X-Git-Url: http://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fsource%2Fuser-manual.sgml;h=b503ef44e26c7aa6b095db40627208c7c594e310;hb=6bcb19ed15090fe11882ef92c97fe1f811f5abef;hp=0e6edb627c67e305e01e0ac7223616a2ee771f69;hpb=b65c2046a11215f61434b7651c8081d6dddf970d;p=privoxy.git
diff --git a/doc/source/user-manual.sgml b/doc/source/user-manual.sgml
index 0e6edb62..52181a80 100644
--- a/doc/source/user-manual.sgml
+++ b/doc/source/user-manual.sgml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
+
@@ -8,35 +8,37 @@
-
-
-
-
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
+
+
+
+
+
+Privoxy">
]>
+
+ Copyright &my-copy; 2001-2018 by
+ Privoxy Developers
+
+
+
+
-
-
-
- By: Privoxy Developers
-
-
-
+
@@ -68,70 +84,59 @@
]]>
- The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
- Privoxy.
-
+ The Privoxy 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 http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/.
- Please see the Contact section on how to
+ You can find the latest version of the Privoxy User Manual at https://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/.
+ Please see the Contact section on how to
contact the developers.
-
+
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Introduction
This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
- Privoxy, v.&p-version;Privoxy, &p-version;soon ;-)]]>.
+ configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
+ completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
+ earlier versions]]>.
Since this is a &p-status; 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!
+ documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
+ git sources).
+ And there may be bugs, though hopefully
+ not many!
]]>
-
-New Features
+Features
- In addition to Internet Junkbuster's traditional
- features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
- Privoxy provides new features:
+ In addition to the core
+ features of ad blocking and
+ cookie management,
+ Privoxy provides many supplemental
+ features,
+ that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
-
&newfeatures;
@@ -149,70 +154,32 @@
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.
+ 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.
+ Note:
+ On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
+ found. (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.
-
- &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.
-
-
-
- How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
-
-
-
-Red Hat and SuSE RPMs
-
-
- RPMs can be installed with rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm,
- and will use /etc/privoxy for the location
- of configuration files.
-
-
- If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
- rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm;. This
- will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
-
+How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
-
- 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.
-
-
+
-Debian
+Debian and Ubuntu
- FIXME.
+ DEBs can be installed with apt-get install privoxy,
+ and will use /etc/privoxy for the location of
+ configuration files.
@@ -221,18 +188,42 @@
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.
-
-
-
-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.
+ Version 3.0.5 beta introduced full Windows service
+ functionality. On Windows only, the Privoxy
+ program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
+ Privoxy as a service.
+
+
+
+ Arguments:
+
+
+ --install[:service_name]
+
+
+ --uninstall[:service_name]
+
+
+
+
+
+ After invoking Privoxy with
+ --install, you will need to bring up the
+ Windows service console to assign the user you
+ want Privoxy to run under, and whether or not you
+ want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
+ Windows services console with the following
+ command: services.msc. If you do not take the manual step
+ of modifying Privoxy's service settings, it will
+ not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
+ actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
+ write to its log and configuration files.
+
@@ -240,9 +231,11 @@
First, make sure that no previous installations of
- Junkbuster and / or
+ 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.
@@ -259,370 +252,787 @@
-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 OS X
+
+ Installation instructions for the OS X platform depend upon whether
+ you downloaded a ready-built installation package (.pkg or .mpkg) or have
+ downloaded the source code.
-
-
-AmigaOS
+
+Installation from ready-built package
+
+ The downloaded file will either be a .pkg (for OS X 10.5 upwards) or a bzipped
+ .mpkg file (for OS X 10.4). The former can be double-clicked as is and the
+ installation will start; double-clicking the latter will unzip the .mpkg file
+ which can then be double-clicked to commence the installation.
+
+
+ The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful installation
+ (and thereafter every time your computer starts up) however you will need to
+ configure your web browser(s) to use it. To do so, configure them to use a
+ proxy for HTTP and HTTPS at the address 127.0.0.1:8118.
+
+
+ To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your computer
+ starts up, remove or rename the file /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ijbswa.privoxy.plist
+ (on OS X 10.5 and higher) or the folder named
+ /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy (on OS X 10.4 'Tiger').
+
+
+ To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the scripts startPrivoxy.sh
+ and stopPrivoxy.sh supplied in /Applications/Privoxy. They must be run from an
+ administrator account, using sudo.
+
+
+ To uninstall, run /Applications/Privoxy/uninstall.command as sudo from an
+ administrator account.
+
+
+
+Installation from source
- 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.
+ To build and install the Privoxy source code on OS X you will need to obtain
+ the macsetup module from the Privoxy Sourceforge CVS repository (refer to
+ Sourceforge help for details of how to set up a CVS client to have read-only
+ access to the repository). This module contains scripts that leverage the usual
+ open-source tools (available as part of Apple's free of charge Xcode
+ distribution or via the usual open-source software package managers for OS X
+ (MacPorts, Homebrew, Fink etc.) to build and then install the privoxy binary
+ and associated files. The macsetup module's README file contains complete
+ instructions for its use.
- 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).
+ The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful installation
+ (and thereafter every time your computer starts up) however you will need to
+ configure your web browser(s) to use it. To do so, configure them to use a
+ proxy for HTTP and HTTPS at the address 127.0.0.1:8118.
+
+
+ To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your computer
+ starts up, remove or rename the file /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ijbswa.privoxy.plist
+ (on OS X 10.5 and higher) or the folder named
+ /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy (on OS X 10.4 'Tiger').
+
+
+ To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the Privoxy Utility
+ for Mac OS X (also part of the macsetup module). This application can start
+ and stop the privoxy service and display its log and configuration files.
+
+
+ To uninstall, run the macsetup module's uninstall.sh as sudo from an
+ administrator account.
+
+
+
+
+FreeBSD
+
+
+ Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
+ it with cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean.
+
Building from Source
+
+ The most convenient way to obtain the Privoxy source
+ code is to download the source tarball from our
+
+ project download page,
+ or you can get the up-to-the-minute, possibly unstable, development version from
+ https://www.privoxy.org/.
+
+
&buildsource;
+
+
+ Windows
+
+ Setup
+
+ Install the Cygwin utilities needed to build Privoxy.
+ If you have a 64 bit CPU (which most people do by now), get the
+ Cygwin setup-x86_64.exe program here
+ (the .sig file is here).
+
+
+ Run the setup program and from View / Category select:
+
+
+ Devel
+ autoconf 2.5
+ automake 1.15
+ binutils
+ cmake
+ gcc-core
+ gcc-g++
+ git
+ make
+ mingw64-i686-gcc-core
+ mingw64-i686-zlib
+ Editors
+ vim
+ Libs
+ libxslt: GNOME XSLT library (runtime)
+ Net
+ curl
+ openssh
+ Text
+ docbook-dssl
+ docbook-sgml31
+ docbook-utils
+ openjade
+ Utils
+ gnupg
+ Web
+ w3m
+
+
+
+ If you haven't already downloaded the Privoxy source code, get it now:
+
+
+ mkdir <root-dir>
+ cd <root-dir>
+ git clone https://www.privoxy.org/git/privoxy.git
+
+
+
+ Get the source code (.zip or .tar.gz) for tidy from
+
+ https://github.com/htacg/tidy-html5/releases,
+ unzip into <root-dir> and build the software:
+
+
+ cd <root-dir>
+ cd tidy-html5-x.y.z/build/cmake
+ cmake ../.. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBUILD_SHARED_LIB:BOOL=OFF -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local
+ make && make install
+
+
+
+ If you want to be able to make a Windows release package, get the NSIS .zip file from
+
+
+ https://sourceforge.net/projects/nsis/files/NSIS%203/
+ and extract the NSIS directory to privoxy/windows.
+ Then edit the windows/GNUmakefile to set the location of the NSIS executable - eg:
+
+
+# Path to NSIS
+MAKENSIS = ./nsis/makensis.exe
+
+
+
+
+ Build
+
+
+ To build just the Privoxy executable and not the whole installation package, do:
+
+
+ cd <root-dir>/privoxy
+ ./windows/MYconfigure && make
+
+
+
+ Privoxy uses the GNU Autotools
+ for building software, so the process is:
+
+
+ $ autoheader # creates config.h.in
+ $ autoconf # uses config.h.in to create the configure shell script
+ $ ./configure [options] # creates GNUmakefile
+ $ make [options] # builds the program
+
+
+
+ The usual configure options for building a native Windows application under cygwin are
+
+
+
+ --host=i686-w64-mingw32
+ --enable-mingw32
+ --enable-zlib
+ --enable-static-linking
+ --disable-pthread
+ --disable-dynamic-pcre
+
+
+
+ You can set the CFLAGS and LDFLAGS envars before
+ running configure to set compiler and linker flags. For example:
+
+
+
+ $ export CFLAGS="-O2" # set gcc optimization level
+ $ export LDFLAGS="-Wl,--nxcompat" # Enable DEP
+ $ ./configure --host=i686-w64-mingw32 --enable-mingw32 --enable-zlib \
+ > --enable-static-linking --disable-pthread --disable-dynamic-pcre
+ $ make # build Privoxy
+
+
+
+ See the Developer's Manual
+ for building a Windows release package.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date
+
+
+ If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
+ Privoxy or the actions file, subscribe
+ to our announce mailing list, privoxy-announce@lists.privoxy.org.
+
+
+
+ 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 and
+ user.filter for your local
+ customizations of Privoxy. See the Chapter on actions files for details.
+
+
+
-
+
+What's New in this Release
-Quickstart to Using Privoxy
-
+&changelog;
+
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).
-
-
- A filter file (typically default.filter)
- is new as of Privoxy 2.9.x, and provides some
- of the new sophistication (explained below). config is
- much the same as before.
-
-
- If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
- files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
- When porting personal rules over from the old blockfile
- to the new actions file, please note that even the pattern syntax has
- changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
- recommended to use the new configuration files.
-
-
- A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
+ A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
+ versions of Privoxy:
-
- The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
- service (NAS).
+ The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
+ configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
+ is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
+ diff and maybe patch.
+
+
+ There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
+ most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
+ files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
+ to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
+ &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
+
+
+
+
+ Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
+ including configuration files, therefore you should really save
+ any important configuration files!
-
+
-
- Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
- important configuration files!
+
+ On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
+ files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
- 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.
+ In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
+ You can change that in the debug section
+ of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
+ logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
+ as expected.
-
+
+
+
+
+ Three other config file settings are now off by default:
+ enable-remote-toggle,
+ enable-remote-http-toggle,
+ and enable-edit-actions.
+ If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
+ be aware of the security issues involved.
+
+
+
+
+
-
Some installers may not automatically start
Privoxy after installation.
-
+
+-->
-
+
-
-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.
-
-
-
- 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!
-
+Quickstart to Using Privoxy
+
-
- 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.
+ DO NOT activate proxying for FTP or
+ any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
+ browser from using these protocols.
+
+
-
- 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, you may want
+ to enable the
+ web-based action editor though.
+ Be sure to read the warnings first.
+
+
+ See the Configuration section for more
+ configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
+ You might also want to look at the next section for a quick
+ introduction to how Privoxy blocks ads and
+ banners.
+
+
+
+ If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
+ blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
+ Privoxy's behavior, 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 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
+ Action has hints on how to understand and 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.
-
+
+
+ Please see the section Contacting the
+ Developers on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
+ help.
+
+
+
+
+ Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
+
+
-
- The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
- point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
- actions files. These are where various cookie actions are
- defined, ad and banner blocking, and other aspects of
- Privoxy configuration. There are several such
- files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
-
+
-
- You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites that require persistent
- cookies, and add these to default.action as needed. By
- default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
- session (aka session cookies), until you add them to the
- configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
- to edit default.action and disable this feature. If you
- use more than one browser, it would make more sense to let
- Privoxy handle this. In which case, the
- browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
-
-
- Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
- sites is the popup-killing (through the +popup and
- +filter{popups} actions), because your favorite shopping,
- banking, or leisure site may need popups.
-
+
+
+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. And the more likely that some things
+ may not work as 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. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
+ instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
+ server are blocked.
-
-
-
-
-
-Command Line Options
- Privoxy may be invoked with the following
- command-line options:
+ The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: block, handle-as-image,
+ handle-as-empty-document,and
+ set-image-blocker:
-
- --version
+ block - this is perhaps
+ the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
+ 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 (with some exceptions, see below).
-
- Print version info and exit. Unix only.
-
-
+
+
- --help
-
-
- Print short usage info and exit. 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.
-
+
+
- --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-empty-document -
+ sends an empty document instead of Privoxy's
+ normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
+ HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
-
+
+
- --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.
+ 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).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
+ filters as well. Filters
+ are very different from blocks.
+ A block blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
+ are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
+ filter usage: a text replacement of no-no for
+ nasty-word. That is a very simple example. This process can be
+ used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
+ some pitfalls to be wary off.
+
+
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
+ Note that as of Privoxy 3.0.7 beta the
+ action editor is disabled by default. Check the
+ enable-edit-actions
+ section in the configuration file to learn why and in which
+ cases it's safe to enable again.
+
+
+
+ If you decided to enable the action editor, 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:
+
+
+
+
+
+
- --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.
+ 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.
+
+
+ There are also various
+ filters that can be used for ad blocking
+ (filters are a special subset of actions). These
+ fall into the advanced usage category, and are explained in
+ depth in later sections.
@@ -633,3764 +1043,6651 @@
-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
+
+Starting Privoxy
- 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:
-
+ Before launching Privoxy for the first time, you
+ will want to configure your browser(s) to use
+ Privoxy as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
+ 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.
+
-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
-
+
+ With Firefox, this is typically set under:
+
+ Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Network ->Connection -> Settings
+
+
- 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.
+ Or optionally on some platforms:
+
+ Edit -> Preferences -> General -> Connection Settings -> Manual Proxy Configuration
+
+
+
- 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.
+ With Netscape (and
+ Mozilla), this can be set under:
-
-
+
+
+
+ Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy
+
+
+
+ For Internet Explorer v.5-7:
+
+
+ Tools -> Internet Options -> 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 (sometimes labeled Secure). Make sure any
+ checkboxes like Use the same proxy server for all protocols is
+ UNCHECKED. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
+
+
+
-
-
-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.
+ 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. Remove
+ any cookies,
+ if you want Privoxy to manage that. You are now
+ ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
+ Privoxy!
- 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):
+ Privoxy itself 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.
+
+Debian
-
-
-
-
- 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. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
+ default. It will use the file
+ /etc/privoxy/config as its main configuration
+ file.
+
+
+ # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
+
+
-
+
+FreeBSD and ElectroBSD
+
+ To start Privoxy upon booting, add
+ "privoxy_enable='YES'" to /etc/rc.conf.
+ Privoxy will use
+ /usr/local/etc/privoxy/config as its main
+ configuration file.
+
+
+ If you installed Privoxy into a jail, the
+ paths above are relative to the jail root.
+
+
+ To start Privoxy manually, run:
+
+ # service privoxy onestart
+
+
+
+Windows
- 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.
+Click on the &my-app; 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 &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
+ when installing.
+
+
+ Privoxy can run with full Windows service functionality.
+ On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
+ to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
+ Windows Installation
+ instructions for details.
+
+
+Generic instructions for Unix derivates (Solaris, NetBSD, HP-UX etc.)
- default.action and default.filter
- can use Perl style regular expressions for
- maximum flexibility.
+Example Unix startup command:
+
+
+ # /usr/sbin/privoxy --user privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
+
+
+ Note that if you installed Privoxy through
+ a package manager, the package will probably contain a platform-specific
+ script or configuration file to start Privoxy
+ upon boot.
+
+
+OS/2
- 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.
+ 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 OS X
- 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.
+ The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful installation
+ (and thereafter every time your computer starts up) however you will need to
+ configure your web browser(s) to use it. To do so, configure them to use a
+ proxy for HTTP and HTTPS at the address 127.0.0.1:8118.
+
+
+ To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your computer
+ starts up, remove or rename the file /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ijbswa.privoxy.plist
+ (on OS X 10.5 and higher) or the folder named
+ /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy (on OS X 10.4 'Tiger').
+
+
+ To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the scripts startPrivoxy.sh
+ and stopPrivoxy.sh supplied in /Applications/Privoxy. They must be run from an
+ administrator account, using sudo.
-]]>
-
+
-
-
-Configuration and Log File Locations
+
+ 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.
+
- 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.
+ 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.
+
-confdir
+
+ 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.
+
-
-
- Specifies:
-
- The directory where the other configuration files are located
-
-
-
- Type of value:
-
- Path name
-
-
-
- Default value:
-
- /etc/privoxy (Unix) orPrivoxy installation dir (Windows)
-
-
-
- Effect if unset:
-
- Mandatory
-
-
-
- Notes:
-
-
- No trailing /, please
-
-
- When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
- per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of confdir.
- For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
- confdir/templates, where the HTML templates for CGI
- output reside (e.g. Privoxy's 404 error page).
-
-
-
-
-
+-->
+
+
+Command Line Options
+
+ Privoxy may be invoked with the following
+ command-line options:
+
-logdir
+
-
-
- Specifies:
-
-
- The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where logfile and
- jarfile are located)
-
-
-
-
- Type of value:
+
+
+ --config-test
+
+
+ Exit after loading the configuration files before binding to
+ the listen address. The exit code signals whether or not the
+ configuration files have been successfully loaded.
+
+
+ If the exit code is 1, at least one of the configuration files
+ is invalid, if it is 0, all the configuration files have been
+ successfully loaded (but may still contain errors that can
+ currently only be detected at run time).
+
+
+ This option doesn't affect the log setting, combination with
+ --no-daemon is recommended if a configured
+ log file shouldn't be used.
+
+
+
+
+ --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 &my-app;
+ process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
+ the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
+ Unix only.
+
+
+
+
+ --pre-chroot-nslookup hostname
+
+
+ Specifies a hostname (for example www.privoxy.org) to look up before doing a chroot.
+ On some systems, initializing the resolver library involves reading config files from
+ /etc and/or loading additional shared libraries from /lib.
+ On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
+ the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
+
+
+ For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
+ your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
+ (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
+ but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
+
+
+
+
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ On MS Windows only there are two additional
+ command-line options to allow Privoxy to install and
+ run as a service. See the
+Window Installation section
+for details.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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 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.
+
+
+
+ Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
+ in Privoxy 3.0.7 beta and later.
+ Check the
+ configuration file to learn why
+ and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Configuration Files Overview
+
+ For Unix, *BSD and GNU/Linux, all configuration files are located in
+ /etc/privoxy/ by default. For MS Windows and OS/2
+ 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 GNU/Linux, Unix, BSD, and OS/2, and config.txt
+ on Windows. This is a required file.
+
+
+
+
+
+ match-all.action is used to define which actions
+ relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups, content modification, cookie handling
+ etc should be applied by default. It should be the first actions file loaded.
+
+
+ default.action defines many exceptions (both positive and negative)
+ from the default set of actions that's configured in match-all.action.
+ It should be the second actions file loaded and shouldn't be edited by the user.
+
+
+ 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
+ match-all.action (which you will most probably want
+ to define sooner or later) are best applied in user.action,
+ where you can preserve them across upgrades. The file isn't installed by all
+ installers, but you can easily create it yourself with a text editor.
+
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Filter files (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.
+ default.filter includes various filters made
+ available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
+ others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
+ filter files in config as you can with
+ actions files. We suggest user.filter for any
+ locally defined filters or customizations.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
+ Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
+
+
+
+
+ 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. Blank lines are ignored.
+
+
+
+ The actions files and filter files
+ 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 determines
+ 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 a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
+ Each action does something a little different.
+ These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
+ our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
+ their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
+
+
+ There
+ are three action files included with Privoxy with
+ differing purposes:
+
+
+
+
+ match-all.action - is used to define which
+ actions relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
+ content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default.
+ It should be the first actions file loaded
+
+
+
+
+ default.action - defines many exceptions (both
+ positive and negative) from the default set of actions that's configured
+ in match-all.action. It is a set of rules that should
+ work reasonably well as-is for most users. This file is only supposed to
+ be edited by the developers. It should be the second actions file loaded.
+
+
+
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
+
+ EditSet to CautiousSet to MediumSet to Advanced
+
+
+ These have increasing levels of aggressiveness and have no
+ influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
+ editor. A default installation should be pre-set to
+ Cautious. New users should try this for a while before
+ adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
+ the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
+ not working as they should.
+
+
+ The Edit button allows you to turn each
+ action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The Cautious
+ button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
+ ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
+ there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
+ Medium button sets the list to a medium level of
+ other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
+ Advanced button sets the list to a high level of
+ ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
+ three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
+ Edit button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
+ lower sections of this internal page.
+
+
+ While the actions file editor allows to enable these settings in all
+ actions files, they are only supposed to be enabled in the first one
+ to make sure you don't unintentionally overrule earlier rules.
+
+
+ The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
+ default.action are:
+
+
Default Configurations
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Feature
+ Cautious
+ Medium
+ Advanced
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Ad-blocking Aggressiveness
+ medium
+ high
+ high
+
+
+
+ Ad-filtering by size
+ no
+ yes
+ yes
+
+
+
+ Ad-filtering by link
+ no
+ no
+ yes
+
+
+ Pop-up killing
+ blocks only
+ blocks only
+ blocks only
+
+
+
+ Privacy Features
+ low
+ medium
+ medium/high
+
+
+
+ Cookie handling
+ none
+ session-only
+ kill
+
+
+
+ Referer forging
+ no
+ yes
+ yes
+
+
+
+ GIF de-animation
+ no
+ yes
+ yes
+
+
+
+ Fast redirects
+ no
+ no
+ yes
+
+
+
+ HTML taming
+ no
+ no
+ yes
+
+
+
+ JavaScript taming
+ no
+ no
+ yes
+
+
+
+ Web-bug killing
+ no
+ yes
+ yes
+
+
+
+ Image tag reordering
+ no
+ yes
+ yes
+
+
+
+
+
- Alternately, this may be reached at http://p.p/, but this
- variation may not work as reliably as the above in some configurations.
+ 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:
+
+ 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:
-
-
-
- http://config.privoxy.org/show-version
-
-
-
-
+
-
- Show the client's request headers:
+
+ Show the browser's request headers:
-
+ http://config.privoxy.org/show-request
-
+
-
+
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 only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
+
+ Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
+ config file. When toggled off, 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:
+ Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
-
+ http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable
-
+ http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable
-
-
- Edit the actions list file:
-
-
-
- http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions
-
-
-
-
-
-
- These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
+
-
-
-Bookmarklets
-
- Below are some bookmarklets to allow you to easily access a
- mini version of some of Privoxy's
- special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
- equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
- JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
- clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
-
+
+
+Chain of Events
- To save them, right-click the link and choose Add to Favorites
- (IE) or Add Bookmark (Netscape). You will get a warning that
- the bookmark may not be safe - just click OK. Then you can run the
- Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
- you can put them on the Links bar (IE) or the Personal
- Toolbar (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
+ Let's take a quick look at how some of Privoxy's
+ core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
+ page is requested by your browser:
-
-
-
-
- Enable Privoxy
-
-
-
-
-
- Disable Privoxy
-
-
-
-
-
- Toggle Privoxy (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
-
-
-
-
-
- View Privoxy Status
-
-
-
-
-
- Actions file feedback system
-
-
+
+
+ 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
+ and
+ +handle-as-empty-document
+ are then checked, and if there is no match, an
+ HTML BLOCKED page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
+ it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
+ document for the latter. The type of image would depend 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).
+
+
+
+
+ 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 any +filter action
+ 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 and any other filter files) are
+ processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
+ they are specified in one of the filter files. 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 a +filter action
+ 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 (possibly 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
+ separate request (this is easily viewable in Privoxy's
+ logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
+ complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
+ secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
+ differing set of actions is triggered.
+
+
-
-
-
- Credit: The site which gave me the general idea for these bookmarklets is
- www.bookmarklets.com. They
- have more information about bookmarklets.
+ NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
+ request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
+ Privoxy's core features only.
-
-
-
-Anatomy of an Action
+Troubleshooting: 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!).
+ 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 (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
+ logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
+ enabled via config file settings, and may need to be
+ turned on.)
+
+
+ Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
+ customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
+ defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
+ about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
+ configuration issue.
- Privoxy also provides the
+ 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 is a big help for troubleshooting.
@@ -4947,258 +8271,401 @@ Requests
First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
- Privoxy will tell us
+ 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.
+ help with filtering effects (i.e. the +filter action) from
+ one of the filter files 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.
- Let's look at an example, google.com,
- one section at a time:
+ Let's try an example, google.com,
+ and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
+ configuration may vary):
-
- System default actions:
+ Matches for http://www.google.com:
+
+ In file: default.action [ View ][ Edit ]
+
+ {+change-x-forwarded-for{block}
+ +deanimate-gifs {last}
+ +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
+ +filter {refresh-tags}
+ +filter {img-reorder}
+ +filter {banners-by-size}
+ +filter {webbugs}
+ +filter {jumping-windows}
+ +filter {ie-exploits}
+ +hide-from-header {block}
+ +hide-referrer {forge}
+ +session-cookies-only
+ +set-image-blocker {pattern}
+/
+
+ { -session-cookies-only }
+ .google.com
- { -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 }
-
-
-
+ { -fast-redirects }
+ .google.com
+
+In file: user.action [ View ][ Edit ]
+(no matches in this file)
+
- 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:
+ This is telling us how we have defined our
+ actions, and
+ which ones match for our test case, google.com.
+ Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
+ the + sign denotes on. -
+ denotes off. So some are on here, but many
+ are off. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
+ end result, depending on our configuration directives.
-
-
-
- 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
-
- { -fast-redirects }
- .google.com
-
-
+ The first listing
+ is for 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 -- / .
- 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 -- /.
-
+ But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
+ rules, and then we 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, at
+ least that is how it is in this example. 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 or mail.google.com. But it would not
+ match www.google.de! So, apparently, we have these two actions
+ defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
+ part of our default.action file, and
+ google.com is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
- 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.
-
+ Then, for our user.action file, we again have no hits.
+ So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
+ configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
+ previously processed files, such as default.action.
+ user.action typically has the last word. This is the
+ best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
- And now we pull it altogether in the bottom section and summarize how
- Privoxy is applying all its actions
+ 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:
- -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
+ +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
+ -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
+ -content-type-overwrite
+ -crunch-client-header
+ -crunch-if-none-match
+ -crunch-incoming-cookies
+ -crunch-outgoing-cookies
+ -crunch-server-header
+ +deanimate-gifs {last}
+ -downgrade-http-version
+ -fast-redirects
+ -filter {js-events}
+ -filter {content-cookies}
+ -filter {all-popups}
+ -filter {banners-by-link}
+ -filter {tiny-textforms}
+ -filter {frameset-borders}
+ -filter {demoronizer}
+ -filter {shockwave-flash}
+ -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
+ -filter {fun}
+ -filter {crude-parental}
+ -filter {site-specifics}
+ -filter {js-annoyances}
+ -filter {html-annoyances}
+ +filter {refresh-tags}
+ -filter {unsolicited-popups}
+ +filter {img-reorder}
+ +filter {banners-by-size}
+ +filter {webbugs}
+ +filter {jumping-windows}
+ +filter {ie-exploits}
+ -filter {google}
+ -filter {yahoo}
+ -filter {msn}
+ -filter {blogspot}
+ -filter {no-ping}
+ -force-text-mode
+ -handle-as-empty-document
+ -handle-as-image
+ -hide-accept-language
+ -hide-content-disposition
+ +hide-from-header {block}
+ -hide-if-modified-since
+ +hide-referrer {forge}
+ -hide-user-agent
+ -limit-connect
+ -overwrite-last-modified
+ -prevent-compression
+ -redirect
+ -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
+ -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
+ -session-cookies-only
+ +set-image-blocker {pattern}
+
+
+
+ Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
+ fast-redirects and session-cookies-only,
+ which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
+ and thus show in the Final Results.
Now another example, ad.doubleclick.net:
-
-
- { +block +image }
- .ad.doubleclick.net
-
- { +block +image }
+ { +block{Domains starts with "ad"} }
ad*.
- { +block +image }
- .doubleclick.net
+ { +block{Domain contains "ad"} }
+ .ad.
-
-
+ { +block{Doubleclick banner server} +handle-as-image }
+ .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
+
- We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
- matched three different times. Each as an +block +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
+ We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
+ matched three different times. Two +block{} sections,
+ and a +block{} +handle-as-image,
+ which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
+ +block-as-image. (Aliases are defined in
+ the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
than one action.)
- Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
- image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
- would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
- though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
+ Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
+ image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
+ 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 +block-as-image 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...
+ One last example. Let's try http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/.
+ This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
-
-
- 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 }
+ Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
+
+ In file: default.action [ View ][ Edit ]
+
+ {-add-header
+ -block
+ +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
+ -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
+ -content-type-overwrite
+ -crunch-client-header
+ -crunch-if-none-match
+ -crunch-incoming-cookies
+ -crunch-outgoing-cookies
+ -crunch-server-header
+ +deanimate-gifs
+ -downgrade-http-version
+ +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
+ -filter {js-events}
+ -filter {content-cookies}
+ -filter {all-popups}
+ -filter {banners-by-link}
+ -filter {tiny-textforms}
+ -filter {frameset-borders}
+ -filter {demoronizer}
+ -filter {shockwave-flash}
+ -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
+ -filter {fun}
+ -filter {crude-parental}
+ -filter {site-specifics}
+ -filter {js-annoyances}
+ -filter {html-annoyances}
+ +filter {refresh-tags}
+ -filter {unsolicited-popups}
+ +filter {img-reorder}
+ +filter {banners-by-size}
+ +filter {webbugs}
+ +filter {jumping-windows}
+ +filter {ie-exploits}
+ -filter {google}
+ -filter {yahoo}
+ -filter {msn}
+ -filter {blogspot}
+ -filter {no-ping}
+ -force-text-mode
+ -handle-as-empty-document
+ -handle-as-image
+ -hide-accept-language
+ -hide-content-disposition
+ +hide-from-header{block}
+ +hide-referer{forge}
+ -hide-user-agent
+ -overwrite-last-modified
+ +prevent-compression
+ -redirect
+ -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
+ -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
+ +session-cookies-only
+ +set-image-blocker{blank} }
/
- { +block +image }
+ { +block{Path contains "ads".} +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:
+ Ooops, the /adsl/ is matching /ads in our
+ configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
+ blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
+ the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
+ to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
+ We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
+ user.action file) that explicitly
+ un blocks (
+ {-block}) paths with
+ adsl in them (remember, last match in the configuration
+ wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
-
-
{ -block }
/adsl
-
-
-
+
- Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
- making such changes. Or, try using Shift+Reload.
+ Now the page displays ;-)
+ Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
+ your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
+ using Shift+Reload.
- But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
+ But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
we did with:
-
-
- { -block }
- /adsl
-
-
-
+ { +block{Path starts with "ads".} +handle-as-image }
+ /ads
+
- That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
- 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:
+ That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
+ was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
+ rules in the first section of default.action 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.
+ These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
+ Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
+ +filter:
-
-
- {shop}
+ { shop }
.quietpc.com
.worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
.jungle.com
.scan.co.uk
.forbes.com
-
-
+
+
+
+ { shop } is an alias that expands to
+ { -filter -session-cookies-only }.
+ Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
+
+ { -filter }
+ # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
+ .forbes.com
+ developer.ibm.com
+ localhost
+
+
- {shop} is an alias that expands to
- { -filter -no-cookies -no-cookies-keep }. Or you could do
- your own exception to negate filtering:
+ This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
+ put in user.action, for local site
+ exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
+ the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
+ automatically in the scope of the action.
+
+
+ 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 that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
+ last resort for problem sites.
+
+
+ { fragile }
+ # Handle with care: easy to break
+ mail.google.
+ mybank.example.com
- {-filter}
- .forbes.com
-
-
-
- {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.
+ Remember to flush caches! Note that the
+ mail.google reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
+ .com). This will effectively match any TLD with
+ google in it, such as mail.google.de.,
+ just as an example.
+
+
+ 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.
@@ -5207,7 +8674,7 @@ Requests