<!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
<!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
<!entity p-authors SYSTEM "p-authors.sgml">
-<!entity p-version "2.9.15">
-<!entity p-status "beta">
+<!entity config SYSTEM "p-config.sgml">
+<!entity p-version "3.0.3">
+<!entity p-status "stable">
<!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
-<!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
-<!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
+<!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
+<!entity % p-stable "INCLUDE">
<!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
<!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
<!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
-<!entity % p-config "IGNORE">
+<!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
+<!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
<!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
<!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
<!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
This file belongs into
ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
- $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9 Exp $
+ $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9 Exp $
- Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
+ Copyright (C) 2001- 2003 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
See LICENSE.
========================================================================
<article id="index">
<artheader>
-<title>Privoxy User Manual</title>
+<title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
<pubdate>
<subscript>
<!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
<!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
- <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
- <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
+ <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001 - 2004 by
+ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
</subscript>
</pubdate>
-<pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
+<pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
<!--
Hal.
-<copyright>
- <year>2001</year>
- <year>2002</year>
- <holder>Privoxy Developers</holder>
-</copyright>
-
-<legalnotice id="legalnotice">
- <para>
- text goes here ........
- </para>
-</legalnotice>
-->
]]>
<para>
- The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
- <ulink
+ The <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
+
install, configure and use <ulink
url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
</para>
<!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
<para>
- You can find the latest version of the
user manual at <ulink
+ You can find the latest version of the
<citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
- Please see the <ulink url="contact.html">Contact section</ulink> on how to
+ Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
contact the developers.
</para>
</para>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat, SuSE RPMs and Conectiva</title>
+<sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs</title>
<para>
RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
<para>
If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
- <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm;</literal>. This
+ <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
</para>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
<para>
- FIXME.
+ DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
+ and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
+ configuration files.
</para>
</sect3>
<para>
Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
the installation process. You will find the configuration files
- in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in. We do not
- use the registry of Windows.
+ in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in.
</para>
</sect3>
<para>
Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
- things go. FIXME.
+ things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
</para>
</sect3>
First, make sure that no previous installations of
<application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
<application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
- system. You can do this by
+ system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
+ or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
+ your startup folder.
+
</para>
<para>
</sect3>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Max OSX</title>
-<para>
- Unzip the downloaded package (you can either double-click on the file
- in the finder, or on the desktop if you downloaded it there). Then,
- double-click on the package installer icon and follow the installation
- process.
- <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the subdirectory
- <literal>/Applications/Privoxy.app</literal>.
- <application>Privoxy</application> will set itself up to start
- automatically on system bring-up via
- <literal>/System/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
+<sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OSX</title>
+<para>
+ Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
+ from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
+ Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
+ <literal>Privoxy.pkg</literal>
+ and follow the installation process.
+ <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the folder
+ <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal>.
+ It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
+ starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
+ <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
+</para>
+<para>
+ To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
+ <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> in the
+ <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder.
+ Or, type this command in the Terminal:
+</para>
+<para>
+ <screen>
+ /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
+ </screen>
+</para>
+<para>
+ You will be prompted for the administrator password.
</para>
</sect3>
directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
remove this directory.
</para>
+</sect3>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
<para>
- Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
- <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
- <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
- startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
- <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
- TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
- <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
+ Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
+ contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
+ but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
+ <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
+</para>
+<para>
+ Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
+ first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
+ Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
+ version.
+</para>
+<para>
+ Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
+ documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
+ and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
</para>
</sect3>
+
</sect2>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
- url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
+ url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
tarball.</ulink>
</para>
<!-- end boilerplate -->
</sect2>
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
+<para>
+ As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
+ of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
+ url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
+ package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
+ download.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
+ <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
+ url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
+ to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
+ to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
+ recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> for your
+ customization of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
+ linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
</sect1>
<listitem>
<para>
Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
- HTTPS proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
+ HTTPS (SSL) proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
<literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
(<application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions of
<application>Privoxy</application> used port 8000.) See the section <link
<listitem>
<para>
Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
+ If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage cookies, you should
+ remove any currently stored cookies too.
</para>
</listitem>
linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
banners.]]>
- </para>
+</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
</para>
</listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ For easy access to Privoxy's most important controls, drag the provided
+ <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
+ personal toolbar.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
<listitem>
<para>
Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
<para>
This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
- information provided below, though this is highly recommeneded.
+ information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
</para>
<para>
First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
- wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs.
+ wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
+ actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
</para>
<para>
- When you connect to a website, the full path of the URL will either match one
- of the <quote>actions</quote> as defined in
- <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration, or not. If so, then
- <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the action accordingly. If
- not, then nothing special happens. Futhermore, web pages may contain
- embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will display as it parses the
- original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just a URL
+ When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
+ of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
+ or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
+ respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
+ pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
+ use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
+ original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
such embedded URLs.
</para>
<para>
- The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: <link
- linkend="block">block</link>, <link
- linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link>, and <link
- linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>:
+ The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: <literal><link
+ linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
+ linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>, and
+ <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
</para>
<para>
<listitem>
<para>
- <link linkend="block"><emphasis>block</emphasis></link> - this action stops
+ <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this action stops
any contact between your browser and any URL patterns that match this
action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads, but also anything
that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply stops any
- communication with the remote server. If this is the only action that
- matches for this particular URL, then <application>Privoxy</application> will
- display its own BLOCKED page to let you now what has happened.
+ communication with the remote server and sends <application>Privoxy</application>'s
+ own built-in BLOCKED page instead to let you now what has happened.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- <link linkend="handle-as-image"><emphasis>handle-as-image</emphasis></link> -
- forces <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as if it were
- an image. <application>Privoxy</application> knows about common image
- types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this does not apply.
- So we'll force it. This is particularly important for ad blocking, since
- once we can treat it as an image, we can make more intelligent decisisions
- on how to handle it. There are some limitations to this though. For
- instance, you can't just force an image substituion for an entire HTML page
- in most situations.
+ <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
+ tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
+ <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
+ for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
+ is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
+ important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
+ some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
+ <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
+ a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
+ though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
+ an entire HTML page in most situations.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- <link
- linkend="set-image-blocker"><emphasis>set-image-blocker</emphasis></link> -
- tells <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of
- an ad image that has hit a block rule. For this to come into play,
- the URL must match a block action somewhere in the configuration.
- <emphasis>And</emphasis>, it must also either be of a known image type, or
- match an <link
- linkend="handle-as-image"><emphasis>handle-as-image</emphasis></link>
- action.
+ <literal><link
+ linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
+ <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
+ has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
+ <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
+ configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
+ <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
</para>
<para>
The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
</para>
<simplelist>
<member>
- <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkboard pattern, so that an ad
+ <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
replacement is obvious. This is the default.
</member>
</simplelist>
</simplelist>
<simplelist>
<member>
- <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any URL of the
- user's choosing (advanced usage).
+ <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
+ of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
</member>
</simplelist>
</listitem>
<para>
The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
- the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor
at <ulink
+ the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
(shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
is an internal page, and does not require Internet access. Select the
<imagedata fileref="../images/files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
</imageobject>
<textobject>
- <phrase>Screenshot of Files in Use</phrase>
+ <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</figure>
<listitem>
<para>
- You should have an Actions section labeled <emphasis>+block</emphasis>.
- If not, click the <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote> button just
- under the word <quote>Actions</quote>. This will bring up a list of all
- actions. Find <emphasis>block</emphasis> near the top, and click in the
- <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then
- <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> just below the list.
+ You should have a section with only
+ <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
+ <quote>Actions:</quote>.
+ If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
+ button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
+ <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
+ This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
+ <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
+ in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
+ just below the list.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Now, in the <emphasis>+block</emphasis> actions section, click the
- <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
- browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link
- Location</guimenuitem></quote>. Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at
- the beginning of the URL. Then, click
- <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>.
+ Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
+ click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
+ browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
+ Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
+ <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
+ <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
+ The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
</para>
</sect2>
127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
</para>
+<para>
+ Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
+ HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
+</para>
+
+ <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
+ <para>
+ <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration (Mozilla)</title>
+ <mediaobject>
+ <imageobject>
+ <imagedata fileref="../images/proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
+ </imageobject>
+ <textobject>
+ <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
+ </textobject>
+ </mediaobject>
+ </figure>
+ </para>
<para>
With <application>Netscape</application> (and
- <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under <literal>Edit
- -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy</literal>.
- For <application>Internet Explorer</application>: <literal>Tools ->
- Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting</literal>. Then,
- check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info (Address:
- 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy support too.
+ <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
+</para>
+
+<literallayout>
+<!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
+<!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
+ <guibutton>Edit</guibutton>
+ |_
+ <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton>
+ |_
+ <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton>
+ |_
+ <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton>
+ |_
+ <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
+</literallayout>
+
+<para>
+ For <application>Internet Explorer</application>:
+</para>
+
+<literallayout>
+<!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
+<!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
+ <guibutton>Tools</guibutton>
+ |_
+ <guibutton>Internet Properties</guibutton>
+ |_
+ <guibutton>Connections</guibutton>
+ |_
+ <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
+</literallayout>
+
+<para>
+ Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
+ (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
+ proxy support too.
</para>
<para>
directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
</para>
-<sect2 id="start-redhatdebian">
-<title>RedHat, Conectiva and Debian</title>
+<sect2 id="start-redhat">
+<title>Red Hat and Conectiva</title>
<para>
-We use a script. Note that RedHat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
-default. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its
-main configuration file. FIXME: Debian??
+ We use a script. Note that Red Hat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
+ default. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as
+ its main configuration file.
</para>
<para>
<screen>
</para>
</sect2>
+<sect2 id="start-debian">
+<title>Debian</title>
+<para>
+ We use a script. Note that Debian starts Privoxy upon booting per
+ default. It will use the file
+ <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
+ file.
+</para>
+<para>
+ <screen>
+ # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
+</screen>
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
<sect2 id="start-suse">
<title>SuSE</title>
<para>
<sect2 id="start-os2">
<title>OS/2</title>
<para>
-FIXME.
+ During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
+ start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
+ double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
+ <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="start-macosx">
-<title>MAX OSX</title>
+<title>Mac OSX</title>
+<para>
+ During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
+ start automatically when the system restarts. To start Privoxy by hand,
+ double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
+ <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
+ in the Terminal:
+</para>
+<para>
+ <screen>
+ /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
+ </screen>
+</para>
<para>
-FIXME.
+ You will be prompted for the administrator password.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="start-amigaos">
<title>AmigaOS</title>
<para>
-FIXME.
+ Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
+ <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
+ <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
+ startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
+ <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
+ TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
+ <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 id="start-gentoo">
+<title>Gentoo</title>
+<para>
+ A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
+ </filename> as its main configuration file.
+</para>
+<para>
+ <screen>
+ /etc/init.d/privoxy start
+ </screen>
+</para>
+<para>
+ Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
+ boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
+ command.
+</para>
+<para>
+ <screen>
+ rc-update add privoxy default
+ </screen>
</para>
</sect2>
<para>
See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
- furher info.
+ further info.
</para>
must find a better place for this paragraph
</para>
<para>
- If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <ulink
- url="actions-file.html#ACTIONSFILE">read more about the actions concept</ulink>
- or even dive deep into the <ulink url="appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">Appendix
- on actions</ulink>.
+ If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
+ linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
+ or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
+ on actions</link>.
</para>
<para>
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
- section <ulink url="contact.html"><quote>Contacting the
- Developers</quote></ulink> below.
+ section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
+ Developers</quote></link> below.
</para>
-->
<emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
+
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
+ chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the Privoxy
+ process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
+ the impact of possible vulnerabilities in Privoxy to the files contained in that hierarchy.
+ Unix only.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
<!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
<screen>
<msgtext>
- <bridgehead renderas="sect2">Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
+ <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
<simplelist>
<member>
<member>
▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
</member>
+ <member>
+ ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/&p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
+ </member>
</simplelist>
</msgtext>
</screen>
file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
- whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
+ whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files. Only one filter
+ file may be defined.
</para>
</listitem>
<!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
-<sect1 id="config">
-<title>The Main Configuration File</title>
+<!-- **************************************************** -->
+<!-- Include config.sgml here -->
+<!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
+ &config;
+<!-- end include -->
+
+
+<!-- ~ End section ~ -->
+
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
+
+<sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
+
+<para>
+ The actions files are used to define what actions
+ <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determine
+ how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
+ transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
+ are three such files included with <application>Privoxy</application>
+ with differing purposes:
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
+ that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
+ provide a base level of functionality for
+ <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
+ a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well for users everywhere.
+ This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
+ linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
+ preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
+ has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
+ thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor,
+ to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
+ in <filename>default.action</filename>. These have increasing levels of
+ aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no influence on your browsing unless
+ you select them explicitly in the editor</emphasis>. It is not recommend
+ to edit this file.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
+ <filename>standard.action</filename> are:
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
+ <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
+ <colspec colname=c1>
+ <colspec colname=c2>
+ <colspec colname=c3>
+ <colspec colname=c4>
+ <thead>
+ <row>
+ <entry>Feature</entry>
+ <entry>Cautious</entry>
+ <entry>Medium</entry>
+ <entry>Adventuresome</entry>
+ </row>
+ </thead>
+ <!-- <tfoot> -->
+ <!-- <row> -->
+ <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
+ <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
+ <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
+ <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
+ <!-- </row> -->
+ <!-- </tfoot> -->
+ <tbody>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Ad-blocking by URL</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Referer forging</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
+ <entry>none</entry>
+ <entry>session-only</entry>
+ <entry>kill</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
+ <entry>unsolicited</entry>
+ <entry>unsolicited</entry>
+ <entry>all</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>HTML taming</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Fun text replacements</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Demoronizer</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+
+ </tbody>
+ </tgroup>
+ </table>
+ </para>
+
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </para>
+
+<para>
+ The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
+ file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
+ <filename>default.action</filename> is typically process before
+ <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
+ edited from <ulink
+ url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
+</para>
<para>
- Again, the main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename> on
- Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, and <filename>config.txt</filename> on Windows.
- Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of
- values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For
- example:
+ An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
+ <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
+ <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
+ Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
+ sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
+ universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
+ <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
+ from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
+ exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
+ <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
+ with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
+ personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
+ just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
+ or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
+ written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
+ fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
+ of actions</link>.
</para>
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2>
+<title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
<para>
- <literal>
- <msgtext>
- <literallayout>
- <emphasis>confdir /etc/privoxy</emphasis></literallayout>
- </msgtext>
- </literal>
+ Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
+ or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
+ techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
+ certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
+ <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
+ actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
+ will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
+ default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
+ regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful puposes, like maybe
+ your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
</para>
<para>
- Assigns the value <literal>/etc/privoxy</literal> to the option
- <literal>confdir</literal> and thus indicates that the configuration
- directory is named <quote>/etc/privoxy/</quote>.
+ We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
+ distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
+ things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
+ Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
</para>
+</sect2>
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2>
+<title>How to Edit</title>
<para>
- All options in the config file except for <literal>confdir</literal> and
- <literal>logdir</literal> are optional. Watch out in the below description
- for what happens if you leave them unset.
+ The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
+ using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
+ url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
+ The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
+ per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
+ <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Adventuresome</quote>.
+ Warning: the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> setting is not only more aggressive,
+ but includes settings that are fun and subversive, and which some may find of
+ dubious merit!
</para>
<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).
+ If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
+ the actions files. Look at <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly
+ commented.
</para>
+</sect2>
-<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 id="actions-apply">
+<title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
+<para>
+ Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
+ like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
+ be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
+ heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
+ of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
+ Below that, there is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
+</para>
-<sect2 id="conf-log-loc">
-<title>Configuration and Log File Locations</title>
+<para>
+ To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
+ compared to all patterns in each <quote>action file</quote> file. Every time it matches, the list of
+ applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
+ of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
+ the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
+ the effects are aggregated. E.g. a URL might match a regular section with
+ a heading line of <literal>{
+ +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
+ then later another one with just <literal>{
+ +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
+ in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply.
+</para>
<para>
- <application>Privoxy</application> can (and normally does) use a number of
- other files for additional configuration, help and logging.
- This section of the configuration file tells <application>Privoxy</application>
- where to find those other files.
+ You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
+ url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
</para>
<para>
- The user running Privoxy, must have read permission for all
- configuration files, and write permission to any files that would
- be modified, such as log files.
+ More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
+ Anatomy of an Action</link>.
</para>
+</sect2>
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="confdir"><title>confdir</title>
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect2 id="af-patterns">
+<title>Patterns</title>
+<para>
+ As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
+ to determine what actions might apply to which sites and pages your browser
+ attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild card type
+ <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
+ flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
+ against many similar patterns.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Generally, a <application>Privoxy</application> pattern has the form
+ <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
+ <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
+ optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
+ URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
+ <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
+ the pattern. This is assumed already!
+</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
+ <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
<listitem>
- <para>The directory where the other configuration files are located</para>
+ <para>
+ is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
+ regardless of which document on that server is requested.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
+ <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
<listitem>
- <para>Path name</para>
+ <para>
+ means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
+ be omitted.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
+ <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
<listitem>
- <para>/etc/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
+ <para>
+ matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
+ on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
- </para>
- <para>
- When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
- per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of <quote>confdir</quote>.
- For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
- <filename>confdir/templates</filename>, where the HTML templates for CGI
- output reside (e.g. <application>Privoxy's</application> 404 error page).
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logdir"><title>logdir</title>
-
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where <filename>logfile</filename> and
- <filename>jarfile</filename> are located)
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>Path name</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>/var/log/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="actionsfile"><title>
-actionsfile
-</title>
-<anchor id="default.action">
-<anchor id="standard.action">
-<anchor id="user.action">
-<!-- Note: slightly modified this section 04/28/02, hal. See NOTE. -->
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The <link linkend="actions-file">actions file(s)</link> to use
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal>, without the <literal>.action</literal> suffix</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default values:</term>
- <listitem>
- <simplelist>
- <member>
- <msgtext><literallayout> standard # Internal purposes, no editing recommended</literallayout></msgtext>
- </member>
- <member>
- <msgtext><literallayout> default # Main actions file</literallayout></msgtext>
- </member>
- <member>
- <msgtext><literallayout> user # User customizations</literallayout></msgtext>
- </member>
- </simplelist>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- No actions are taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Multiple <literal>actionsfile</literal> lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended!
- </para>
- <para>
- The default values include standard.action, which is used for internal
- purposes and should be loaded, default.action, which is the
- <quote>main</quote> actions file maintained by the developers, and
- <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can make your personal additions.
- </para>
- <para>
- Actions files are where all the per site and per URL configuration is done for
- ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc.
- There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without at
- least one actions file.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filterfile"><title>filterfile</title>
-<anchor id="default.filter">
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link> to use
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>default.filter (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.filter.txt (Windows)</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
- <literal>+<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
- actions in the actions files are turned neutral.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link> contains content modification
- rules that use <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link>. These rules permit
- powerful changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable your favorite
- JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some
- fun replacing <quote>Microsoft</quote> with <quote>MicroSuck</quote> wherever
- it appears on a Web page.
- </para>
- <para>
- The
- <literal>+<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
- actions rely on the relevant filter (<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>)
- to be defined in the filter file!
- </para>
- <para>
- A pre-defined filter file called <filename>default.filter</filename> that contains
- a bunch of handy filters for common problems is included in the distribution.
- See the section on the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
- action for a list.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logfile"><title>logfile</title>
-
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The log file to use
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>logfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.log (Windows)</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (<literal>stderr</literal>).
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The windows version will additionally log to the console.
- </para>
- <para>
- The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
- of detail and number of messages are set with the <literal>debug</literal>
- option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
- <application>Privoxy</application> (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you
- think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it.
- </para>
- <para>
- Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
- periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
- (see <quote>man cron</quote>). For Red Hat, a <command>logrotate</command>
- script has been included.
- </para>
- <para>
- On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like <quote>/var/log/privoxy.*
- +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup</quote> in <filename>/etc/logfiles</filename>, with
- the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the
- log, when it exceeds 1M size.
- </para>
- <para>
- Any log files must be writable by whatever user <application>Privoxy</application>
- is being run as (default on UNIX, user id is <quote>privoxy</quote>).
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jarfile"><title>jarfile</title>
-
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The file to store intercepted cookies in
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>jarfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.jar (Windows)</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Intercepted cookies are not stored at all.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trustfile"><title>trustfile</title>
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The trust file to use
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para><emphasis>Unset (commented out)</emphasis>. When activated: trust (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> trust.txt (Windows)</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The whole trust mechanism is turned off.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should
- be used with care. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> recommended for the casual user.
- </para>
- <para>
- If you specify a trust file, <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow
- access to sites that are named in the trustfile.
- You can also mark sites as trusted referrers (with <literal>+</literal>), with
- the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a
- trusted referrer was used.
- The link target will then be added to the <quote>trustfile</quote>.
- Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
- </para>
- <para>
- If you use <literal>+</literal> operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over time.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-</sect2>
-
-<!-- ~ End section ~ -->
-
-
-
-<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-
-<sect2 id="local-set-up">
-<title>Local Set-up Documentation</title>
-
- <para>
- If you intend to operate <application>Privoxy</application> for more users
- than just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach
- you, what you block and why you do that, your policies, etc.
- </para>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="user-manual"><title>user-manual</title>
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Location of the <application>Privoxy</application> User Manual.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>A fully qualified URI</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/<replaceable class="parameter">version</replaceable>/user-manual/</ulink>
- will be used, where <replaceable class="parameter">version</replaceable> is the <application>Privoxy</application> version.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The User Manual URI is used for help links from some of the internal CGI pages.
- The manual itself is normally packaged with the binary distributions, so you probably want
- to set this to a locally installed copy. For multi-user setups, you could provide a copy on
- a local webserver for all your users and use the corresponding URL here.
- </para>
- <para>
- Examples:
- </para>
- <para>
- Unix, in local filesystem:
- </para>
- <para>
- <screen>user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;/user-manual/</screen>
- </para>
- <para>
- Any platform, on local webserver (called <quote>local-webserver</quote>):
- </para>
- <para>
- <screen>user-manual http://local-webserver/privoxy-user-manual/</screen>
- </para>
- <warning>
- <para>
- If set, this option should be <emphasis>the first option in the config file</emphasis>, because
- it is used while the config file is being read.
- </para>
- </warning>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trust-info-url"><title>trust-info-url</title>
-
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>URL</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>Two example URL are provided</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been
- activated. (See <link linkend="trustfile"><emphasis>trustfile</emphasis></link> above.)
- </para>
- <para>
- If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
- documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here.
- Use multiple times for multiple URLs.
- </para>
- <para>
- The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up
- locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place!
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="admin-address"><title>admin-address</title>
-
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- An email address to reach the proxy administrator.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>Email address</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
- are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
- not be shown.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="proxy-info-url"><title>proxy-info-url</title>
-
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- A URL to documentation about the local <application>Privoxy</application> setup,
- configuration or policies.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>URL</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
- are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
- not be shown.
- </para>
- <para>
- This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-</sect2>
-<!-- ~ End section ~ -->
-
-<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-
-<sect2 id="debugging">
-<title>Debugging</title>
-
- <para>
- These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem.
- Note that you might also want to invoke
- <application>Privoxy</application> with the <literal>--no-daemon</literal>
- command line option when debugging.
- </para>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="debug"><title>debug</title>
-
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Key values that determine what information gets logged to the
- <link linkend="logfile"><emphasis>logfile</emphasis></link>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>Integer values</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Nothing gets logged.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The available debug levels are:
- </para>
- <para>
- <programlisting>
- debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
- debug 2 # show each connection status
- debug 4 # show I/O status
- debug 8 # show header parsing
- debug 16 # log all data into the logfile
- debug 32 # debug force feature
- debug 64 # debug regular expression filter
- debug 128 # debug fast redirects
- debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
- debug 512 # Common Log Format
- debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
- debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
- debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
-</programlisting>
- </para>
- <para>
- To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use
- multiple <literal>debug</literal> lines.
- </para>
- <para>
- A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request
- as it happens. <emphasis>1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended</emphasis>
- so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are probably
- only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce
- a hell of an output (especially 16).
- <!-- LOL -->
- </para>
- <para>
- The reporting of <emphasis>fatal</emphasis> errors (i.e. ones which crash
- <application>Privoxy</application>) is always on and cannot be disabled.
- </para>
- <para>
- If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set <quote>debug
- 512</quote> <emphasis>ONLY</emphasis> and not enable anything else.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="single-threaded"><title>single-threaded</title>
-
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Whether to run only one server thread
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para><emphasis>None</emphasis></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability to
- serve multiple requests simultaneously.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never
- need to use it. <emphasis>It will drastically reduce performance.</emphasis>
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-</sect2>
-
-<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-
-<sect2 id="access-control">
-<title>Access Control and Security</title>
-
- <para>
- This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
- of <application>Privoxy</application>'s configuration.
- </para>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="listen-address"><title>listen-address</title>
-
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The IP address and TCP port on which <application>Privoxy</application> will
- listen for client requests.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">IP-Address</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>127.0.0.1:8118</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Bind to 127.0.0.1 (localhost), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended for
- home users who run <application>Privoxy</application> on the same machine as
- their browser.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
- </para>
- <para>
- If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
- serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
- will need to override the default.
- </para>
- <para>
- If you leave out the IP address, <application>Privoxy</application> will
- bind to all 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.
- </para>
- <para>
- If you open <application>Privoxy</application> to untrusted users, you will
- also want to turn off the <literal><link
- linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link></literal> and
- <literal><link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link></literal>
- options!
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Example:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Suppose you are running <application>Privoxy</application> on
- a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network
- (192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address.
- You want it to serve requests from inside only:
- </para>
- <para>
- <programlisting>
- listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
-</programlisting>
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="toggle"><title>toggle</title>
-
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Initial state of "toggle" status
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>1 or 0</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>1</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Act as if toggled on
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- If set to 0, <application>Privoxy</application> will start in
- <quote>toggled off</quote> mode, i.e. behave like a normal, content-neutral
- proxy where all ad blocking, filtering, etc are disabled. See
- <literal>enable-remote-toggle</literal> below. This is not really useful
- anymore, since toggling is much easier via <ulink
- url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">the web interface</ulink> than via
- editing the <filename>conf</filename> file.
- </para>
- <para>
- The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
- if this option is present.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-remote-toggle"><title>enable-remote-toggle</title>
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">web-based toggle
- feature</ulink> may be used
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>0 or 1</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>1</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- When toggled off, <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal,
- content-neutral proxy, i.e. it acts as if none of the actions applied to
- any URL.
- </para>
- <para>
- For the time being, access to the toggle feature can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
- controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
- so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
- <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
- toggle it for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>
- for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
- </para>
- <para>
- Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
- support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-edit-actions"><title>enable-edit-actions</title>
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions
- file editor</ulink> may be used
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>0 or 1</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>1</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- For the time being, access to the editor can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
- controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
- so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
- <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
- modify its configuration for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not
- recommended</emphasis> for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
- </para>
- <para>
- Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
- support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="acls"><title>
-ACLs: permit-access and deny-access</title>
-<anchor id="permit-access">
-<anchor id="deny-access">
-
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Who can access what.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable>]
- [<replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable>]]
- </para>
- <para>
- Where <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable> and
- <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
- DNS names, and <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> and
- <replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable> are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
- values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
- destination part are optional.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Don't restrict access further than implied by <literal>listen-address</literal>
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
- administrators, and <emphasis>are not usually needed by individual users</emphasis>.
- For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
- <application>Privoxy</application> only listens on the localhost
- (127.0.0.1) or internal (home) network address by means of the
- <link linkend="listen-address"><emphasis>listen-address</emphasis></link>
- option.
- </para>
- <para>
- Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute
- for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security
- weaknesses.
- </para>
- <para>
- Multiple ACL lines are OK.
- If any ACLs are specified, then the <application>Privoxy</application>
- talks only to IP addresses that match at least one <literal>permit-access</literal> line
- and don't match any subsequent <literal>deny-access</literal> line. In other words, the
- last match wins, with the default being <literal>deny-access</literal>.
- </para>
- <para>
- If <application>Privoxy</application> is using a forwarder (see <literal>forward</literal> below)
- for a particular destination URL, the <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>
- that is examined is the address of the forwarder and <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the address
- of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
- <application>Privoxy</application> to determine the IP address of the
- ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
- </para>
- <para>
- You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
- time. All DNS names must resolve! You can <emphasis>not</emphasis> use domain patterns
- like <quote>*.org</quote> or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
- IP addresses, only the first one is used.
- </para>
- <para>
- Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
- if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Examples:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
- <literal>listen-address</literal> are set: <quote>localhost</quote>
- is OK. The absence of a <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> implies that
- <emphasis>all</emphasis> destination addresses are OK:
- </para>
- <para>
- <screen>
- permit-access localhost
-</screen>
- </para>
- <para>
- Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
- nothing but www.example.com:
- </para>
- <para>
- <screen>
- permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
-</screen>
- </para>
- <para>
- Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
- with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
- </para>
- <para>
- <screen>
- permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
- deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
-</screen>
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="buffer-limit"><title>buffer-limit</title>
-
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>Size in Kbytes</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>4096</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- For content filtering, i.e. the <literal>+filter</literal> and
- <literal>+deanimate-gif</literal> actions, it is necessary that
- <application>Privoxy</application> buffers the entire document body.
- This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
- data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
- Hence this option.
- </para>
- <para>
- When a document buffer size reaches the <literal>buffer-limit</literal>, it is
- flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
- filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
- running, which might require up to <literal>buffer-limit</literal> Kbytes
- <emphasis>each</emphasis>, unless you have enabled <quote>single-threaded</quote>
- above.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-</sect2>
-
-<!-- ~ End section ~ -->
-
-
-<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-
-<sect2 id="forwarding">
-<title>Forwarding</title>
-
-<para>
- This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
- multiple proxies.
- It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
- accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains
- through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. <ulink
- url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm</ulink>)
- Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
- proxy may be necessary because the machine that <application>Privoxy</application>
- runs on has no direct Internet access.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. <application>Privoxy</application>
- supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols.
-</para>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward"><title>forward</title>
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
- <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
- </para>
- <para>
- Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
- chapter on domain matching in the <filename>default.action</filename> file),
- <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is the address of the parent HTTP proxy
- as an IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or as a valid DNS name (or <quote>.</quote> to denote
- <quote>no forwarding</quote>, and the optional
- <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer
- values from 1 to 64535
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
- forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
- </para>
- <para>
- Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Examples:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
- </para>
- <para>
- <screen>
- forward .* anon-proxy.example.org:8080
- forward :443 .
-</screen>
- </para>
- <para>
- Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
- to that ISP's sites:
- </para>
- <para>
- <screen>
- forward .*. caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
- forward .example-isp.net .
-</screen>
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="socks"><title>
-forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a</title>
-<anchor id="forward-socks4">
-<anchor id="forward-socks4a">
-
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Specifies:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Type of value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
- <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
- <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
- </para>
- <para>
- Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
- chapter on domain matching in the <filename>default.action</filename> file),
- <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> and <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>
- are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (<replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>
- may be <quote>.</quote> to denote <quote>no HTTP forwarding</quote>), and the optional
- <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Default value:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Effect if unset:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Don't use SOCKS proxies.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Notes:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
- </para>
- <para>
- The difference between <literal>forward-socks4</literal> and <literal>forward-socks4a</literal>
- is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
- server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
- </para>
- <para>
- If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
- forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
- a SOCKS proxy.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Examples:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
- <quote>internal</quote> domains, but everything outbound goes through
- their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
- the Internet.
- </para>
- <para>
- <screen>
- forward-socks4a .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
- forward .example.com .
-</screen>
- </para>
- <para>
- A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
- </para>
- <para>
- <screen>
- forward-socks4 .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
-</screen>
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-</variablelist>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="advanced-forwarding-examples"><title>Advanced Forwarding Examples</title>
-
-<para>
- If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
- only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple <application>Privoxies</application>
- which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
- <emphasis>your</emphasis> users can see the internal content of all ISPs.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
- isp-b.net. Both run <application>Privoxy</application>. Their forwarding
- configuration can look like this:
-</para>
-
-<para>
- host-a:
-</para>
-
-<para>
- <screen>
- forward .*. .
- forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
-</screen>
-</para>
-
-<para>
- host-b:
-</para>
-
-<para>
- <screen>
- forward .*. .
- forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
-</screen>
-</para>
-
-<para>
- Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
- host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
- of both isp-a and isp-b.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- If you intend to chain <application>Privoxy</application> and
- <application>squid</application> locally, then chain as
- <literal>browser -> squid -> privoxy</literal> is the recommended way.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- Assuming that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>squid</application>
- run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this:
-</para>
-
-<para>
- <screen>
- # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
- cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
-
- # Define ACL for protocol FTP
- acl ftp proto FTP
-
- # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
- always_direct allow ftp
-
- # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
- never_direct allow all</screen>
-</para>
-
-<para>
- You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to <application>squid</application>'s address and port.
- Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult <literal>http_port</literal> in <filename>squid.conf</filename>.
-</para>
-
-</sect3>
-
-</sect2>
-
-<!-- ~ End section ~ -->
-
-
-<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-
-<sect2 id="windows-gui">
-<title>Windows GUI Options</title>
-<para>
- <application>Privoxy</application> has a number of options specific to the
- Windows GUI interface:
-</para>
-
-<anchor id="activity-animation">
-<para>
- If <quote>activity-animation</quote> is set to 1, the
- <application>Privoxy</application> icon will animate when
- <quote>Privoxy</quote> is active. To turn off, set to 0.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- <literal>
- <msgtext>
- <literallayout>
- <emphasis>activity-animation 1</emphasis>
- </literallayout>
- </msgtext>
- </literal>
-</para>
-
-<anchor id="log-messages">
-<para>
- If <quote>log-messages</quote> is set to 1,
- <application>Privoxy</application> will log messages to the console
- window:
-</para>
-
-<para>
- <literal>
- <msgtext>
- <literallayout>
- <emphasis>log-messages 1</emphasis>
- </literallayout>
- </msgtext>
- </literal>
-</para>
-
-<anchor id="log-buffer-size">
-<para>
- If <quote>log-buffer-size</quote> is set to 1, the size of the log buffer,
- i.e. the amount of memory used for the log messages displayed in the
- console window, will be limited to <quote>log-max-lines</quote> (see below).
-</para>
-
-<para>
- Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and
- eat up all your memory!
-</para>
-
-<para>
- <literal>
- <msgtext>
- <literallayout>
- <emphasis>log-buffer-size 1</emphasis>
- </literallayout>
- </msgtext>
- </literal>
-</para>
-
-<anchor id="log-max-lines">
-<para>
- <application>log-max-lines</application> is the maximum number of lines held
- in the log buffer. See above.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- <literal>
- <msgtext>
- <literallayout>
- <emphasis>log-max-lines 200</emphasis>
- </literallayout>
- </msgtext>
- </literal>
-</para>
-
-<anchor id="log-highlight-messages">
-<para>
- If <quote>log-highlight-messages</quote> is set to 1,
- <application>Privoxy</application> will highlight portions of the log
- messages with a bold-faced font:
-</para>
-
-<para>
- <literal>
- <msgtext>
- <literallayout>
- <emphasis>log-highlight-messages 1</emphasis>
- </literallayout>
- </msgtext>
- </literal>
-</para>
-
-<anchor id="log-font-name">
-<para>
- The font used in the console window:
-</para>
-
-<para>
- <literal>
- <msgtext>
- <literallayout>
- <emphasis>log-font-name Comic Sans MS</emphasis>
- </literallayout>
- </msgtext>
- </literal>
-</para>
-
-<anchor id="log-font-size">
-<para>
- Font size used in the console window:
-</para>
-
-<para>
- <literal>
- <msgtext>
- <literallayout>
- <emphasis>log-font-size 8</emphasis>
- </literallayout>
- </msgtext>
- </literal>
-</para>
-
-<anchor id="show-on-task-bar">
-<para>
- <quote>show-on-task-bar</quote> controls whether or not
- <application>Privoxy</application> will appear as a button on the Task bar
- when minimized:
-</para>
-
-<para>
- <literal>
- <msgtext>
- <literallayout>
- <emphasis>show-on-task-bar 0</emphasis>
- </literallayout>
- </msgtext>
- </literal>
-</para>
-
-<anchor id="close-button-minimizes">
-<para>
- If <quote>close-button-minimizes</quote> is set to 1, the Windows close
- button will minimize <application>Privoxy</application> instead of closing
- the program (close with the exit option on the File menu).
-</para>
-
-<para>
- <literal>
- <msgtext>
- <literallayout>
- <emphasis>close-button-minimizes 1</emphasis>
- </literallayout>
- </msgtext>
- </literal>
-</para>
-
-<anchor id="hide-console">
-<para>
- The <quote>hide-console</quote> option is specific to the MS-Win console
- version of <application>Privoxy</application>. If this option is used,
- <application>Privoxy</application> will disconnect from and hide the
- command console.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- <literal>
- <msgtext>
- <literallayout>
- #<emphasis>hide-console</emphasis>
- </literallayout>
- </msgtext>
- </literal>
-</para>
-
-</sect2>
-</sect1>
-
-<!-- ~ End section ~ -->
-
-
-
-<!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
-
-<sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
-
-<para>
- The actions files are used to define what actions
- <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determine
- how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
- transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
- are three such files included with <application>Privoxy</application> (as of
- version 2.9.15), with differing purposes:
- </para>
-
- <para>
- <itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
- that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
- provide a base level of functionality for
- <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
- a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well for users everywhere.
- This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and making
- available to users.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
- preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
- has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
- thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor,
- to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
- in <filename>default.action</filename>. These have increasing levels of
- aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no influence on your browsing unless
- you select them explicitly in the editor</emphasis>. It is not recommend
- to edit this file.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </para>
-
-<para>
- The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
- file, and are processed in the order they are defined. The content of these
- can all be viewed and edited from <ulink
- url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
- <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
- <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
- Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
- sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
- universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
- <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
- from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
- exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
- <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
- with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
- personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
- just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
- or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
- written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
- fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
- of actions</link>.
-</para>
-
-<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect2>
-<title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
-<para>
- Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
- or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
- techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
- certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
- <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
- actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
- will have to make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per
- default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
- regularly use and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe
- your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
- distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
- things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
- Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
-</para>
-</sect2>
-
-<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect2>
-<title>How to Edit</title>
-<para>
- The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
- using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
- url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
- The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
- per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
- <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Advanced</quote>.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
- the actions files. Look at <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly
- commented.
-</para>
-</sect2>
-
-
-<sect2 id="actions-apply">
-<title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
-<para>
- Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
- like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will be discussed later. For now
- let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a heading line (often split
- up to multiple lines for readability) which consist of a list of actions,
- separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces. Below that, there
- is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
- compared to all patterns in each action file file. Every time it matches, the list of
- applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
- of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
- the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
- the effects are aggregated (e.g. a URL might match both the
- <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>
- and <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> actions).
-
-</para>
-
-<para>
- You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
- url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
-</para>
-
-<para>
- More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
- Anatomy of an Action</link>.
-</para>
-</sect2>
-
-<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect2 id="af-patterns">
-<title>Patterns</title>
-<para>
- Generally, a pattern has the form <literal><domain>/<path></literal>,
- where both the <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal>
- are optional. (This is why the pattern <literal>/</literal> matches all URLs).
-</para>
-
-<variablelist>
- <varlistentry>
- <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
- regardless of which document on that server is requested.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
- be omitted.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
- on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
+ <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
</para>
<para>
- Please also note that matching in the path is case
- <emphasis>INSENSITIVE</emphasis> by default, but you can switch to case
- sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
- <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch:
- <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match only
- documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
+ Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
+ by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
+ <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
+ only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
<emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
</para>
</sect3>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
-<title><emphasis>add-header</emphasis></title>
+<title>add-header</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
-<title><emphasis>block</emphasis></title>
+<title>block</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
-<title><emphasis>crunch-incoming-cookies</emphasis></title>
+<title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<para>
It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
- since it would prevent the session cookies from being set.
+ since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
+ <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
-<title><emphasis>crunch-outgoing-cookies</emphasis></title>
+<title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
-<title><emphasis>deanimate-gifs</emphasis></title>
+<title>deanimate-gifs</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
-<title><emphasis>downgrade-http-version</emphasis></title>
+<title>downgrade-http-version</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
-<title><emphasis>fast-redirects</emphasis></title>
+<title>fast-redirects</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
-<title><emphasis>filter</emphasis></title>
+<title>filter</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Effect:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Text documents, including HTML and JavaScript, to which this action applies, are filtered on-the-fly
- through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
+ All files of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which this
+ action applies, are filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular expression
+ based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
+ are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
+ <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they
+ don't know.)
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>
(typically <filename>default.filter</filename>, set by the
<literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
- option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>)
+ option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>). When used in its negative form,
+ and without parameters, filtering is completely disabled.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- For your convenience, there are a bunch of pre-defined filters available
- in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the example below for
+ For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
+ in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
a list.
</para>
- <para>
- This is potentially a very powerful feature! But <quote>rolling your own</quote>
- filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
- </para>
<para>
Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
noticeable on slower connections.
</para>
+ <para>
+ This is very powerful feature, but <quote>rolling your own</quote>
+ filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
+ <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
+ option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
+ default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
+ data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Inadequate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
+ (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
+ (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
+ the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
+ be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
+ by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> sections.
+ </para>
<para>
At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
</para>
<para>
- Filtering can achieve some of the effects as the
+ Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
<literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
- action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners.
+ action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
+ works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
+ based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
+ standardized.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
+ improved filters is particularly welcome!
</para>
<para>
- <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or improved filters is particularly
- welcome!
+ The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
+ predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
+ verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
+ linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file):</term>
+ <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
+ See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
+ more explanation on each:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>
- <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
- <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
- </para>
<para>
<anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
<screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
</para>
<para>
- <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
- <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)</screen>
+ <anchor id="filter-js-events">
+ <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites)</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
+ <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse</screen>
</para>
<para>
<anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
- <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come sneaking in the HTML or JS content</screen>
+ <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
+ <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
+ <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
+ <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
+ <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
+ <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size</screen>
</para>
<para>
- <anchor id="filter-popups">
- <screen>+filter{popups} # Kill all popups in JS and HTML</screen>
+ <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
+ <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers</screen>
</para>
<para>
<anchor id="filter-webbugs">
<screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
</para>
<para>
- <anchor id="filter-fun">
- <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
+ <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
+ <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap</screen>
</para>
<para>
- <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
- <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
+ <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
+ <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves</screen>
</para>
<para>
- <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
- <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
+ <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
+ <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable</screen>
</para>
<para>
- <anchor id="filter-nimda">
- <screen>+filter{nimda} # Remove Nimda (virus) code.</screen>
+ <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
+ <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets</screen>
</para>
<para>
<anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
<screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
</para>
<para>
- <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
- <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"</screen>
+ <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
+ <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-fun">
+ <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
+ <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering (demo only)</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
+ <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits</screen>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
-<title><emphasis>handle-as-image</emphasis></title>
+<title>handle-as-image</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
</para>
<para>
- Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (inline) ad
+ Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
-<title><emphasis>hide-forwarded-for-headers</emphasis></title>
+<title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
-<title><emphasis>hide-from-header</emphasis></title>
+<title>hide-from-header</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
-<title><emphasis>hide-referrer</emphasis></title>
+<title>hide-referrer</title>
<anchor id="hide-referer">
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
-<title><emphasis>hide-user-agent</emphasis></title>
+<title>hide-user-agent</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
-<title><emphasis>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></emphasis></title>
+<title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Typical use:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows</para>
+ <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows (deprecated)</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- This action is easily confused with the built-in, hardwired <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
+ This action is basically a built-in, hardwired special-purpose filter
action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
<literal><link
- linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>popups</replaceable>}</literal>
- does.
+ linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>all-popups</replaceable>}</link></literal>
+ does and is not as smart as <literal><link
+ linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
+ </literal>is.
</para>
<para>
Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
</para>
<para>
- Killing all pop-ups is a dangerous business. Many shops and banks rely on
- pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and killing only the unwanted pop-ups
- would require artificial intelligence in <application>Privoxy</application>.
+ Killing all pop-ups unconditionally is problematic. Many shops and banks rely on
+ pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and the <literal><link
+ linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
+ </literal> does a fairly good job of catching only the unwanted ones.
+ </para>
+ <para>
If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
<emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
one), you might want to use
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
-<title><emphasis>limit-connect</emphasis></title>
+<title>limit-connect</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
-<title><emphasis>prevent-compression</emphasis></title>
+<title>prevent-compression</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
-<title><emphasis>send-vanilla-wafer</emphasis></title>
+<title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
-<title><emphasis>send-wafer</emphasis></title>
+<title>send-wafer</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
-<title><emphasis>session-cookies-only</emphasis></title>
+<title>session-cookies-only</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Typical use:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
+ Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
+ browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Effect:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> server headers.
- Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and forget them in between sessions.
+ Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
+ server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
+ forget them in between sessions.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
</para>
+ <para>
+ This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
+ previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
+ These would have to be removed manually.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
+ the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
+ to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
+ <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
-<title><emphasis>set-image-blocker</emphasis></title>
+<title>set-image-blocker</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<para>
<quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
- to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem (via <quote>file:///</quote> URL).
+ to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
+ (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
</para>
<para>
A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
# These aliases just save typing later:
# (Note that some already use other aliases!)
#
- +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
- -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
+ +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
+ -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
- mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
+ mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
# These aliases define combinations of actions
# that are useful for certain types of sites:
#
- fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
- shop = -crunch-all-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
+ fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
+ shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
# Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
#
# These shops require pop-ups:
#
- {shop -kill-popups -filter{popups}}
+ {shop -kill-popups -filter{all-popups}}
.dabs.com
.overclockers.co.uk</screen>
</para>
##########################################################################
{{alias}}
-# These aliases just save typing later:
-# (Note that some already use other aliases!)
-#
-+crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
--crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
-block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
-mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
+ # These aliases just save typing later:
+ # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
+ #
+ +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
+ -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
+ block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
+ mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
-# These aliases define combinations of actions
-# that are useful for certain types of sites:
-#
-fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
-shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups</screen>
+ # These aliases define combinations of actions
+ # that are useful for certain types of sites:
+ #
+ fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
+ shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></screen>
</para>
<para>
<para>
The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
- <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs.</link>. Therefore, the
+ <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
<para>
Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
- to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: A <quote>+</quote>
+ to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
multiple lines with line continuation.
+<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
-<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
+<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> \
- +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
+<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-EVENTS">filter{js-events}</link> \
+ +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
-<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
- +<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> \
- +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
- -<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
- -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
- +<link linkend="FILTER-NIMDA">filter{nimda}</link> \
+ +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
+ +<link linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{unsolicited-popups}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> \
+ +<link linkend="FILTER-IMG-REORDER">filter{img-reorder}</link> \
+<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">filter{banners-by-link}</link> \
+ +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-TINY-TEXTFORMS">filter{tiny-textforms}</link> \
+ +<link linkend="FILTER-JUMPING-WINDOWS">filter{jumping-windows}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-FRAMESET-BORDERS">filter{frameset-borders}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-DEMORONIZER">filter{demoronizer}</link> \
-<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-QUICKTIME-KIOSKMODE">filter{quicktime-kioskmode}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
-<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
+ +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
-<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
+<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
+<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
want to block in later sections.
- We will also want to make exceptions from our general pop-up-killing,
- and use our defined aliases for that.
</para>
<para>
.scan.co.uk</screen>
</para>
+<!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
+
<para>
Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
safely choose
- -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
+ -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
-<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
<screen>
# These sites require pop-ups too :(
#
-{ -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
+{ -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
.dabs.com
.overclockers.co.uk
.deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
</para>
+ END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
+
<para>
The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
<para>
So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
- you'd maybe want to be more specific and have customized rules that
+ you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
<para>
<screen>
+# Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
# (Re-)define aliases for this file:
#
{{alias}}
+#
+# These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
+# be self explanatory.
+#
++crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
-crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
-mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
-fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
-shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
-allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} # (see below)</screen>
+ allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
+ allow-popups = -filter{all-popups} -kill-popups
++block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
+-block-as-image = -block
+
+# These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
+# certain types of sites:
+#
+fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer -kill-popups
+shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
+
+# Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
+#
+allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}</screen>
+
</para>
Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
- <literal>mercy-for-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
- that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and
- processing of cookies to make them temporary.
+ <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
+ that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
+ processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
</para>
<para>
<screen>
-{ mercy-for-cookies }
+{ allow-all-cookies }
+sourceforge.net
sunsolve.sun.com
-slashdot.org
+.slashdot.org
.yahoo.com
.msdn.microsoft.com
.redhat.com</screen>
</para>
<para>
- Your bank needs popups and is allergic to some filter, but you don't
- know which, so you disable them all:
+ Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
</para>
<para>
<screen>
-{ -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> }
+{ -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
.your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
</para>
<para>
- While browsing the web with <application>Privoxy</application> you
- noticed some ads that sneaked through, but you were too lazy to
- report them through our fine and easy <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>
- system, so you have added them here:
+ Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ <screen>
+# Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
+# erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
+#
+.tldp.org
+/(.*/)?selfhtml/
+
+# And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
+# so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
+#
+stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
+ seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
+ You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
+ and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
+ <literal>{ +block }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
+ }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
+ <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
+ in default.action anyway:
</para>
<para>
<screen>
{ +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
-www.a-popular-site.com/some/unobvious/path
+www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.gif
another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
</para>
<para>
- Note that, assuming the banners in the above example have regular image
- extensions (most do),
- <literal>+<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link></literal>
- need not be specified, since all URLs ending in these extensions will
- already have been tagged as images in the relevant section of
- <filename>default.action</filename> by now.
+ The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
+ farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
+ makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
+ the file type just by looking at the URL.
+ You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
+ these cases.
+ Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
+ image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
+ browser. Use cautiously.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ <screen>
+{ +block-as-image }
+.doubleclick.net
+/Realmedia/ads/
+ar.atwola.com/</screen>
</para>
<para>
- Then you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
+ Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
- -- whoa! -- it worked:
+ -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
+ aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
+ good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
+ that is causing the problem or not.
</para>
<para>
</para>
<para>
- Finally, you might think about how your favourite free websites are
+ You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
sites that you feel provide value to you:
<para>
Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
- <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
- <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>
- above.
+ <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
+ <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
+ <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
+ exceptions and additions to the default policies of
+ <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
+ default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
+ <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
+ <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
+ paths and patterns:
+</para>
+
+<para>
+<screen>
+{ +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
+/ # ALL sites</screen>
</para>
+
</sect3>
</sect2>
</para>
<para>
- Filtering works on any text-based document type, including plain
- text, HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
- MIME types). Substitutions are made at the source level, so if
- you want to <quote>roll your own</quote> filters, you should be
- familiar with HTML syntax.
+ Filtering works on any text-based document type, including
+ HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
+ MIME types, <emphasis>except</emphasis> <literal>text/plain</literal>).
+ Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
+ your own</quote> filters, you should be familiar with HTML syntax.
</para>
<para>
in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
<literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
- <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/pcrs.1.html">PCRS man page</ulink>
+ <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/pcrs.3.html">PCRS man page</ulink>
for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most notably, the non-standard
option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported, which turns the default
to ungreedy matching.
The below examples might also help to get you started.
</para>
+
<!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
<sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
</para>
-<para>
- Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
- lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
- easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
- <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
- the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
- This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
- (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
- Business!"</literal>.
-</para>
+<para>
+ Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
+ lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
+ easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
+ <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
+ the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
+ This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
+ (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
+ Business!"</literal>.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
+ <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
+ <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
+ since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
+ string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
+ information anymore.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
+ this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ <screen>
+# The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
+#
+s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
+ carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
+ or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
+ makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
+ option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
+ <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
+ a backreference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
+ with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
+ a backreference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
+ strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
+ (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
+ real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
+ descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
+ you move your mouse over links.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ <screen>
+# Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
+#
+s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Including the
+ <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
+ event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
+ When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
+ This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
+ <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
+ Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
+ case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
+ a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
+ instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
+ <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
+ content does.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ The last example is from the fun department:
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ <screen>
+FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
+
+# Spice the daily news:
+#
+s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
+ in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
+ <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
+ in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
+ still replacing the word everywhere else.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ <screen>
+# Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
+#
+s* industry[ -]leading \
+| cutting[ -]edge \
+| customer[ -]focused \
+| market[ -]driven \
+| award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
+| high[ -]performance \
+| solutions[ -]based \
+| unmatched \
+| unparalleled \
+| unrivalled \
+*<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
+*igx</screen>
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
+ e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ You get the idea?
+</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
+
+<sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
+
+<!--
+
+ Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
+ keep these listings in sync.
+
+-->
+
+<para>
+The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
+pre-defined filters for your convenience:
+</para>
+
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
+ To that end, it
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
+ with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
+ linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ removes the bindings to the DOM's
+ <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
+ event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
+ nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
+ full-screen, non-resizable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
+ means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
+ resizing etc, anymore.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
+ many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
+ need to go there).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+<varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
+ are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
+ resizable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
+ scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialogue, where they can be intercepted
+ by the
+ <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
+ and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
+ actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
+ to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This filter disables HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets cookies. Use
+ it wherever you would also use the cookie crunch actions.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
+ that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
+ for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
+ annoying.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
+ windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
+ has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
+ as an improvement over earlier such filters.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
+ function to a dummy function during the loading and rendering phase of each
+ HTML page access, and restoring the function afterwards.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
+ Note this should be used with more discretion than the above, since it is
+ more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal usage. Use
+ with caution.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
+ <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
+ (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
+ for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
+ sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
+ but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
-<para>
- The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
- <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
- <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
- since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
- string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
- information anymore.
-</para>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
+ their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
+ not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
-<para>
- We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
- this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
-</para>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
+ are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
+ As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
+ browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
+ through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
+ the use ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
+ HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
-<para>
- <screen>
-# The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
-#
-s/window\.status\s*=\s*['"].*?['"]/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
-</para>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
+ multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
+ It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
+ a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
-<para>
- <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
- carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
- or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
- makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
- option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
- <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>.
-</para>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
+ neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
+ or behave as intended when using this filter.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
-<para>
- So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
- strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
- (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
- real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
- descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
- you move your mouse over links.
-</para>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
+ web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
+ because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
+ yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
+ small to show their whole content.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
+ which need it.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
-<para>
- <screen>
-# Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
-#
-s/(<body .*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
-</para>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
+ violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This causes those
+ HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
+ It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
+ all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
+ worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if wierd garbage characters
+ sometimes appear on some pages.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
-<para>
- Including the
- <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
- event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
- When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
- This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
- <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
- Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
- case-insensitive.
-</para>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
+ out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
-<para>
- The last example is from the fun department:
-</para>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
+ prevents saving, is disabled.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
-<para>
- <screen>
-FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
+ Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
-# Spice the daily news:
-#
-s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
-</para>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
+ can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
-<para>
- Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
- in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
- <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
- in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being messed, while
- still replacing the word everywhere else.
-</para>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ A collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
+ code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
+ would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
-<para>
- <screen>
-# Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
-#
-s* industry[ -]leading \
-| cutting[ -]edge \
-| award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
-| high[ -]performance \
-| solutions[ -]based \
-| unmatched \
-| unparalleled \
-| unrivalled \
-*<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
-*igx</screen>
-</para>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
+ anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
+ to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
+ <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
+ anything regarding this filter.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
-<para>
- The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
- e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
-</para>
+<!--
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+-->
+</variablelist>
-<para>
- You get the idea?
-</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
(<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
- intended)
+ intended.)
</para>
<para>
These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
- directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On unixish platforms,
+ directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
this is typically
<ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
</para>
blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
- in in an alpha or beta development stage:
+ is in an alpha or beta development stage:
</para>
<para>
</para>
<para>
- For information on regular expression based substititions and their applications
+ For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
in this manual.
</para>
</blockquote>
<para>
There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
- doesn't provide a fallback to a real page, in case the request is not
+ doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
</para>
</listitem>
<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>
</para>
</listitem>
-
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
<para>
Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
- <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
+ <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
have more information about bookmarklets.
</para>
<para>
First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
- filtered as deterimed by the
+ filtered as determined by the
<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
- and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!).
+ and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
+ logs is a good idea too.
</para>
<para>
<para>
One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
- This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm...
+ This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
</para>
<para>
was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
- One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. Try
- adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
+ One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. These
+ tend to be harder to troubleshoot. Try adding the URL for the site to one of
+ aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
</para>
<para>
</para>
<para>
- This would probably be most appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>,
- for local site exceptions.
+ This would turn off all filtering for that site. This would probably be most
+ appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
+ exceptions.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
+ <quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote> rule, which assumes
+ that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well most of the time
+ since these tend to be standardized).
</para>
<para>
Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
$Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
+ Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
+ Fix typo 'loose'
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
+ Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
+ Fixed an inaccuracy
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
+ Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
+ is dependent on browser.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
+ Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
+ Some minor clarifications
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
+ Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
+ and copyright notice dates.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
+ Changed the demoronizer filter description.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
+ Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
+ Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
+ Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
+ solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
+ Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
+ files).
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
+ Updated hard-coded copyright dates
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
+ Add new section on Predefined Filters.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
+ More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
+ Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
+ causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
+ it was a comment).
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
+ s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
+ Added documentation for new chroot option
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
+ Adapted to the new filters
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
+ Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
+ Add faq on cookies.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
+ Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
+ Add demoronizer to filter section.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
+ s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
+ Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
+ cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
+ More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
+ Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
+ CGIs.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
+ Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
+ Update to Mac OSX startup script name
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
+ Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
+ Nits re: actions file download
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
+ Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
+ Added 2 Gentoo sections
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
+ - Added version info to title
+ - Added info on new filters
+ - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
+ - Added info on where to get updated actions files
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
+ Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
+
+ Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
+ Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
+ Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
+ Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
+ This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
+ eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
+ so that these are in sync with each other.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
+ Ooops missed something from David.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
+ Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
+ That's a wrap, I think.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
+ Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
+ -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
+
+ Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
+ Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
+ Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
+
+ Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
+ Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
+
+ Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
+ - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
+ <literal><link> style.
+ - Small fixes in the actions chapter
+ - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
+ - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
+ renders them red (bad in TOC).
+
+ Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
+ Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
+
+ Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
+ Added Security hint
+
Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
-New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
-Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff