Again, the main configuration file is named 7.1. Configuration and Log File Locations
Privoxy can (and normally does) use a number of - other files for additional configuration, help and logging. - This section of the configuration file tells Privoxy - where to find those other files.
7.1. Local Set-up DocumentationThe user running If you intend to operate Privoxy, must have read - permission for all configuration files, and write permission to any files - that would be modified, such as log files and actions files.
for more users + than just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach + you, what you block and why you do that, your policies, etc. +The directory where the other configuration files are located
Location of the Privoxy User Manual. +Path name
A fully qualified URI/etc/privoxy (Unix) orUnset Privoxy installation dir (Windows)
http://www.privoxy.org/Mandatory
version/user-manual/ + will be used, where version is the Privoxy version. +No trailing "/", please +> The User Manual URI is the single best source of information on + Privoxy, and is used for help links from some + of the internal CGI pages. The manual itself is normally packaged with the + binary distributions, so you probably want to set this to a locally + installed copy.
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. Examples: +
The best all purpose solution is simply to put the full local + PATH to where the User Manual is + located: +
user-manual /usr/share/doc/privoxy/user-manual |
The User Manual is then available to anyone with access to + Privoxy's 404 error page). +>Privoxy, by following the built-in URL: + http://config.privoxy.org/user-manual/ + (or the shortcut: http://p.p/user-manual/). +
If the documentation is not on the local system, it can be accessed + from a remote server, as: +
user-manual http://example.com/privoxy/user-manual/ |
| Warning |
If set, this option should be the first option in the config + file, because it is used while the config file is being read + on start-up. |
The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where logfile and - jarfile are located) +> A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied.
Path name
URL/var/log/privoxy (Unix) orUnset Privoxy installation dir (Windows)
No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page. +
The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been + activated. (See Mandatorytrustfile
No trailing "/", please +> If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line + documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here. + Use multiple times for multiple URLs. +
The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up + locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place!
The actions file(s) to use +> An email address to reach the Privoxy administrator.
File name, relative to confdir, without the .action suffix
Email address| standard # Internal purposes, no editing recommended - |
| default # Main actions file - |
| user # User customizations - |
Unset
No actions are taken at all. Simple neutral proxying. +> No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
Multiple If both actionsfile lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended! -
- The default values include standard.action, which is used for internal - purposes and should be loaded, default.action, which is the - "main" actions file maintained by the developers, and - user.action, where you can make your personal additions. -
- Actions files are where all the per site and per URL configuration is done for - ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc. - There is no point in using Privoxy without at - least one actions file. +>admin-address and proxy-info-url + are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will + not be shown.
The filter file to use +> A URL to documentation about the local Privoxy setup, + configuration or policies.
File name, relative to confdir
URLdefault.filter (Unix) orUnset default.filter.txt (Windows)
No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all - +filter{name} - actions in the actions files are turned neutral. +> No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
The filter file contains content modification - rules that use regular expressions. These rules permit - powerful changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable your favorite - JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some - fun replacing "Microsoft" with "MicroSuck" wherever - it appears on a Web page. -
The - If both +filter{name}admin-address and proxy-info-url - actions rely on the relevant filter (name) - to be defined in the filter file! + are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will + not be shown.
A pre-defined filter file called default.filter that contains - a bunch of handy filters for common problems is included in the distribution. - See the section on the filter - action for a list. +> This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
Privoxy can (and normally does) use a number of + other files for additional configuration, help and logging. + This section of the configuration file tells Privoxy + where to find those other files.
The user running Privoxy, must have read + permission for all configuration files, and write permission to any files + that would be modified, such as log files and actions files.
The log file to use -
The directory where the other configuration files are located.File name, relative to logdir
Path namelogfile (Unix) /etc/privoxy (Unix) or privoxy.log (Windows)
Privoxy installation dir (Windows)No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (STDERR). -
MandatoryThe logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level - of detail and number of messages are set with the debug - option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with - Privoxy (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you - think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it. -
Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to - periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job - (see "man cron"). For Red Hat, a logrotate - script has been included. -
On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like "/var/log/privoxy.* - +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup" in /etc/logfiles, with - the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the - log, when it exceeds 1M size. -
Any log files must be writable by whatever user Privoxy - is being run as (default on UNIX, user id is No trailing "privoxy"). +>"/", please.
The file to store intercepted cookies in -
An alternative directory where the templates are loaded from.File name, relative to logdir
Path namejarfile (Unix) or privoxy.jar (Windows)
unsetIntercepted cookies are not stored at all. -
The templates are assumed to be located in confdir/template.The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time. +> Privoxy's original templates are usually + overwritten with each update. Use this option to relocate customized + templates that should be kept. As template variables might change + between updates, you shouldn't expect templates to work with + Privoxy releases other than the one + they were part of, though.
The trust file to use +> The directory where all logging takes place + (i.e. where the logfile is located).
File name, relative to confdir
Path nameUnset (commented out). When activated: trust (Unix) /var/log/privoxy (Unix) or trust.txt (Windows)
The entire trust mechanism is turned off. -
MandatoryThe trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should - be used with care. It is NOT recommended for the casual user. +> No trailing "/", please.
If you specify a trust file, Privoxy will only allow - access to sites that are specified in the trustfile. Sites can be listed - in one of two ways: +>
The actions file(s) to use
Prepending a ~ character limits access to this site - only (and any sub-paths within this site), e.g. - Complete file name, relative to ~www.example.com. +>confdir
| match-all.action # Actions that are applied to all sites and maybe overruled later on. + |
| default.action # Main actions file + |
| user.action # User customizations + |
No actions are taken at all. More or less neutral proxying.
Or, you can designate sites as trusted referrers, by - prepending the name with a + character. The effect is that - access to untrusted sites will be granted -- but only if a link from this - trusted referrer was used. The link target will then be added to the - "trustfile" so that future, direct accesses will be granted. - Sites added via this mechanism do not become trusted referrers themselves - (i.e. they are added with a Multiple ~ designation). +>actionsfile lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended!
If you use the + operator in the trust file, it may grow - considerably over time. +> + The default values are default.action, which is the + "main" actions file maintained by the developers, and + user.action, where you can make your personal additions.
It is recommended that + Actions files contain all the per site and per URL configuration for + ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc. + There is no point in using Privoxy be compiled with - the --disable-force, --disable-toggle and - --disable-editor options, if this feature is to be - used. +> without at + least one actions file.
Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children. +> Note that since Privoxy 3.0.7, the complete filename, including the ".action" + extension has to be specified. The syntax change was necessary to be consistent + with the other file options and to allow previously forbidden characters.
If you intend to operate Privoxy for more users - than just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach - you, what you block and why you do that, your policies, etc. -
Location of the Privoxy User Manual. +> The filter file(s) to use
A fully qualified URI
File name, relative to confdirdefault.filter (Unix) Unsetor
default.filter.txt (Windows)http://www.privoxy.org/ No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all + +filter{versionname/user-manual/} - will be used, where version is the Privoxy version. + actions in the actions files are turned neutral.
The User Manual URI is used for help links from some of the internal CGI pages. - The manual itself is normally packaged with the binary distributions, so you probably want - to set this to a locally installed copy. For multi-user setups, you could provide a copy on - a local webserver for all your users and use the corresponding URL here. +> Multiple filterfile lines are permitted.
Examples: +> The filter files contain content modification + rules that use regular expressions. These rules permit + powerful changes on the content of Web pages, and optionally the headers + as well, e.g., you could try to disable your favorite JavaScript annoyances, + re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some fun + playing buzzword bingo with web pages.
Unix, in local filesystem: -
user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-3.0.4/user-manual/ |
Windows, in local filesystem, The + +filter{must use forward slash notation: -
user-manual file:/c:/some-dir/privoxy-3.0.4/user-manual/ |
Windows, UNC notation (with forward slashes): -
user-manual file://///some-server/some-path/privoxy-3.0.4/user-manual/ |
Any platform, on local webserver (called "local-webserver"): -
name) + to be defined in a filter file! +
user-manual http://local-webserver/privoxy-user-manual/ |
| Warning |
If set, this option should be the first option in the config - file, because it is used while the config file is being read. +> It is recommended to place any locally adapted filters into a separate + file, such as user.filter. |
A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied. +> The log file to use
URL
File name, relative to logdirTwo example URL are provided
Unset (commented out). When activated: logfile (Unix) or privoxy.log (Windows).No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page. +> No logfile is written.
The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been - activated. (See trustfile above.) +> The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level + of detail and number of messages are set with the debug + option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with + Privoxy (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you + think it should block) and it can help you to monitor what your browser + is doing.
If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line - documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here. - Use multiple times for multiple URLs. +> Depending on the debug options below, the logfile may be a privacy risk + if third parties can get access to it. As most users will never look + at it, Privoxy 3.0.7 and later only log fatal + errors by default.
The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up - locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place! +> For most troubleshooting purposes, you will have to change that, + please refer to the debugging section for details. +
Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to + periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job + (see "man cron"). For Red Hat based Linux distributions, a + logrotate script has been included. +
Any log files must be writable by whatever user Privoxy + is being run as (on Unix, default user id is "privoxy").
An email address to reach the proxy administrator. +> The name of the trust file to use
Email address
File name, relative to confdirNo email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface. +> The entire trust mechanism is disabled.
If both admin-address and proxy-info-url - are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will - not be shown. +> The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should + be used with care. It is NOT recommended for the casual user.
A URL to documentation about the local If you specify a trust file, Privoxy setup, - configuration or policies. +> will only allow + access to sites that are specified in the trustfile. Sites can be listed + in one of two ways:
URL
Or, you can designate sites as Unsettrusted referrers
No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface. +> If you use the + operator in the trust file, it may grow + considerably over time.
If both It is recommended that Privoxy be compiled with + the admin-address and --disable-force, proxy-info-url - are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will - not be shown. +>--disable-toggle and + --disable-editor options, if this feature is to be + used.
This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-) +> Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem. Note that you might also want to invoke @@ -1319,8 +1323,8 @@ CLASS="SECT3" CLASS="SECT3" >7.3.1. debug7.3.1. debug
Key values that determine what information gets logged to the - logfile. +> Key values that determine what information gets logged.
12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)
0 (i.e.: only fatal errors (that cause Privoxy to exit) are logged)Nothing gets logged. +> Default value is used (see above).
debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request - debug 2 # show each connection status - debug 4 # show I/O status - debug 8 # show header parsing - debug 16 # log all data into the logfile - debug 32 # debug force feature - debug 64 # debug regular expression filter - debug 128 # debug fast redirects - debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation - debug 512 # Common Log Format - debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups - debug 2048 # CGI user interface - debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings. - debug 8192 # Non-fatal errorsdebug 1 # Log the destination for each request Privoxy let through. See also debug 1024. + debug 2 # show each connection status + debug 4 # show I/O status + debug 8 # show header parsing + debug 16 # log all data written to the network into the logfile + debug 32 # debug force feature + debug 64 # debug regular expression filters + debug 128 # debug redirects + debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation + debug 512 # Common Log Format + debug 1024 # Log the destination for requests Privoxy didn't let through, and the reason why. + debug 2048 # CGI user interface + debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings. + debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
The reporting of fatal errors (i.e. ones which crash - Privoxy) is always on and cannot be disabled. +> used to ship with the debug levels recommended above enabled by + default, but due to privacy concerns 3.0.7 and later are configured to + only log fatal errors. +
If you are used to the more verbose settings, simply enable the debug lines + below again.
If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set If you want to use pure CLF (Common Log Format), you should set "debug 512" and not enable anything else.
Privoxy has a hard-coded limit for the + length of log messages. If it's reached, messages are logged truncated + and marked with "... [too long, truncated]". +
Please don't file any support requests without trying to reproduce + the problem with increased debug level first. Once you read the log + messages, you may even be able to solve the problem on your own. +
7.3.2. single-threaded7.3.2. single-threadedWhether to run only one server thread +> Whether to run only one server thread.
This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never - need to use it. This option is only there for debugging purposes. +
The hostname shown on the CGI pages. +
Text
Unset
The hostname provided by the operating system is used. +
On some misconfigured systems resolving the hostname fails or + takes too much time and slows Privoxy down. Setting a fixed hostname + works around the problem. +
In other circumstances it might be desirable to show a hostname + other than the one returned by the operating system. For example + if the system has several different hostnames and you don't want + to use the first one. +
Note that Privoxy does not validate the specified hostname value. +
This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
of 7.4.1. listen-address7.4.1. listen-address The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
@@ -1746,8 +1817,8 @@ CLASS="SECT3"
CLASS="SECT3"
>7.4.3. enable-remote-toggle7.4.3. enable-remote-toggle 1 For the time being, access to the toggle feature can Access to the toggle feature can Note that malicious client side code (e.g Java) is also
+ capable of using this option.
+ As a lot of Privoxy users don't read
+ documentation, this feature is disabled by default.
+ Note that you must have compiled Privoxy Whether or not Privoxy recognizes special HTTP headers to change its behaviour.
+ 0 or 1 0 Privoxy ignores special HTTP headers.
+ When toggled on, the client can change Privoxy's
+ behaviour by setting special HTTP headers. Currently the only supported
+ special header is "X-Filter: No", to disable filtering for
+ the ongoing request, even if it is enabled in one of the action files.
+ This feature is disabled by default. If you are using
+ Privoxy in a environment with trusted clients,
+ you may enable this feature at your discretion. Note that malicious client
+ side code (e.g Java) is also capable of using this feature.
+ This option will be removed in future releases as it has been obsoleted
+ by the more general header taggers.
+ 1 For the time being, access to the editor can Access to the editor can listen-address above) can
- modify its configuration for all users. So this option is This option is not recommended for environments
+ with untrusted users and as a lot of Privoxy
+ users don't read documentation, this feature is disabled by default.
+ Note that malicious client side code (e.g Java) is also
+ capable of using the actions editor and you shouldn't enable
+ this options unless you understand the consequences and are
+ sure your browser is configured correctly.
+ Note that you must have compiled Privoxy with
+ support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
+ Whether the user is allowed to ignore blocks and can "go there anyway".
+ 0 or 1
+ 0 Blocks are not enforced.
+ Privoxy is mainly used to block and filter
+ requests as a service to the user, for example to block ads and other
+ junk that clogs the pipes. Privoxy's configuration
+ isn't perfect and sometimes innocent pages are blocked. In this situation it
+ makes sense to allow the user to enforce the request and have
+ Privoxy ignore the block.
+ In the default configuration Privoxy's
+ "Blocked" page contains a "go there anyway"
+ link to adds a special string (the force prefix) to the request URL.
+ If that link is used, Privoxy will
+ detect the force prefix, remove it again and let the request pass.
+ Of course Privoxy can also be used to enforce
+ a network policy. In that case the user obviously should not be able to
+ bypass any blocks, and that's what the "enforce-blocks"
+ option is for. If it's enabled, Privoxy hides
+ the "go there anyway" link. If the user adds the force
+ prefix by hand, it will not be accepted and the circumvention attempt
+ is logged.
+ enforce-blocks 1
+ Who can access what.
+ src_addr[/src_masklen]
+ [dst_addr[/dst_masklen]]
+ Where src_addr and
+ dst_addr are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
+ DNS names, and src_masklen and
+ dst_masklen are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
+ values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
+ destination part are optional.
+ Unset Don't restrict access further than implied by listen-address
+ Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
+ administrators, and are not usually needed by individual users.
+ For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
+ Privoxy only listens on the localhost
+ (127.0.0.1) or internal (home) network address by means of the
+ listen-address
+ option.
+ Please see the warnings in the FAQ that Privoxy
+ is not intended to be a substitute for a firewall or to encourage anyone
+ to defer addressing basic security weaknesses.
+ Multiple ACL lines are OK.
+ If any ACLs are specified, Privoxy only talks
+ to IP addresses that match at least one permit-access line
+ and don't match any subsequent deny-access line. In other words, the
+ last match wins, with the default being deny-access.
+ If Privoxy is using a forwarder (see forward below)
+ for a particular destination URL, the dst_addr
+ that is examined is the address of the forwarder and NOT the address
+ of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
+ Privoxy to determine the IP address of the
+ ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
+ You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
+ time. All DNS names must resolve! You can not use domain patterns
+ like "*.org" or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
+ IP addresses, only the first one is used.
+ Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
+ if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites
+ (most sites are).
+ Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
+ listen-address are set: "localhost"
+ is OK. The absence of a dst_addr implies that
+ all destination addresses are OK:
+ Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
+ nothing but www.example.com (or other domains hosted on the same system):
+ Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
+ with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access the IP address behind
+ www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
+ Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
+ Size in Kbytes 4096 Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
+ For content filtering, i.e. the +filter and
+ +deanimate-gif actions, it is necessary that
+ Privoxy buffers the entire document body.
+ This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
+ data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
+ Hence this option.
+ When a document buffer size reaches the buffer-limit, it is
+ flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
+ filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
+ running, which might require up to buffer-limit Kbytes
+ each, unless you have enabled "single-threaded"
+ above.
+ This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
+ multiple proxies. Forwarding can be used to chain Privoxy with a caching proxy to speed
+ up browsing. Using a parent proxy may also be necessary if the machine
+ that Privoxy runs on has no direct Internet access. Note that parent proxies can severely decrease your privacy level.
+ For example a parent proxy could add your IP address to the request
+ headers and if it's a caching proxy it may add the "Etag"
+ header to revalidation requests again, even though you configured Privoxy
+ to remove it. It may also ignore Privoxy's header time randomization and use the
+ original values which could be used by the server as cookie replacement
+ to track your steps between visits. Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. Privoxy
+ supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols. To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
+ target_pattern
+ http_parent[:port]
+ where target_pattern is a URL pattern
+ that specifies to which requests (i.e. URLs) this forward rule shall apply. Use / to
+ denote "all URLs".
+ http_parent[:port]
+ is the DNS name or IP address of the parent HTTP proxy through which the requests should be forwarded,
+ optionally followed by its listening port (default: 8080).
+ Use a single dot (.) to denote "no forwarding".
+ Unset Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
+ If http_parent is ".", then requests are not
+ forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
+ Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
+ Everything goes to an example parent proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
+ Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
+ to that ISP's sites:
+ Through which SOCKS proxy (and optionally to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
+ target_pattern
+ socks_proxy[:port]
+ http_parent[:port]
+ where target_pattern is a
+ URL pattern that specifies to which
+ requests (i.e. URLs) this forward rule shall apply. Use / to
+ denote "all URLs". http_parent
+ and socks_proxy
+ are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names
+ (http_parent
+ may be "." to denote "no HTTP forwarding"), and the optional
+ port parameters are TCP ports,
+ i.e. integer values from 1 to 65535
+ Unset Don't use SOCKS proxies.
+ Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
+ The difference between forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a
+ is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
+ server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
+ With forward-socks5 the DNS resolution will happen on the remote server as well.
+ If http_parent is ".", then requests are not
+ forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
+ a SOCKS proxy.
+ From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
+ "internal" domains, but everything outbound goes through
+ their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
+ the Internet.
+ A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
+ To chain Privoxy and Tor, both running on the same system, you would use
+ something like:
+ The public Tor network can't be used to
+ reach your local network, if you need to access local servers you
+ therefore might want to make some exceptions:
+ Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will
+ be as (un)secure as the local network is, but the alternative is that you
+ can't reach the local network through Privoxy
+ at all. Of course this may actually be desired and there is no reason
+ to make these exceptions if you aren't sure you need them.
+ If you also want to be able to reach servers in your local network by
+ using their names, you will need additional exceptions that look like
+ this:
+ If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
+ only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple Privoxies
+ which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
+ your users can see the internal content of all ISPs. Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.example.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
+ isp-b.example.org. Both run Privoxy. Their forwarding
+ configuration can look like this: host-a: host-b: Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
+ host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
+ of both isp-a and isp-b. If you intend to chain Privoxy and
+ squid locally, then chaining as
+ browser -> squid -> privoxy is the recommended way. Assuming that Privoxy and squid
+ run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this: You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to squid's address and port.
+ Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult http_port in squid.conf. You could just as well decide to only forward requests you suspect
+ of leading to Windows executables through a virus-scanning parent proxy,
+ say, on antivir.example.com, port 8010: How often Privoxy retries if a forwarded connection request fails.
+ Number of retries.
+ not
- recommended0 for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
+> Connections forwarded through other proxies are treated like direct connections and no retry attempts are made.
Note that you must have compiled forwarded-connect-retries is mainly interesting
+ for socks4a connections, where Privoxy with
- support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
+> can't detect why the connections failed.
+ The connection might have failed because of a DNS timeout in which case a retry makes sense,
+ but it might also have failed because the server doesn't exist or isn't reachable. In this
+ case the retry will just delay the appearance of Privoxy's error message.
+ Note that in the context of this option, "forwarded connections" includes all connections
+ that Privoxy forwards through other proxies. This option is not limited to the HTTP CONNECT method.
+ Only use this option, if you are getting lots of forwarding-related error messages
+ that go away when you try again manually. Start with a small value and check Privoxy's
+ logfile from time to time, to see how many retries are usually needed.
+ forwarded-connect-retries 1
Who can access what.
+> Whether intercepted requests should be treated as valid.
Where src_addr and
- dst_addr are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
- DNS names, and src_masklen and
- dst_masklen0 or 1 are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
- values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
- destination part are optional.
+>
Don't restrict access further than implied by listen-address
+> Only proxy requests are accepted, intercepted requests are treated as invalid.
Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
- administrators, and are not usually needed by individual users.
- For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
- If you don't trust your clients and want to force them
+ to use Privoxy only listens on the localhost
- (127.0.0.1) or internal (home) network address by means of the
- listen-address
- option.
- Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute
- for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security
- weaknesses.
- Multiple ACL lines are OK.
- If any ACLs are specified, then the , enable this
+ option and configure your packet filter to redirect outgoing
+ HTTP connections into Privoxy
- talks only to IP addresses that match at least one permit-access line
- and don't match any subsequent deny-access line. In other words, the
- last match wins, with the default being deny-access.
+>.
If Make sure that Privoxy is using a forwarder (see forward below)
- for a particular destination URL, the dst_addr
- that is examined is the address of the forwarder and NOT the address
- of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
+>Privoxy's own requests
+ aren't redirected as well. Additionally take care that
Privoxy to determine the IP address of the
- ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
- You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
- time. All DNS names must resolve! You can not use domain patterns
- like "*.org" or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
- IP addresses, only the first one is used.
- Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
- if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
+> can't intentionally connect
+ to itself, otherwise you could run into redirection loops if
+ Privoxy's listening port is reachable
+ by the outside or an attacker has access to the pages you visit.
Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
- listen-address are set: "localhost"
- is OK. The absence of a dst_addr implies that
- all destination addresses are OK:
- Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
- nothing but www.example.com:
- Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
- with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
- Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
+> Whether requests to Privoxy's CGI pages can be blocked or redirected.
Size in Kbytes 4096 Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
+> Privoxy ignores block and redirect actions for its CGI pages.
For content filtering, i.e. the +filter and
- +deanimate-gif actions, it is necessary that
- By default Privoxy buffers the entire document body.
- This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
- data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
- Hence this option.
+> ignores block or redirect actions
+ for its CGI pages. Intercepting these requests can be useful in multi-user
+ setups to implement fine-grained access control, but it can also render the complete
+ web interface useless and make debugging problems painful if done without care.
When a document buffer size reaches the buffer-limit, it is
- flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
- filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
- running, which might require up to buffer-limit Kbytes
- each, unless you have enabled "single-threaded"
- above.
+> Don't enable this option unless you're sure that you really need it.
+ allow-cgi-request-crunching 1
This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
- multiple proxies.
- It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
- accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains
- through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm)
- Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
- proxy may be necessary because the machine that Privoxy
- runs on has no direct Internet access. Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. Privoxy
- supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols. To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
+> Whether the CGI interface should stay compatible with broken HTTP clients.
where target_pattern is a URL pattern
- that specifies to which requests (i.e. URLs) this forward rule shall apply. Use / to
- denote "all URLs".
- http_parent[:port]
- is the DNS name or IP address of the parent HTTP proxy through which the requests should be forwarded,
- optionally followed by its listening port (default: 8080).
- Use a single dot (.) to denote "no forwarding".
Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
+> The CGI form generate long GET URLs.
If http_parent is ".", then requests are not
- forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
+> Privoxy's CGI forms can lead to
+ rather long URLs. This isn't a problem as far as the HTTP
+ standard is concerned, but it can confuse clients with arbitrary
+ URL length limitations.
Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
+> Enabling split-large-forms causes Privoxy
+ to divide big forms into smaller ones to keep the URL length down.
+ It makes editing a lot less convenient and you can no longer
+ submit all changes at once, but at least it works around this
+ browser bug.
+ If you don't notice any editing problems, there is no reason
+ to enable this option, but if one of the submit buttons appears
+ to be broken, you should give it a try.
Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
- Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
- to that ISP's sites:
- Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
+> Number of seconds after which an open connection will no longer be reused.
target_pattern
- socks_proxy[:port]
- http_parent[:port]
- where target_pattern is a URL pattern
- that specifies to which requests (i.e. URLs) this forward rule shall apply. Use / to
- denote "all URLs".
- http_parent and socks_proxy
- are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (Type of value: http_parentTime in seconds.
- may be "." to denote "no HTTP forwarding"), and the optional
- port parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
Unset Don't use SOCKS proxies.
+> Connections are not reused.
Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
- The difference between forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a This option has no effect if Privoxy
- is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
- server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
- If http_parent is ".", then requests are not
- forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
- a SOCKS proxy.
+ has been compiled without keep-alive support.
From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
- "internal" domains, but everything outbound goes through
- their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
- the Internet.
- A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
- If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
- only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple Privoxies
- which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
- your users can see the internal content of all ISPs. Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
- isp-b.net. Both run Privoxy. Their forwarding
- configuration can look like this: host-a: host-b: Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
- host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
- of both isp-a and isp-b. If you intend to chain Privoxy and
- squid locally, then chain as
- browser -> squid -> privoxy is the recommended way. Assuming that Privoxy and squid Time in seconds.
- run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this: You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to squid's address and port.
- Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult http_port in squid.conf. You could just as well decide to only forward requests for Windows executables through
- a virus-scanning parent proxy, say, on antivir.example.com, port 8010: 7.4.4. enable-remote-http-toggle
7.4.4. enable-edit-actions
7.4.5. enable-edit-actions7.4.6. enforce-blocks
7.4.7. ACLs: permit-access and deny-access
+ permit-access localhost
+ permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
+ permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
+ deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
7.4.8. buffer-limit
7.5. Forwarding
7.5.1. forward
+ forward / parent-proxy.example.org:8080
+ forward :443 .
+ forward / caching-proxy.isp.example.net:8000
+ forward .isp.example.net .
7.5.2. forward-socks4, forward-socks4a and forward-socks5
+ forward-socks4a / socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.isp.example.net:8080
+ forward .example.com .
+ forward-socks4 / socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
+ forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
+ forward 192.168.*.*/ .
+ forward 10.*.*.*/ .
+ forward 127.*.*.*/ .
+ forward localhost/ .
7.5.3. Advanced Forwarding Examples
forward / .
+ forward .isp-b.example.net host-b:8118
forward / .
+ forward .isp-a.example.org host-a:8118
# Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
+ cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
+
+ # Define ACL for protocol FTP
+ acl ftp proto FTP
+
+ # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
+ always_direct allow ftp
+
+ # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
+ never_direct allow all
forward / .
+ forward /.*\.(exe|com|dll|zip)$ antivir.example.com:8010
7.5.4. forwarded-connect-retries
7.4.5. ACLs: permit-access and deny-access
7.5.5. accept-intercepted-requests
- permit-access localhost
- permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
+> accept-intercepted-requests 1
permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
- deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
7.4.6. buffer-limit
7.5.6. allow-cgi-request-crunching7.5. Forwarding
7.5.1. forward
7.5.7. split-large-forms
- forward / anon-proxy.example.org:8080
- forward :443 .
+> split-large-forms 1
forward / caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
- forward .example-isp.net .
7.5.2. forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a
7.5.8. keep-alive-timeout
- forward-socks4a / socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
- forward .example.com .
+> keep-alive-timeout 300
forward-socks4 / socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
7.5.3. Advanced Forwarding Examples
7.5.9. socket-timeout forward / .
- forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
forward / .
- forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
# Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
- cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
-
- # Define ACL for protocol FTP
- acl ftp proto FTP
-
- # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
- always_direct allow ftp
-
- # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
- never_direct allow all
socket-timeout 180
+ forward / .
- forward /.*\.(exe|com|dll|zip)$ antivir.example.com:8010