There are very significant changes from older versions of Junkbuster to the current Privoxy. Configuration is substantially changed. Junkbuster 2.0.x and earlier configuration files will not migrate. The functionality of the old blockfile, cookiefile and imagelist, are now combined into the "actions file" (default.action for most installations).
A "filter file" (typically default.filter) is new as of Privoxy 2.9.x, and provides some of the new sophistication (explained below). config is much the same as before.
If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files. When porting personal rules over from the old blockfile to the new actions file, please note that even the pattern syntax has changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still recommended to use the new configuration files.
A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another service (NAS).
Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any important configuration files!
Privoxy is controllable with a web browser at the special URL: http://config.privoxy.org/ (Shortcut: http://p.p/). Many aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling Privoxy.
The primary configuration file for cookie management, ad and banner blocking, and many other aspects of Privoxy configuration is default.action. It is strongly recommended to become familiar with the new actions concept below, before modifying this file.
Some installers may not automatically start Privoxy after installation.
Before launching Privoxy for the first time, you will want to configure your browser(s) to use Privoxy as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is localhost for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
With Netscape (and Mozilla), this can be set under Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy. For Internet Explorer: Tools -> Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting. Then, check "Use Proxy" and fill in the appropriate info (Address: localhost, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy support too.
After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using Privoxy!
Privoxy is typically started by specifying the main configuration file to be used on the command line. Example Unix startup command:
# /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config |
See below for other command line options.
An init script is provided for SuSE and Red Hat.
For for SuSE: rcprivoxy start
For Red Hat and Debian: /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
If no configuration file is specified on the command line, Privoxy will look for a file named config in the current directory. Except on Win32 where it will try config.txt. If no file is specified on the command line and no default configuration file can be found, Privoxy will fail to start.
The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the "actions" files. These are where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other aspects of Privoxy configuration. There are several such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites that require persistent cookies, and add these to default.action as needed. By default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser session (aka "session cookies"), until you add them to the configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need to edit default.action and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make more sense to let Privoxy handle this. In which case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted sites is the popup-killing (through the +popup and +filter{popups} actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need popups.
Privoxy is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default (like Mozilla or recent versions of I.E.), you might try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under Edit -> Preferences -> Debug -> Networking. Alternatively, set the "+downgrade" config option in default.action which will downgrade your browser's HTTP requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
After running Privoxy for a while, you can start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site, preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can be customized. "Actions" (as specified in default.action) can be adjusted by pointing your browser to http://config.privoxy.org/ (shortcut: http://p.p/), and then follow the link to "edit the actions list". (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
In fact, various aspects of Privoxy configuration can be viewed from this page, including current configuration parameters, source code version numbers, the browser's request headers, and "actions" that apply to a given URL. In addition to the default.action file editor mentioned above, Privoxy can also be turned "on" and "off" (toggled) from this page.
If you encounter problems, try loading the page without Privoxy. If that helps, enter the URL where you have the problems into the browser based rule tracing utility. See which rules apply and why, and then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on again.
If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to read more about the actions concept or even dive deep into the Appendix on actions.
If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the chapter "Contacting the Developers, .." below.
Privoxy may be invoked with the following command-line options:
--version
Print version info and exit. Unix only.
--help
Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
--no-daemon
Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
--pidfile FILE
On startup, write the process ID to FILE. Delete the FILE on exit. Failure to create or delete the FILE is non-fatal. If no FILE option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
--user USER[.GROUP]
After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of USER, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
configfile
If no configfile is included on the command line, Privoxy will look for a file named "config" in the current directory (except on Win32 where it will look for "config.txt" instead). Specify full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found, Privoxy will fail to start.