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40 <h1 class="SECT1"><a name="CONFIGURATION" id="CONFIGURATION">6. Privoxy
41 Configuration</a></h1>
43 <p>All <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> configuration is stored
44 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor. Many
45 important aspects of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can also be
46 controlled easily with a web browser.</p>
49 <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="AEN812" id="AEN812">6.1. Controlling Privoxy
50 with Your Web Browser</a></h2>
52 <p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>'s user interface can be
53 reached through the special URL <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/"
54 target="_top">http://config.privoxy.org/</a> (shortcut: <a href=
55 "http://p.p/" target="_top">http://p.p/</a>), which is a built-in page
56 and works without Internet access. You will see the following
59 <table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
66 <h2 class="BRIDGEHEAD"><a name="AEN820" id=
67 "AEN820"></a> Privoxy Menu</h2>
73 ▪ <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status"
74 target="_top">View & change the current
75 configuration</a></td>
80 ▪ <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version"
81 target="_top">View the source code version numbers</a></td>
86 ▪ <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request"
87 target="_top">View the request headers.</a></td>
92 ▪ <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info"
93 target="_top">Look up which actions apply to a URL and
99 ▪ <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle"
100 target="_top">Toggle Privoxy on or off</a></td>
105 ▪ <a href="http://www.privoxy.org/3.0.24/user-manual/"
106 target="_top">Documentation</a></td>
114 <p>This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an
115 editor for the <a href="actions-file.html">actions files</a>, which is
116 where the ad, banner, cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as
117 well as other advanced features of <span class=
118 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>. This is an easy way to adjust various
119 aspects of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> configuration. The
120 actions file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail
123 <p><span class="QUOTE">"Toggle Privoxy On or Off"</span> is handy for
124 sites that might have problems with your current actions and filters.
125 You can in fact use it as a test to see whether it is <span class=
126 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> causing the problem or not. <span class=
127 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> continues to run as a proxy in this case,
128 but all manipulation is disabled, i.e. <span class=
129 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> acts like a normal forwarding proxy.</p>
131 <p>Note that several of the features described above are disabled by
132 default in <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> 3.0.7 beta and
133 later. Check the <a href="config.html" target="_top">configuration
134 file</a> to learn why and in which cases it's safe to enable them
139 <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="CONFOVERVIEW" id="CONFOVERVIEW">6.2.
140 Configuration Files Overview</a></h2>
142 <p>For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
143 <tt class="FILENAME">/etc/privoxy/</tt> by default. For MS Windows,
144 OS/2, and AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
145 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> executable.</p>
147 <p>The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
148 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being,
149 the principle configuration files are:</p>
153 <p>The <a href="config.html">main configuration file</a> is named
154 <tt class="FILENAME">config</tt> on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and
155 AmigaOS and <tt class="FILENAME">config.txt</tt> on Windows. This
156 is a required file.</p>
160 <p><tt class="FILENAME">match-all.action</tt> is used to define
161 which <span class="QUOTE">"actions"</span> relating to
162 banner-blocking, images, pop-ups, content modification, cookie
163 handling etc should be applied by default. It should be the first
164 actions file loaded.</p>
166 <p><tt class="FILENAME">default.action</tt> defines many exceptions
167 (both positive and negative) from the default set of actions that's
168 configured in <tt class="FILENAME">match-all.action</tt>. It should
169 be the second actions file loaded and shouldn't be edited by the
172 <p>Multiple actions files may be defined in <tt class=
173 "FILENAME">config</tt>. These are processed in the order they are
174 defined. Local customizations and locally preferred exceptions to
175 the default policies as defined in <tt class=
176 "FILENAME">match-all.action</tt> (which you will most probably want
177 to define sooner or later) are best applied in <tt class=
178 "FILENAME">user.action</tt>, where you can preserve them across
179 upgrades. The file isn't installed by all installers, but you can
180 easily create it yourself with a text editor.</p>
182 <p>There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
183 <a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status" target=
184 "_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</a> (Shortcut:
185 <a href="http://p.p/show-status" target=
186 "_top">http://p.p/show-status</a>) for the various actions
191 <p><span class="QUOTE">"Filter files"</span> (the <a href=
192 "filter-file.html">filter file</a>) can be used to re-write the raw
193 page content, including viewable text as well as embedded HTML and
194 JavaScript, and whatever else lurks on any given web page. The
195 filtering jobs are only pre-defined here; whether to apply them or
196 not is up to the actions files. <tt class=
197 "FILENAME">default.filter</tt> includes various filters made
198 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive
199 than others, and all should be used with caution. You may define
200 additional filter files in <tt class="FILENAME">config</tt> as you
201 can with actions files. We suggest <tt class=
202 "FILENAME">user.filter</tt> for any locally defined filters or
207 <p>The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between
208 different Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost
209 backwards compatibility.</p>
211 <p>All files use the <span class="QUOTE">"<tt class=
212 "LITERAL">#</tt>"</span> character to denote a comment (the rest of the
213 line will be ignored) and understand line continuation through placing
214 a backslash ("<tt class="LITERAL">\</tt>") as the very last character
215 in a line. If the <tt class="LITERAL">#</tt> is preceded by a
216 backslash, it looses its special function. Placing a <tt class=
217 "LITERAL">#</tt> in front of an otherwise valid configuration line to
218 prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting out" that line.
219 Blank lines are ignored.</p>
221 <p>The actions files and filter files can use Perl style <a href=
222 "appendix.html#REGEX">regular expressions</a> for maximum
225 <p>After making any changes, there is no need to restart <span class=
226 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> in order for the changes to take effect.
227 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> detects such changes
228 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
229 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening
230 address of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>, these <span class=
231 "QUOTE">"wake up"</span> requests must obviously be sent to the
232 <span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">old</i></span> listening
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258 <td width="33%" align="right" valign="top">The Main Configuration