Purpose : Used with other docs and files only.
- $Id: p-config.sgml,v 2.48 2009/04/17 11:42:07 fabiankeil Exp $
+ $Id: p-config.sgml,v 2.67 2011/01/09 12:10:34 fabiankeil Exp $
- Copyright (C) 2001-2009 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
+ Copyright (C) 2001-2010 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
See LICENSE.
========================================================================
<para>
The main config file controls all aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>'s
operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter
- where you may be surfing).
+ where you may be surfing). Like the filter and action files, the config file is
+ a plain text file and can be modified with a text editor like emacs, vim or
+ notepad.exe.
</para>
]]>
Sample Configuration File for Privoxy v&p-version;
</title>
<para>
- $Id: p-config.sgml,v 2.48 2009/04/17 11:42:07 fabiankeil Exp $
+ $Id: p-config.sgml,v 2.67 2011/01/09 12:10:34 fabiankeil Exp $
</para>
<para>
-Copyright (C) 2001-2009 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
+Copyright (C) 2001-2010 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
</para>
<para>
</variablelist>
<![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@filterfile default.filter</literallayout>]]>
-<![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#filterfile user.filter # User customizations</literallayout>]]>
+<![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@filterfile user.filter # User customizations</literallayout>]]>
</sect3>
debug 2 # show each connection status
debug 4 # show I/O status
debug 8 # show header parsing
- debug 16 # log all data written to the network into the logfile
+ debug 16 # log all data written to the network
debug 32 # debug force feature
debug 64 # debug regular expression filters
debug 128 # debug redirects
debug 2048 # CGI user interface
debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
+ debug 32768 # log all data read from the network
</programlisting>
</para>
<para>
bind to all IPv4 interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable
from the Internet. In that case, consider using <link
linkend="acls">access control lists</link> (ACL's, see below), and/or
- a firewall. If the hostname is localhost, <application>Privoxy</application>
- will explicitly try to bind to an IPv4 address. For other hostnames it depends
- on the operating system which IP version will be used.
+ a firewall.
</para>
<para>
If you open <application>Privoxy</application> to untrusted users, you will
IP addresses, only the first one is used.
</para>
<para>
- Some systems allows IPv4 client to connect to IPv6 server socket.
- Then the client's IPv4 address will be translated by system into
+ Some systems allow IPv4 clients to connect to IPv6 server sockets.
+ Then the client's IPv4 address will be translated by the system into
IPv6 address space with special prefix ::ffff:0:0/96 (so called IPv4
mapped IPv6 address). <application>Privoxy</application> can handle it
and maps such ACL addresses automatically.
that go away when you try again manually. Start with a small value and check Privoxy's
logfile from time to time, to see how many retries are usually needed.
</para>
+ <para>
+ Due to a bug, this option currently also causes Privoxy to
+ retry in case of certain problems with direct connections.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Effect if unset:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Connections are not reused.
+ Connections are not kept alive.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This option allows clients to keep the connection to &my-app;
+ alive. If the server supports it, &my-app; will keep
+ the connection to the server alive as well. Under certain
+ circumstances this may result in speed-ups.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ By default, &my-app; will close the connection to the server if
+ the client connection gets closed, or if the specified timeout
+ has been reached without a new request coming in. This behaviour
+ can be changed with the <ulink
+ url="#CONNECTION-SHARING">connection-sharing</ulink> option.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This option has no effect if <application>Privoxy</application>
+ has been compiled without keep-alive support.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Note that a timeout of five seconds as used in the default
+ configuration file significantly decreases the number of
+ connections that will be reused. The value is used because
+ some browsers limit the number of connections they open to
+ a single host and apply the same limit to proxies. This can
+ result in a single website <quote>grabbing</quote> all the
+ connections the browser allows, which means connections to
+ other websites can't be opened until the connections currently
+ in use time out.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Several users have reported this as a Privoxy bug, so the
+ default value has been reduced. Consider increasing it to
+ 300 seconds or even more if you think your browser can handle
+ it. If your browser appears to be hanging it can't.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Examples:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ keep-alive-timeout 300
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+<![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@keep-alive-timeout 5</literallayout>]]>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="default-server-timeout"><title>default-server-timeout</title>
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Specifies:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Assumed server-side keep-alive timeout if not specified by the server.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type of value:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <replaceable>Time in seconds.</replaceable>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Default value:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>None</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect if unset:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Connections for which the server didn't specify the keep-alive
+ timeout are not reused.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
+ <para>
+ Enabling this option significantly increases the number of connections
+ that are reused, provided the <ulink
+ url="#KEEP-ALIVE-TIMEOUT">keep-alive-timeout</ulink> option
+ is also enabled.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ While it also increases the number of connections problems
+ when &my-app; tries to reuse a connection that already has
+ been closed on the server side, or is closed while &my-app;
+ is trying to reuse it, this should only be a problem if it
+ happens for the first request sent by the client. If it happens
+ for requests on reused client connections, &my-app; will simply
+ close the connection and the client is supposed to retry the
+ request without bothering the user.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Enabling this option is therefore only recommended if the
+ <ulink
+ url="#CONNECTION-SHARING">connection-sharing</ulink> option
+ is disabled.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ It is an error to specify a value larger than the <ulink
+ url="#KEEP-ALIVE-TIMEOUT">keep-alive-timeout</ulink> value.
+ </para>
<para>
This option has no effect if <application>Privoxy</application>
has been compiled without keep-alive support.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Examples:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ default-server-timeout 60
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+<![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#default-server-timeout 60</literallayout>]]>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="connection-sharing"><title>connection-sharing</title>
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Specifies:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Whether or not outgoing connections that have been kept alive
+ should be shared between different incoming connections.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type of value:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <replaceable>0 or 1</replaceable>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Default value:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>None</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect if unset:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Connections are not shared.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This option has no effect if <application>Privoxy</application>
+ has been compiled without keep-alive support, or if it's disabled.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
There are also a few privacy implications you should be aware of.
</para>
<para>
- Outgoing connections are shared between clients (if there are more
- than one) and closing the client that initiated the outgoing connection
- does not affect the connection between &my-app; and the server unless
- the client's request hasn't been completed yet. If the outgoing connection
- is idle, it will not be closed until either <application>Privoxy's</application>
- or the server's timeout is reached. While it's open, the server knows
- that the system running &my-app; is still there.
+ If this option is effective, outgoing connections are shared between
+ clients (if there are more than one) and closing the browser that initiated
+ the outgoing connection does no longer affect the connection between &my-app;
+ and the server unless the client's request hasn't been completed yet.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If the outgoing connection is idle, it will not be closed until either
+ <application>Privoxy's</application> or the server's timeout is reached.
+ While it's open, the server knows that the system running &my-app; is still
+ there.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If there are more than one client (maybe even belonging to multiple users),
+ they will be able to reuse each others connections. This is potentially
+ dangerous in case of authentication schemes like NTLM where only the
+ connection is authenticated, instead of requiring authentication for
+ each request.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If there is only a single client, and if said client can keep connections
+ alive on its own, enabling this option has next to no effect. If the client
+ doesn't support connection keep-alive, enabling this option may make sense
+ as it allows &my-app; to keep outgoing connections alive even if the client
+ itself doesn't support it.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ You should also be aware that enabling this option increases the likelihood
+ of getting the "No server or forwarder data" error message, especially if you
+ are using a slow connection to the Internet.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This option should only be used by experienced users who
+ understand the risks and can weight them against the benefits.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Examples:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- keep-alive-timeout 300
+ connection-sharing 1
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
-<![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@keep-alive-timeout 300</literallayout>]]>
+<![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#connection-sharing 1</literallayout>]]>
</sect3>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- For SOCKS requests the timeout currently doesn't start until
- the SOCKS server accepted the request. This will be fixed in
- the next release.
+ The default is quite high and you probably want to reduce it.
+ If you aren't using an occasionally slow proxy like Tor, reducing
+ it to a few seconds should be fine.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</sect3>
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="max-client-connections"><title>max-client-connections</title>
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Specifies:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Maximum number of client connections that will be served.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type of value:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <replaceable>Positive number.</replaceable>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Default value:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>None</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect if unset:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Connections are served until a resource limit is reached.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ &my-app; creates one thread (or process) for every incoming client
+ connection that isn't rejected based on the access control settings.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If the system is powerful enough, &my-app; can theoretically deal with
+ several hundred (or thousand) connections at the same time, but some
+ operating systems enforce resource limits by shutting down offending
+ processes and their default limits may be below the ones &my-app; would
+ require under heavy load.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Configuring &my-app; to enforce a connection limit below the thread
+ or process limit used by the operating system makes sure this doesn't
+ happen. Simply increasing the operating system's limit would work too,
+ but if &my-app; isn't the only application running on the system,
+ you may actually want to limit the resources used by &my-app;.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If &my-app; is only used by a single trusted user, limiting the
+ number of client connections is probably unnecessary. If there
+ are multiple possibly untrusted users you probably still want to
+ additionally use a packet filter to limit the maximal number of
+ incoming connections per client. Otherwise a malicious user could
+ intentionally create a high number of connections to prevent other
+ users from using &my-app;.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Obviously using this option only makes sense if you choose a limit
+ below the one enforced by the operating system.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Examples:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ max-client-connections 256
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+<![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#max-client-connections 256</literallayout>]]>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-doc-returns-ok"><title>handle-as-empty-doc-returns-ok</title>
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Specifies:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The status code Privoxy returns for pages blocked with
+ <!-- URL will only end up in the user manual so the relative link should work. -->
+ <literal><ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT">+handle-as-empty-document</ulink></literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type of value:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <replaceable>0 or 1</replaceable>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Default value:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>0</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect if unset:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Privoxy returns a status 403(forbidden) for all blocked pages.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect if set:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Privoxy returns a status 200(OK) for pages blocked with +handle-as-empty-document
+ and a status 403(Forbidden) for all other blocked pages.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is a work-around for Firefox bug 492459:
+ <quote>
+ Websites are no longer rendered if SSL requests for JavaScripts are blocked by a proxy.
+ </quote>
+ (<ulink url="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=492459"
+ >https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=492459</ulink>)
+ As the bug has been fixed for quite some time this option should no longer
+ be needed and will be removed in a future release. Please speak up if you
+ have a reason why the option should be kept around.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+<![%config-file;[<literallayout>@@#handle-as-empty-doc-returns-ok 1</literallayout>]]>
+</sect3>
+
+
</sect2>
<!-- ~ End section ~ -->