X-Git-Url: http://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fsource%2Fuser-manual.sgml;h=423e6c3b6424489437fbb8cbb431e22f62eef738;hb=7cc8a2e93881e34d2695c21c2f302a07f110c5cd;hp=14c8d28662918a0e5ebd49ae9ab5d82d424ad84d;hpb=df9216c041d8787f1bbbc171ab9c230e862bea6b;p=privoxy.git
diff --git a/doc/source/user-manual.sgml b/doc/source/user-manual.sgml
index 14c8d286..423e6c3b 100644
--- a/doc/source/user-manual.sgml
+++ b/doc/source/user-manual.sgml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
+
@@ -8,15 +8,22 @@
-
-
-
-
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
+
+
+
+
]>
+
+ Copyright &my-copy; 2001 - 2004 by
+ Privoxy Developers
+
+
+
+$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt Exp $
+
+
-
-
-
- By: Privoxy Developers
-
-
-
+
@@ -68,21 +86,21 @@
]]>
- The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
- User Manual gives users information on how to
+ install, configure and use Privoxy.
-
+
&p-intro;
- You can find the latest version of the user manual at User Manual at http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/.
- Please see the Contact section on how to
+ Please see the Contact section on how to
contact the developers.
-
+
@@ -92,14 +110,6 @@
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Introduction
This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
@@ -123,15 +133,13 @@
]]>
-
-New Features
+Features
In addition to Internet Junkbuster's traditional
features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
Privoxy provides new features:
-
&newfeatures;
@@ -149,44 +157,28 @@
Privoxy is available both in convenient pre-compiled
packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
- Privoxy Project Page.
-
-
-
- If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
- possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
- version directly from the
- CVS repository or simply download the nightly CVS
- tarball.
+ Privoxy Project
+ Page.
-
- &supported;
-
-
-
-Binary Packages
-
Note: If you have a previous Junkbuster or
Privoxy installation on your system, you
- will need to remove it. Some platforms do this for you as part
- 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.
+ will need to remove it. On some platforms, this may be done for you as part
+ 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.
+
+Binary Packages
- How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
+How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
-Red Hat and SuSE RPMs
+Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs
RPMs can be installed with rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm,
@@ -195,14 +187,16 @@
- Note that on Red Hat, Privoxy will not be
- automatically started on system boot. You will need to enable that using
- chkconfig, ntsysv, or similar method.
+ Note that on Red Hat, Privoxy will
+ not be automatically started on system boot. You will
+ need to enable that using chkconfig,
+ ntsysv, or similar methods. Note 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-&p-version;-1.src.rpm;. This
+ rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm. This
will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
@@ -217,7 +211,9 @@
Debian
- FIXME.
+ DEBs can be installed with apt-get install privoxy,
+ and will use /etc/privoxy for the location of
+ configuration files.
@@ -226,7 +222,8 @@
Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
- the installation process.
+ the installation process. You will find the configuration files
+ in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in.
@@ -236,7 +233,7 @@
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.
+ things go.
@@ -247,7 +244,10 @@
First, make sure that no previous installations of
Junkbuster and / or
Privoxy are left on your
- system. You can do this by
+ system. Check that no Junkbuster
+ or Privoxy objects are in
+ your startup folder.
+
@@ -264,17 +264,32 @@
-Max 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 bringup via
- /System/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
+Mac OSX
+
+ Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
+ from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
+ Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
+ Privoxy.pkg
+ and follow the installation process.
+ Privoxy will be installed in the folder
+ /Library/Privoxy.
+ It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
+ starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
+ /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
+
+
+ To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
+ StartPrivoxy.command in the
+ /Library/Privoxy folder.
+ Or, type this command in the Terminal:
+
+
+
+ /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
+
+
+
+ You will be prompted for the administrator password.
@@ -286,61 +301,115 @@
directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
remove this directory.
+
+
+
+Gentoo
+
+ Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for Privoxy are
+ contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
+ but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
+ Privoxy Version is added to the Portage Tree).
+
- 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).
+ Before installing Privoxy under Gentoo just do
+ first emerge rsync to get the latest changes from the
+ Portage tree. With emerge privoxy you install the latest
+ version.
+
+
+ Configuration files are in /etc/privoxy, the
+ documentation is in /usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;
+ and the Log directory is in /var/log/privoxy.
+
Building from Source
+
+ The most convenient way to obtain the Privoxy sources
+ is to download the source tarball from our project
+ page.
+
+
+
+ If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
+ possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
+ version directly from the
+ CVS repository or simply download the nightly CVS
+ tarball.
+
+
&buildsource;
+
+
+Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date
+
+ As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
+ of both the main actions file (as a separate
+ package) and the software itself (including the actions file) 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.
+
-
+
+ In order not to lose 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.
+
+
-
-Quickstart to Using Privoxy
+
+
-
+Note to Upgraders
- There are very significant changes from older versions of
- Junkbuster to the current
- Privoxy. Configuration is substantially
- changed. Junkbuster 2.0.x and earlier
- configuration files will not migrate. The functionality of the old
- blockfile, cookiefile and
- imagelist, are now combined into the
- actions file (default.action
- for most installations).
+ There are very significant changes from earlier
+ Junkbuster versions to the current
+ Privoxy. The number, names, syntax, and
+ purposes of configuration files have substantially changed.
+ Junkbuster 2.0.x configuration
+ files will not migrate, Junkbuster 2.9.x
+ and Privoxy configurations will need to be
+ ported. The functionalities of the old blockfile,
+ cookiefile and imagelist
+ are now combined into the actions
+ files.
+ default.action, is the main actions file. Local
+ exceptions should best be put into user.action.
- A filter file (typically default.filter)
- is new as of Privoxy 2.9.x, and provides some
- of the new sophistication (explained below). config is
- much the same as before.
+ A filter file (typically
+ default.filter) is new as of Privoxy
+ 2.9.x, and provides some of the new sophistication (explained
+ below). config is much the same as before.
If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
When porting personal rules over from the old blockfile
- to the new actions file, please note that even the pattern syntax has
+ to the new actions files, please note that even the pattern syntax has
changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
recommended to use the new configuration files.
@@ -375,11 +444,12 @@
- The primary configuration file for cookie management, ad and banner
+ The primary configuration files for cookie management, ad and banner
blocking, and many other aspects of Privoxy
- configuration is default.action. It is strongly
- recommended to become familiar with the new actions concept below,
- before modifying this file.
+ 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.
@@ -393,243 +463,364 @@
-
-
+
-
-Starting Privoxy
-
- Before launching Privoxy for the first time, you
- will want to configure your browser(s) to use Privoxy
- as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is localhost for the proxy address,
- and port 8118 (earlier versions used port 8000). This is the one
- configuration step that must be done!
-
-
-
- With Netscape (and
- Mozilla), this can be set under Edit
- -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy.
- For Internet Explorer: Tools ->
- Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting. Then,
- check Use Proxy and fill in the appropriate info (Address:
- localhost, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy support too.
-
-
+Quickstart to Using Privoxy
- After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
- re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
- are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
- Privoxy!
-
+
+
+
+ If upgrading, from versions before 2.9.16, please back up any configuration
+ files. See the Note to Upgraders Section.
+
+
-
- Privoxy is typically started by specifying the
- main configuration file to be used on the command line. Example Unix startup
- command:
-
+
+
+ Install Privoxy. See the Installation Section below for platform specific
+ information.
+
+
-
-
-
- # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
-
-
-
+
+
+ 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.
+
+
-
- See below for other command line options.
-
+
+
+ Start Privoxy, if the installation program has
+ not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
+ Starting Privoxy.
+
+
-
- An init script is provided for SuSE and Red Hat.
-
+
+
+ Set your browser to use Privoxy as HTTP and
+ HTTPS (SSL) 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 Privoxy below
+ for more details on this.
+
+
-
- For for SuSE: rcprivoxy start
-
+
+
+ Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
+ If using Privoxy to manage cookies, you should
+ remove any currently stored cookies too.
+
+
-
- For Red Hat and Debian: /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
+
+
+ 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.
+ next section for a quick
+ introduction to how Privoxy blocks ads and
+ banners.]]>
+
+
+
+ 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.
+
+
-
- If no configuration file is specified on the command line,
- Privoxy will look for a file named
- config in the current directory. Except on Win32 where
- it will try config.txt. If no file is specified on the
- command line and no default configuration file can be found,
- Privoxy will fail to start.
-
+
+
+ For easy access to Privoxy's most important controls, drag the provided
+ Bookmarklets into your browser's
+ personal toolbar.
+
+
+
+
+ Please see the section Contacting the
+ Developers on how to report bugs or problems with websites or to get
+ help.
+
+
-
- The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
- point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
- actions files. These are where various cookie actions are
- defined, ad and banner blocking, and other aspects of
- Privoxy configuration. There are several such
- files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
+
+
+ Now enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy!
+
+
+
+
-
- You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites that require persistent
- cookies, and add these to default.action as needed. By
- default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
- session (aka session cookies), until you add them to the
- configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
- to edit default.action and disable this feature. If you
- use more than one browser, it would make more sense to let
- Privoxy handle this. In which case, the
- browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
-
-
- Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
- sites is the popup-killing (through the +popup and
- +filter{popups} actions), because your favorite shopping,
- banking, or leisure site may need popups.
-
+
+
+Quickstart to Ad Blocking
+
- Privoxy is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
- the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
- you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
- (like Mozilla or recent versions of I.E.), you might
- try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under Edit ->
- Preferences -> Debug -> Networking.
- Alternatively, set the +downgrade config option in
- default.action which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
- requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
+ Ad blocking is but one of Privoxy's
+ array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
+ user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
-
-
- After running Privoxy for a while, you can
- start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
- preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
- be customized. Actions (as specified in default.action)
- can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
- http://config.privoxy.org/
- (shortcut: http://p.p/),
- and then follow the link to edit the actions list.
- (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
+
+ 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 recommended.
-
- In fact, various aspects of Privoxy
- configuration can be viewed from this page, including
- current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
- the browser's request headers, and actions that apply
- to a given URL. In addition to the default.action file
- editor mentioned above, Privoxy can also
- be turned on and off (toggled) from this page.
+ 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 not intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
+ extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
+ problem sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
+ configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
+ not an easy way to eliminate all ads. Either take
+ the easy way and settle for most ads blocked with the
+ default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
+ habits and preferences.
-
- If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
- Privoxy. If that helps, enter the URL where
- you have the problems into the browser
- based rule tracing utility. See which rules apply and why, and
- then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
- is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
- again.
+ Secondly, a brief explanation of Privoxy's
+ actions. Actions in this context, are
+ the directives we use to tell Privoxy to perform
+ some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
+ Privoxy to take some action. Each
+ action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
+ actions in Privoxy's
+ arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. Actions, and action
+ configuration files, are explained in depth below.
-
- If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to read more about the actions concept
- or even dive deep into the Appendix
- on actions.
+ 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. The
+ actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
-
- If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
- Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
- chapter "Contacting the Developers, .." below.
+ 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.
-
-
-
-
-
-Command Line Options
- Privoxy may be invoked with the following
- command-line options:
+ The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: block, handle-as-image, and
+ set-image-blocker:
-
-
-
- --version
-
-
- Print version info and exit. Unix only.
-
-
+
- --help
-
-
- Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
+ 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 and sends Privoxy's
+ own built-in BLOCKED page instead to let you now what has happened.
+
- --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.
+ 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.
+
- --pidfile FILE
-
+ 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 match an
+ handle-as-image action.
- 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]
-
+ The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
+
+
+ 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 invisible configuration option.
+
+
+
+
+ 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 Internet access. Select the
+ appropriate actions file, and click
+ Edit. It is best to put personal or
+ local preferences in user.action since this is not
+ meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
+ other files. Here you can insert new actions, and URLs for ad
+ blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
+ Privoxy will detect these changes automatically.
+
+
+
+ A quick and simple step by step example:
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ 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
+
+
+
+
+ Find user.action in the top section, and click
+ on Edit:
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
- 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.
+ 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.
- configfile
+ 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 (or
+ OK if in a pop-up window).
+
+
- 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.
+ 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.
+ The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
+
+
@@ -638,3771 +829,5542 @@
-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.
+
+Starting Privoxy
+
+ Before launching Privoxy for the first time, you
+ will want to configure your browser(s) to use
+ Privoxy as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is
+ 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
+ used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
+
+
+ Please note that Privoxy can only proxy HTTP and
+ HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ With Netscape (and
+ Mozilla), this can be set under:
+
+
+
+
+
+ Edit
+ |_
+ Preferences
+ |_
+ Advanced
+ |_
+ Proxies
+ |_
+ HTTP Proxy
+
+
+ For Internet Explorer:
+
-
+
+
+
+ Tools
+ |_
+ Internet Properties
+ |_
+ Connections
+ |_
+ LAN Settings
+
-
-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:
-
+ 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.
-
-
-Please choose from the following options:
-
- * Privoxy main page
- * Show information about the current configuration
- * Show the source code version numbers
- * Show the request headers.
- * Show which actions apply to a URL and why
- * Toggle Privoxy on or off
- * Edit the actions list
-
-
+ After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
+ re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
+ are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
+ Privoxy!
- This should be self-explanatory. Note the last item is an editor for the
- actions list, which is where much of the ad, banner, cookie,
- and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
- Privoxy. This is an easy way to adjust various
- aspects of Privoxy configuration. The actions
- file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
+ Privoxy is typically started by specifying the
+ main configuration file to be 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.
+
+Red Hat and Conectiva
- Toggle Privoxy On or Off is handy for sites that might
- have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
- it as a test to see whether it is Privoxy
- causing the problem or not. Privoxy continues
- to run as a proxy in this case, but all filtering is disabled. There
- is even a toggle Bookmarklet offered, so
- that you can toggle Privoxy with one click from
- your browser.
+ 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.
+
+
+
+ # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
+
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Configuration Files Overview
+
+Debian
- For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
- /etc/privoxy/ by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
- AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
- Privoxy executable.
+ 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.
-
- The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though possibly
- aggressive by some standards. For the time being, there are only three
- default configuration files (this may change in time):
+
+ # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
+
+
+
+SuSE
-
-
-
-
- The main configuration file is named config
- on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and config.txt
- on Windows.
-
-
-
-
-
- default.action (the actions file) is used to define
- which of a set of various actions relating to images, banners,
- pop-ups, access restrictions, banners and cookies are to be applied, and where.
- There is a web based editor for this file that can be accessed at http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions/
- (Shortcut: http://p.p/edit-actions/).
- (Other actions files are included as well with differing levels of filtering
- and blocking, e.g. basic.action.)
-
-
-
-
-
- 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 file.
-
-
-
-
+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.
-
- 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 looses
- its special function. Placing a # in front of an otherwise
- valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
- out" that line.
+
+ # rcprivoxy start
+
+
+
+Windows
- default.action and default.filter
- can use Perl style regular expressions for
- maximum flexibility.
+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.
+
+
+Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others
- After making any changes, there is no need to restart
- Privoxy in order for the changes to take
- effect. Privoxy detects such changes
- automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
- requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
- of Privoxy, these wake up requests
- must obviously be sent to the old listening address.
+Example Unix startup command:
+
+
+
+ # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
+
+
-
+OS/2
- While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
- The 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.
+ 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.
-]]>
+
+Mac OSX
+
+ During installation, Privoxy is configured to
+ start automatically when the system restarts. To start Privoxy by hand,
+ double-click on the StartPrivoxy.command icon in the
+ /Library/Privoxy folder. Or, type this command
+ in the Terminal:
+
+
+
+ /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
+
+
+
+ You will be prompted for the administrator password.
+
+
-
-
-The Main Configuration File
+
+AmigaOS
- Again, the main configuration file is named config on
- Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, and config.txt on Windows.
- Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of
- values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For
- example:
+ 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).
+
+
+Gentoo
-
-
-
- confdir /etc/privoxy
-
-
-
+ A script is again used. It will use the file /etc/privoxy/config
+ as its main configuration file.
-
- Assigns the value /etc/privoxy to the option
- confdir and thus indicates that the configuration
- directory is named /etc/privoxy/.
+
+ /etc/init.d/privoxy start
+
-
- All options in the config file except for confdir and
- logdir are optional. Watch out in the below description
- for what happens if you leave them unset.
+ Note that Privoxy is not automatically started at
+ boot time by default. You can change this with the rc-update
+ command.
+
+
+
+ rc-update add privoxy default
+
+
+
+
+
+ The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
+ point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
+ actions files. These are
+ where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
+ aspects of Privoxy configuration. There are several
+ such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
+
-
-Configuration and Log File Locations
+
+ You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
+ persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
+ default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
+ session (aka session cookies), unless you add them to the
+ configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
+ to edit user.action (or through the web based interface)
+ and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
+ more sense to let Privoxy handle this. In which
+ case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
+
- Privoxy can (and normally does) use a number of
- other files for additional configuration and logging.
- This section of the configuration file tells Privoxy
- where to find those other files.
+ Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
+ sites is the popup-killing (through the +kill-popups and
+ +filter{popups}
+ actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
+ popups (explained below).
+
+ Privoxy is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
+ the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
+ you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
+ (like Mozilla or recent versions of I.E.), you might
+ try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under Edit ->
+ Preferences -> Debug -> Networking.
+ Alternatively, set the +downgrade-http-version config option in
+ default.action which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
+ requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
+
-confdir
+
+ After running Privoxy for a while, you can
+ start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
+ preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
+ be customized. Actions
+ can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
+ http://config.privoxy.org/
+ (shortcut: http://p.p/),
+ and then follow the link to View & Change the Current Configuration.
+ (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
+
-
-
- Specifies:
-
- The directory where the other configuration files are located
-
-
-
- Type of value:
-
- Path name
-
-
-
- Default value:
-
- /etc/privoxy (Unix) orPrivoxy installation dir (Windows)
+
+ In fact, various aspects of Privoxy
+ configuration can be viewed from this page, including
+ current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
+ the browser's request headers, and actions that apply
+ to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
+ editor mentioned above, Privoxy can also
+ be turned on and off (toggled) from this page.
+
+
+
+ If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
+ Privoxy. If that helps, enter the URL where
+ you have the problems into the browser
+ based rule tracing utility. See which rules apply and why, and
+ then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
+ is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
+ again.
+
+
+
+ If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to read more about the actions concept
+ or even dive deep into the Appendix
+ on actions.
+
+
+
+ If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
+ Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
+ section Contacting the
+ Developers below.
+
+
+-->
+
+
+
+Command Line Options
+
+ Privoxy may be invoked with the following
+ command-line options:
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ --version
+
+
+ Print version info and exit. Unix only.
+
+
+
+
+ --help
+
+
+ Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
+
+
+
+
+ --no-daemon
+
+
+ Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
+ leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
+
+
+
+
+ --pidfile FILE
+
+
+
+ On startup, write the process ID to FILE. Delete the
+ FILE on exit. Failure to create or delete the
+ FILE is non-fatal. If no FILE
+ option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
+
+
+
+
+ --user USER[.GROUP]
+
+
+
+ After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
+ USER, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
+ privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
+
+
+
+
+ --chroot
+
+
+
+ Before changing to the user ID given in the --user option,
+ chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the Privoxy
+ process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
+ the impact of possible vulnerabilities in Privoxy to the files contained in that hierarchy.
+ Unix only.
+
+
+
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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
+
+
+ ▪ Documentation
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ 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 configured as well as other advanced features of
+ Privoxy. This is an easy way to adjust various
+ aspects of Privoxy configuration. The actions
+ file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
+
+
+
+ Toggle Privoxy On or Off is handy for sites that might
+ have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
+ it as a test to see whether it is Privoxy
+ causing the problem or not. Privoxy continues
+ to run as a 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.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Configuration Files Overview
+
+ For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
+ /etc/privoxy/ by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
+ AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
+ Privoxy executable.
+
+
+
+ The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
+ some 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 AmigaOS and config.txt
+ on Windows. This is a required file.
+
+
+
+
+
+ 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
+ Privoxy to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
+ as many websites as possible.
+
+
+ Multiple actions files may be defined in config. These
+ are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
+ preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
+ default.action (which you will most probably want
+ to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
+ user.action, where you can preserve them across
+ upgrades. standard.action is for
+ Privoxy's internal use.
+
+
+ There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
+ http://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 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. Only one filter
+ file may be defined.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ 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 looses
+ its special function. Placing a # in front of an otherwise
+ valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
+ out" that line.
+
+
+
+ The actions files and default.filter
+ can use Perl style regular expressions for
+ maximum flexibility.
+
+
+
+ After making any changes, there is no need to restart
+ Privoxy in order for the changes to take
+ effect. Privoxy detects such changes
+ automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
+ requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
+ of Privoxy, these wake up requests
+ must obviously be sent to the old listening address.
+
+
+
+ While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
+ The 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.
+
+]]>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ &config;
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Actions Files
+
+
+ The actions files are used to define what actions
+ Privoxy takes for which URLs, and thus determine
+ how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
+ transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
+ are three such files included with Privoxy
+ with differing purposes:
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ 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. 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 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 default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
+ standard.action are:
+
+
+
Default Configurations
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Feature
+ Cautious
+ Medium
+ Adventuresome
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Ad-blocking by URL
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
+
+
+
+ Ad-filtering by size
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
+
+
+
+ GIF de-animation
+ no
+ yes
+ yes
+
+
+
+ Referer forging
+ no
+ yes
+ yes
+
+
+
+ Cookie handling
+ none
+ session-only
+ kill
+
+
+
+ Pop-up killing
+ unsolicited
+ unsolicited
+ all
+
+
+
+ Fast redirects
+ no
+ no
+ yes
+
+
+
+ HTML taming
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
+
+
+
+ JavaScript taming
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
+
+
+
+ Web-bug killing
+ yes
+ yes
+ yes
+
+
+
+ Fun text replacements
+ no
+ no
+ yes
+
+
+
+ Image tag reordering
+ no
+ no
+ yes
+
+
+
+ Ad-filtering by link
+ no
+ no
+ yes
+
+
+
+ Demoronizer
+ no
+ no
+ yes
+
+
+
+
+
+
@@ -4794,7 +6728,7 @@ Requests
- Show the client's request headers:
+ Show the browser's request headers:
@@ -4838,17 +6772,6 @@ Requests
-
-
-
- Edit the actions list file:
-
-
-
- http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions
-
-
-
@@ -4882,42 +6805,48 @@ Requests
- Enable Privoxy
+ Privoxy - Enable
- Disable Privoxy
+ Privoxy - Disable
- Toggle Privoxy (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
+ Privoxy - Toggle Privoxy (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
- View Privoxy Status
+ Privoxy- View Status
- Actions file feedback system
+ Privoxy - Submit Actions File Feedback
+
+
+
+
+ Privoxy - Why?
-
-
-
- Credit: The site which gave me the general idea for these bookmarklets is
- www.bookmarklets.com. They
+ Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
+ www.bookmarklets.com. They
have more information about bookmarklets.
@@ -4927,27 +6856,152 @@ Requests
+
+
+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 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/) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
+
+
+
+
+ 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 that is done.
+
+
+
+
+ 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
+ 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 page and related
+ data).
+
+
+
+
+ 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 determined 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 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 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 they are specified in the
+ default.filter file. Animated GIFs, if present, are
+ reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
+ setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
+ Privoxy back to your browser.
+
+
+ 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 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.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
Anatomy of an Action
- The way Privoxy applies actions
- and filters to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
+ The way Privoxy applies
+ actions and filters
+ to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
see just what Privoxy is
doing. Especially, if something Privoxy is doing
is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
- regular expressions whose consequences are not always
- so obvious.
+ regular expressions whose consequences are not
+ always so obvious.
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 afterwards!).
+ and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
+ logs is a good idea too.
@@ -4961,92 +7015,113 @@ Requests
First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
Privoxy will tell us
how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
- help with filtering effects from the default.filter file! It
- also will not tell you about any other URLs that may be embedded within the
- URL you are testing (i.e. a web page). For instance, images such as ads are expressed as URLs
- within the raw page source of HTML pages. So you will only get info for the
- actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area -- not any sub-URLs. If you
- want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you will have to dig those out of
- the HTML source. Use your browser's View Page Source option
- for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the URL.
-
-
-
- Let's look at an example, google.com,
- one section at a time:
-
-
-
-
- System default actions:
-
- { -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects -filter
- -hide-forwarded -hide-from -hide-referer -hide-user-agent -image
- -image-blocker -limit-connect -no-compression -no-cookies-keep
- -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set -no-popups -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
-
-
+ help with filtering effects (i.e. the +filter action) from
+ the default.filter file since this is handled very
+ differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
+ URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
+ such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
+ you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
+ -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
+ will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's View
+ Page Source option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
+ URL.
- This is the top section, and only tells us of the compiled in defaults. This
- is basically what Privoxy would do if there
- were not any actions defined, i.e. it does nothing. Every action
- is disabled. This is not particularly informative for our purposes here. OK,
- next section:
+ Let's try an example, google.com,
+ and look at it one section at a time:
-
Matches for http://google.com:
- { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects
- +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
- +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
- +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
- -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression
- +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups
- -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
- /
-
- { -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set }
- .google.com
+ In file: default.action [ View ][ Edit ]
+
+{-add-header
+ -block
+ -crunch-outgoing-cookies
+ -crunch-incoming-cookies
+ +deanimate-gifs{last}
+ -downgrade-http-version
+ +fast-redirects
+ -filter{popups}
+ -filter{fun}
+ -filter{shockwave-flash}
+ -filter{crude-parental}
+ +filter{html-annoyances}
+ +filter{js-annoyances}
+ +filter{content-cookies}
+ +filter{webbugs}
+ +filter{refresh-tags}
+ +filter{nimda}
+ +filter{banners-by-size}
+ +hide-forwarded-for-headers
+ +hide-from-header{block}
+ +hide-referer{forge}
+ -hide-user-agent
+ -handle-as-image
+ -kill-popups
+ -limit-connect
+ +prevent-compression
+ -send-vanilla-wafer
+ -send-wafer
+ +session-cookies-only
+ +set-image-blocker{pattern} }
+/
+
+ { -session-cookies-only }
+ .google.com
{ -fast-redirects }
- .google.com
+ .google.com
-
+In file: user.action [ View ][ Edit ]
+(no matches in this file)
+
- This is much more informative, and tells us how we have defined our
- actions, and which ones match for our example,
- google.com. The first grouping shows our default
- settings, which would apply to all URLs. If you look at your actions
- file, this would be the section just below the aliases section
- near the top. This applies to all URLs as signified by the single forward
- slash -- /.
-
+ This tells us how we have defined our
+ actions, and
+ which ones match for our example, google.com. The first listing
+ is any matches for the standard.action file. No hits at
+ all here on standard. Then next is default, or
+ our default.action file. The large, multi-line listing,
+ is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default settings.
+ If you look at your actions file, this would be the section
+ just below the aliases section near the top. This will apply to
+ all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
+ -- /.
- These are the default actions we have enabled. But we can define additional
- actions that would be exceptions to these general rules, and then list
- specific URLs that these exceptions would apply to. Last match wins.
- Just below this then are two explicit matches for .google.com.
- The first is negating our various cookie blocking actions (i.e. we will allow
- cookies here). The second is allowing fast-redirects. 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 actions defined
- somewhere in the lower part of our actions file, and
- google.com is referenced in these sections.
+ 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
+ .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 -- .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 google.com is referenced somewhere in these latter
+ sections.
+
+
+ Then, for our user.action file, we again have no hits.
- And now we pull it altogether 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:
@@ -5056,16 +7131,43 @@ Requests
Final results:
-
- -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects
- +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
- +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
- +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
- -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} -limit-connect +no-compression
- -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups -vanilla-wafer
- -wafer
-
-
+
+ -add-header
+ -block
+ -crunch-outgoing-cookies
+ -crunch-incoming-cookies
+ +deanimate-gifs{last}
+ -downgrade-http-version
+ -fast-redirects
+ -filter{popups}
+ -filter{fun}
+ -filter{shockwave-flash}
+ -filter{crude-parental}
+ +filter{html-annoyances}
+ +filter{js-annoyances}
+ +filter{content-cookies}
+ +filter{webbugs}
+ +filter{refresh-tags}
+ +filter{nimda}
+ +filter{banners-by-size}
+ +hide-forwarded-for-headers
+ +hide-from-header{block}
+ +hide-referer{forge}
+ -hide-user-agent
+ -handle-as-image
+ -kill-popups
+ -limit-connect
+ +prevent-compression
+ -send-vanilla-wafer
+ -send-wafer
+ -session-cookies-only
+ +set-image-blocker{pattern}
+
+
+
+
+ Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
+ fast-redirects and session-cookies-only.
@@ -5075,24 +7177,24 @@ Requests
- { +block +image }
+ { +block +handle-as-image }
.ad.doubleclick.net
- { +block +image }
+ { +block +handle-as-image }
ad*.
- { +block +image }
+ { +block +handle-as-image }
.doubleclick.net
-
-
+
We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
- matched three different times. Each as an +block +image,
+ matched three different times. Each as an +block +handle-as-image,
which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
- +imageblock. (Aliases are defined in the
- first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
+ +imageblock. (Aliases are defined in
+ the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
than one action.)
@@ -5102,14 +7204,18 @@ Requests
would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
URL to be invisible, it should be defined as ad.doubleclick.net
- is done here -- as both a +blockand an
- +image. The custom alias +imageblock does this
- for us.
+ is done here -- as both a +block
+ and an
+ +handle-as-image.
+ The custom alias +imageblock just simplifies the process 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...
+ This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
@@ -5117,27 +7223,47 @@ Requests
Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
- { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects
- +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
- +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
- +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
- -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression
- +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups
- -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
+ In file: default.action [ View ][ Edit ]
+
+ {-add-header
+ -block
+ -crunch-incoming-cookies
+ -crunch-outgoing-cookies
+ +deanimate-gifs
+ -downgrade-http-version
+ +fast-redirects
+ +filter{html-annoyances}
+ +filter{js-annoyances}
+ +filter{kill-popups}
+ +filter{webbugs}
+ +filter{nimda}
+ +filter{banners-by-size}
+ +filter{hal}
+ +filter{fun}
+ +hide-forwarded-for-headers
+ +hide-from-header{block}
+ +hide-referer{forge}
+ -hide-user-agent
+ -handle-as-image
+ +kill-popups
+ +prevent-compression
+ -send-vanilla-wafer
+ -send-wafer
+ +session-cookies-only
+ +set-image-blocker{blank} }
/
- { +block +image }
+ { +block +handle-as-image }
/ads
-
-
+
Ooops, the /adsl/ is matching /ads! But
we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
now add a new action below this that explicitly does not
- block (-block) pages with adsl. There are various ways to
- handle such exceptions. Example:
+ block ({-block}) paths with adsl. There are
+ various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
@@ -5145,8 +7271,7 @@ Requests
{ -block }
/adsl
-
-
+
@@ -5162,10 +7287,9 @@ Requests
- { -block }
- /adsl
-
-
+ { +block +handle-as-image }
+ /ads
+
@@ -5173,8 +7297,9 @@ Requests
was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
- One likely cause would be one of the {+filter} actions. Try
- adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off +filter:
+ One likely 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:
@@ -5186,14 +7311,13 @@ Requests
.jungle.com
.scan.co.uk
.forbes.com
-
-
+
{shop} is an alias that expands to
- { -filter -no-cookies -no-cookies-keep }. Or you could do
- your own exception to negate filtering:
+ { -filter -session-cookies-only }.
+ Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
@@ -5202,8 +7326,20 @@ Requests
{-filter}
.forbes.com
-
-
+
+
+
+
+ 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).
@@ -5238,6 +7374,274 @@ Requests
Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
$Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
+ Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
+ Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
+ with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
+ Fix typo 'loose'
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
+ Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
+ Fixed an inaccuracy
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
+ Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
+ is dependent on browser.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
+ Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
+ Some minor clarifications
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
+ Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
+ and copyright notice dates.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
+ Changed the demoronizer filter description.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
+ Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
+ Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
+ Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
+ solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
+ Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
+ files).
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
+ Updated hard-coded copyright dates
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
+ Add new section on Predefined Filters.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
+ More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
+ Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
+ causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
+ it was a comment).
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
+ s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
+ Added documentation for new chroot option
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
+ Adapted to the new filters
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
+ Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
+ Add faq on cookies.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
+ Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
+ Add demoronizer to filter section.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
+ s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
+ Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
+ cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
+ More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
+ Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
+ CGIs.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
+ Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
+ Update to Mac OSX startup script name
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
+ Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
+ Nits re: actions file download
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
+ Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
+ Added 2 Gentoo sections
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
+ - Added version info to title
+ - Added info on new filters
+ - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
+ - Added info on where to get updated actions files
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
+ Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
+
+ Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
+ Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
+ Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
+ Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
+ This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
+ eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
+ so that these are in sync with each other.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
+ Ooops missed something from David.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
+ Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
+ That's a wrap, I think.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
+ Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
+ -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
+
+ Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
+ Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
+ Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
+
+ Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
+ Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
+
+ Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
+ - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
+ style.
+ - Small fixes in the actions chapter
+ - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
+ - Removed from s since the new doc CSS
+ renders them red (bad in TOC).
+
+ Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
+ Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
+
+ Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
+ Added Security hint
+
+ Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
+ -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
+ -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
+
+ Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
+ - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
+ - Small changes to Regex appendix
+ - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
+
+ Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
+ Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
+
+ Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
+ Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
+
+ Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
+ More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
+
+ Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
+ Extended and further commented the example actions files
+
+ Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
+ Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
+ clarification.
+
+ Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
+ Fixing the fixes
+
+ Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
+ Restored alphabetical order of actions
+
+ Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
+ Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
+
+ Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
+ Completed proofreading the actions chapter
+
+ Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
+ Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
+ apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
+
+ Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
+ This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
+ are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
+ changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
+
+ Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
+ Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
+
+ Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
+ bumped version
+
+ Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
+ -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
+ -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
+
+ Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
+ Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
+
+ Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
+ Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
+ Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
+
+ Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
+ Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
+
+ Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
+ more structure in starting section
+
+ Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
+ This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
+ will probably break links elsewhere :(
+
+ Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
+ -Rewrite of Actions File example.
+ -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
+
+ Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
+ -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
+ -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
+
+ Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
+ bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
+
+ Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
+ -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
+ -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
+
+ Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
+ More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
+ Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
+
+ Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
+ Add 'Chain of Events' section.
+
+ Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
+ Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
+
Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
Added hint for startup on Red Hat