-Privoxy User Manual
+Privoxy 2.9.16 User Manual
Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Privoxy Developers
-$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes Exp $
+$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes Exp $
-The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
+
+The User Manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
Privoxy.
Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting
Privoxy is based on Internet Junkbuster (tm).
-You can find the latest version of the user manual at http://www.privoxy.org/
+You can find the latest version of the User Manual at http://www.privoxy.org/
user-manual/. Please see the Contact section on how to contact the developers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
-
1.1. Features
-2. Installation
+2. Installation
2.1. Binary Packages
-
- 2.1.1. Red Hat, SuSE RPMs and Conectiva
+ 2.1.1. Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs
2.1.2. Debian
2.1.3. Windows
2.1.4. Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX
2.1.5. OS/2
- 2.1.6. Max OSX
+ 2.1.6. Mac OSX
2.1.7. AmigaOS
+
2.2. Building from Source
+ 2.3. Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date
+
3. Note to Upgraders
4. Quickstart to Using Privoxy
-
4.1. Quickstart to Ad Blocking
+
5. Starting Privoxy
+ 5.1. Red Hat and Conectiva
+ 5.2. Debian
+ 5.3. SuSE
+ 5.4. Windows
+ 5.5. Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others
+ 5.6. OS/2
+ 5.7. Mac OSX
+ 5.8. AmigaOS
+ 5.9. Command Line Options
- 5.1. RedHat, Conectiva and Debian
- 5.2. SuSE
- 5.3. Windows
- 5.4. Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others
- 5.5. OS/2
- 5.6. MAX OSX
- 5.7. AmigaOS
- 5.8. Command Line Options
6. Privoxy Configuration
-
6.1. Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser
6.2. Configuration Files Overview
-7. The Main Configuration File
+7. The Main Configuration File
7.1. Configuration and Log File Locations
-
7.1.1. confdir
7.1.2. logdir
7.1.3. actionsfile
7.1.6. jarfile
7.1.7. trustfile
- 7.2. Local Set-up Documentation
+ 7.2. Local Set-up Documentation
7.2.1. user-manual
7.2.2. trust-info-url
7.2.3. admin-address
7.2.4. proxy-info-url
- 7.3. Debugging
+ 7.3. Debugging
7.3.1. debug
7.3.2. single-threaded
- 7.4. Access Control and Security
+ 7.4. Access Control and Security
7.4.1. listen-address
7.4.2. toggle
7.4.3. enable-remote-toggle
7.4.5. ACLs: permit-access and deny-access
7.4.6. buffer-limit
- 7.5. Forwarding
+ 7.5. Forwarding
7.5.1. forward
7.5.2. forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a
7.5.3. Advanced Forwarding Examples
+
7.6. Windows GUI Options
-8. Actions Files
+8. Actions Files
8.1. Finding the Right Mix
8.2. How to Edit
8.3. How Actions are Applied to URLs
8.4. Patterns
-
+ 22
8.4.1. The Domain Pattern
8.4.2. The Path Pattern
- 8.5. Actions
+ 8.5. Actions
8.5.1. add-header
8.5.2. block
8.5.3. crunch-incoming-cookies
8.5.20. set-image-blocker
8.5.21. Summary
+
8.6. Aliases
8.7. Actions Files Tutorial
-
8.7.1. default.action
8.7.2. user.action
-9. The Filter File
+
+
+9. The Filter File
9.1. Filter File Tutorial
+
10. Templates
11. Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
-
11.1. Get Support
11.2. Report Bugs
11.3. Request New Features
11.4. Report Ads or Other Actions-Related Problems
11.5. Other
-12. Privoxy Copyright, License and History
+12. Privoxy Copyright, License and History
12.1. License
12.2. History
12.3. Authors
+
13. See Also
14. Appendix
-
14.1. Regular Expressions
14.2. Privoxy's Internal Pages
-
14.2.1. Bookmarklets
+
14.3. Chain of Events
14.4. Anatomy of an Action
+
+
1. Introduction
This documentation is included with the current beta version of Privoxy,
-v.2.9.15, and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference
+v.2.9.16, and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference
for the time being is still the comments in the source files and in the
individual configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over earlier
Since this is a beta version, not all new features are well tested. This
documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with CVS
sources). And there may be bugs, though hopefully not many!
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.1. Features
blocking and cookie management, Privoxy provides new features, some of them
currently under development:
- * Integrated browser based configuration and control utility at http://
+ * Integrated browser based configuration and control utility at http://
config.privoxy.org/ (shortcut: http://p.p/). Browser-based tracing of rule
and filter effects. Remote toggling.
- * Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size, invisible
+ * Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size, invisible
"web-bugs", JavaScript and HTML annoyances, pop-up windows, etc.)
- * Modularized configuration that allows for standard settings and user
+ * Modularized configuration that allows for standard settings and user
settings to reside in separate files, so that installing updated actions
files won't overwrite individual user settings.
- * HTTP/1.1 compliant (but not all optional 1.1 features are supported).
+ * HTTP/1.1 compliant (but not all optional 1.1 features are supported).
- * Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files,
+ * Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files,
and generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
previous versions.
- * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
+ * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
- * GIF de-animation.
+ * GIF de-animation.
- * Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
+ * Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
- * Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
+ * Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
- * User-customizable HTML templates for all proxy-generated pages (e.g.
+ * User-customizable HTML templates for all proxy-generated pages (e.g.
"blocked" page).
- * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
+ * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
- * Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix).
+ * Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix).
- * Every feature now controllable on a per-site or per-location basis,
+ * Every feature now controllable on a per-site or per-location basis,
configuration more powerful and versatile over-all.
- * Many smaller new features added, limitations and bugs removed, and security
+ * Many smaller new features added, limitations and bugs removed, and security
holes fixed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Installation
Privoxy is available both in convenient pre-compiled packages for a wide range
of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform). In any case be
sure to backup your old configuration if it is valuable to you. See the note to
upgraders section below.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1. Binary Packages
How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-2.1.1. Red Hat, SuSE RPMs and Conectiva
+2.1.1. Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs
-RPMs can be installed with rpm -Uvh privoxy-2.9.15-1.rpm, and will use /etc/
+RPMs can be installed with rpm -Uvh privoxy-2.9.16-1.rpm, and will use /etc/
privoxy for the location of configuration files.
Note that on Red Hat, Privoxy will not be automatically started on system boot.
that SuSE will automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM: rpm
---rebuild privoxy-2.9.15-1.src.rpm;. This will use your locally installed
+--rebuild privoxy-2.9.16-1.src.rpm. This will use your locally installed
libraries and RPM version.
Also note that if you have a Junkbuster RPM installed on your system, you need
to remove it first, because the packages conflict. Otherwise, RPM will try to
remove Junkbuster automatically, before installing Privoxy.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1.2. Debian
-FIXME.
-
+DEBs can be installed with dpkg -i privoxy_2.9.16-1.deb, and will use /etc/
+privoxy for the location of configuration files.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1.3. Windows
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.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1.4. Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX
Create a new directory, cd to it, then unzip and untar the archive. For the
-most part, you'll have to figure out where things go. FIXME.
-
+most part, you'll have to figure out where things go.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1.5. OS/2
First, make sure that no previous installations of Junkbuster and / or Privoxy
-are left on your system. You can do this by
+are left on your system. Check that no Junkbuster or Privoxy objects are in
+your startup folder.
Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will guide
you through the installation process. A shadow of the Privoxy executable will
The directory you choose to install Privoxy into will contain all of the
configuration files.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-2.1.6. Max OSX
+2.1.6. Mac OSX
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. Privoxy will be
-installed in the subdirectory /Applications/Privoxy.app. Privoxy will set
-itself up to start automatically on system bring-up via /System/Library/
-StartupItems/Privoxy.
-
+finder, or on the desktop if you downloaded it there). The Privoxy.pkg package
+should appear after unzipping. Then, double-click on that Privoxy.pkg package
+installer icon and follow the installation process. Privoxy will be installed
+in the folder /Library/Privoxy. It will run automatically whenever you start
+up. To prevent it from running automatically, remove or rename the folder /
+Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
+
+To run Privoxy by hand, double-click on RunPrivoxy.command. To run Privoxy from
+Terminal, execute /Library/Privoxy/RunPrivoxy.command.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1.7. AmigaOS
Copy and then unpack the lha archive to a suitable location. All necessary
files will be installed into Privoxy directory, including all configuration and
log files. To uninstall, just remove this directory.
-
-Start Privoxy (with RUN <>NIL:) in your startnet script (AmiTCP), in s:
-user-startup (RoadShow), as startup program in your startup script (Genesis),
-or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx). Privoxy will automatically quit when
-you quit your TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack
-may display that Privoxy is still running).
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.2. Building from Source
When building from a source tarball (either release version or nightly CVS
tarball), first unpack the source:
- tar xzvf privoxy-2.9.15-beta-src* [.tgz or .tar.gz]
- cd privoxy-2.9.15-beta
+ tar xzvf privoxy-2.9.16-beta-src* [.tgz or .tar.gz]
+ cd privoxy-2.9.16-beta
For retrieving the current CVS sources, you'll need CVS installed. Note that
sources from CVS are development quality, and may not be stable, or well
For more detailed instructions on how to build Redhat and SuSE RPMs, Windows
self-extracting installers, building on platforms with special requirements
etc, please consult the developer manual.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+2.3. Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date
+As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated
+versions of both the software and the main actions file (default.action)
+available for download.
+
+If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
+Privoxy or the actions file, subscribe to our announce mailing list,
+ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
+
+Both can be downloaded from the files section on SourceForge.
+
+In order not to loose your personal changes and adjustments when updating to
+the latest default.action file we strongly recommend that you use user.action
+for your customization of Privoxy. See the Chapter on actions files for
+details.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Note to Upgraders
A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
- * The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
+ * The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
service (NAS).
- * Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any important
+ * Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any important
configuration files!
- * Privoxy is controllable with a web browser at the special URL: http://
+ * Privoxy is controllable with a web browser at the special URL: http://
config.privoxy.org/ (Shortcut: http://p.p/). Many aspects of configuration
can be done here, including temporarily disabling Privoxy.
- * The primary configuration files for cookie management, ad and banner
+ * The primary configuration files for cookie management, ad and banner
blocking, and many other aspects of Privoxy configuration are the actions
files. It is strongly recommended to become familiar with the new actions
concept below, before modifying these files. Locally defined rules should
go into user.action.
- * Some installers may not automatically start Privoxy after installation.
+ * Some installers may not automatically start Privoxy after installation.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Quickstart to Using Privoxy
- * If upgrading, from versions before 2.9.16, please back up any configuration
+ * If upgrading, from versions before 2.9.16, please back up any configuration
files. See the Note to Upgraders Section.
- * Install Privoxy. See the Installation Section below for platform specific
+ * Install Privoxy. See the Installation Section below for platform specific
information.
- * Advanced users and those who want to offer Privoxy service to more than
+ * Advanced users and those who want to offer Privoxy service to more than
just their local machine should check the main config file, especially the
security-relevant options. These are off by default.
- * Start Privoxy, if the installation program has not done this already (may
+ * Start Privoxy, if the installation program has not done this already (may
vary according to platform). See the section Starting Privoxy.
- * Set your browser to use Privoxy as HTTP and HTTPS proxy by setting the
+ * Set your browser to use Privoxy as HTTP and HTTPS proxy by setting the
proxy configuration for address of 127.0.0.1 and port 8118. (Junkbuster and
- earlier versions of Privoxy used port 8000.) See the section Starting
+ earlier versions of Privoxy used port 8000.) See the section Starting
Privoxy below for more details on this.
- * Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad
+ * Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad
images.
- * A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for most.
+ * A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for most.
There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little to no
initial configuration is required in most cases.
See the Configuration section for more configuration options, and how to
customize your installation.
- * If you experience ads that slipped through, innocent images that are
+ * If you experience ads that slipped through, innocent images that are
blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune Privoxy's behaviour, take
a look at the actions files. As a quick start, you might find the richly
commented examples helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files
through the web-based user interface. The Appendix "Anatomy of an Action"
has hints how to debug actions that "misbehave".
- * Please see the section Contacting the Developers on how to report bugs or
+ * Please see the section Contacting the Developers on how to report bugs or
problems with websites or to get help.
- * Now enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy!
+ * Now enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.1. Quickstart to Ad Blocking
Ad blocking is but one of Privoxy's array of features. Many of these features
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.
+below, though this is highly recommended.
First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the more
aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block things that were
Actions are specified in Privoxy's configuration, followed by one or more URLs
to which the action should apply. URLs can actually be URL type patterns that
-use wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs.
-
-When you connect to a website, the full path of the URL will either match one
-of the "actions" as defined in Privoxy's configuration, or not. If so, then
-Privoxy 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 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.
+use wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
+actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
+
+When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more of
+the sections as defined in Privoxy's configuration, or not. If so, then Privoxy
+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.
The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: block, handle-as-image,
and set-image-blocker:
- * block - this action stops any contact between your browser and any URL
+ * block - 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 Privoxy will
- display its own BLOCKED page to let you now what has happened.
-
- * handle-as-image - forces Privoxy to treat this URL as if it were an image.
- Privoxy 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.
-
- * set-image-blocker - tells Privoxy what to display in place of an ad image
+ itself, it simply stops any communication with the remote server and sends
+ Privoxy's own built-in BLOCKED page instead to let you now what has
+ happened.
+
+ * handle-as-image - tells Privoxy to treat this URL as an image. Privoxy'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 Privoxy BLOCKED
+ page (which would only result in a "broken image" 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.
+
+ * set-image-blocker - tells Privoxy 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. And, it must also either be of
- a known image type, or match an handle-as-image action.
+ block action somewhere in the configuration, and, it must also match an
+ handle-as-image action.
The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
- pattern - a checkboard pattern, so that an ad replacement is obvious.
+ pattern - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad replacement is obvious.
This is the default.
- blank - A very small empty GIF image is displayed. This is the so-called
+ blank - A very small empty GIF image is displayed. This is the so-called
"invisible" configuration option.
- http://<URL> - A redirect to any URL of the user's choosing (advanced
- usage).
+ http://<URL> - A redirect to any image anywhere of the user's choosing
+ (advanced usage).
+
+
The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
the special Privoxy editor at http://config.privoxy.org/show-status (shortcut:
http://p.p/show-status). This is an internal page, and does not require
A quick and simple step by step example:
- * Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select "Copy Link Location"
+ * Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select "Copy Link Location"
from the pop-up menu.
- * Set your browser to http://config.privoxy.org/show-status
+ * Set your browser to http://config.privoxy.org/show-status
- * Find user.action in the top section, and click on "Edit":
+ * Find user.action in the top section, and click on "Edit":
Figure 1. Actions Files in Use
- Screenshot of Files in Use
+ [ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]
- * You should have an Actions section labeled +block. If not, click the "Edit"
- button just under the word "Actions". This will bring up a list of all
- actions. Find block near the top, and click in the "Enabled" column, then
- "Submit" just below the list.
+ * You should have a section with only block listed under "Actions:". If not,
+ click a "Insert new section below" button, and in the new section that just
+ appeared, click the Edit button right under the word "Actions:". This will
+ bring up a list of all actions. Find block near the top, and click in the
+ "Enabled" column, then "Submit" just below the list.
- * Now, in the +block actions section, click the "Add" button, and paste the
+ * Now, in the block actions section, click the "Add" button, and paste the
URL the browser got from "Copy Link Location". Remove the http:// at the
- beginning of the URL. Then, click "Submit".
+ beginning of the URL. Then, click "Submit" (or "OK" if in a pop-up window).
- * Now go back to the original page, and press SHIFT-Reload (or flush all
+ * Now go back to the original page, and press SHIFT-Reload (or flush all
browser caches). The image should be gone now.
+
This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
site. For a more extensive explanation of "patterns", and the entire actions
concept, see the Actions section.
For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want to
-now go to the Actions Files Tutorial.
-
+now go to the Actions Files Tutorial. The ideas explained therein also apply to
+the web-based editor.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Starting Privoxy
(or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions used port
8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
-With Netscape (and Mozilla), this can be set under Edit -> Preferences ->
-Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy. For Internet Explorer: Tools -> Internet
-Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting. Then, check "Use Proxy" and fill in
-the appropriate info (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy
-support too.
+Please note that Privoxy can only proxy HTTP and HTTPS traffic. It will not
+work with FTP or other protocols.
+
+Figure 2. Proxy Configuration (Mozilla)
+
+[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]
+
+With Netscape (and Mozilla), this can be set under:
+
+ Edit
+ |_
+ Preferences
+ |_
+ Advanced
+ |_
+ Proxies
+ |_
+ HTTP Proxy
+
+For Internet Explorer:
+
+ Tools
+ |_
+ Internet Properties
+ |_
+ Connections
+ |_
+ LAN Settings
+
+Then, check "Use Proxy" and fill in the appropriate info (Address: 127.0.0.1,
+Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS proxy support too.
After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You are
used on the command line. If no configuration file is specified on the command
line, Privoxy will look for a file named config in the current directory.
Except on Win32 where it will try config.txt.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-5.1. RedHat, Conectiva and Debian
+5.1. Red Hat and Conectiva
-We use a script. Note that RedHat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
+We use a script. Note that Red Hat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
default. It will use the file /etc/privoxy/config as its main configuration
-file. FIXME: Debian??
+file.
# /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+5.2. Debian
+
+We use a script. Note that Debian starts Privoxy upon booting per default. It
+will use the file /etc/privoxy/config as its main configuration file.
+
+ # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-5.2. SuSE
+5.3. SuSE
We use a script. It will use the file /etc/privoxy/config as its main
configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting your PC.
# rcprivoxy start
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-5.3. Windows
+5.4. Windows
Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy. If no configuration file is
specified on the command line, Privoxy will look for a file named config.txt.
Note that Windows will automatically start Privoxy upon booting you PC.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-5.4. Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others
+5.5. Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others
Example Unix startup command:
# /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-5.5. OS/2
-
-FIXME.
+5.6. OS/2
+During installation, Privoxy is configured to start automatically when the
+system restarts. You can start it manually by double-clicking on the Privoxy
+icon in the Privoxy folder.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-5.6. MAX OSX
+5.7. Mac OSX
-FIXME.
+During installation, Privoxy is configured to start automatically when the
+system restarts. To run Privoxy by hand, double-click on the RunPrivoxy.command
+icon in the /Library/Privoxy folder. Or, type this command in the Terminal:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ /Library/Privoxy/RunPrivoxy.command
+
-5.7. AmigaOS
+If you are not logged in as an administrator, you will be asked for the
+administrator password when starting Privoxy by hand.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-FIXME.
+5.8. AmigaOS
+Start Privoxy (with RUN <>NIL:) in your startnet script (AmiTCP), in s:
+user-startup (RoadShow), as startup program in your startup script (Genesis),
+or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx). Privoxy will automatically quit when
+you quit your TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack
+may display that Privoxy is still running).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-5.8. Command Line Options
+5.9. Command Line Options
Privoxy may be invoked with the following command-line options:
- * --version
+ * --version
Print version info and exit. Unix only.
- * --help
+ * --help
Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
- * --no-daemon
+ * --no-daemon
Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group leader, and
don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
- * --pidfile FILE
+ * --pidfile FILE
On startup, write the process ID to FILE. Delete the FILE on exit. Failure
to create or delete the FILE is non-fatal. If no FILE option is given, no
PID file will be used. Unix only.
- * --user USER[.GROUP]
+ * --user USER[.GROUP]
After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of USER, and if
included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the privileges are not sufficient to do
so. Unix only.
- * configfile
+ * configfile
If no configfile is included on the command line, Privoxy will look for a
file named "config" in the current directory (except on Win32 where it will
look for "config.txt" instead). Specify full path to avoid confusion. If no
config file is found, Privoxy will fail to start.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Privoxy Configuration
All Privoxy configuration is stored in text files. These files can be edited
with a text editor. Many important aspects of Privoxy can also be controlled
easily with a web browser.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.1. Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser
Privoxy's user interface can be reached through the special URL http://
config.privoxy.org/ (shortcut: http://p.p/), which is a built-in page and works
without Internet access. You will see the following section:
-
- Privoxy Menu
- ? View & change the current configuration
- ? View the source code version numbers
- ? View the request headers.
- ? Look up which actions apply to a URL and why
- ? Toggle Privoxy on or off
-
+ Privoxy Menu
+ ?? View & change the current configuration
+ ?? View the source code version numbers
+ ?? View the request headers.
+ ?? Look up which actions apply to a URL and why
+ ?? Toggle Privoxy on or off
This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
actions files, which is where the ad, banner, cookie, and URL blocking magic is
proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e. Privoxy acts like a
normal forwarding proxy. There is even a toggle Bookmarklet offered, so that
you can toggle Privoxy with one click from your browser.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.2. Configuration Files Overview
settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the principle
configuration files are:
- * The main configuration file is named config on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and
+ * The main configuration file is named config on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and
AmigaOS and config.txt on Windows. This is a required file.
- * default.action (the main actions file) is used to define which "actions"
+ * default.action (the main actions file) is used to define which "actions"
relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups, content modification, cookie
handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many exceptions
- (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
+ (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
Privoxy to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on as many
websites as possible.
config.privoxy.org/show-status (Shortcut: http://p.p/show-status) for the
various actions files.
- * default.filter (the filter file) can be used to re-write the raw page
+ * default.filter (the filter file) 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.
+
All files use the "#" character to denote a comment (the rest of the line will
be ignored) and understand line continuation through placing a backslash ("\")
as the very last character in a line. If the # is preceded by a backslash, it
below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this. Also, what
constitutes a "default" setting, may change, so please check all your
configuration files on important issues.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. The Main Configuration File
followed by a list of values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces
or tabs). For example:
- confdir /etc/privoxy
+ confdir /etc/privoxy
Assigns the value /etc/privoxy to the option confdir and thus indicates that
the configuration directory is named "/etc/privoxy/".
The main config file controls all aspects of Privoxy's operation that are not
location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter where you may be
surfing).
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1. Configuration and Log File Locations
Privoxy can (and normally does) use a number of other files for additional
-configuration, help and logging. This section of the configuration file tells
+configuration, help and logging. This section of the configuration file tells
Privoxy where to find those other files.
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.
-
+files and actions files.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1.1. confdir
Specifies:
-
The directory where the other configuration files are located
Type of value:
-
Path name
Default value:
-
/etc/privoxy (Unix) or Privoxy installation dir (Windows)
Effect if unset:
-
Mandatory
Notes:
-
No trailing "/", please
When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
where the HTML templates for CGI output reside (e.g. Privoxy's 404 error
page).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1.2. logdir
Specifies:
-
The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where logfile and jarfile
are located)
Type of value:
-
Path name
Default value:
-
/var/log/privoxy (Unix) or Privoxy installation dir (Windows)
Effect if unset:
-
Mandatory
Notes:
-
No trailing "/", please
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1.3. actionsfile
Specifies:
-
The actions file(s) to use
Type of value:
-
File name, relative to confdir, without the .action suffix
Default values:
+ standard # Internal purposes, no editing recommended
+ default # Main actions file
+ user # User customizations
- standard # Internal purposes, no editing recommended
-
- default # Main actions file
-
- user # User customizations
Effect if unset:
-
No actions are taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
Notes:
-
Multiple actionsfile lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended!
The default values include standard.action, which is used for internal
for ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc. There is
no point in using Privoxy without at least one actions file.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1.4. filterfile
Specifies:
-
The filter file to use
Type of value:
-
File name, relative to confdir
Default value:
-
default.filter (Unix) or default.filter.txt (Windows)
Effect if unset:
-
No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all +filter{name} actions in
the actions files are turned neutral.
Notes:
-
The filter file contains content modification rules that use regular
expressions. 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
+ re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some fun replacing
"Microsoft" with "MicroSuck" wherever it appears on a Web page.
The +filter{name} actions rely on the relevant filter (name) to be defined
handy filters for common problems is included in the distribution. See the
section on the filter action for a list.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1.5. logfile
Specifies:
-
The log file to use
Type of value:
-
File name, relative to logdir
Default value:
-
logfile (Unix) or privoxy.log (Windows)
Effect if unset:
-
- No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (stderr).
+ No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (STDERR).
Notes:
-
The windows version will additionally log to the console.
The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
Any log files must be writable by whatever user Privoxy is being run as
(default on UNIX, user id is "privoxy").
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1.6. jarfile
Specifies:
-
The file to store intercepted cookies in
Type of value:
-
File name, relative to logdir
Default value:
-
jarfile (Unix) or privoxy.jar (Windows)
Effect if unset:
-
Intercepted cookies are not stored at all.
Notes:
-
The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.1.7. trustfile
Specifies:
-
The trust file to use
Type of value:
-
File name, relative to confdir
Default value:
-
Unset (commented out). When activated: trust (Unix) or trust.txt (Windows)
Effect if unset:
-
The whole trust mechanism is turned off.
Notes:
-
The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and
should be used with care. It is NOT recommended for the casual user.
If you use + operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over
time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.2. Local Set-up Documentation
If you intend to operate Privoxy 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.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.2.1. user-manual
Specifies:
-
Location of the Privoxy User Manual.
Type of value:
-
A fully qualified URI
Default value:
-
Unset
Effect if unset:
-
http://www.privoxy.org/version/user-manual/ will be used, where version is
the Privoxy version.
Notes:
-
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
Unix, in local filesystem:
- user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-2.9.15/user-manual/
+ user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-2.9.16/user-manual/
Any platform, on local webserver (called "local-webserver"):
- user-manual http://local-webserver/privoxy-user-manual/
+ user-manual http://local-webserver/privoxy-user-manual/
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Warning |
- |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|If set, this option should be the first option in the config |
|file, because it is used while the config file is being read. |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
7.2.2. trust-info-url
Specifies:
-
A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an
untrusted page is denied.
Type of value:
-
URL
Default value:
-
Two example URL are provided
Effect if unset:
-
No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
Notes:
-
The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism
has been activated. (See trustfile above.)
locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first
place!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.2.3. admin-address
Specifies:
-
An email address to reach the proxy administrator.
Type of value:
-
Email address
Default value:
-
Unset
Effect if unset:
-
No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
Notes:
-
If both admin-address and proxy-info-url are unset, the whole "Local
Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will not be shown.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.2.4. proxy-info-url
Specifies:
-
A URL to documentation about the local Privoxy setup, configuration or
policies.
Type of value:
-
URL
Default value:
-
Unset
Effect if unset:
-
No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user
interface.
Notes:
-
If both admin-address and proxy-info-url are unset, the whole "Local
Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will not be shown.
This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.3. Debugging
These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem. Note that you might
also want to invoke Privoxy with the --no-daemon command line option when
debugging.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.3.1. debug
Specifies:
-
Key values that determine what information gets logged to the logfile.
Type of value:
-
Integer values
Default value:
-
12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)
Effect if unset:
-
Nothing gets logged.
Notes:
-
The available debug levels are:
debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set "debug 512" ONLY
and not enable anything else.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.3.2. single-threaded
Specifies:
-
Whether to run only one server thread
Type of value:
-
None
Default value:
-
Unset
Effect if unset:
-
Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability
to serve multiple requests simultaneously.
Notes:
-
This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never need to
use it. It will drastically reduce performance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.4. Access Control and Security
-This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects of
+This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects of
Privoxy's configuration.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.4.1. listen-address
Specifies:
-
The IP address and TCP port on which Privoxy will listen for client
requests.
Type of value:
-
[IP-Address]:Port
Default value:
-
127.0.0.1:8118
Effect if unset:
-
Bind to 127.0.0.1 (localhost), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended
for home users who run Privoxy on the same machine as their browser.
Notes:
-
You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
If you leave out the IP address, Privoxy will bind to all interfaces
(addresses) on your machine and may become reachable from the Internet. In
- that case, consider using access control lists (ACL's) (see "ACLs" below),
- or a firewall.
+ that case, consider using access control lists (ACL's, see below), and/or a
+ firewall.
-Example:
+ If you open Privoxy to untrusted users, you will also want to turn off the
+ enable-edit-actions and enable-remote-toggle options!
+Example:
Suppose you are running Privoxy 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
listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.4.2. toggle
Specifies:
-
Initial state of "toggle" status
Type of value:
-
1 or 0
Default value:
-
1
Effect if unset:
-
Act as if toggled on
Notes:
-
If set to 0, Privoxy will start in "toggled off" mode, i.e. behave like a
normal, content-neutral proxy where all ad blocking, filtering, etc are
disabled. See enable-remote-toggle below. This is not really useful
The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray if
this option is present.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.4.3. enable-remote-toggle
Specifies:
-
Whether or not the web-based toggle feature may be used
Type of value:
-
0 or 1
Default value:
-
1
Effect if unset:
-
The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
Notes:
-
When toggled off, Privoxy acts like a normal, content-neutral proxy, i.e.
it acts as if none of the actions applied to any URL.
Note that you must have compiled Privoxy with support for this feature,
otherwise this option has no effect.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.4.4. enable-edit-actions
Specifies:
-
Whether or not the web-based actions file editor may be used
Type of value:
-
0 or 1
Default value:
-
1
Effect if unset:
-
The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
Notes:
-
For the time being, access to the editor can not be controlled separately
by "ACLs" or HTTP authentication, so that everybody who can access Privoxy
(see "ACLs" and listen-address above) can modify its configuration for all
Note that you must have compiled Privoxy with support for this feature,
otherwise this option has no effect.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.4.5. ACLs: permit-access and deny-access
Specifies:
-
Who can access what.
Type of value:
-
src_addr[/src_masklen] [dst_addr[/dst_masklen]]
Where src_addr and dst_addr are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or
optional.
Default value:
-
Unset
Effect if unset:
-
Don't restrict access further than implied by listen-address
Notes:
-
Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
administrators, and are not usually needed by individual users. For a
typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that Privoxy only
sites.
Examples:
-
Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and listen-address are
set: "localhost" is OK. The absence of a dst_addr implies that all
destination addresses are OK:
permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.4.6. buffer-limit
Specifies:
-
Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
Type of value:
-
Size in Kbytes
Default value:
-
4096
Effect if unset:
-
Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
Notes:
-
For content filtering, i.e. the +filter and +deanimate-gif actions, it is
necessary that Privoxy buffers the entire document body. This can be
potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending data
When a document buffer size reaches the buffer-limit, 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 buffer-limit Kbytes each, unless you have enabled
+ require up to buffer-limit Kbytes each, unless you have enabled
"single-threaded" above.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.5. Forwarding
This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of multiple
Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. Privoxy supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS
4A protocols.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.5.1. forward
Specifies:
-
To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
Type of value:
-
target_domain[:port] http_parent[/port]
Where target_domain is a domain name pattern (see the chapter on domain
parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
Default value:
-
Unset
Effect if unset:
-
Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
Notes:
-
If http_parent is ".", then requests are not forwarded to another HTTP
proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
wins.
Examples:
-
Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443
(which it doesn't handle):
forward .*. caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
forward .example-isp.net .
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.5.2. forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a
Specifies:
-
Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific
requests should be routed.
Type of value:
-
target_domain[:port] socks_proxy[/port] http_parent[/port]
Where target_domain is a domain name pattern (see the chapter on domain
TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
Default value:
-
Unset
Effect if unset:
-
Don't use SOCKS proxies.
Notes:
-
Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match
wins.
a SOCKS proxy.
Examples:
-
From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all "internal"
domains, but everything outbound goes through their ISP's proxy by way of
example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to the Internet.
forward-socks4 .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.5.3. Advanced Forwarding Examples
If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content only to
You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to squid's address
and port. Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult http_port in
squid.conf.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.6. Windows GUI Options
Privoxy has a number of options specific to the Windows GUI interface:
-If "activity-animation" is set to 1, the Privoxy icon will animate when
+
+If "activity-animation" is set to 1, the Privoxy icon will animate when
"Privoxy" is active. To turn off, set to 0.
- activity-animation 1
-
+ activity-animation 1
+
+
If "log-messages" is set to 1, Privoxy will log messages to the console window:
- log-messages 1
-
+ log-messages 1
+
+
If "log-buffer-size" 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
Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and eat
up all your memory!
- log-buffer-size 1
-
+ log-buffer-size 1
+
+
log-max-lines is the maximum number of lines held in the log buffer. See above.
- log-max-lines 200
-
+ log-max-lines 200
+
+
If "log-highlight-messages" is set to 1, Privoxy will highlight portions of the
log messages with a bold-faced font:
- log-highlight-messages 1
-
+ log-highlight-messages 1
+
+
The font used in the console window:
- log-font-name Comic Sans MS
-
+ log-font-name Comic Sans MS
+
+
Font size used in the console window:
- log-font-size 8
-
+ log-font-size 8
+
+
"show-on-task-bar" controls whether or not Privoxy will appear as a button on
the Task bar when minimized:
- show-on-task-bar 0
-
+ show-on-task-bar 0
+
+
If "close-button-minimizes" is set to 1, the Windows close button will minimize
Privoxy instead of closing the program (close with the exit option on the File
menu).
- close-button-minimizes 1
-
+ close-button-minimizes 1
+
+
The "hide-console" option is specific to the MS-Win console version of Privoxy.
If this option is used, Privoxy will disconnect from and hide the command
console.
- #hide-console
-
-
+ #hide-console
+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Actions Files
thereof). There are three such files included with Privoxy (as of version
2.9.15), with differing purposes:
- * default.action - is the primary action file that sets the initial values
+ * default.action - is the primary action file that sets the initial values
for all actions. It is intended to provide a base level of functionality
for Privoxy's 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.
- * user.action - is intended to be for local site preferences and exceptions.
+ * user.action - 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.
- * standard.action - is used by the web based editor, to set various
+ * standard.action - is used by the web based editor, to set various
pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section in
default.action. These have increasing levels of aggressiveness and have no
influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the editor.
It is not recommend to edit this file.
+
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 http://config.privoxy.org/show-status.
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 complete list of actions.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.1. Finding the Right Mix
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 "aggressive" your default
-settings (in the top section of the actions file) are, the more exceptions for
+settings (in the top section of the actions file) are, the more exceptions for
"trusted" 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
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
:).
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.2. How to Edit
If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit
the the actions files. Look at default.action which is richly commented.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.3. How Actions are Applied to URLs
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 "+handle-as-image" and
-"+block" actions).
+effects are aggregated. E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading
+line of { +handle-as-image }, then later another one with just { +block },
+resulting in both actions to apply.
You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting http://
config.privoxy.org/show-url-info.
More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, Anatomy of an Action.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.4. Patterns
<path> are optional. (This is why the pattern / matches all URLs).
www.example.com/
-
is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to www.example.com,
regardless of which document on that server is requested.
www.example.com
-
means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing / may be
omitted.
www.example.com/index.html
-
matches only the single document /index.html on www.example.com.
/index.html
-
matches the document /index.html, regardless of the domain, i.e. on any web
server.
index.html
-
matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and there
is no top-level domain called .html.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.4.1. The Domain Pattern
The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the domain
starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end. For example:
.example.com
-
matches any domain that ENDS in .example.com
www.
-
matches any domain that STARTS with www.
.example.
-
matches any domain that CONTAINS .example. (Correctly speaking: It matches
any FQDN that contains example as a domain.)
+
Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: "*" stands for zero
or more arbitrary characters, "?" stands for any single character, you can
mixed:
ad*.example.com
-
- matches "adserver.example.com", "ads.example.com", etc but not
+ matches "adserver.example.com", "ads.example.com", etc but not
"sfads.example.com"
*ad*.example.com
-
matches all of the above, and then some.
.?pix.com
-
matches www.ipix.com, pictures.epix.com, a.b.c.d.e.upix.com etc.
www[1-9a-ez].example.c*
-
matches www1.example.com, www4.example.cc, wwwd.example.cy,
wwwz.example.com etc., but not wwww.example.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.4.2. The Path Pattern
Privoxy uses Perl compatible regular expressions (through the PCRE library) for
matches as if it would start with a "^" (regular expression speak for the
beginning of a line).
-Please also note that matching in the path is case INSENSITIVE by default, but
+Please also note that matching in the path is CASE INSENSITIVE by default, but
you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the "(?
-i)" switch: www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.* will match only documents whose
path starts with PaTtErN in exactly this capitalization.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5. Actions
There are three classes of actions:
- * Boolean, i.e the action can only be "enabled" or "disabled". Syntax:
+ * Boolean, i.e the action can only be "enabled" or "disabled". Syntax:
+name # enable action name
-name # disable action name
Example: +block
- * Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of
+ * Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of
action. Syntax:
+name{param} # enable action and set parameter to param,
Example: +hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }
- * Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions, but they behave
+ * Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions, but they behave
differently: If the action applies multiple times to the same URL, but with
different parameters, all the parameters from all matches are remembered.
This is used for actions that can be executed for the same request
Examples: +add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text} and +filter{html-annoyances}
+
If nothing is specified in any actions file, no "actions" are taken. So in this
case Privoxy would just be a normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You
must specifically enable the privacy and blocking features you need (although
more than one pattern and thus more than one set of actions!
The list of valid Privoxy actions are:
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.1. add-header
Typical use:
-
Confuse log analysis, custom applications
Effect:
-
Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
Type:
-
Multi-value.
Parameter:
-
Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not
checked. It is recommended that you use the "X-" prefix for custom headers.
Notes:
-
This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
"HTTP headers" are, you definitely don't need to worry about this one.
Example usage:
-
+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.2. block
Typical use:
-
Block ads or other obnoxious content
Effect:
-
Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
requests are not forwarded to the remote server, but answered locally with
a substitute page or image, as determined by the handle-as-image and
set-image-blocker actions.
Type:
-
Boolean.
Parameter:
-
N/A
Notes:
-
Privoxy sends a special "BLOCKED" page for requests to blocked pages. This
page contains links to find out why the request was blocked, and a
click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
determined by its parameter, if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is
sent.
- It is important to understand this process, in order to understand how
+ It is important to understand this process, in order to understand how
Privoxy deals with ads and other unwanted content.
The filter action can perform a very similar task, by "blocking" banner
the two.
Example usage (section):
-
{+block} # Block and replace with "blocked" page
.nasty-stuff.example.com
.ad.doubleclick.net
.ads.r.us
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.3. crunch-incoming-cookies
Typical use:
-
Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
Effect:
-
Deletes any "Set-Cookie:" HTTP headers from server replies.
Type:
-
Boolean.
Parameter:
-
N/A
Notes:
-
This action is only concerned with incoming cookies. For outgoing cookies,
use crunch-outgoing-cookies. Use both to disable cookies completely.
from being set.
Example usage:
-
+crunch-incoming-cookies
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.4. crunch-outgoing-cookies
Typical use:
-
Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
Effect:
-
Deletes any "Cookie:" HTTP headers from client requests.
Type:
-
Boolean.
Parameter:
-
N/A
Notes:
-
This action is only concerned with outgoing cookies. For incoming cookies,
use crunch-incoming-cookies. Use both to disable cookies completely.
from being read.
Example usage:
-
+crunch-outgoing-cookies
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.5. deanimate-gifs
Typical use:
-
Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.
Effect:
-
De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
Type:
-
Parameterized.
Parameter:
-
"last" or "first"
Notes:
-
This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
the option "first" is given, the first frame of the animation is used as
the replacement. If "last" is given, the last frame of the animation is
a GIF.
Example usage:
-
+deanimate-gifs{last}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.6. downgrade-http-version
Typical use:
-
Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1
Effect:
-
Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
Type:
-
Boolean.
Parameter:
-
N/A
Notes:
-
This is a left-over from the time when Privoxy didn't support important
HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the unlikely case that you
experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server out there. Not all
might need this action.
Example usage (section):
-
{+downgrade-http-version}
problem-host.example.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.7. fast-redirects
Typical use:
-
Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links
Effect:
-
Cut off all but the last valid URL from requests.
Type:
-
Boolean.
Parameter:
-
N/A
Notes:
-
Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs resulting
Some sites just don't work without it.
Example usage:
-
{+fast-redirects}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.8. filter
Typical use:
-
Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
do fun text replacements, etc.
Effect:
-
Text documents, including HTML and JavaScript, to which this action
applies, are filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular expression
based substitutions.
Type:
-
Parameterized.
Parameter:
-
The name of a filter, as defined in the filter file (typically
- default.filter, set by the filterfile option in the config file)
+ default.filter, set by the filterfile option in the config file). Filtering
+ can be completely disabled without the use of parameters.
Notes:
-
- 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 a
- list.
+ 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.
This is potentially a very powerful feature! But "rolling your own" filters
requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more noticeable
on slower connections.
+ The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the buffer-limit
+ option in the main config file. The default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this
+ limit is exceeded, the buffered data, and all pending data, is passed
+ through unfiltered. Inappropriate MIME types are not filtered.
+
At this time, Privoxy cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed documents. If you
want filtering to work on all documents, even those that would normally be
sent compressed, use the prevent-compression action in conjunction with
filter.
- Filtering can achieve some of the effects as the block action, i.e. it can
- be used to block ads and banners.
+ Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the block 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.
Feedback with suggestions for new or improved filters is particularly
welcome!
Example usage (with filters from the distribution default.filter file):
-
+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.
+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
- +filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size (very efficient!)
+ +filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners based on their size for this page (very efficient!)
+
+ +filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners based on the link they are contained in (experimental)
+
+ +filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective
+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come sneaking in the HTML or JS content
+filter{crude-parental} # Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ +filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites)
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.9. handle-as-image
Typical use:
-
Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images if they
get blocked)
Effect:
-
This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as
images. If the block action also applies, the presence or absence of this
mark decides whether an HTML "blocked" page, or a replacement image (as
substitute for the blocked content.
Type:
-
Boolean.
Parameter:
-
N/A
Notes:
-
The below generic example section is actually part of default.action. It
marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and
should be left intact.
reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For
- instance, (inline) ad frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't
- display properly. Forcing handle-as-image in this situation will not
+ instance, (in-line) ad frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they
+ won't display properly. Forcing handle-as-image in this situation will not
replace the ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
Example usage (sections):
-
# Generic image extensions:
#
{+handle-as-image}
# Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
ad.doubleclick.net
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.10. hide-forwarded-for-headers
Typical use:
-
Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request
Effect:
-
Deletes any existing "X-Forwarded-for:" HTTP header from client requests,
and prevents adding a new one.
Type:
-
Boolean.
Parameter:
-
N/A
Notes:
-
It is fairly safe to leave this on.
This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate
like requests from a pool of different users sharing the same proxy.
Example usage:
-
+hide-forwarded-for-headers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.11. hide-from-header
Typical use:
-
Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address
Effect:
-
Deletes any existing "From:" HTTP header, or replaces it with the specified
string.
Type:
-
Parameterized.
Parameter:
-
Keyword: "block", or any user defined value.
Notes:
-
The keyword "block" will completely remove the header (not to be confused
with the block action).
headers anymore.
Example usage:
-
+hide-from-header{block}
-
or
-
+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.12. hide-referrer
Typical use:
-
Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site
Effect:
-
Deletes the "Referer:" (sic) HTTP header from the client request, or
replaces it with a forged one.
Type:
-
Parameterized.
Parameter:
-
- + "block" to delete the header completely.
+ + "block" to delete the header completely.
- + "forge" to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are
+ + "forge" to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are
talking to.
- + Any other string to set a user defined referrer.
+ + Any other string to set a user defined referrer.
-Notes:
+Notes:
"forge" is the preferred option here, since some servers will not send
images back otherwise, in an attempt to prevent their valuable content from
being embedded elsewhere (and hence, without being surrounded by their
to be spelled as "referer".)
Example usage:
-
+hide-referrer{forge}
-
or
-
+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.13. hide-user-agent
Typical use:
-
Conceal your type of browser and client operating system
Effect:
-
Replaces the value of the "User-Agent:" HTTP header in client requests with
the specified value.
Type:
-
Parameterized.
Parameter:
-
Any user-defined string.
Notes:
-
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Warning |
- |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|This breaks many web sites that depend on looking at this header |
|in order to customize their content for different browsers |
|(which, by the way, is NOT a smart way to do that!). |
This action is scheduled for improvement.
Example usage:
-
+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.14. kill-popups
Typical use:
-
Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows
Effect:
-
While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens pop-up
windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
Type:
-
Boolean.
Parameter:
-
N/A
Notes:
-
This action is easily confused with the built-in, hardwired filter action,
but there are important differences: For kill-popups, the document need not
be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while downloading. But
filter{js-annoyances} instead.
Example usage:
-
+kill-popups
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.15. limit-connect
Typical use:
-
Prevent abuse of Privoxy as a TCP proxy relay
Effect:
-
Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
Type:
-
Parameterized.
Parameter:
-
A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes,
with the minimum defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
Notes:
-
By default, i.e. if no limit-connect action applies, Privoxy only allows
HTTP CONNECT requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
limit-connect if more fine-grained control is desired for some or all
destinations.
- The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
- ("https://" URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: the proxy connects
+ The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites (
+ "https://" URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: the proxy connects
to the server on the specified port, and then short-circuits its
connections to the client and to the remote server. This can be a big
security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be abused as TCP relays
change this one, since the default is already very restrictive.
Example usages:
-
+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
+limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
+limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
+limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK (gaping security hole!)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.16. prevent-compression
Typical use:
-
Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be passed
through filters
Effect:
-
Adds a header to the request that asks for uncompressed transfer.
Type:
-
Boolean.
Parameter:
-
N/A
Notes:
-
More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which is
generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the filter,
deanimate-gifs and kill-popups actions to work, Privoxy needs access to the
those sites. See the example for how to do that.
Example usage (sections):
-
# Set default:
#
{+prevent-compression}
www.debianhelp.org
www.pclinuxonline.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.17. send-vanilla-wafer
Typical use:
-
Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
Effect:
-
Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any
copyright on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track
you.
Type:
-
Boolean.
Parameter:
-
N/A
Notes:
-
The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be
used to track you.
This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
Example usage:
-
+send-vanilla-wafer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.18. send-wafer
Typical use:
-
Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless
data.
Effect:
-
Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
Type:
-
Multi-value.
Parameter:
-
A string of the form "name=value".
Notes:
-
Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same
request, resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
Example usage (section):
-
{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
my-internal-testing-server.void
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.19. session-cookies-only
Typical use:
-
Allow only temporary "session" cookies (for the current browser session
only).
Effect:
-
Deletes the "expires" field from "Set-Cookie:" server headers. Most
browsers will not store such cookies permanently and forget them in between
sessions.
Type:
-
Boolean.
Parameter:
-
N/A
Notes:
-
This is less strict than crunch-incoming-cookies / crunch-outgoing-cookies
and allows you to browse websites that insist or rely on setting cookies,
without compromising your privacy too badly.
crunch-incoming-cookies or crunch-outgoing-cookies. If you do, cookies will
be plainly killed.
- Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an
+ Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an
"expires" field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out
to be sure.
Example usage:
-
+session-cookies-only
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.20. set-image-blocker
Typical use:
-
Choose the replacement for blocked images
Effect:
-
This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If both block and
handle-as-image also apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an
image, then the parameter of this action decides what will be sent as a
replacement.
Type:
-
Parameterized.
Parameter:
-
- + "pattern" to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is
+ + "pattern" to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is
visually decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners
were busted.
- + "blank" to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners
+ + "blank" to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners
disappear completely, but makes it hard to detect where Privoxy has
- blocked images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if
+ blocked images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if
Privoxy has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
- + "target-url" to send a redirect to target-url. You can redirect to any
+ + "target-url" to send a redirect to target-url. You can redirect to any
image anywhere, even in your local filesystem (via "file:///" URL).
A good application of redirects is to use special Privoxy-built-in
but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of
requesting it over and over again.
-Notes:
+Notes:
The URLs for the built-in images are "http://config.privoxy.org/
send-banner?type=type", where type is either "blank" or "pattern".
image.
Example usage:
-
Built-in pattern:
+set-image-blocker{pattern}
+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.5.21. Summary
Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header content, and other
criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard and fast rules for all
sites. See the Appendix for a brief example on troubleshooting actions.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.6. Aliases
Custom "actions", known to Privoxy as "aliases", can be defined by combining
other actions. These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab, "=", "{"
-and "}", but we strongly recommend that you only use "a" to "z", "0" to "9",
+and "}", but we strongly recommend that you only use "a" to "z", "0" to "9",
"+", and "-". Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start
with a "+" or "-" sign, since they are merely textually expanded.
built-in web-based action file editor honors aliases when reading the actions
files, but it expands them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are
of course preserved, but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections
-that use aliases with it. This is likely to change in future versions of
+that use aliases with it. This is likely to change in future versions of
Privoxy.
Now let's define some aliases...
Aliases like "shop" and "fragile" are often used for "problem" sites that
require some actions to be disabled in order to function properly.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.7. Actions Files Tutorial
organized, how actions are specified and applied to URLs, how patterns work,
and how to define and use aliases. Now, let's look at an example default.action
and user.action file and see how all these pieces come together:
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.7.1. default.action
starts, so we have to explicitly enable the ones we want.
The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only one
-pattern, "/", but this pattern matches all URLs.. Therefore, the set of actions
+pattern, "/", but this pattern matches all URLs. Therefore, the set of actions
used in this "default" section will be applied to all requests as a start. It
can be partly or wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or
in user.action, but it will still be largely responsible for your overall
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 "+" preceding the action name
+complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a "+" preceding the action name
enables the action, a "-" disables!). Also note how this long line has been
made more readable by splitting it into multiple lines with line continuation.
-filter{fun} \
+filter{nimda} \
+filter{banners-by-size} \
+ -filter{banners-by-link} \
+ -filter{img-reorder} \
-filter{shockwave-flash} \
-filter{crude-parental} \
+ -filter{js-events} \
-handle-as-image \
+hide-forwarded-for-headers \
+hide-from-header{block} \
.hitbox.com
You wouldn't believe how many advertisers actually call their banner servers
-ads.company.com, or call the directory in which the banners are stored simply
+ads.company.com, or call the directory in which the banners are stored simply
"banners". So the above generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want to
The actual default.action is of course more comprehensive, but we hope this
example made clear how it works.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.7.2. user.action
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 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 user.action, which is
-parsed after all other actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding
-any previously defined actions. user.action is also a safe place for your
-personal settings, since default.action is actively maintained by the Privoxy
-developers and you'll probably want to install updated versions from time to
-time.
+would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now, 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 user.action, which is parsed
+after all other actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any
+previously defined actions. user.action is also a safe place for your personal
+settings, since default.action is actively maintained by the Privoxy developers
+and you'll probably want to install updated versions from time to time.
So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
user.action:
.osdn.net
Note that allow-ads has been aliased to -block -filter{banners-by-size} above.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. The Filter File
Appendix on regular expressions, and see the Perl manual for the s///
operator's syntax and Perl-style regular expressions in general. The below
examples might also help to get you started.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9.1. Filter File Tutorial
only the exact string "document.referrer". The dot needed to be escaped, i.e.
preceded by a backslash, to take away its special meaning as a joker, and make
it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is: Match from the start of the
-first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including, the text
+first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including, the text
"document.referrer", if both are present in the page (and appear in that
order).
option says that the match may span multiple lines in the page, and the g
option again means that the substitution is global.
-So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
+So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
"document.referrer". Remember the parts of the script from (and including) the
start tag up to (and excluding) the string "document.referrer" as $1, and the
part following that string, up to and including the closing tag, as $2.
# The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
#
-s/window\.status\s*=\s*['"].*?['"]/dUmMy=1/ig
+s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig
\s stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline, carriage return, form
feed), so that \s* means: "zero or more whitespace". The ? in .*? makes this
matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the U option is not set). The
-['"] construct means: "a single or a double quote".
+['"] construct means: "a single or a double quote". Finally, \1 is a
+backreference to the first parenthesis just like $1 above, with the difference
+that in the pattern, a backslash indicates a backreference, whereas in the
+substitute, it's the dollar.
So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
strings to the "window.status" object with a dummy assignment (using a variable
# Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
#
-s/(<body .*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU
+s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU
Including the OnUnload event binding in the HTML DOM was a CRIME. When I close
-a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta. This job replaces the
+a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta. This job replaces the
"onunload" attribute in "<body>" tags with the dummy word never. Note that the
-i option makes the pattern matching case-insensitive.
+i 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 [^>]* instead of .* to prevent the match from
+exceeding the <body> tag if it doesn't contain "OnUnload", but the page's
+content does.
The last example is from the fun department:
s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig
Note the (?!\.com) part (a so-called negative lookahead) in the job's pattern,
-which means: Don't match, if the string ".com" appears directly following
+which means: Don't match, if the string ".com" appears directly following
"microsoft" in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being
-messed, while still replacing the word everywhere else.
+trashed, while still replacing the word everywhere else.
# 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 \
liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
You get the idea?
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Templates
All Privoxy built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the "404 - No Such Domain"
error page, the "BLOCKED" page and all pages of its web-based user interface,
are generated from templates. (Privoxy must be running for the above links to
-work as intended)
+work as intended.)
These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the configuration directory
-called templates. On unixish platforms, this is typically /etc/privoxy/
+called templates. On Unixish platforms, this is typically /etc/privoxy/
templates/.
The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called
All templates refer to a style located at http://config.privoxy.org/
send-stylesheet. This is, of course, locally served by Privoxy and the source
for it can be found and edited in the cgi-style.css template.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
We value your feedback. In fact, we rely on it to improve Privoxy and its
configuration. However, please note the following hints, so we can provide you
with the best support:
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.1. Get Support
All users are of course welcome to discuss their issues on the users mailing
list, where the developers also hang around.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.2. Report Bugs
tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=111118.
Before doing so, please make sure that the bug has not already been submitted
-and observe the aditional hints at the top of the submit form.
+and observe the additional hints at the top of the submit form.
Please try to verify that it is a Privoxy bug, and not a browser or site bug
first. If unsure, try toggling off Privoxy, and see if the problem persists.
fixed in the meantime. We would appreciate if you could take the time to
upgrade to the latest version (or even the latest CVS snapshot) and verify your
bug, but this is not required for reporting.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.3. Request New Features
You are welcome to submit ideas on new features or other proposals for
improvement through our feature request tracker at http://sourceforge.net/
tracker/?atid=361118&group_id=11118.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.4. Report Ads or Other Actions-Related Problems
New, improved default.action files will occasionally be made available based on
your feedback. These will be announced on the ijbswa-announce list and
-available from our project page.
-
+available from our the files section of our project page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11.5. Other
For any other issues, feel free to use the mailing lists. Technically
interested users and people who wish to contribute to the project are also
-welcome on the developers list! You can find an overview of all Prixoxy-related
+welcome on the developers list! You can find an overview of all Privoxy-related
mailing lists, including list archives, at: http://sourceforge.net/mail/?
group_id=11118.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12. Privoxy Copyright, License and History
Some source code is based on code Copyright © 1997 by Anonymous Coders and
Junkbusters, Inc. and licensed under the GNU General Public License.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12.1. License
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
this program; if not, write to the
- Free Software
- Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330
- Boston, MA 02111-1307
- USA
-
+ Free Software
+ Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330
+ Boston, MA 02111-1307
+ USA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12.2. History
inside out, upside down, and then reassembled it, adding many new features
along the way.
-The result of this is Privoxy, whose first stable release, 3.0, is due in May
+The result of this is Privoxy, whose first stable release, 3.0, is due in June
2002.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12.3. Authors
Current Project Developers:
- Jon Foster
- Andreas Oesterhelt
- Stefan Waldherr
-
- Thomas Steudten
- Rodney Stromlund
+ Jon Foster
+ Andreas Oesterhelt
+ Stefan Waldherr
+
+ Thomas Steudten
+ Rodney Stromlund
Current Project Contributors:
- Rodrigo Barbosa (RPM specfiles)
- Hal Burgiss (docs)
- Alexander Lazic
- Gábor Lipták
- Guy
- Haroon Rafique
- David Schmidt (OS/2, Mac OSX ports)
- Joerg Strohmayer
- Sarantis Paskalis
+ Rodrigo Barbosa (RPM specfiles)
+ Hal Burgiss (docs)
+ Alexander Lazic
+ Gábor Lipták
+ Guy
+ Haroon Rafique
+ Roland Rosenfeld
+ David Schmidt (OS/2, Mac OSX ports)
+ Joerg Strohmayer
+ Sarantis Paskalis
-Originally developed by:
+Based in part on code originally developed by:
- Junkbusters Corp.
- Anonymous Coders
+ Junkbusters Corp.
+ Anonymous Coders
Thanks to the many people who have tested Privoxy, reported bugs, or made
suggestions. These include (in alphabetical order):
- Ken Arromdee
- Reiner Buehl
- Andrew J. Caines
- Clifford Caoile
- Peter E
- Aaron Hamid
- Magnus Holmgren
- Paul Lieverse
- Roberto Ragusa
- Bart Schelstraete
- Darren Wiebe
-
+ Ken Arromdee
+ Devin Bayer
+ Reiner Buehl
+ Andrew J. Caines
+ Clifford Caoile
+ Michael T. Davis
+ Peter E
+ Aaron Hamid
+ Magnus Holmgren
+ Paul Lieverse
+ Roberto Ragusa
+ Maynard Riley
+ Bart Schelstraete
+ Darren Wiebe
+ jwz
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13. See Also
http://www.privoxy.org/developer-manual/, the Privoxy developer manual.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
14. Appendix
14.1. Regular Expressions
\ - The "escape" character denotes that the following character should be taken
literally. This is used where one of the special characters (e.g. ".") needs to
-be taken literally and not as a special meta-character. Example: "example
-\.com", makes sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded
-to its meta-character meaning of any single character).
+be taken literally and not as a special meta-character. Example: "example\.com"
+, makes sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
+meta-character meaning of any single character).
[] - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if any of the enclosed
characters are encountered. For instance, "[0-9]" matches any numeric digit
"/(this|that) example/" uses grouping and the bar character and would match
either "this example" or "that example", and nothing else.
-These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
+These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
Privoxy, and is a long way from a definitive list. This is enough to get us
started with a few simple examples which may be more illuminating:
|" means "or". We have two of those. For instance, "(ing|ements?)", can expand
to match either "ing" OR "ements?". What is being done here, is an attempt at
matching as many variations of "advertisement", and similar, as possible. So
-this would expand to match just "adv", or "advert", or "adverts", or
+this would expand to match just "adv", or "advert", or "adverts", or
"advertising", or "advertisement", or "advertisements". You get the idea. But
it would not match "advertizements" (with a "z"). We could fix that by changing
our regular expression to: "/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/", which
would then match either spelling.
/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g) - Again another path statement with forward
-slashes. Anything in the square brackets "[]" can be matched. This is using
+slashes. Anything in the square brackets "[]" can be matched. This is using
"0-9" as a shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the
same as saying "0123456789". So any digit matches. The "+" means one or more of
the preceding expression must be included. The preceding expression here is
more digits, and a "." (which is now a literal, and not a special character,
since it is escaped with "\"), and lastly either "gif", or "jpeg", or "jpg".
Some possible matches would include: "//advert1.jpg", "/nasty/ads/
-advert1234.gif", "/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg". It would not match
+advert1234.gif", "/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg". It would not match
"advert1.gif" (no leading slash), or "/adverts232.jpg" (the expression does not
include an "s"), or "/advert1.jsp" ("jsp" is not in the expression anywhere).
More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions: http://www.perldoc.com/
perl5.6/pod/perlre.html
-For information on regular expression based substititions and their
+For information on regular expression based substitutions and their
applications in filters, please see the filter file tutorial in this manual.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.2. Privoxy's Internal Pages
Of course, Privoxy must be running to access these. If not, you will get a
friendly error message. Internet access is not necessary either.
- * Privoxy main page:
+ * Privoxy main page:
+
http://config.privoxy.org/
- There is a shortcut: http://p.p/ (But it doesn't provide a fallback to a
+
+ There is a shortcut: http://p.p/ (But it doesn't provide a fall-back to a
real page, in case the request is not sent through Privoxy)
- * Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
+ * Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
editing of actions files:
+
http://config.privoxy.org/show-status
- * Show the source code version numbers:
+ * Show the source code version numbers:
+
+
http://config.privoxy.org/show-version
- * Show the browser's request headers:
+ * Show the browser's request headers:
+
+
http://config.privoxy.org/show-request
- * Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
+ * Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
+
+
http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info
- * Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, "Privoxy" continues to run, but
+
+ * Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, "Privoxy" continues to run, but
only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
+
http://config.privoxy.org/toggle
+
Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
+
http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable
+
+
http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable
-These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
+
+These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.2.1. Bookmarklets
bar (IE) or the "Personal Toolbar" (Netscape), and run them with a single
click.
- * Privoxy - Enable
+ * Privoxy - Enable
+
+ * Privoxy - Disable
- * Privoxy - Disable
+ * Privoxy - Toggle Privoxy (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
- * Privoxy - Toggle Privoxy (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
+ * Privoxy- View Status
- * Privoxy- View Status
+ * Privoxy - Submit Actions File Feedback
- * Privoxy - Submit Actions File Feedback
+ * Privoxy - Why?
+
Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
www.bookmarklets.com. They have more information about bookmarklets.
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.3. Chain of Events
Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
requested by your browser and Privoxy is on duty:
- * First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send the
+ * First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send the
request to Privoxy, which will in turn, relay the request to the remote web
server after passing the following tests:
- * Privoxy traps any request for its own internal CGI pages (e.g http://p.p/)
+ * Privoxy traps any request for its own internal CGI pages (e.g http://p.p/)
and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
- * Next, Privoxy checks to see if the URL matches any "+block" patterns. If
+ * Next, Privoxy checks to see if the URL matches any "+block" patterns. If
so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be
contacted. "+handle-as-image" is then checked and if it does not match, an
HTML "BLOCKED" page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match, an image is
returned. The type of image depends on the setting of "+set-image-blocker"
(blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
- * Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the trust file, then
+ * Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the trust file, then
that is done.
- * If the URL pattern matches the "+fast-redirects" action, it is then
+ * If the URL pattern matches the "+fast-redirects" action, it is then
processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
- * Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
+ * Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. "+hide-user-agent", etc.),
headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and their
parameters.
- * Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
+ * Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
page and related data).
- * First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
+ * 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 "+crunch-incoming-cookies",
+ filtered as deterimined by the "+crunch-incoming-cookies",
"+session-cookies-only", and "+downgrade-http-version" actions.
- * If the "+kill-popups" action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript
+ * If the "+kill-popups" action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript
document, the popup-code in the response is filtered on-the-fly as it is
received.
- * If a "+filter" or "+deanimate-gifs" action applies (and the document type
+ * If a "+filter" or "+deanimate-gifs" action applies (and the document type
fits the action), the rest of the page is read into memory (up to a
configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from default.filter) are
processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
If neither "+filter" or "+deanimate-gifs" matches, then Privoxy passes the
raw data through to the client browser as it becomes available.
- * As the browser receives the now (probably filtered) page content, it reads
+ * As the browser receives the now (probably filtered) page content, it reads
and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page source,
e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.4. Anatomy of an Action
The way Privoxy applies actions and filters to any given URL can be complex,
One quick test to see if Privoxy is causing a problem or not, is to disable it
temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting step. See the
Bookmarklets section on a quick and easy way to do this (be sure to flush
-caches afterward!).
+caches afterward!). Looking at the logs is a good idea too.
Privoxy also provides the http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info page that can
show us very specifically how actions are being applied to any given URL. This
But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
rules, and then list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions would
-apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
+apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
".google.com". The first is negating our previous cookie setting, which was for
"+session-cookies-only" (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent
cookies for google. The second turns off any "+fast-redirects" action, allowing
-this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading dot here --
+this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading dot here --
".google.com". This will match any hosts and sub-domains, in the google.com
domain also, such as "www.google.com". So, apparently, we have these two
-actions defined somewhere in the lower part of our default.action file, and
+actions defined somewhere in the lower part of our default.action file, and
"google.com" is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
Then, for our user.action file, we again have no hits.
-And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
+And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
Privoxy is applying all its "actions" to "google.com":
Final results:
and make it more readable.
One last example. Let's try "http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/". This one is
-giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm...
+giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
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 "{+filter}" actions. Try adding the URL for the site
-to one of aliases that turn off "+filter":
+cause would be one of the "{+filter}" actions. These tend to be harder to
+troubleshoot. Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
+"+filter":
{shop}
.quietpc.com
{-filter}
.forbes.com
-This would probably be most appropriately put in user.action, for local site
-exceptions.
+This would turn off all filtering for that site. This would probably be most
+appropriately put in user.action, for local site exceptions.
+
+Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the "+filter
+{banners-by-size}" rule, which assumes that images of certain sizes are ad
+banners (works well most of the time since these tend to be standardized).
"{fragile}" is an alias that disables most actions. This can be used as a last
resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this still does not
work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by one to find
which one(s) is causing the problem.
-
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff