We value your feedback. In fact, we rely on it to improve
Privoxy and its configuration.
However, please note the following hints, so we can
provide you with the best support.
Please provide sufficient information
A lot of support requests don't contain enough information and can't
be solved without a lot of back and forth which causes unnecessary
delays. Reading this section should help to prevent that.
Before contacting us to report a problem, please try to verify that it is a
Privoxy problem, and not a browser or site problem
or documented behaviour that just happens to be different than what you expected.
If unsure,
try toggling
off Privoxy, and see if the problem persists.
If you are using your own custom configuration, please try the default
configuration to see if the problem is configuration related.
If you're having problems with a feature that is disabled by default,
please ask around on the mailing list if others can reproduce the problem.
If you aren't using the latest Privoxy version, the problem may have been found
and fixed in the meantime. We would appreciate if you could take the time
to upgrade
to the latest version and verify that the problem still exists.
Please be sure to provide the following information when reporting problems
or requesting support:
The exact Privoxy version you are using.
The operating system and versions you run
Privoxy on, e.g. Windows
XP SP2.
The name, platform, and version of the browser
you were using (e.g. Internet Explorer v5.5 for Mac).
The URL where the problem occurred, or some way for us to duplicate the
problem (e.g. http://somesite.example.com/?somethingelse=123).
Whether your version of Privoxy is one supplied
by the Privoxy developers,
or if you got your copy somewhere else.
Whether you are using Privoxy together with
another proxy such as Tor. If so, please
temporary disable the other proxy to see if the symptoms change.
Whether you are using a personal firewall product. If so, does
Privoxy work without it?
Any other pertinent information to help identify the problem such as config
or log file excerpts (yes, you should have log file entries for each
action taken). To get a meaningful logfile, please make sure that the
logfile directive
is being used and the following debug options are enabled
(all of them):
debug 1 # Log the destination for each request Privoxy let through.
# See also debug 1024.
debug 2 # show each connection status
debug 4 # show tagging-related messages
debug 8 # show header parsing
debug 128 # debug redirects
debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
debug 512 # Common Log Format
debug 1024 # Log the destination for requests Privoxy didn't let through,
# and the reason why.
debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
debug 65536 # Log applying actions
If you are having trouble with a filter, please additionally enable
debug 64 # debug regular expression filters
If you suspect that Privoxy interprets the request or the response
incorrectly, please enable
debug 32768 # log all data read from the network
It's easy for us to ignore log messages that aren't relevant but missing
log messages may make it impossible to investigate a problem. If you aren't
sure which of the debug directives are relevant, please just enable all of them
and let us worry about it.
Note that Privoxy log files may contain sensitive information so please don't
submit any logfiles you didn't read first. You can mask sensitive information
as long as it's clear that you removed something.
You don't have to tell us your actual name when filing a problem
report, but if you don't, please use a nickname so we can differentiate
between your messages and the ones entered by other "anonymous" users that
may respond to your request if they have the same problem or already
found a solution. Note that due to spam the trackers may not always
allow to post without being logged into SourceForge. If that's the
case, you are still free to create a login that isn't directly linked
to your name, though.
Please also check the status of your request a few days after submitting
it, as we may request additional information. If you use a SF id,
you should automatically get a mail when someone responds to your request.
Please don't bother to add an email address when using the tracker.
If you prefer to communicate through email, just use one of the mailing
lists directly.
The appendix
of the Privoxy User Manual also has helpful information
on understanding actions, and action debugging.
Get Support
All users are welcome to discuss their issues on the users
mailing list, where the developers also hang around.
Please don't send private support requests to individual Privoxy
developers, either use the mailing lists or the support trackers.
If you have to contact a Privoxy developer directly for other reasons,
please send a real mail and do not bother with SourceForge's messaging
system. Answers to SourceForge messages are usually bounced by SourceForge's
mail server in which case the developer wasted time writing a response you
don't get. From your point of view it will look like your message has
been completely ignored, so this is frustrating for all parties involved.
Note that the Privoxy mailing lists are moderated. Posts from unsubscribed
addresses have to be accepted manually by a moderator. This may cause a
delay of several days and if you use a subject that doesn't clearly
mention Privoxy or one of its features, your message may be accidentally
discarded as spam.
If you aren't subscribed, you should therefore spend a few seconds
to come up with a proper subject. Additionally you should make it clear
that you want to get CC'd. Otherwise some responses will be directed to
the mailing list only, and you won't see them.
Reporting Problems
Problems
for our purposes, come in two forms:
Configuration issues, such as ads that slip through, or sites that
don't function properly due to one Privoxy
action
or another being turned on
.
Bugs
in the programming code that makes up
Privoxy, such as that might cause a crash.
Documentation issues, for example spelling errors and unclear descriptions,
are bugs, too.
Reporting Ads or Other Configuration Problems
Please send feedback on ads that slipped through, innocent images that were
blocked, sites that don't work properly, and other configuration related problem of
default.action file, to
https://sourceforge.net/p/ijbswa/actionsfile-feedback/,
the Actions File Tracker.
Reporting Bugs
Before reporting bugs, please make sure that the bug has not already been submitted
and observe the additional hints at the top of the submit
form. If already submitted, please feel free to add any info to the
original report that might help to solve the issue.
Reporting security problems
If you discovered a security problem or merely suspect that a bug might
be a security issue, please mail Fabian Keil <fk@fabiankeil.de>
(OpenPGP fingerprint: 4F36 C17F 3816 9136 54A1 E850 6918 2291 8BA2 371C).
Usually you should get a response within a day, otherwise it's
likely that either your mail or the response didn't make it.
If that happens, please mail to the developer list to request a
status update.
Mailing Lists
If you prefer to communicate through email, instead of using a web interface,
feel free to use one of the mailing lists.
To discuss issues that haven't been completely diagnosed yet, please use the Privoxy
users list. Technically interested users and people who wish to contribute to
the project are always welcome on the developers list.
You can find an overview of all Privoxy-related mailing lists,
including list archives, at:
https://lists.privoxy.org/mailman/listinfo.
The lists hosted on privoxy.org have been created in 2016, the previously-used
lists hosted at SourceForge are deprecated but the archives may still be useful:
https://sourceforge.net/p/ijbswa/mailman/.
SourceForge support trackers
The
SourceForge support trackers
may be used as well, but have various technical problems that are unlikely to
be fixed anytime soon. If you don't get a timely response, please try the
mailing list as well.