1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
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9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
12 <!entity p-authors SYSTEM "p-authors.sgml">
13 <!entity config SYSTEM "p-config.sgml">
14 <!entity p-version "2.9.18">
15 <!entity p-status "beta">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
29 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
32 This file belongs into
33 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
35 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes Exp $
37 Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
40 ========================================================================
41 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
42 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
43 ========================================================================
50 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
54 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
55 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
56 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
57 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
61 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes Exp $</pubdate>
65 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
66 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
67 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
68 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
75 <holder>Privoxy Developers</holder>
78 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
80 text goes here ........
92 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
93 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
94 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
100 The <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
101 install, configure and use <ulink
102 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
105 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
107 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
110 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
111 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
112 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
113 contact the developers.
117 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
123 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
124 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
126 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
127 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
128 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
129 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
130 configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
131 completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over
132 earlier versions. The target release date for
133 stable v3.0 is <quote>soon</quote> ;-)]]>.
136 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
139 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
140 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
141 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
146 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
147 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
149 In addition to <application>Internet Junkbuster's</application> traditional
150 features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
151 <application>Privoxy</application> provides new features<![%p-not-stable;[,
152 some of them currently under development]]>:
154 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
156 <!-- end boilerplate -->
161 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
164 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
165 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
168 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
169 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
170 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
171 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
176 Note: If you have a previous <application>Junkbuster</application> or
177 <application>Privoxy</application> installation on your system, you
178 will need to remove it. On some platforms, this may be done for you as part
179 of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform). In any case
180 <emphasis>be sure to backup your old configuration if it is valuable to
181 you.</emphasis> See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">note to
182 upgraders</link> section below.
185 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
186 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
188 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
191 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
192 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs</title>
195 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
196 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
197 of configuration files.
201 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
202 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
203 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
204 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods. Note that SuSE will
205 automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
209 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
210 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
211 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
215 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
216 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
217 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
218 automatically, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
222 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
223 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
225 DEBs can be installed with <literal>dpkg -i
226 privoxy_&p-version;-1.deb</literal>, and will use
227 <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of configuration
232 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
233 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
236 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
237 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
238 in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in. We do not
239 use the registry of Windows.
243 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
244 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
247 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
248 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
249 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
253 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
254 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
257 First, make sure that no previous installations of
258 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
259 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
260 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
261 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
267 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
268 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
269 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
270 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
274 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
275 into will contain all of the configuration files.
279 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
280 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OSX</title>
282 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
283 from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
284 Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
285 <literal>Privoxy.pkg</literal>
286 and follow the installation process.
287 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the folder
288 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal>.
289 It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
290 starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
291 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
294 To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
295 <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> in the
296 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder.
297 Or, type this command in the Terminal:
301 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
305 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
309 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
310 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
312 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
313 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
314 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
315 remove this directory.
319 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
320 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
322 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
323 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
324 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
325 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
328 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
329 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
330 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
334 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
335 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
336 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
342 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
343 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
346 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
347 is to download the source tarball from our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project
352 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
353 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
354 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
355 CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
356 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
360 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
362 <!-- end boilerplate -->
365 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
366 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
368 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
369 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
370 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
371 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
376 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
377 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
378 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
379 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
383 In order not to loose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
384 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
385 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> for your
386 customization of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
387 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
395 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
397 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
398 <sect1 id="upgradersnote">
399 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
401 There are very significant changes from earlier
402 <application>Junkbuster</application> versions to the current
403 <application>Privoxy</application>. The number, names, syntax, and
404 purposes of configuration files have substantially changed.
405 <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> configuration
406 files will not migrate, <application>Junkbuster 2.9.x</application>
407 and <application>Privoxy</application> configurations will need to be
408 ported. The functionalities of the old <filename>blockfile</filename>,
409 <filename>cookiefile</filename> and <filename>imagelist</filename>
410 are now combined into the <link linkend="actions-file"><quote>actions
411 files</quote></link>.
412 <filename>default.action</filename>, is the main actions file. Local
413 exceptions should best be put into <filename>user.action</filename>.
416 A <link linkend="filter-file"><quote>filter file</quote></link> (typically
417 <filename>default.filter</filename>) is new as of <application>Privoxy
418 2.9.x</application>, and provides some of the new sophistication (explained
419 below). <filename>config</filename> is much the same as before.
422 If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
423 files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
424 When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
425 to the new actions files, please note that even the pattern syntax has
426 changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
427 recommended to use the new configuration files.
430 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
438 The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
444 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
445 important configuration files!
450 <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
451 at the special URL: <ulink
452 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
453 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
454 aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
455 <application>Privoxy</application>.
460 The primary configuration files for cookie management, ad and banner
461 blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
462 configuration are the <link linkend="actions-file">actions
463 files</link>. It is strongly recommended to become familiar with the new
464 actions concept below, before modifying these files. Locally defined rules
465 should go into <filename>user.action</filename>.
470 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
471 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
472 Some installers may not automatically start
473 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
481 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
482 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
488 If upgrading, from versions before 2.9.16, please back up any configuration
489 files. See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">Note to Upgraders</link> Section.
495 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
496 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
503 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
504 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
505 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
506 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
513 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
514 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
515 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
521 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
522 HTTPS proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
523 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
524 (<application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions of
525 <application>Privoxy</application> used port 8000.) See the section <link
526 linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link> below
527 for more details on this.
533 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
539 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
540 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
541 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
542 to no initial configuration is required in most cases.
545 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
546 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
547 <![%draft;[ You might also want to look at the <link
548 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
549 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
556 If you experience ads that slipped through, innocent images that are
557 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
558 <application>Privoxy's</application> behaviour, take a look at the <link
559 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
560 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
561 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
562 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
563 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Anatomy of an
564 Action</link></quote> has hints how to debug actions that
565 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
571 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
572 Developers</link> on how to report bugs or problems with websites or to get
579 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy!
587 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
589 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
590 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
592 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
593 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
596 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
597 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
598 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
601 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
602 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
603 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
606 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
607 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
608 things that were not intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
609 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
610 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
611 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
612 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
613 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
614 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
615 habits and preferences.
618 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
619 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
620 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
621 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
622 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
623 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
624 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
625 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
626 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
627 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
630 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
631 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
632 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
633 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
634 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
637 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
638 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
639 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
640 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
641 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
642 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
643 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
644 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
645 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
650 The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: <literal><link
651 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
652 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>, and
653 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
661 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this action stops
662 any contact between your browser and any URL patterns that match this
663 action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads, but also anything
664 that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply stops any
665 communication with the remote server and sends <application>Privoxy</application>'s
666 own built-in BLOCKED page instead to let you now what has happened.
672 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
673 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
674 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
675 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
676 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
677 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
678 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
679 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
680 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
681 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
682 an entire HTML page in most situations.
689 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
690 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
691 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
692 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
693 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
694 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
697 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
701 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
702 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
707 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
708 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
713 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
714 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
723 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
724 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
725 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
726 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
727 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access. Select the
728 appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
729 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
730 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
731 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
732 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
733 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
734 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
738 A quick and simple step by step example:
746 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
747 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
755 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
760 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
761 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
764 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
766 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
769 <imagedata fileref="../images/files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
772 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
781 You should have a section with only
782 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
783 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
784 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
785 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
786 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
787 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
788 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
789 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
795 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
796 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
797 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
798 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
799 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
800 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
805 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
806 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
814 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
815 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
816 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
817 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
822 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
823 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
824 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
831 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
834 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
836 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
838 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
839 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
840 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is
841 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
842 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
845 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
846 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
849 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
851 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration (Mozilla)</title>
854 <imagedata fileref="../images/proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
857 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
864 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
865 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
869 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
870 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
871 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton>
873 <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton>
875 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton>
877 <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton>
879 <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
883 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>:
887 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
888 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
889 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton>
891 <guibutton>Internet Properties</guibutton>
893 <guibutton>Connections</guibutton>
895 <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
899 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
900 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
905 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
906 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
907 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
908 <application>Privoxy</application>!
912 <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
913 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
914 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
915 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
916 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
919 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
920 <title>Red Hat and Conectiva</title>
922 We use a script. Note that Red Hat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
923 default. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as
924 its main configuration file.
928 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
933 <sect2 id="start-debian">
934 <title>Debian</title>
936 We use a script. Note that Debian starts Privoxy upon booting per
937 default. It will use the file
938 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
943 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
948 <sect2 id="start-suse">
951 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
952 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
962 <sect2 id="start-windows">
963 <title>Windows</title>
965 Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy. If no configuration file is
966 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
967 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
968 automatically start Privoxy upon booting you PC.
972 <sect2 id="start-unices">
973 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
975 Example Unix startup command:
979 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
984 <sect2 id="start-os2">
987 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
988 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
989 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
990 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
994 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
995 <title>Mac OSX</title>
997 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
998 start automatically when the system restarts. To start Privoxy by hand,
999 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
1000 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1005 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1009 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1014 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1015 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1017 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1018 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1019 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1020 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1021 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1022 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1023 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1027 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1028 <title>Gentoo</title>
1030 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1031 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1035 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1039 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1040 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1045 rc-update add privoxy default
1053 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1057 must find a better place for this paragraph
1060 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1061 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1062 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1063 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1064 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1065 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1069 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1070 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1071 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1072 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1073 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1074 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1075 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1076 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1077 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1081 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1082 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
1083 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
1085 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
1086 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1087 popups (explained below).
1091 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
1092 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
1093 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1094 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1095 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1096 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1097 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1098 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1099 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1103 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1104 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1105 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1106 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1107 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1108 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1109 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1110 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1111 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1115 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1116 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1117 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1118 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1119 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1120 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1121 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1125 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1126 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1127 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1128 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1129 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1130 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1135 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1136 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1137 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1142 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1143 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1144 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1145 Developers</quote></link> below.
1150 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1151 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1152 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1154 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1155 command-line options:
1163 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1166 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1171 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1174 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1179 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1182 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1183 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1188 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1192 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1193 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1194 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1195 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1200 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1204 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1205 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1206 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1211 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1214 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1215 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1216 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1217 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1218 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1219 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1230 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1233 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1234 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
1236 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1237 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1238 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1239 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1243 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1246 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
1248 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1249 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1250 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1251 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1252 You will see the following section:
1256 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1259 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1263 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1266 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1269 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1272 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1275 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1283 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1284 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1285 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1286 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1287 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1288 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1292 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1293 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1294 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1295 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1296 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1297 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1298 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1299 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1305 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1310 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1312 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1313 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1315 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1316 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1317 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1318 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1319 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1320 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1324 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1325 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1326 principle configuration files are:
1334 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1335 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1336 on Windows. This is a required file.
1342 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1343 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1344 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1345 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1346 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1347 as many websites as possible.
1350 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1351 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1352 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1353 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1354 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1355 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1356 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is for
1357 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1360 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1362 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1364 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1365 various actions files.
1371 <filename>default.filter</filename> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1372 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1373 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1374 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1375 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1383 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1384 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1385 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1386 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1387 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1388 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1393 The actions files and <filename>default.filter</filename>
1394 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1395 maximum flexibility.
1399 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1400 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1401 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1402 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1403 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1404 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1405 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1410 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1411 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1412 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1413 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1419 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1422 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1424 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1425 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1426 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1428 <!-- end include -->
1431 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1435 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1437 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1440 The actions files are used to define what actions
1441 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determine
1442 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1443 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
1444 are three such files included with <application>Privoxy</application> (as of
1445 version 2.9.15), with differing purposes:
1452 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1453 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1454 provide a base level of functionality for
1455 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1456 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well for users everywhere.
1457 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1458 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1463 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1464 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1465 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1466 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1471 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor,
1472 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1473 in <filename>default.action</filename>. These have increasing levels of
1474 aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no influence on your browsing unless
1475 you select them explicitly in the editor</emphasis>. It is not recommend
1483 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
1484 file, and are processed in the order they are defined. The content of these
1485 can all be viewed and edited from <ulink
1486 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1490 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
1491 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
1492 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
1493 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
1494 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
1495 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
1496 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
1497 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
1498 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
1499 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
1500 with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
1501 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
1505 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
1506 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
1507 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
1508 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
1509 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
1513 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1515 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
1517 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
1518 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
1519 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
1520 certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
1521 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
1522 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
1523 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per
1524 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
1525 regularly use and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe
1526 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
1530 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
1531 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
1532 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
1533 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
1537 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1539 <title>How to Edit</title>
1541 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
1542 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
1543 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1544 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
1545 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
1546 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Advanced</quote>.
1550 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
1551 the actions files. Look at <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly
1557 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
1558 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
1560 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
1561 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
1562 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
1563 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
1564 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
1565 Below that, there is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
1569 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
1570 compared to all patterns in each action file file. Every time it matches, the list of
1571 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
1572 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
1573 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
1574 the effects are aggregated. E.g. a URL might match a regular section with
1575 a heading line of <literal>{
1576 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
1577 then later another one with just <literal>{
1578 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
1579 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply.
1583 You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
1584 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
1588 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
1589 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
1593 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1594 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
1595 <title>Patterns</title>
1597 Generally, a pattern has the form <literal><domain>/<path></literal>,
1598 where both the <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal>
1599 are optional. (This is why the pattern <literal>/</literal> matches all URLs).
1604 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
1607 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
1608 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
1613 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
1616 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
1622 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
1625 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
1626 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
1631 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
1634 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
1635 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
1640 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
1643 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
1644 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
1651 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1652 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
1655 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
1656 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
1662 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
1665 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
1666 <literal>.example.com</literal>
1671 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
1674 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
1675 <literal>www.</literal>
1680 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
1683 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
1684 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
1691 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
1692 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
1693 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
1694 any single character, you can define character classes in square
1695 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
1700 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
1703 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
1704 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
1709 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
1712 matches all of the above, and then some.
1717 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
1720 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
1721 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
1726 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
1729 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
1730 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
1731 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
1732 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
1740 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1743 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1744 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
1747 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
1748 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
1753 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
1754 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
1755 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
1756 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
1757 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
1758 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
1762 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
1763 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
1764 for the beginning of a line).
1768 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
1769 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
1770 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
1771 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
1772 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
1778 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1781 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1783 <sect2 id="actions">
1784 <title>Actions</title>
1786 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
1787 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
1788 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
1789 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
1790 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
1791 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
1792 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
1793 previously applied.</quote>
1798 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
1799 separated by whitespace, like in
1800 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
1801 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
1802 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
1803 of the actions file.
1807 There are three classes of actions:
1814 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
1815 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
1819 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
1820 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
1823 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
1830 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
1835 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
1836 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
1837 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
1840 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
1841 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
1844 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</literal>
1850 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
1851 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
1852 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
1853 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
1854 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
1855 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
1859 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
1860 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
1861 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
1862 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
1865 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
1866 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
1874 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
1875 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
1876 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
1877 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
1878 files will give a good starting point).
1882 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
1883 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
1884 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files). For
1885 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
1886 Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in
1887 <filename>config</filename> (the default installation has three actions
1888 files). It also quite possible for any given URL pattern to match more than
1889 one pattern and thus more than one set of actions!
1892 <!-- start actions listing -->
1894 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
1898 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
1899 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
1900 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
1902 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
1905 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1907 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
1908 <title>add-header</title>
1912 <term>Typical use:</term>
1914 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
1919 <term>Effect:</term>
1922 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
1929 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
1931 <para>Multi-value.</para>
1936 <term>Parameter:</term>
1939 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
1940 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
1950 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
1951 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
1952 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
1959 <term>Example usage:</term>
1962 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
1970 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1971 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
1972 <title>block</title>
1976 <term>Typical use:</term>
1978 <para>Block ads or other obnoxious content</para>
1983 <term>Effect:</term>
1986 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the requests are not
1987 forwarded to the remote server, but answered locally with a substitute page or image,
1988 as determined by the <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>
1989 and <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> actions.
1996 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
1998 <para>Boolean.</para>
2003 <term>Parameter:</term>
2013 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2014 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
2015 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
2016 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2017 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2018 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2019 right now, you can take a look at the
2020 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2024 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2025 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2026 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2027 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2028 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2029 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2032 It is important to understand this process, in order
2033 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2034 ads and other unwanted content.
2037 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2038 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2039 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2040 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2041 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2047 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2050 <screen>{+block} # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2051 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2053 {+block +handle-as-image} # Block and replace with image
2064 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2065 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
2066 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
2070 <term>Typical use:</term>
2073 Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
2079 <term>Effect:</term>
2082 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
2089 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2091 <para>Boolean.</para>
2096 <term>Parameter:</term>
2108 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
2109 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
2110 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
2111 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2114 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2115 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2116 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set.
2122 <term>Example usage:</term>
2125 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
2133 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2134 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
2135 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
2139 <term>Typical use:</term>
2142 Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
2148 <term>Effect:</term>
2151 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
2158 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2160 <para>Boolean.</para>
2165 <term>Parameter:</term>
2177 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
2178 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
2179 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
2180 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2183 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2184 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2185 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
2191 <term>Example usage:</term>
2194 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
2203 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2204 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
2205 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
2209 <term>Typical use:</term>
2211 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
2216 <term>Effect:</term>
2219 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
2226 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2228 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2233 <term>Parameter:</term>
2236 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
2245 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
2246 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
2247 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
2248 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
2249 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
2250 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
2253 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
2254 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
2261 <term>Example usage:</term>
2264 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
2271 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2272 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
2273 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
2277 <term>Typical use:</term>
2279 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
2284 <term>Effect:</term>
2287 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
2294 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2296 <para>Boolean.</para>
2301 <term>Parameter:</term>
2313 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
2314 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
2315 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
2316 out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
2317 is a chance you might need this action.
2323 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2326 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
2327 problem-host.example.com</screen>
2335 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2336 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
2337 <title>fast-redirects</title>
2341 <term>Typical use:</term>
2343 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links</para>
2348 <term>Effect:</term>
2351 Cut off all but the last valid URL from requests.
2358 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2360 <para>Boolean.</para>
2365 <term>Parameter:</term>
2377 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
2378 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
2379 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
2380 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
2381 <emphasis>http://some.place/click-tracker.cgi?target=http://some.where.else</emphasis>.
2384 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
2385 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
2386 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
2387 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
2388 browser ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
2392 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
2393 It is likely to break some sites. You should expect to need possibly
2394 many exceptions to this action, if it is enabled by default in
2395 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some sites just don't work without
2402 <term>Example usage:</term>
2405 <screen>{+fast-redirects}</screen>
2414 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2415 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
2416 <title>filter</title>
2420 <term>Typical use:</term>
2422 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), do fun text replacements, etc.</para>
2427 <term>Effect:</term>
2430 Text documents, including HTML and JavaScript, to which this action
2431 applies, are filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular expression
2432 based substitutions.
2439 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2441 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2446 <term>Parameter:</term>
2449 The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>
2450 (typically <filename>default.filter</filename>, set by the
2451 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
2452 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>). Filtering
2453 can be completely disabled without the use of parameters.
2462 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
2463 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
2467 This is potentially a very powerful feature! But <quote>rolling your own</quote>
2468 filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
2471 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
2472 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
2473 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
2474 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
2475 noticeable on slower connections.
2478 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
2479 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
2480 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
2481 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
2482 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered. Inappropriate
2483 MIME types are not filtered.
2486 At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
2487 documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
2488 would normally be sent compressed, use the
2489 <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
2490 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
2493 Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
2494 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
2495 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
2496 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
2497 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
2501 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
2502 improved filters is particularly welcome!
2508 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file):</term>
2511 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
2512 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
2515 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
2516 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
2519 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
2520 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners based on their size for this page (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)</screen>
2523 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
2524 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners based on the link they are contained in (experimental)</screen>
2527 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
2528 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
2531 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
2532 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come sneaking in the HTML or JS content</screen>
2535 <anchor id="filter-popups">
2536 <screen>+filter{popups} # Kill all popups in JS and HTML</screen>
2539 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
2540 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
2543 <anchor id="filter-fun">
2544 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
2547 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
2548 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
2551 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
2552 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
2555 <anchor id="filter-nimda">
2556 <screen>+filter{nimda} # Remove Nimda (virus) code.</screen>
2559 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
2560 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
2563 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
2564 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"</screen>
2567 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
2568 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (<emphasis>Radically destructive!</emphasis> Only for extra nasty sites) </screen>
2576 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2577 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
2578 <title>handle-as-image</title>
2582 <term>Typical use:</term>
2584 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis>)</para>
2589 <term>Effect:</term>
2592 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
2593 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
2594 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
2595 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
2596 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
2597 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
2604 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2606 <para>Boolean.</para>
2611 <term>Parameter:</term>
2623 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
2624 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
2628 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
2629 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
2630 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
2633 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
2634 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
2635 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
2636 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
2642 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
2645 <screen># Generic image extensions:
2648 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
2650 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
2651 # blocked as images:
2653 {+block +handle-as-image}
2654 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
2656 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
2666 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2667 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
2668 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
2672 <term>Typical use:</term>
2674 <para>Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request</para>
2679 <term>Effect:</term>
2682 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
2683 and prevents adding a new one.
2690 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2692 <para>Boolean.</para>
2697 <term>Parameter:</term>
2709 It is fairly safe to leave this on.
2712 This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate forged
2713 <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> headers using random IP addresses from a specified network,
2714 to make successive requests from the same client look like requests from a pool of different
2715 users sharing the same proxy.
2721 <term>Example usage:</term>
2724 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
2732 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2733 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
2734 <title>hide-from-header</title>
2738 <term>Typical use:</term>
2740 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
2745 <term>Effect:</term>
2748 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
2756 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2758 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2763 <term>Parameter:</term>
2766 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
2775 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
2776 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
2780 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
2781 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
2782 is actually used by a real person.
2785 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
2786 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
2792 <term>Example usage:</term>
2795 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
2796 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
2804 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2805 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
2806 <title>hide-referrer</title>
2807 <anchor id="hide-referer">
2810 <term>Typical use:</term>
2812 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
2817 <term>Effect:</term>
2820 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
2821 or replaces it with a forged one.
2828 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2830 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2835 <term>Parameter:</term>
2839 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header completely.</para>
2842 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
2845 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
2855 <quote>forge</quote> is the preferred option here, since some servers will
2856 not send images back otherwise, in an attempt to prevent their valuable
2857 content from being embedded elsewhere (and hence, without being surrounded
2858 by <emphasis>their</emphasis> banners).
2861 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
2862 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
2863 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
2864 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
2865 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
2871 <term>Example usage:</term>
2874 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
2875 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
2883 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2884 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
2885 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
2889 <term>Typical use:</term>
2891 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
2896 <term>Effect:</term>
2899 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
2900 in client requests with the specified value.
2907 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2909 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2914 <term>Parameter:</term>
2917 Any user-defined string.
2927 This breaks many web sites that depend on looking at this header in order
2928 to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
2929 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> a <ulink
2930 url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
2935 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
2936 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
2937 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
2938 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
2939 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
2940 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
2941 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
2942 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
2943 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
2944 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
2945 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
2948 This action is scheduled for improvement.
2954 <term>Example usage:</term>
2957 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
2965 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2966 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
2967 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
2971 <term>Typical use:</term>
2973 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows</para>
2978 <term>Effect:</term>
2981 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
2982 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
2989 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2991 <para>Boolean.</para>
2996 <term>Parameter:</term>
3008 This action is easily confused with the built-in, hardwired <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
3009 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
3010 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
3011 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
3013 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>popups</replaceable>}</literal>
3017 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
3018 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
3019 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
3020 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
3021 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
3022 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
3025 Killing all pop-ups is a dangerous business. Many shops and banks rely on
3026 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and killing only the unwanted pop-ups
3027 would require artificial intelligence in <application>Privoxy</application>.
3028 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
3029 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
3030 one), you might want to use
3032 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
3038 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
3046 <term>Example usage:</term>
3048 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
3055 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3056 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
3057 <title>limit-connect</title>
3061 <term>Typical use:</term>
3063 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay</para>
3068 <term>Effect:</term>
3071 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
3078 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3080 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3085 <term>Parameter:</term>
3088 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
3089 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
3098 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
3099 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
3100 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
3101 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
3102 for some or all destinations.
3105 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
3106 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
3107 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
3108 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
3109 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
3110 abused as TCP relays very easily.
3113 If you don't know what any of this means, there probably is no reason to
3114 change this one, since the default is already very restrictive.
3120 <term>Example usages:</term>
3122 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
3123 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
3124 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
3126 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
3127 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
3128 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
3129 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK (gaping security hole!)</screen>
3136 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3137 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
3138 <title>prevent-compression</title>
3142 <term>Typical use:</term>
3145 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
3146 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s
3152 <term>Effect:</term>
3155 Adds a header to the request that asks for uncompressed transfer.
3162 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3164 <para>Boolean.</para>
3169 <term>Parameter:</term>
3181 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
3182 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the <literal><link
3183 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
3184 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions to work,
3185 <application>Privoxy</application> needs access to the uncompressed data.
3186 Unfortunately, <application>Privoxy</application> can't yet(!) uncompress, filter, and
3187 re-compress the content on the fly. So if you want to ensure that all websites, including
3188 those that normally compress, can be filtered, you need to use this action.
3191 This will slow down transfers from those websites, though. If you use any of the above-mentioned
3192 actions, you will typically want to use <literal>prevent-compression</literal> in conjunction
3196 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
3197 documents correctly (they send an empty document body). If you use <literal>prevent-compression</literal>
3198 per default, you'll have to add exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
3204 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3207 <screen># Set default:
3209 {+prevent-compression}
3212 # Make exceptions for ill sites:
3214 {-prevent-compression}
3216 www.pclinuxonline.com</screen>
3225 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3226 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
3227 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
3231 <term>Typical use:</term>
3234 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
3240 <term>Effect:</term>
3243 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
3244 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
3251 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3253 <para>Boolean.</para>
3258 <term>Parameter:</term>
3270 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
3273 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
3279 <term>Example usage:</term>
3282 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
3291 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3292 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
3293 <title>send-wafer</title>
3297 <term>Typical use:</term>
3300 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
3306 <term>Effect:</term>
3309 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
3316 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3318 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3323 <term>Parameter:</term>
3326 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
3327 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
3336 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
3337 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
3340 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
3345 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3348 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
3349 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
3357 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3358 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
3359 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
3363 <term>Typical use:</term>
3366 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
3372 <term>Effect:</term>
3375 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> server headers.
3376 Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and forget them in between sessions.
3383 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3385 <para>Boolean.</para>
3390 <term>Parameter:</term>
3402 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
3403 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
3404 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
3407 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
3408 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
3409 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
3410 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
3411 sites, and is the recommended setting.
3414 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
3415 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
3416 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
3417 will be plainly killed.
3420 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
3421 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
3427 <term>Example usage:</term>
3430 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
3438 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3439 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
3440 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
3444 <term>Typical use:</term>
3446 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
3451 <term>Effect:</term>
3454 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
3455 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
3456 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
3457 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
3458 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
3459 sent as a replacement.
3466 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3468 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3473 <term>Parameter:</term>
3478 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
3479 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
3484 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
3485 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
3486 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
3487 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
3492 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
3493 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
3494 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem (via <quote>file:///</quote> URL).
3497 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
3498 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
3499 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
3500 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
3501 it over and over again.
3512 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
3513 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
3514 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
3517 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
3518 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
3519 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
3525 <term>Example usage:</term>
3531 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
3534 Redirect to the BSD devil:
3537 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
3540 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
3543 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
3551 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3553 <title>Summary</title>
3555 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
3556 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
3557 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
3558 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
3559 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
3560 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
3566 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3567 <sect2 id="aliases">
3568 <title>Aliases</title>
3570 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
3571 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
3572 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
3573 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
3575 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
3576 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
3577 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
3578 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
3579 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
3583 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
3584 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
3585 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
3586 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
3590 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
3591 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
3592 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
3593 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
3594 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
3595 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
3596 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
3599 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
3600 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
3601 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
3602 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
3603 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
3605 This is likely to change in future versions of <application>Privoxy</application>.
3609 Now let's define some aliases...
3614 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
3616 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
3617 # must be at the top of the actions file!
3621 # These aliases just save typing later:
3622 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
3624 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
3625 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
3626 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
3627 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
3629 # These aliases define combinations of actions
3630 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
3632 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
3633 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
3635 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
3637 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
3638 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
3642 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
3643 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
3644 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
3649 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
3650 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
3653 .office.microsoft.com
3654 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
3658 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
3662 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
3665 # These shops require pop-ups:
3667 {shop -kill-popups -filter{popups}}
3669 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
3673 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are often used for
3674 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require some actions to be disabled
3675 in order to function properly.
3679 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3680 <sect2 id="act-examples">
3681 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
3683 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
3684 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
3685 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
3686 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
3687 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
3688 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
3689 file and see how all these pieces come together:
3692 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
3695 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
3699 <screen># Sample default.action file <developers@privoxy.org></screen>
3703 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
3704 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
3705 change or worry about:
3710 ##########################################################################
3711 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
3712 ##########################################################################
3715 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
3719 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
3720 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
3721 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
3726 ##########################################################################
3728 ##########################################################################
3731 # These aliases just save typing later:
3732 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
3734 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
3735 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
3736 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
3737 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
3739 # These aliases define combinations of actions
3740 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
3742 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
3743 shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups</screen>
3747 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
3748 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
3749 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
3750 enable the ones we want.
3754 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
3755 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
3756 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
3757 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
3758 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
3759 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
3760 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
3765 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
3766 no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
3767 to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
3768 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
3769 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
3770 multiple lines with line continuation.
3775 ##########################################################################
3776 # "Defaults" section:
3777 ##########################################################################
3779 -<link linkend="ADD-HEADER">add-header</link> \
3780 -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> \
3781 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> \
3782 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link> \
3783 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
3784 -<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
3785 +<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> \
3786 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
3787 +<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
3788 -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
3789 +<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> \
3790 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
3791 -<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
3792 -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
3793 +<link linkend="FILTER-NIMDA">filter{nimda}</link> \
3794 +<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
3795 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">filter{banners-by-link}</link> \
3796 -<link linkend="FILTER-IMG-REORDER">filter{img-reorder}</link> \
3797 -<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
3798 -<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
3799 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-EVENTS">filter{js-events}</link> \
3800 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
3801 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
3802 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
3803 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
3804 -<link linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT">hide-user-agent</link> \
3805 -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> \
3806 -<link linkend="LIMIT-CONNECT">limit-connect</link> \
3807 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
3808 -<link linkend="SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">send-vanilla-wafer</link> \
3809 -<link linkend="SEND-WAFER">send-wafer</link> \
3810 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
3811 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
3813 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
3817 The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding
3818 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
3819 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
3820 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
3821 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
3822 want to block in later sections.
3823 We will also want to make exceptions from our general pop-up-killing,
3824 and use our defined aliases for that.
3828 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
3829 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
3830 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
3831 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
3832 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
3833 of actions explicitly:
3838 ##########################################################################
3839 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
3840 ##########################################################################
3842 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
3845 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
3846 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com</screen>
3850 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
3851 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
3852 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
3861 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
3863 .scan.co.uk</screen>
3867 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
3868 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
3869 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
3870 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
3872 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
3873 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
3874 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
3875 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
3876 chosen in the defaults section:
3881 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
3883 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
3886 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
3890 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
3891 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
3892 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
3897 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
3901 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
3902 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
3903 .nytimes.com</screen>
3907 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
3908 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
3909 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
3910 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
3911 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
3912 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
3913 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
3914 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
3915 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
3921 ##########################################################################
3923 ##########################################################################
3925 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
3926 # blocked further down this file:
3928 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
3929 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
3933 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
3934 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
3935 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
3936 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
3937 <literal>block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
3938 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
3939 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
3940 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
3941 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
3942 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
3943 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
3944 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
3949 # Known ad generators:
3954 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
3955 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
3956 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
3963 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
3964 is to block banners. A huge bunch of them are already <quote>blocked</quote>
3965 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
3966 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
3967 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
3968 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
3969 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
3970 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
3971 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
3974 First comes a bunch of generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
3975 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
3976 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
3977 to keep the example short:
3982 ##########################################################################
3983 # Block these fine banners:
3984 ##########################################################################
3985 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
3993 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
3994 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
3996 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
3998 .hitbox.com</screen>
4002 You wouldn't believe how many advertisers actually call their banner
4003 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
4004 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
4005 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
4008 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
4009 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
4010 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
4011 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
4012 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
4013 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
4017 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
4018 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
4019 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
4020 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
4021 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
4022 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
4023 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
4024 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
4025 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
4026 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
4031 ##########################################################################
4032 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
4033 ##########################################################################
4037 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
4038 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
4039 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
4040 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
4041 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
4042 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
4050 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
4051 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
4055 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
4056 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
4057 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
4058 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
4059 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
4064 # Don't filter code!
4066 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
4068 .sourceforge.net</screen>
4072 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course more
4073 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
4078 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
4081 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
4082 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
4083 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
4084 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
4085 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
4086 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
4087 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
4088 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
4089 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
4090 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
4091 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
4092 to install updated versions from time to time.
4096 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
4097 <filename>user.action</filename>:
4101 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
4105 # My user.action file. <fred@foobar.com></screen>
4109 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
4110 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
4111 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
4116 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
4119 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
4120 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
4121 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
4122 shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
4123 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} # (see below)</screen>
4128 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
4129 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
4130 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
4131 <literal>mercy-for-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
4132 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and
4133 processing of cookies to make them temporary.
4138 { mercy-for-cookies }
4143 .redhat.com</screen>
4147 Your bank needs popups and is allergic to some filter, but you don't
4148 know which, so you disable them all:
4153 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> }
4154 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
4158 While browsing the web with <application>Privoxy</application> you
4159 noticed some ads that sneaked through, but you were too lazy to
4160 report them through our fine and easy <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>
4161 system, so you have added them here:
4166 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
4167 www.a-popular-site.com/some/unobvious/path
4168 another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
4172 Note that, assuming the banners in the above example have regular image
4173 extensions (most do),
4174 <literal>+<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link></literal>
4175 need not be specified, since all URLs ending in these extensions will
4176 already have been tagged as images in the relevant section of
4177 <filename>default.action</filename> by now.
4181 Then you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
4182 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
4183 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
4184 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
4185 -- whoa! -- it worked:
4191 .forbes.com</screen>
4195 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
4196 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file. (My colleagues on the team just
4197 don't have a sense of humour, that's why! ;-). So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
4198 update-safe config, once and for all:
4203 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
4204 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
4208 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
4209 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
4210 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
4211 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
4212 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
4216 Finally, you might think about how your favourite free websites are
4217 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
4218 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
4219 sites that you feel provide value to you:
4231 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
4232 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4233 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>
4239 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4243 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4245 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
4247 <sect1 id="filter-file">
4248 <title>The Filter File</title>
4251 All text substitutions that can be invoked through the
4252 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action
4253 must first be defined in the filter file, which is typically
4254 called <filename>default.filter</filename> and which can be
4255 selected through the <literal>
4256 <link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config
4261 Typical reasons for doing such substitutions are to eliminate
4262 common annoyances in HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
4263 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
4264 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
4265 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
4266 or just to have fun. The possibilities are endless.
4270 Filtering works on any text-based document type, including plain
4271 text, HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
4272 MIME types). Substitutions are made at the source level, so if
4273 you want to <quote>roll your own</quote> filters, you should be
4274 familiar with HTML syntax.
4278 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
4279 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
4280 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with the
4281 <emphasis>keyword</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>, followed by
4282 the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
4283 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
4284 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
4285 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
4286 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
4287 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
4288 user interface</ulink>.
4292 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
4293 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
4294 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
4295 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
4299 A filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
4304 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
4308 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
4309 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
4310 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
4311 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
4312 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
4313 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/pcrs.3.html">PCRS man page</ulink>
4314 for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most notably, the non-standard
4315 option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported, which turns the default
4316 to ungreedy matching.
4320 If you are new to regular expressions, you might want to take a look at
4321 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
4322 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perl.html">Perl
4324 <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlop.html#s-PATTERN-REPLACEMENT-egimosx">the
4325 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
4326 url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
4327 expressions</ulink> in general.
4328 The below examples might also help to get you started.
4331 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
4333 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
4335 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> filter. We have already defined
4336 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
4337 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
4342 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
4346 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
4347 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
4348 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
4349 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
4353 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
4357 Our complete filter now looks like this:
4360 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
4361 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
4365 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
4366 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
4367 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
4373 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
4375 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
4377 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
4381 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
4382 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
4383 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
4384 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
4388 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
4389 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
4390 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
4391 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
4392 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
4396 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
4397 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
4398 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
4399 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
4400 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
4401 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
4402 in the page (and appear in that order).
4406 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
4407 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
4408 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
4409 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
4410 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
4414 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
4415 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
4416 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
4417 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
4418 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
4419 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
4420 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
4421 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
4422 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
4423 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
4424 substitution is global.
4428 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
4429 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
4430 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
4431 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
4432 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
4436 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
4437 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
4438 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
4439 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
4440 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
4441 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
4442 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
4443 Business!"</literal>.
4447 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
4448 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
4449 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
4450 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
4451 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
4452 information anymore.
4456 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
4457 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
4462 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
4464 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
4468 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
4469 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
4470 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
4471 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
4472 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
4473 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
4474 a backreference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
4475 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
4476 a backreference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
4480 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
4481 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
4482 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
4483 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
4484 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
4485 you move your mouse over links.
4490 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
4492 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
4497 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
4498 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
4499 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
4500 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
4501 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
4502 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
4503 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
4504 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
4505 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
4506 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
4511 The last example is from the fun department:
4516 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
4518 # Spice the daily news:
4520 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
4524 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
4525 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
4526 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
4527 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
4528 still replacing the word everywhere else.
4533 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
4535 s* industry[ -]leading \
4537 | customer[ -]focused \
4538 | market[ -]driven \
4539 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
4540 | high[ -]performance \
4541 | solutions[ -]based \
4545 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
4550 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
4551 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
4560 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4564 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4566 <sect1 id="templates">
4567 <title>Templates</title>
4569 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
4570 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
4571 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
4572 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4574 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
4575 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
4576 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
4581 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
4582 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
4584 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
4588 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
4589 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. You can
4590 edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want to customize them.
4591 (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual user</emphasis>). Note that
4592 just like in configuration files, lines starting with <literal>#</literal> are
4593 ignored when the templates are filled in.
4597 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
4598 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
4599 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
4600 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
4601 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
4605 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
4606 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
4607 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
4608 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
4609 in in an alpha or beta development stage:
4614 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
4616 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
4618 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
4622 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
4623 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
4624 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
4628 <screen><!-- --></screen>
4632 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
4633 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
4638 All templates refer to a style located at
4639 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
4640 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
4641 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
4642 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
4647 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4651 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4653 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
4656 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
4658 <!-- end boilerplate -->
4662 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4665 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4666 <sect1 id="copyright"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Copyright, License and History</title>
4668 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
4670 <!-- end copyright -->
4672 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4673 <sect2><title>License</title>
4674 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
4676 <!-- end copyright -->
4678 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4681 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4683 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
4684 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
4686 <!-- end history -->
4689 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
4690 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
4692 <!-- end authors -->
4697 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4700 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4701 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
4702 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
4704 <!-- end seealso -->
4709 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4710 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
4713 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4715 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
4717 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
4718 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
4719 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
4720 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
4721 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
4725 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
4726 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
4727 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
4728 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
4732 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
4733 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
4734 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
4735 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
4736 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
4737 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
4738 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
4739 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
4743 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
4744 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
4745 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
4746 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
4747 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
4748 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
4749 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
4750 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
4754 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
4755 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
4756 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
4757 and then some examples:
4762 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
4763 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
4765 </simplelist></para>
4769 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
4772 </simplelist></para>
4776 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
4779 </simplelist></para>
4783 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
4786 </simplelist></para>
4790 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
4791 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
4792 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
4793 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
4794 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
4795 meta-character meaning of any single character).
4797 </simplelist></para>
4801 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
4802 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
4803 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
4804 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
4806 </simplelist></para>
4810 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
4811 or multiple sub-expressions.
4813 </simplelist></para>
4817 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
4818 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
4819 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
4820 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
4821 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
4822 example</quote>, and nothing else.
4824 </simplelist></para>
4827 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
4828 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
4829 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
4830 be more illuminating:
4834 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
4835 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
4836 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
4837 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
4838 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
4839 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
4840 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
4841 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
4842 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
4843 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
4844 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
4845 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
4846 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
4847 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
4852 A now something a little more complex:
4856 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
4857 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
4858 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
4859 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
4860 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
4861 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
4862 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
4867 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
4868 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
4869 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
4870 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
4871 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
4872 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
4873 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
4874 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
4875 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
4876 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
4877 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
4878 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
4879 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
4880 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
4881 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
4882 changing our regular expression to:
4883 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
4888 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
4889 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
4890 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
4891 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
4892 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
4893 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
4894 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
4895 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
4896 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
4897 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
4898 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
4899 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
4900 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
4901 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
4902 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
4903 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
4904 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
4905 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
4906 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
4907 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
4908 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
4909 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
4910 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
4911 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
4912 in the expression anywhere).
4916 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
4917 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
4918 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
4919 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
4920 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
4925 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
4926 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
4930 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
4931 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
4936 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4939 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4941 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
4944 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
4945 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
4946 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
4947 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
4948 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
4949 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
4950 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
4956 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
4957 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
4958 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
4959 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
4972 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
4976 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
4977 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
4978 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
4984 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
4985 editing of actions files:
4989 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
4996 Show the source code version numbers:
5000 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
5007 Show the browser's request headers:
5011 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
5018 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
5022 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5029 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
5030 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
5034 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
5038 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
5042 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
5047 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
5056 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
5060 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
5061 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
5063 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
5064 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
5065 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
5066 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
5067 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
5068 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
5071 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
5072 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
5073 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
5074 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
5075 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
5076 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
5085 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>
5092 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>
5099 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)
5106 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>
5112 <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>
5117 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
5124 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
5125 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
5126 have more information about bookmarklets.
5135 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5137 <title>Chain of Events</title>
5139 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
5140 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
5147 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
5148 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
5149 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
5155 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
5156 pages (e.g http://p.p/) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
5161 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
5163 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
5164 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
5165 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
5166 is then checked and if it does not match, an
5167 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
5168 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <link
5169 linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
5170 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
5175 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
5176 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
5181 If the URL pattern matches the <link
5182 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
5183 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
5188 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
5189 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
5190 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
5191 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
5197 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
5203 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
5204 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
5205 filtered as deterimined by the
5206 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
5207 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
5208 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
5214 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
5215 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
5216 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
5221 If a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
5223 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
5224 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
5225 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
5226 <filename>default.filter</filename>) are processed against the buffered
5227 content. Filters are applied in the order they are specified in the
5228 <filename>default.filter</filename> file. Animated GIFs, if present, are
5229 reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
5230 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
5231 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
5234 If neither <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
5236 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
5237 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
5238 to the client browser as it becomes available.
5243 As the browser receives the now (probably filtered) page content, it
5244 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
5245 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
5246 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
5247 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
5248 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
5258 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5259 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
5260 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
5263 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
5264 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
5265 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
5266 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
5267 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
5268 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
5269 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
5270 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
5271 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
5276 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
5277 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
5278 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
5279 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
5280 logs is a good idea too.
5284 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
5285 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5286 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
5287 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
5291 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
5292 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
5293 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
5294 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
5295 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
5296 the <filename>default.filter</filename> file since this is handled very
5297 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
5298 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
5299 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
5300 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
5301 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
5302 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
5303 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
5308 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
5309 and look at it one section at a time:
5314 Matches for http://google.com:
5316 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
5320 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5321 -crunch-incoming-cookies
5322 +deanimate-gifs{last}
5323 -downgrade-http-version
5327 -filter{shockwave-flash}
5328 -filter{crude-parental}
5329 +filter{html-annoyances}
5330 +filter{js-annoyances}
5331 +filter{content-cookies}
5333 +filter{refresh-tags}
5335 +filter{banners-by-size}
5336 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
5337 +hide-from-header{block}
5338 +hide-referer{forge}
5343 +prevent-compression
5346 +session-cookies-only
5347 +set-image-blocker{pattern} }
5350 { -session-cookies-only }
5356 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
5357 (no matches in this file)
5362 This tells us how we have defined our
5363 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
5364 which ones match for our example, <quote>google.com</quote>. The first listing
5365 is any matches for the <filename>standard.action</filename> file. No hits at
5366 all here on <quote>standard</quote>. Then next is <quote>default</quote>, or
5367 our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line listing,
5368 is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default settings.
5369 If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the section
5370 just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This will apply to
5371 all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
5372 -- <quote>/</quote>.
5376 But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
5377 rules, and then list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions would
5378 apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
5379 <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous cookie setting,
5381 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
5382 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google. The
5383 second turns <emphasis>off</emphasis> any
5385 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
5386 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
5387 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
5388 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
5389 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these two actions
5390 defined somewhere in the lower part of our <filename>default.action</filename>
5391 file, and <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter
5396 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
5400 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
5401 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
5402 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
5413 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5414 -crunch-incoming-cookies
5415 +deanimate-gifs{last}
5416 -downgrade-http-version
5420 -filter{shockwave-flash}
5421 -filter{crude-parental}
5422 +filter{html-annoyances}
5423 +filter{js-annoyances}
5424 +filter{content-cookies}
5426 +filter{refresh-tags}
5428 +filter{banners-by-size}
5429 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
5430 +hide-from-header{block}
5431 +hide-referer{forge}
5436 +prevent-compression
5439 -session-cookies-only
5440 +set-image-blocker{pattern}
5445 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
5446 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>.
5450 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
5456 { +block +handle-as-image }
5459 { +block +handle-as-image }
5462 { +block +handle-as-image }
5468 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
5469 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
5470 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
5471 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<link
5472 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
5473 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
5478 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
5479 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
5480 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
5481 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
5482 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
5483 is done here -- as both a <link
5484 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
5485 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
5487 linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
5488 The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> just simplifies the process and make
5493 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
5494 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
5500 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
5502 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
5506 -crunch-incoming-cookies
5507 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5509 -downgrade-http-version
5511 +filter{html-annoyances}
5512 +filter{js-annoyances}
5513 +filter{kill-popups}
5516 +filter{banners-by-size}
5519 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
5520 +hide-from-header{block}
5521 +hide-referer{forge}
5525 +prevent-compression
5528 +session-cookies-only
5529 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
5532 { +block +handle-as-image }
5538 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
5539 we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
5540 now add a new action below this that explicitly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
5541 block (<quote>{-block}</quote>) paths with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are
5542 various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
5554 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
5555 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
5559 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
5566 { +block +handle-as-image }
5572 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
5573 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
5574 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
5575 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
5576 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. These
5577 tend to be harder to troubleshoot. Try adding the URL for the site to one of
5578 aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
5586 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5594 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
5595 <quote>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</quote>.
5596 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
5609 This would turn off all filtering for that site. This would probably be most
5610 appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
5615 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
5616 <quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote> rule, which assumes
5617 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well most of the time
5618 since these tend to be standardized).
5622 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
5623 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
5624 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
5625 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
5634 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
5635 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
5636 Public License as published by the Free Software
5637 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
5638 your option) any later version.
5640 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
5641 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
5642 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
5643 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
5644 License for more details.
5646 The GNU General Public License should be included with
5647 this file. If not, you can view it at
5648 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
5649 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
5650 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
5652 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
5653 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
5654 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
5656 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
5657 Nits re: actions file download
5659 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
5660 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
5662 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
5663 Added 2 Gentoo sections
5665 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
5666 - Added version info to title
5667 - Added info on new filters
5668 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
5669 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
5671 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
5672 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
5674 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
5676 Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
5678 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
5679 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
5681 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
5682 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
5684 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
5685 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
5687 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
5688 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
5689 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
5690 so that these are in sync with each other.
5692 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
5693 Ooops missed something from David.
5695 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
5696 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
5697 That's a wrap, I think.
5699 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
5700 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
5702 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
5703 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
5705 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
5706 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
5707 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
5709 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
5710 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
5712 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
5713 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
5714 <literal><link> style.
5715 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
5716 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
5717 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
5718 renders them red (bad in TOC).
5720 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
5721 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
5723 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
5726 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
5727 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
5728 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
5730 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
5731 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
5732 - Small changes to Regex appendix
5733 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
5735 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
5736 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
5738 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
5739 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
5741 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
5742 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
5744 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
5745 Extended and further commented the example actions files
5747 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
5748 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
5751 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
5754 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
5755 Restored alphabetical order of actions
5757 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
5758 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
5760 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
5761 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
5763 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
5764 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
5765 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
5767 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
5768 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
5769 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
5770 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
5772 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
5773 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
5775 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
5778 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
5779 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
5780 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
5782 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
5783 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
5785 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
5786 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
5787 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
5789 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
5790 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
5792 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
5793 more structure in starting section
5795 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
5796 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
5797 will probably break links elsewhere :(
5799 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
5800 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
5801 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
5803 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
5804 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
5805 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
5807 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
5808 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
5810 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
5811 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
5812 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
5814 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
5815 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
5816 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
5818 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
5819 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
5821 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
5822 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
5824 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
5825 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
5827 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
5828 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
5830 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
5831 Updated OSX installation section
5832 Added a few English tweaks here an there
5834 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
5835 Re-write actions section.
5837 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
5838 Fix ugly typo (mine).
5840 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
5841 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
5843 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
5844 Added RPM install detail
5846 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
5849 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
5850 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
5852 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
5853 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
5855 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
5856 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
5858 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
5861 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
5862 Proofreading, part one
5864 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
5865 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
5866 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
5868 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
5869 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
5871 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
5872 Add small section on submitting actions.
5874 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
5877 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
5878 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
5880 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
5881 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
5883 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
5886 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
5887 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
5888 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
5889 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
5890 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
5892 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
5893 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
5895 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
5896 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
5898 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
5899 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
5900 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
5901 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
5902 eventually be set by Makefile.
5903 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
5905 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
5906 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
5908 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
5909 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
5911 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
5912 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
5914 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
5915 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
5916 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
5917 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
5919 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
5922 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
5923 Added more to Anatomy section.
5925 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
5926 Touch up intro for new name.
5928 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
5929 we have a new homepage!
5931 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
5932 A few minor catch ups with name change.
5934 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
5935 configure needs to be generated.
5937 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
5938 we are too lazy to make a block-built
5939 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
5941 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
5942 name change related issue.
5944 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
5945 name change. changed filenames.
5947 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
5950 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
5951 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
5952 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
5953 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
5954 comments and remarks to history untouched.
5956 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
5959 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
5960 New section in Appendix.
5962 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
5963 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
5965 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
5966 correct feedback channels
5968 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
5969 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
5971 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
5974 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
5975 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
5977 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
5978 Added imageblock{pattern}.
5980 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
5983 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
5984 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
5986 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
5987 provide correct feedback channels
5989 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
5990 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
5992 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
5993 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
5995 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
5996 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
5998 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
5999 Add new - - user option.
6001 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
6002 Added section on command line options.
6004 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
6005 Changed default port to 8118
6007 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
6008 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
6010 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
6011 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
6012 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
6015 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
6018 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
6019 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
6021 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
6022 Update OS/2 build section
6024 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
6025 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
6026 will work - no other changes are needed.
6028 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
6029 Added a very short section on Templates
6031 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
6032 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
6034 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
6035 Touch ups for *.action files.
6037 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
6040 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
6041 Updates for recent changes.
6043 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
6044 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
6046 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
6047 Correct 2 minor errors
6049 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
6050 *** empty log message ***
6052 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
6053 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
6055 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
6056 wrong url in documentation
6058 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
6059 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
6061 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
6064 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
6067 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
6070 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
6071 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
6073 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
6074 Some additions, and re-arranging.
6076 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
6079 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
6080 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
6082 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
6085 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
6086 source files for junkbuster documentation
6088 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
6089 first proposal of a structure.
6091 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
6092 docs should have an author.
6094 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
6095 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.
projects / privoxy.git / blob