch-if-none-match}
3288 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3289 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3290 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3294 <term>Typical use:</term>
3297 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
3303 <term>Effect:</term>
3306 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3313 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3315 <para>Boolean.</para>
3320 <term>Parameter:</term>
3332 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3333 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3334 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3335 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3338 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3339 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3340 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3341 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3347 <term>Example usage:</term>
3350 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3358 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3359 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3360 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3366 <term>Typical use:</term>
3368 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3373 <term>Effect:</term>
3376 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3383 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3385 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3390 <term>Parameter:</term>
3402 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3403 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3404 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3407 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3408 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3409 they contain the same string.
3412 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3413 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3414 parts of them, you should use a custom
3415 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3419 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3426 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3429 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3430 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
3439 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3440 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3441 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3445 <term>Typical use:</term>
3448 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
3454 <term>Effect:</term>
3457 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3464 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3466 <para>Boolean.</para>
3471 <term>Parameter:</term>
3483 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3484 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3485 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3486 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3489 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3490 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3491 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3497 <term>Example usage:</term>
3500 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3509 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3510 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3511 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3515 <term>Typical use:</term>
3517 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3522 <term>Effect:</term>
3525 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3532 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3534 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3539 <term>Parameter:</term>
3542 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3551 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3552 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3553 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3554 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3555 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3556 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3559 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3560 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3567 <term>Example usage:</term>
3570 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3577 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3578 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3579 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3583 <term>Typical use:</term>
3585 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3590 <term>Effect:</term>
3593 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3600 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3602 <para>Boolean.</para>
3607 <term>Parameter:</term>
3619 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3620 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3621 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3622 out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
3623 so there is a chance you might need this action.
3629 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3632 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3633 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3641 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3642 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3643 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3647 <term>Typical use:</term>
3649 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3654 <term>Effect:</term>
3657 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3658 the redirection server first.
3665 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3667 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3672 <term>Parameter:</term>
3677 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3678 to detect redirection URLs.
3683 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3684 for redirection URLs.
3695 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3696 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3697 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3698 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3699 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3702 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3703 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3704 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3705 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3706 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3710 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3711 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3712 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3715 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3716 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3717 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3718 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3719 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3720 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3721 the user gets redirected anyway.
3724 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3726 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3727 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3728 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3729 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3730 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3731 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
3732 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
3733 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
3736 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3737 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3738 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3739 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3740 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3741 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3742 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3748 <term>Example usage:</term>
3752 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
3755 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
3756 another.example.com/testing</screen>
3765 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3766 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3767 <title>filter</title>
3771 <term>Typical use:</term>
3773 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
3774 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
3779 <term>Effect:</term>
3782 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
3783 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
3784 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
3785 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
3786 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
3793 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3795 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3800 <term>Parameter:</term>
3803 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3804 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3805 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3806 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3807 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3808 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3809 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
3812 When used in its negative form,
3813 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
3822 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3823 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3827 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3828 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3829 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3830 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3831 noticeable on slower connections.
3834 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
3835 filters requires a knowledge of
3836 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3837 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
3838 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
3839 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
3840 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
3841 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
3844 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3845 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
3846 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
3847 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3848 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3851 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3852 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3853 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3854 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3855 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3856 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
3859 Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless &my-app;
3860 is compiled with zlib support (requires at least &my-app; 3.0.7),
3861 in which case &my-app; will decompress the content before filtering
3865 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
3866 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
3867 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3868 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3871 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3872 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3873 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3874 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3875 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3879 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
3880 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3883 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3884 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
3885 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
3886 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
3892 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
3893 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
3894 more explanation on each:</term>
3897 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3898 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.</screen>
3901 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
3902 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings and timers (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites).</screen>
3905 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3906 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
3909 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3910 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content.</screen>
3913 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3914 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups).</screen>
3917 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
3918 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3921 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
3922 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
3925 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
3926 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective.</screen>
3929 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3930 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size.</screen>
3933 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
3934 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers.</screen>
3937 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3938 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking).</screen>
3941 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
3942 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap.</screen>
3945 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
3946 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves.</screen>
3949 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3950 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable.</screen>
3953 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
3954 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets.</screen>
3957 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3958 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects.</screen>
3961 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
3962 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable.</screen>
3965 <anchor id="filter-fun">
3966 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
3969 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
3970 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering. Note that this filter doesn't work reliably.</screen>
3973 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
3974 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits.</screen>
3977 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
3978 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Cure for site-specific problems. Don't apply generally!</screen>
3981 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
3982 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes in <a> and <area> tags.</screen>
3985 <anchor id="filter-google">
3986 <screen>+filter{google} # CSS-based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation and the toolbar advertisement.</screen>
3989 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
3990 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # CSS-based block for Yahoo text ads. Also removes a width limitation.</screen>
3993 <anchor id="filter-msn">
3994 <screen>+filter{msn} # CSS-based block for MSN text ads. Also removes tracking URLs and a width limitation.</screen>
3997 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
3998 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this.</screen>
4006 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4007 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
4008 <title>force-text-mode</title>
4014 <term>Typical use:</term>
4016 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
4021 <term>Effect:</term>
4024 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
4031 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4033 <para>Boolean.</para>
4038 <term>Parameter:</term>
4050 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4051 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
4052 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4053 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
4054 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
4055 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
4059 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4060 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4067 <term>Example usage:</term>
4080 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4081 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
4082 <title>forward-override</title>
4088 <term>Typical use:</term>
4090 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
4095 <term>Effect:</term>
4098 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
4105 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4107 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4112 <term>Parameter:</term>
4116 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
4120 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4125 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
4126 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
4127 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4128 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4133 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
4134 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4135 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
4136 (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4137 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4148 This action takes parameters similar to the
4149 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
4150 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4151 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4155 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
4156 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4157 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4160 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4161 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4165 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
4166 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4173 <term>Example usage:</term>
4177 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
4178 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
4179 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4180 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4181 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4182 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4183 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
4184 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
4185 {+forward-override{forward .} \
4186 -hide-if-modified-since \
4187 -overwrite-last-modified \
4189 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
4198 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4199 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
4200 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
4206 <term>Typical use:</term>
4208 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
4213 <term>Effect:</term>
4216 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4217 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4218 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4219 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4220 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4227 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4229 <para>Boolean.</para>
4234 <term>Parameter:</term>
4246 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4247 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
4248 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4249 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
4250 BLOCKED message in frames.
4253 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4254 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4255 but usually this isn't necessary.
4261 <term>Example usage:</term>
4264 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4265 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4266 {+block{Blocked JavaScript} +handle-as-empty-document}
4276 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4277 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4278 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4282 <term>Typical use:</term>
4284 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they do get blocked</emphasis>, rather than HTML pages)</para>
4289 <term>Effect:</term>
4292 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4293 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4294 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4295 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4296 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4297 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4304 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4306 <para>Boolean.</para>
4311 <term>Parameter:</term>
4323 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4324 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4328 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4329 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4330 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4333 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4334 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4335 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4336 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4342 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4345 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4348 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4350 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4351 # blocked as images:
4353 {+block{Nasty banners.} +handle-as-image}
4354 nasty-banner-server.example.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
4363 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4364 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4365 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4371 <term>Typical use:</term>
4373 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4378 <term>Effect:</term>
4381 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4388 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4390 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4395 <term>Parameter:</term>
4398 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4407 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4408 foreign User-Agent set with
4409 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4413 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4414 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4415 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4416 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4419 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4420 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4421 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4424 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4425 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4426 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4427 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4428 you should stick to a common language.
4434 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4437 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4438 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4439 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4449 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4450 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4451 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4457 <term>Typical use:</term>
4459 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4464 <term>Effect:</term>
4467 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4474 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4476 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4481 <term>Parameter:</term>
4484 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4493 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4494 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4495 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4496 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4499 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4500 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4501 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4504 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4505 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4506 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4507 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4508 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4512 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4513 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4517 This action will probably be removed in the future,
4518 use server-header filters instead.
4524 <term>Example usage:</term>
4527 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4529 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
4530 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
4531 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
4539 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4540 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4541 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4547 <term>Typical use:</term>
4549 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4554 <term>Effect:</term>
4557 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4564 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4566 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4571 <term>Parameter:</term>
4574 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4583 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4584 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4585 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4588 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4589 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4590 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4591 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4592 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4595 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4596 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
4597 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
4600 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4601 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4602 handle the greater changes.
4605 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4606 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>,
4607 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
4613 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4616 <screen># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
4617 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
4618 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
4619 +crunch-if-none-match}
4628 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4629 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4630 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4634 <term>Typical use:</term>
4636 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4641 <term>Effect:</term>
4644 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4652 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4654 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4659 <term>Parameter:</term>
4662 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4671 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4672 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4676 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4677 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4678 is actually used by a real person.
4681 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4682 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4688 <term>Example usage:</term>
4691 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4692 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4700 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4701 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4702 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4703 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4706 <term>Typical use:</term>
4708 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4713 <term>Effect:</term>
4716 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4717 or replaces it with a forged one.
4724 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4726 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4731 <term>Parameter:</term>
4735 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4738 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
4741 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4744 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4747 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4757 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
4758 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
4759 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
4760 typed in the address directly.
4763 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
4764 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
4765 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
4766 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
4767 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
4771 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
4772 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
4773 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
4774 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
4777 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
4778 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
4779 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
4782 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4783 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4784 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4785 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4786 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4792 <term>Example usage:</term>
4795 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4796 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4804 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4805 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4806 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4810 <term>Typical use:</term>
4812 <para>Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4817 <term>Effect:</term>
4820 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4821 in client requests with the specified value.
4828 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4830 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4835 <term>Parameter:</term>
4838 Any user-defined string.
4848 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
4849 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4850 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
4851 work browser-independently).
4855 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4856 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4857 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4858 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4859 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4860 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4861 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4862 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4863 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4864 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4865 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4868 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
4869 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
4871 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
4877 <term>Example usage:</term>
4880 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4888 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4889 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
4890 <title>limit-connect</title>
4894 <term>Typical use:</term>
4896 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
4901 <term>Effect:</term>
4904 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
4911 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4913 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4918 <term>Parameter:</term>
4921 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
4922 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
4931 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
4932 <application>Privoxy</application> allows HTTP CONNECT requests to all
4933 ports. Use <literal>limit-connect</literal> if fine-grained control
4934 is desired for some or all destinations.
4937 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
4938 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
4939 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
4940 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
4941 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
4944 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
4945 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
4946 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
4952 <term>Example usages:</term>
4954 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
4955 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
4956 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
4958 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # Port 443 is OK.
4959 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
4960 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
4961 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
4962 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
4969 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4970 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
4971 <title>prevent-compression</title>
4975 <term>Typical use:</term>
4978 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
4979 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
4985 <term>Effect:</term>
4988 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
4995 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4997 <para>Boolean.</para>
5002 <term>Parameter:</term>
5014 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5015 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5016 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> and
5017 <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5018 actions need access to the uncompressed data.
5021 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5022 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5023 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5024 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5027 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5028 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5032 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5033 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5034 predefined action settings.
5037 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5038 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5039 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5040 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
5041 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5047 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5051 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5053 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5054 # Match only these sites
5059 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5061 { +prevent-compression }
5064 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5066 { -prevent-compression }
5067 .compusa.com/</screen>
5076 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5077 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5078 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5084 <term>Typical use:</term>
5086 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5091 <term>Effect:</term>
5094 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5101 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5103 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5108 <term>Parameter:</term>
5111 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5112 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5121 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5122 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5123 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5124 version of the page.
5127 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5128 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5129 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5130 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5131 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5132 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5135 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5136 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5137 this option together with
5138 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5139 to further customize your random range.
5142 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5143 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5144 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5145 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5146 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5147 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5151 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5152 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5158 <term>Example usage:</term>
5161 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5162 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5163 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5164 +crunch-if-none-match}
5173 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5174 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5175 <title>redirect</title>
5181 <term>Typical use:</term>
5184 Redirect requests to other sites.
5190 <term>Effect:</term>
5193 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5194 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5201 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5203 <para>Parameterized</para>
5208 <term>Parameter:</term>
5211 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
5220 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
5221 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
5222 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
5223 single pcrs command to the original URL.
5226 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
5227 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
5228 It can be combined with
5229 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
5230 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
5233 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
5234 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
5235 possible to fingerprint your requests.
5238 In case of problems with your redirects, or simply to watch
5239 them working, enable <link linkend="DEBUG">debug 128</link>.
5245 <term>Example usages:</term>
5248 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5249 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5250 example.com/stylesheet\.css
5252 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5253 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
5254 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5257 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
5258 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
5259 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
5260 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
5261 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$
5263 # Redirect Google search requests to MSN
5264 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/search\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=$1@}}
5267 # Redirect MSN search requests to Yahoo
5268 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/results\.aspx\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=$1@}}
5269 search.msn.com//results\.aspx\?q=
5271 # Redirect remote requests for this manual
5272 # to the local version delivered by Privoxy
5273 {+redirect{s@^http://www@http://config@}}
5274 www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</screen>
5283 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5284 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
5285 <title>server-header-filter</title>
5289 <term>Typical use:</term>
5292 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
5298 <term>Effect:</term>
5301 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
5302 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
5309 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5311 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5316 <term>Parameter:</term>
5319 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
5320 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5329 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
5330 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
5331 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
5332 You can do that by using tags though.
5335 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
5336 and use their output as input.
5339 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
5340 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
5347 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5351 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
5352 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
5354 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
5355 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
5365 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5366 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
5367 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
5371 <term>Typical use:</term>
5374 Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
5380 <term>Effect:</term>
5383 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
5384 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
5392 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5394 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5399 <term>Parameter:</term>
5402 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
5403 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5412 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
5413 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
5417 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
5418 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
5419 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
5420 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
5421 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
5424 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
5425 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
5432 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5436 # Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
5437 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
5448 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5449 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5450 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5454 <term>Typical use:</term>
5457 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5458 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5464 <term>Effect:</term>
5467 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5468 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5469 forget them in between sessions.
5476 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5478 <para>Boolean.</para>
5483 <term>Parameter:</term>
5495 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5496 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5497 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5500 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5501 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5502 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5503 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5504 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5507 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5508 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5509 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5510 will be plainly killed.
5513 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5514 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5517 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5518 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5519 These would have to be removed manually.
5522 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5523 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5524 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5525 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5531 <term>Example usage:</term>
5534 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5542 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5543 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5544 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5548 <term>Typical use:</term>
5550 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5555 <term>Effect:</term>
5558 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5559 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5560 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5561 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5562 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5563 sent as a replacement.
5570 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5572 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5577 <term>Parameter:</term>
5582 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5583 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5588 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5589 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5590 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5591 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5596 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5597 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5598 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5599 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5602 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5603 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5604 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5605 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5606 it over and over again.
5617 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5618 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5619 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5622 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5623 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5624 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5630 <term>Example usage:</term>
5636 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5639 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
5642 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5645 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5648 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5656 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5658 <title>Summary</title>
5660 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
5661 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
5662 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
5663 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
5664 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
5665 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
5671 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5672 <sect2 id="aliases">
5673 <title>Aliases</title>
5675 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
5676 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
5677 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
5678 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
5680 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
5681 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
5682 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
5683 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
5684 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
5688 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
5689 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
5690 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
5691 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
5695 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
5696 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
5697 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
5698 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
5699 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
5700 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
5701 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
5704 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
5705 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
5706 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
5707 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
5708 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
5713 Now let's define some aliases...
5718 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
5720 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
5721 # must be at the top of the actions file!
5725 # These aliases just save typing later:
5726 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5728 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5729 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5730 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
5731 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5733 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5734 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5736 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link>
5738 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link>
5740 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
5742 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
5743 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
5747 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
5748 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
5749 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
5754 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
5755 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
5758 .office.microsoft.com
5759 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5760 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
5764 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
5768 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5771 # These shops require pop-ups:
5773 {-filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
5775 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
5779 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
5780 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
5781 in order to function properly.
5787 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5788 <sect2 id="act-examples">
5789 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
5791 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
5792 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
5793 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
5794 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
5795 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
5796 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
5797 file and see how all these pieces come together:
5800 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
5803 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
5807 <screen># Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net></screen>
5811 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
5812 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
5813 change or worry about:
5818 ##########################################################################
5819 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
5820 ##########################################################################
5823 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
5827 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
5828 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
5829 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
5834 ##########################################################################
5836 ##########################################################################
5839 # These aliases just save typing later:
5840 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5842 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5843 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5844 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
5845 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5847 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5848 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5850 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link>
5851 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link></screen>
5855 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
5856 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
5857 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
5858 enable the ones we want.
5862 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
5863 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
5864 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
5865 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
5866 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
5867 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
5868 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
5873 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
5874 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
5875 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
5876 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
5877 multiple lines with line continuation.
5882 ##########################################################################
5883 # "Defaults" section:
5884 ##########################################################################
5886 +<link linkend="CHANGE-X-FORWARDED-FOR">change-x-forwarded-for{block}</link> \
5887 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
5888 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
5889 +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
5890 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
5891 +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
5892 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
5893 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
5894 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
5895 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
5896 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
5898 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
5902 The default behavior is now set.
5904 This needs rewording, but it can wait for now.
5907 Note that some actions, like not hiding
5908 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
5909 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
5910 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
5911 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
5912 want to block in later sections.
5917 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
5918 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
5919 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
5920 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
5921 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
5922 of actions explicitly:
5927 ##########################################################################
5928 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
5929 ##########################################################################
5931 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
5934 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
5935 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5936 mail.google.com</screen>
5940 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
5941 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
5942 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
5951 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5953 .scan.co.uk</screen>
5956 <!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
5959 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
5960 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
5961 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
5962 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
5964 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> above
5965 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
5966 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
5967 chosen in the defaults section:
5972 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
5974 { -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
5977 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
5980 END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
5983 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
5984 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
5985 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
5990 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
5994 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
5995 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
5996 .nytimes.com</screen>
6000 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6001 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6002 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6003 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6004 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6005 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6006 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
6007 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6008 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6014 ##########################################################################
6016 ##########################################################################
6018 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6019 # blocked further down this file:
6021 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6022 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6026 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6027 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6028 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6029 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6030 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6031 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6032 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6033 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6034 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6035 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6036 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6037 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6042 # Known ad generators:
6047 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6048 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6049 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6055 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6056 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6057 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6058 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6059 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6060 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6061 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6062 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6063 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6066 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6067 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6068 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6069 to keep the example short:
6074 ##########################################################################
6075 # Block these fine banners:
6076 ##########################################################################
6077 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block{Banner ads.}</link> }
6085 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6086 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6088 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6090 .hitbox.com</screen>
6094 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6095 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6096 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6097 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6100 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6101 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6102 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6103 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6104 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6105 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6109 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6110 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6111 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6112 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6113 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6114 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6115 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6116 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6117 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6118 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6123 ##########################################################################
6124 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6125 ##########################################################################
6129 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6130 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6131 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6132 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6133 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6134 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6135 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6143 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6144 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6148 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6149 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6150 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6151 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6152 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6157 # Don't filter code!
6159 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6164 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6168 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6169 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6174 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
6177 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6178 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6179 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6180 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6181 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6182 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6183 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6184 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6185 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6186 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6187 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6188 to install updated versions from time to time.
6192 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6193 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6197 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6201 # My user.action file. <fred@example.com></screen>
6205 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6206 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6207 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6212 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6213 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6217 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6218 # be self explanatory.
6220 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6221 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6222 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6223 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups}
6224 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked as image.} +handle-as-image
6225 -block-as-image = -block
6227 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6228 # certain types of sites:
6230 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer
6231 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6233 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6235 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6237 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6238 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6239 handle-as-text = -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> +-<link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{text/plain}</link> +-<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link></screen>
6244 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6245 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6246 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6247 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6248 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6249 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6254 { allow-all-cookies }
6258 .redhat.com</screen>
6262 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6267 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6268 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6272 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6277 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6278 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6283 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6284 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6286 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6290 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6291 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6292 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6293 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6294 <literal>{ +block{} }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6295 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6296 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6297 in default.action anyway:
6302 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link>{Nasty ads.} }
6303 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
6304 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6308 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6309 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6310 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6311 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6312 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6314 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6315 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6316 browser. Use cautiously.
6325 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6329 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6330 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6331 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6332 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6333 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6334 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6335 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6336 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6337 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6345 .mybank.com</screen>
6349 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6350 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
6351 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6352 update-safe config, once and for all:
6357 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6358 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6362 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6363 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6364 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6365 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6366 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6370 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6371 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6372 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6373 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6385 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6386 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6387 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6388 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6392 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6393 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6394 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6395 it should I choose to.
6405 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6406 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6407 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6408 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6409 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6410 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6416 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6417 / # ALL sites</screen>
6423 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6427 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6429 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6431 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6432 <title>Filter Files</title>
6435 On-the-fly text substitutions need
6436 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6437 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
6441 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
6442 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
6443 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
6444 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
6445 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
6446 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
6447 to rewrite headers that are send by the server.
6451 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
6452 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
6454 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
6455 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the difference
6456 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
6457 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
6458 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
6463 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
6464 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6465 as supplied by the developers are located in
6466 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6467 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6468 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6472 Common tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
6473 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6474 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6475 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6476 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6477 or just to have fun.
6481 Enabled content filters are applied to any content whose
6482 <quote>Content Type</quote> header is recognised as a sign
6483 of text-based content, with the exception of <literal>text/plain</literal>.
6484 Use the <link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> action
6485 to also filter other content.
6489 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6490 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6491 and, of course, regular expressions.
6495 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6496 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6497 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
6498 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
6499 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
6500 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6501 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6502 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6503 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6504 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6505 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6506 user interface</ulink>.
6510 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6511 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6512 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6513 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6517 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
6518 type, the filter name and the filter description.
6519 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6524 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6528 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6529 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6530 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6531 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6532 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6533 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6534 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6535 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6540 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6541 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
6542 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6543 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
6545 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
6546 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6547 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6548 expressions</ulink> in general.
6549 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6553 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6555 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
6557 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
6558 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
6559 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
6564 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
6568 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
6569 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
6570 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
6571 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
6575 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6579 Our complete filter now looks like this:
6582 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
6583 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6587 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
6588 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
6589 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
6595 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
6597 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
6599 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
6603 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
6604 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
6605 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
6606 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
6610 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
6611 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
6612 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
6613 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
6614 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
6618 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
6619 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
6620 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
6621 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
6622 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
6623 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
6624 in the page (and appear in that order).
6628 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
6629 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
6630 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
6631 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
6632 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
6636 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
6637 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
6638 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
6639 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
6640 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
6641 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
6642 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
6643 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
6644 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
6645 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
6646 substitution is global.
6650 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
6651 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
6652 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
6653 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
6654 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
6658 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
6659 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
6660 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
6661 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
6662 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
6663 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
6664 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
6665 Business!"</literal>.
6669 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
6670 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
6671 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
6672 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
6673 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
6674 information anymore.
6678 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
6679 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
6684 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
6686 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
6690 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
6691 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
6692 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
6693 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
6694 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
6695 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
6696 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
6697 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
6698 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
6702 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
6703 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
6704 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
6705 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
6706 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
6707 you move your mouse over links.
6712 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
6714 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
6719 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
6720 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
6721 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
6722 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
6723 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
6724 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
6725 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
6726 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
6727 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
6728 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
6733 The last example is from the fun department:
6738 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
6740 # Spice the daily news:
6742 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
6746 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
6747 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
6748 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
6749 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
6750 still replacing the word everywhere else.
6755 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
6757 s* industry[ -]leading \
6759 | customer[ -]focused \
6760 | market[ -]driven \
6761 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
6762 | high[ -]performance \
6763 | solutions[ -]based \
6767 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
6772 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
6773 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
6781 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6783 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
6787 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
6788 keep these listings in sync.
6793 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
6794 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
6799 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6802 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
6807 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
6808 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
6809 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
6814 removes the bindings to the DOM's
6815 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
6816 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
6817 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
6822 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
6823 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
6829 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
6830 rely heavily on JavaScript.
6836 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
6839 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
6840 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
6841 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
6844 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
6845 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
6852 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6855 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
6858 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
6859 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
6860 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
6861 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
6867 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
6870 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
6872 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
6873 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
6874 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
6875 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
6878 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
6879 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
6880 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
6881 use the cookie crunch actions.
6887 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
6890 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
6891 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
6892 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
6899 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
6902 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
6903 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
6904 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
6905 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
6908 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
6909 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
6910 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
6911 restoring the function afterward.
6914 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
6915 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
6916 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
6922 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
6925 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
6926 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
6927 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
6928 usage. Use with caution.
6934 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
6937 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
6938 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
6939 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
6945 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
6948 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
6949 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
6950 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
6953 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
6954 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
6957 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
6958 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
6964 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
6967 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
6968 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
6969 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
6975 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
6978 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
6979 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
6980 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
6981 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
6982 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
6983 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
6984 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
6987 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
6993 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
6996 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
6997 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
6998 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
6999 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7002 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7008 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7011 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7012 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7013 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7019 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7022 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7023 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7024 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7025 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7026 small to show their whole content.
7029 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7036 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7039 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7040 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7041 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7044 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7045 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7046 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7047 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7048 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7051 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
7052 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7053 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7060 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7063 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7064 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7072 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7075 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7076 prevents saving, is disabled.
7082 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7085 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7086 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7092 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7095 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7096 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7102 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7105 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7106 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7109 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7110 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7116 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7119 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7120 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7123 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7124 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7125 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7126 anything regarding this filter.
7132 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7135 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7136 and the toolbar advertisement.
7142 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7145 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7146 a width limitation as well.
7152 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7155 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7156 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7162 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7165 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7168 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7169 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7170 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7171 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7177 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7180 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7186 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7189 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7195 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7198 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7199 anchor and area HTML tags.
7205 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7208 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7209 found in Host and Referer headers.
7212 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
7213 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
7214 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
7215 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
7218 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
7219 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
7220 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
7221 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
7224 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
7225 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
7226 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
7229 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
7230 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
7231 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
7232 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
7233 the request is coming from.
7240 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7254 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7258 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7260 <sect1 id="templates">
7261 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7263 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7264 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7265 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7266 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7268 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7269 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7270 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7275 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7276 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7278 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7282 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7283 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. It
7284 is possible to edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want
7285 to customize them. (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual
7286 user</emphasis>). Should you create your own custom templates, you should use
7287 the <filename>config</filename> setting <link linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
7288 to specify an alternate location, so your templates do not get overwritten
7292 Note that just like in configuration files, lines starting
7293 with <literal>#</literal> are ignored when the templates are filled in.
7297 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7298 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7299 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7300 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7301 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7305 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7306 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7307 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7308 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7309 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7314 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7316 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7318 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7322 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7323 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7324 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7328 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7332 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7333 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7338 All templates refer to a style located at
7339 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7340 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7341 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7342 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7347 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7351 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7353 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7356 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7358 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7362 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7365 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7366 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7368 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7370 <!-- end copyright -->
7372 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7373 <sect2><title>License</title>
7374 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7376 <!-- end copyright -->
7378 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7381 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7383 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7384 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7386 <!-- end history -->
7389 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7390 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7392 <!-- end authors -->
7397 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7400 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7401 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7402 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7404 <!-- end seealso -->
7409 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7410 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7413 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7415 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7417 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7418 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7419 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7420 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7423 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7425 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7429 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7430 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7431 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7432 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7436 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7437 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7438 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7439 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7440 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7441 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7442 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7443 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7447 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7448 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7449 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7450 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7451 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7452 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7453 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7454 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7458 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7459 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7460 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7461 and then some examples:
7466 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7467 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7469 </simplelist></para>
7473 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7476 </simplelist></para>
7480 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7483 </simplelist></para>
7487 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7490 </simplelist></para>
7494 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7495 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7496 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7497 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7498 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7499 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7501 </simplelist></para>
7505 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7506 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7507 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7508 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7510 </simplelist></para>
7514 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7515 or multiple sub-expressions.
7517 </simplelist></para>
7521 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7522 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7523 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7524 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7525 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7526 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7528 </simplelist></para>
7531 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7532 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7533 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7534 be more illuminating:
7538 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7539 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7540 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7541 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7542 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7543 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7544 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7545 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7546 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7547 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7548 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7549 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7550 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7551 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7556 And now something a little more complex:
7560 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7561 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
7562 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
7563 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
7564 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
7565 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
7566 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
7571 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
7572 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
7573 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
7574 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
7575 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
7576 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
7577 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
7578 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
7579 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
7580 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
7581 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
7582 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
7583 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
7584 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
7585 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
7586 changing our regular expression to:
7587 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
7592 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
7593 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
7594 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
7595 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
7596 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
7597 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
7598 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
7599 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
7600 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
7601 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
7602 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
7603 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
7604 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
7605 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
7606 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
7607 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
7608 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
7609 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
7610 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
7611 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
7612 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
7613 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
7614 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
7615 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
7616 in the expression anywhere).
7620 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
7621 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
7622 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
7623 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
7624 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
7629 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
7630 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
7634 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
7635 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
7640 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7643 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7645 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
7648 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
7649 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
7650 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
7651 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
7652 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
7653 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
7654 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
7660 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
7661 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
7662 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
7663 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
7676 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
7680 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
7681 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
7682 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
7688 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
7689 editing of actions files:
7693 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
7700 Show the source code version numbers:
7704 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
7711 Show the browser's request headers:
7715 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
7722 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
7726 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7733 Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
7734 <filename>config</filename> file. When toggled <quote>off</quote>, <quote>Privoxy</quote>
7735 continues to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking
7740 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
7744 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
7748 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
7753 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
7762 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
7766 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
7767 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
7769 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
7770 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7771 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
7772 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
7773 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
7774 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
7777 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
7778 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
7779 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
7780 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
7781 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
7782 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
7791 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>
7798 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>
7805 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)
7812 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>
7818 <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>
7824 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
7831 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
7832 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
7833 have more information about bookmarklets.
7842 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7844 <title>Chain of Events</title>
7846 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7847 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
7848 page is requested by your browser:
7855 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
7856 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
7857 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
7863 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
7864 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
7869 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
7871 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
7872 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
7873 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
7875 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
7876 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
7877 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
7878 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
7879 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
7880 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
7881 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
7886 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
7887 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
7892 If the URL pattern matches the <link
7893 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
7894 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
7899 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
7900 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
7901 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
7902 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
7908 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
7914 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
7915 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
7916 filtered as determined by the
7917 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
7918 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
7919 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
7925 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
7927 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7928 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
7929 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
7930 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
7931 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
7932 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
7933 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
7934 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
7935 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
7938 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
7940 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7941 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
7942 to the client browser as it becomes available.
7947 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
7948 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
7949 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
7950 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
7951 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
7952 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
7953 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
7954 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
7955 differing set of actions is triggered.
7962 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
7963 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
7964 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
7970 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7971 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
7972 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
7975 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
7976 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
7977 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
7978 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
7979 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
7980 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
7981 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
7982 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
7983 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
7988 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
7989 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
7990 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
7991 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
7992 logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
7993 enabled via <filename>config</filename> file settings, and may need to be
7994 turned <quote>on</quote>.)
7997 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
7998 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
7999 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
8000 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
8001 configuration issue.
8005 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
8006 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8007 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
8008 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
8012 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
8013 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
8014 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
8015 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
8016 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
8017 one of the filter files since this is handled very
8018 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
8019 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
8020 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
8021 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8022 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8023 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8024 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8029 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8030 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8031 configuration may vary):
8036 Matches for http://www.google.com:
8038 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8040 {+change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8041 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8042 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8043 +filter {refresh-tags}
8044 +filter {img-reorder}
8045 +filter {banners-by-size}
8047 +filter {jumping-windows}
8048 +filter {ie-exploits}
8049 +hide-from-header {block}
8050 +hide-referrer {forge}
8051 +session-cookies-only
8052 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8055 { -session-cookies-only }
8061 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8062 (no matches in this file)
8067 This is telling us how we have defined our
8068 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8069 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8070 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8071 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8072 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8073 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8074 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8078 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8079 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8080 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8081 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8082 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8083 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8087 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8088 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8089 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8090 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8091 cookie setting, which was for <link
8092 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8093 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8094 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8095 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8096 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8097 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8098 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8099 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8100 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8101 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8102 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8103 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8104 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8108 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8109 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8110 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8111 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8112 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8113 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8117 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8118 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8119 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8130 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8131 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8132 -content-type-overwrite
8133 -crunch-client-header
8134 -crunch-if-none-match
8135 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8136 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8137 -crunch-server-header
8138 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8139 -downgrade-http-version
8142 -filter {content-cookies}
8143 -filter {all-popups}
8144 -filter {banners-by-link}
8145 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8146 -filter {frameset-borders}
8147 -filter {demoronizer}
8148 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8149 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8151 -filter {crude-parental}
8152 -filter {site-specifics}
8153 -filter {js-annoyances}
8154 -filter {html-annoyances}
8155 +filter {refresh-tags}
8156 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8157 +filter {img-reorder}
8158 +filter {banners-by-size}
8160 +filter {jumping-windows}
8161 +filter {ie-exploits}
8168 -handle-as-empty-document
8170 -hide-accept-language
8171 -hide-content-disposition
8172 +hide-from-header {block}
8173 -hide-if-modified-since
8174 +hide-referrer {forge}
8177 -overwrite-last-modified
8178 -prevent-compression
8180 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8181 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8182 -session-cookies-only
8183 +set-image-blocker {pattern} </screen>
8187 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8188 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8189 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8190 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8194 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8200 { +block{Domains starts with "ad"} }
8203 { +block{Domain contains "ad"} }
8206 { +block{Doubleclick banner server} +handle-as-image }
8207 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8212 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8213 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block{}</quote> sections,
8214 and a <quote>+block{} +handle-as-image</quote>,
8215 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8216 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8217 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8218 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8223 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8224 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8225 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8226 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8227 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8228 is done here -- as both a <link
8229 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block{}</quote></link>
8230 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8231 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8232 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8233 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8237 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8238 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8244 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8246 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8250 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8251 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8252 -content-type-overwrite
8253 -crunch-client-header
8254 -crunch-if-none-match
8255 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8256 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8257 -crunch-server-header
8259 -downgrade-http-version
8260 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8262 -filter {content-cookies}
8263 -filter {all-popups}
8264 -filter {banners-by-link}
8265 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8266 -filter {frameset-borders}
8267 -filter {demoronizer}
8268 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8269 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8271 -filter {crude-parental}
8272 -filter {site-specifics}
8273 -filter {js-annoyances}
8274 -filter {html-annoyances}
8275 +filter {refresh-tags}
8276 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8277 +filter {img-reorder}
8278 +filter {banners-by-size}
8280 +filter {jumping-windows}
8281 +filter {ie-exploits}
8288 -handle-as-empty-document
8290 -hide-accept-language
8291 -hide-content-disposition
8292 +hide-from-header{block}
8293 +hide-referer{forge}
8295 -overwrite-last-modified
8296 +prevent-compression
8298 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8299 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8300 +session-cookies-only
8301 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
8304 { +block{Path contains "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8310 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8311 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8312 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8313 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8314 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8315 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8316 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8317 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8318 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8319 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8320 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8332 Now the page displays ;-)
8333 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8334 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8335 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8339 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8346 { +block{Path starts with "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8352 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8353 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8354 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8355 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8356 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8357 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8358 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8359 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8360 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8368 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8376 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8377 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8378 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8386 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8394 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8395 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8396 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8397 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8398 automatically in the scope of the action.
8402 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8403 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8405 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8406 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8410 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8411 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8412 last resort for problem sites.
8418 # Handle with care: easy to break
8420 mybank.example.com</screen>
8425 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8426 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8427 <quote>.com</quote>). This will effectively match any TLD with
8428 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de.</literal>,
8432 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8433 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8442 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8443 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8444 Public License as published by the Free Software
8445 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8446 your option) any later version.
8448 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8449 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8450 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8451 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8452 License for more details.
8454 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8455 this file. If not, you can view it at
8456 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8457 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8458 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
8461 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8462 Revision 2.89 2008/09/21 15:38:56 fabiankeil
8463 Fix Portage tree sync instructions in Gentoo section.
8464 Anonymously reported at ijbswa-developers@.
8466 Revision 2.88 2008/09/21 14:42:52 fabiankeil
8467 Add documentation for change-x-forwarded-for{},
8468 remove documentation for hide-forwarded-for-headers.
8470 Revision 2.87 2008/08/30 15:37:35 fabiankeil
8473 Revision 2.86 2008/08/16 10:12:23 fabiankeil
8474 Merge two sentences and move the URL to the end of the item.
8476 Revision 2.85 2008/08/16 10:04:59 fabiankeil
8477 Some more syntax fixes. This version actually builds.
8479 Revision 2.84 2008/08/16 09:42:45 fabiankeil
8480 Turns out building docs works better if the syntax is valid.
8482 Revision 2.83 2008/08/16 09:32:02 fabiankeil
8483 Mention changes since 3.0.9 beta.
8485 Revision 2.82 2008/08/16 09:00:52 fabiankeil
8486 Fix example URL pattern (once more with feeling).
8488 Revision 2.81 2008/08/16 08:51:28 fabiankeil
8489 Update version-related entities.
8491 Revision 2.80 2008/07/18 16:54:30 fabiankeil
8492 Remove erroneous whitespace in documentation link.
8493 Reported by John Chronister in #2021611.
8495 Revision 2.79 2008/06/27 18:00:53 markm68k
8496 remove outdated startup information for mac os x
8498 Revision 2.78 2008/06/21 17:03:03 fabiankeil
8501 Revision 2.77 2008/06/14 13:45:22 fabiankeil
8502 Re-add a colon I unintentionally removed a few revisions ago.
8504 Revision 2.76 2008/06/14 13:21:28 fabiankeil
8505 Prepare for the upcoming 3.0.9 beta release.
8507 Revision 2.75 2008/06/13 16:06:48 fabiankeil
8508 Update the "What's New in this Release" section with
8509 the ChangeLog entries changelog2doc.pl could handle.
8511 Revision 2.74 2008/05/26 15:55:46 fabiankeil
8512 - Update "default profiles" table.
8513 - Add some more pcrs redirect examples and note that
8514 enabling debug 128 helps to get redirects working.
8516 Revision 2.73 2008/05/23 14:43:18 fabiankeil
8517 Remove previously out-commented block that caused syntax problems.
8519 Revision 2.72 2008/05/12 10:26:14 fabiankeil
8520 Synchronize content filter descriptions with the ones in default.filter.
8522 Revision 2.71 2008/04/10 17:37:16 fabiankeil
8523 Actually we use "modern" POSIX 1003.2 regular
8524 expressions in path patterns, not PCRE.
8526 Revision 2.70 2008/04/10 15:59:12 fabiankeil
8527 Add another section to the client-header-tagger example that shows
8528 how to actually change the action settings once the tag is created.
8530 Revision 2.69 2008/03/29 12:14:25 fabiankeil
8531 Remove send-wafer and send-vanilla-wafer actions.
8533 Revision 2.68 2008/03/28 15:13:43 fabiankeil
8534 Remove inspect-jpegs action.
8536 Revision 2.67 2008/03/27 18:31:21 fabiankeil
8537 Remove kill-popups action.
8539 Revision 2.66 2008/03/06 16:33:47 fabiankeil
8540 If limit-connect isn't used, don't limit CONNECT requests to port 443.
8542 Revision 2.65 2008/03/04 18:30:40 fabiankeil
8543 Remove the treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks action. We now
8544 use the "blocked" page for forbidden CONNECT requests by default.
8546 Revision 2.64 2008/03/01 14:10:28 fabiankeil
8547 Use new block syntax. Still needs some polishing.
8549 Revision 2.63 2008/02/22 05:50:37 markm68k
8552 Revision 2.62 2008/02/11 11:52:23 hal9
8553 Fix entity ... s/&/&
8555 Revision 2.61 2008/02/11 03:41:47 markm68k
8556 more updates for mac os x
8558 Revision 2.60 2008/02/11 03:40:25 markm68k
8559 more updates for mac os x
8561 Revision 2.59 2008/02/11 00:52:34 markm68k
8562 reflect new changes for mac os x
8564 Revision 2.58 2008/02/03 21:37:40 hal9
8565 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
8567 Revision 2.57 2008/02/03 19:10:14 fabiankeil
8568 Mention forward-socks5.
8570 Revision 2.56 2008/01/31 19:11:35 fabiankeil
8571 Let the +client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} example apply
8572 to all requests as "tainted" Referers aren't limited to exit TLDs.
8574 Revision 2.55 2008/01/19 21:26:37 hal9
8575 Add IE7 to configuration section per Gerry.
8577 Revision 2.54 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
8578 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
8580 Revision 2.53 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
8581 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
8583 Revision 2.52 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
8584 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
8587 Revision 2.51 2007/12/23 16:48:24 fabiankeil
8588 Use more precise example descriptions for the mysterious domain patterns.
8590 Revision 2.50 2007/12/08 12:44:36 fabiankeil
8591 - Remove already commented out pre-3.0.7 changes.
8592 - Update the "new log defaults" paragraph.
8594 Revision 2.49 2007/12/06 18:21:55 fabiankeil
8595 Update hide-forwarded-for-headers description.
8597 Revision 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil
8598 - Mention request rewriting.
8599 - Enable the conditional-forge paragraph.
8602 Revision 2.47 2007/11/18 14:59:47 fabiankeil
8603 A few "Note to Upgraders" updates.
8605 Revision 2.46 2007/11/17 17:24:44 fabiankeil
8606 - Use new action defaults.
8607 - Minor fixes and rewordings.
8609 Revision 2.45 2007/11/16 11:48:46 hal9
8610 Fix one typo, and add a couple of small refinements.
8612 Revision 2.44 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
8613 Results of spell check.
8615 Revision 2.43 2007/11/14 18:45:39 fabiankeil
8616 - Mention some more contributors in the "New in this Release" list.
8619 Revision 2.42 2007/11/12 03:32:40 hal9
8620 Updates for "What's New" and "Notes to Upgraders". Various other changes in
8621 preparation for new release. User Manual is almost ready.
8623 Revision 2.41 2007/11/11 16:32:11 hal9
8624 This is primarily syncing What's New and Note to Upgraders sections with the many
8625 new features and changes (gleaned from memory but mostly from ChangeLog).
8627 Revision 2.40 2007/11/10 17:10:59 fabiankeil
8628 In the first third of the file, mention several times that
8629 the action editor is disabled by default in 3.0.7 beta and later.
8631 Revision 2.39 2007/11/05 02:34:49 hal9
8632 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
8634 Revision 2.38 2007/09/22 16:01:42 fabiankeil
8635 Update embedded show-url-info output.
8637 Revision 2.37 2007/08/27 16:09:55 fabiankeil
8638 Fix pre-chroot-nslookup description which I failed to
8639 copy and paste properly. Reported by Stephen Gildea.
8641 Revision 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil
8642 Add Stephen Gildea's pre-chroot-nslookup patch [#1276666],
8643 extensive comments moved to user manual.
8645 Revision 2.35 2007/08/26 14:59:49 fabiankeil
8646 Minor rewordings and fixes.
8648 Revision 2.34 2007/08/05 15:19:50 fabiankeil
8649 - Don't claim HTTP/1.1 compliance.
8650 - Use $ in some of the path pattern examples.
8651 - Use a hide-user-agent example argument without
8652 leading and trailing space.
8653 - Make it clear that the cookie actions work with
8655 - Rephrase the inspect-jpegs text to underline
8656 that it's only meant to protect against a single
8659 Revision 2.33 2007/07/27 10:57:35 hal9
8660 Add references for user-agent strings for hide-user-agenet
8662 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
8663 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
8664 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
8666 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
8667 Start to document forward-override{}.
8669 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
8670 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
8671 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
8672 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
8674 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
8675 Some updates regarding header filtering,
8676 handling of compressed content and redirect's
8677 support for pcrs commands.
8679 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
8680 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
8682 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
8683 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
8686 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
8689 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
8690 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
8691 compression to make filters work on all sites.
8693 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
8694 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
8696 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
8697 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
8700 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
8701 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
8702 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
8704 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
8705 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
8707 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
8708 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
8711 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
8712 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
8713 to reflect the recent changes.
8715 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
8717 -Fix a number of broken links.
8718 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
8720 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
8723 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
8724 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
8726 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
8727 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
8729 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
8730 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
8731 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
8732 and proof reading left to do.
8734 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
8735 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
8736 files, and assorted other minor changes.
8738 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
8739 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
8740 stubbed in. More to be done.
8742 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
8743 Documented new actions that were part of
8744 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
8746 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
8747 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
8748 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
8750 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
8753 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
8754 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
8756 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
8759 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
8760 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
8761 is dependent on browser.
8763 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
8764 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
8766 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
8767 Some minor clarifications
8769 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
8770 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
8771 and copyright notice dates.
8773 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
8774 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
8776 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
8777 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
8779 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
8780 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
8782 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
8783 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
8784 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
8786 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
8787 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
8790 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
8791 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
8793 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
8794 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
8796 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
8797 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
8799 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
8800 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
8801 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
8804 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
8805 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
8807 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
8808 Added documentation for new chroot option
8810 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
8811 Adapted to the new filters
8813 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
8814 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
8817 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
8818 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
8820 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
8821 Add demoronizer to filter section.
8823 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
8824 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
8826 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
8827 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
8828 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
8830 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
8831 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
8833 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
8834 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
8837 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
8838 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
8840 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
8841 Update to Mac OS X startup script name
8843 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
8844 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
8846 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
8847 Nits re: actions file download
8849 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
8850 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
8852 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
8853 Added 2 Gentoo sections
8855 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
8856 - Added version info to title
8857 - Added info on new filters
8858 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
8859 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
8861 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
8862 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
8864 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
8866 Updated Mac OS X sections due to installation location change
8868 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
8869 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
8871 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
8872 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
8874 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
8875 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
8877 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
8878 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
8879 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
8880 so that these are in sync with each other.
8882 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
8883 Ooops missed something from David.
8885 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
8886 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and Mac OS X startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
8887 That's a wrap, I think.
8889 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
8890 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
8892 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
8893 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
8895 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
8896 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
8897 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
8899 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
8900 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
8902 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
8903 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
8904 <literal><link> style.
8905 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
8906 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
8907 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
8908 renders them red (bad in TOC).
8910 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
8911 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
8913 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
8916 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
8917 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
8918 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
8920 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
8921 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
8922 - Small changes to Regex appendix
8923 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
8925 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
8926 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
8928 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
8929 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
8931 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
8932 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
8934 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
8935 Extended and further commented the example actions files
8937 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
8938 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
8941 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
8944 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
8945 Restored alphabetical order of actions
8947 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
8948 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
8950 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
8951 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
8953 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
8954 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
8955 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
8957 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
8958 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
8959 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
8960 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
8962 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
8963 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
8965 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
8968 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
8969 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
8970 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
8972 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
8973 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
8975 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
8976 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
8977 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
8979 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
8980 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
8982 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
8983 more structure in starting section
8985 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
8986 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
8987 will probably break links elsewhere :(
8989 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
8990 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
8991 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
8993 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
8994 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
8995 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
8997 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
8998 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
9000 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
9001 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
9002 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
9004 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
9005 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
9006 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
9008 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
9009 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
9011 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
9012 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
9014 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
9015 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
9017 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
9018 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
9020 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
9021 Updated Mac OS X installation section
9022 Added a few English tweaks here an there
9024 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
9025 Re-write actions section.
9027 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
9028 Fix ugly typo (mine).
9030 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
9031 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
9033 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
9034 Added RPM install detail
9036 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
9039 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
9040 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
9042 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
9043 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
9045 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
9046 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
9048 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
9051 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
9052 Proofreading, part one
9054 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
9055 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
9056 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
9058 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
9059 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
9061 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
9062 Add small section on submitting actions.
9064 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
9067 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
9068 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
9070 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
9071 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
9073 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
9076 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
9077 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
9078 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
9079 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
9080 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
9082 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
9083 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
9085 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
9086 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
9088 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
9089 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
9090 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
9091 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
9092 eventually be set by Makefile.
9093 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
9095 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
9096 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
9098 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
9099 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
9101 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
9102 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
9104 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
9105 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
9106 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
9107 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
9109 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
9112 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
9113 Added more to Anatomy section.
9115 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
9116 Touch up intro for new name.
9118 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
9119 we have a new homepage!
9121 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
9122 A few minor catch ups with name change.
9124 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
9125 configure needs to be generated.
9127 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
9128 we are too lazy to make a block-built
9129 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
9131 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
9132 name change related issue.
9134 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
9135 name change. changed filenames.
9137 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
9140 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
9141 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
9142 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
9143 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
9144 comments and remarks to history untouched.
9146 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
9149 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
9150 New section in Appendix.
9152 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
9153 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
9155 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
9156 correct feedback channels
9158 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
9159 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
9161 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
9164 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
9165 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
9167 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
9168 Added imageblock{pattern}.
9170 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
9173 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
9174 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
9176 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
9177 provide correct feedback channels
9179 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
9180 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
9182 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
9183 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
9185 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
9186 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
9188 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
9189 Add new - - user option.
9191 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
9192 Added section on command line options.
9194 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
9195 Changed default port to 8118
9197 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
9198 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
9200 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
9201 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
9202 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
9205 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
9208 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
9209 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
9211 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
9212 Update OS/2 build section
9214 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
9215 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
9216 will work - no other changes are needed.
9218 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
9219 Added a very short section on Templates
9221 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
9222 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
9224 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
9225 Touch ups for *.action files.
9227 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
9230 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
9231 Updates for recent changes.
9233 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
9234 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
9236 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
9237 Correct 2 minor errors
9239 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
9240 *** empty log message ***
9242 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
9243 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
9245 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
9246 wrong url in documentation
9248 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
9249 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
9251 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
9254 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
9257 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
9260 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
9261 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
9263 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
9264 Some additions, and re-arranging.
9266 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
9269 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
9270 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
9272 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
9275 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
9276 source files for junkbuster documentation
9278 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
9279 first proposal of a structure.
9281 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
9282 docs should have an author.
9284 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
9285 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.