There are many improvements and new features since Privoxy 3.0.6, the last stable release:
Two new actions server-header-tagger - and client-header-tagger - that can be used to create arbitrary "tags" - based on client and server headers. - These "tags" can then subsequently be used - to control the other actions used for the current request, - greatly increasing Privoxy's flexibility and selectivity. See tag patterns for more information on tags. -
Header filtering is done with dedicated header filters now. As a result - the actions "filter-client-headers" and "filter-server-headers" - that were introduced with Privoxy 3.0.5 to apply - content filters to the headers have been removed. - See the new actions server-header-filter - and client-header-filter for details. -
There are four new options for the main config file: -
allow-cgi-request-crunching - which allows requests for Privoxy's internal CGI pages to be - blocked, redirected or (un)trusted like ordinary requests. -
split-large-forms - that will work around a browser bug that caused IE6 and IE7 to - ignore the Submit button on the Privoxy's edit-actions-for-url CGI - page. -
accept-intercepted-requests - which allows to combine Privoxy with any packet filter to create an - intercepting proxy for HTTP/1.1 requests (and for HTTP/1.0 requests - with Host header set). This means clients can be forced to use - Privoxy even if their proxy settings are configured differently. -
templdir - to designate an alternate location for Privoxy's - locally customized CGI templates so that - these are not overwritten during upgrades. -
A new command line option --pre-chroot-nslookup hostname to - initialize the resolver library before chroot'ing. On some systems this - reduces the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree. - (Patch provided by Stephen Gildea) -
The forward-override action - allows changing of the forwarding settings through the actions files. - Combined with tags, this allows to choose the forwarder based on - client headers like the User-Agent, or the request origin. -
The redirect action can now use regular - expression substitutions against the original URL. -
zlib support is now available as a compile - time option to filter compressed content. Patch provided by Wil Mahan. -
Improve various filters, and add new ones. -
Include support for RFC 3253 so that Subversion works - with Privoxy. Patch provided by Petr Kadlec. -
Logging can be completely turned off by not specifying a logfile directive. -
A number of improvements to Privoxy's internal CGI pages, including the - use of favicons for error and control pages. -
Many bugfixes, memory leaks addressed, code improvements, and logging - improvements. -
For a more detailed list of changes please have a look at the ChangeLog.
A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier - versions of Privoxy:
The recommended way to upgrade Privoxy is to backup your old - configuration files, install the new ones, verify that Privoxy - is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using - diff and maybe patch. -
There are a number of new features in each Privoxy 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 - Privoxy 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! -
- On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration - files, thinking you will want to do that yourself. -
- standard.action now only includes the enabled actions. - Not all actions as before. -
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 Privoxy 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. -
The "filter-client-headers" and - "filter-server-headers" actions that were introduced with - Privoxy 3.0.5 to apply content filters to - the headers have been removed and replaced with new actions. - See the What's New section above. -
Privoxy 3.0.29 fixes a couple of memory leaks and introduces https inspection + which allows to filter encrypted requests and responses.
+Changes in Privoxy 3.0.29 stable:
+Security/Reliability:
+Fixed memory leaks when a response is buffered and the buffer limit is reached or Privoxy is running out + of memory. Commits bbd53f1010b and 4490d451f9b. OVE-20201118-0001. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Fixed a memory leak in the show-status CGI handler when no action files are configured. Commit + c62254a686. OVE-20201118-0002. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Fixed a memory leak in the show-status CGI handler when no filter files are configured. Commit + 1b1370f7a8a. OVE-20201118-0003. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Fixes a memory leak when client tags are active. Commit 245e1cf32. OVE-20201118-0004. Sponsored by: + Robert Klemme
+Fixed a memory leak if multiple filters are executed and the last one is skipped due to a pcre error. + Commit 5cfb7bc8fe. OVE-20201118-0005.
+Prevent an unlikely dereference of a NULL-pointer that could result in a crash if + accept-intercepted-requests was enabled, Privoxy failed to get the request destination from the Host header + and a memory allocation failed. Commit 7530132349. CID 267165. OVE-20201118-0006.
+Fixed memory leaks in the client-tags CGI handler when client tags are configured and memory allocations + fail. Commit cf5640eb2a. CID 267168. OVE-20201118-0007.
+Fixed memory leaks in the show-status CGI handler when memory allocations fail. Commit 064eac5fd0 and + commit fdee85c0bf3. CID 305233. OVE-20201118-0008.
+General improvements:
+Added experimental https inspection support which allows to filter https traffic. To enable it, install + MbedTLS and configure with --with-mbedtls, or install OpenSSL or LibreSSL and configure with + --with-openssl. Afterwards configure the directives in section 7 of the config file and enable the + +https-inspection action. Initial MbedTLS-based code contributed by Vaclav Svec, initial OpenSSL support + contributed by Maxim Antonov. With help from Nedzad Hrnjica and Ho+ Ho+ Ho+. Integration and improvements + sponsored by Robert Klemme.
+pcrs: Request JIT compilation if it's supported and the filter isn't dynamic. This can speed up + filtering.
+Added support for Brotli decompression. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Added FEATURE_EXTENDED_STATISTICS to gather statistics for block reasons and filter executions. To + enable it, configure with --enable-extended-statistics and visit http://config.privoxy.org/show-status. + Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Use the IP_FREEBIND socket option, if defined. This allows Privoxy to bind to not-yet assigned IP + addresses which is useful in failover environments. Patch by Sam Varshavchik.
+Allow to use extended host patterns and vanilla host patterns at the same time by prefixing extended + host patterns with "PCRE-HOST-PATTERN:". To enable this, configure with --enable-pcre-host-patterns. + Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Added "Cross-origin resource sharing" (CORS) support. This allows to access Privoxy's CGI interface via + JavaScript from another domain (white-listed with the new cors-allowed-origin directive). Based on a patch + by Nedzad Hrnjica. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme.
+Add SOCKS5 username/password support. Based on a patch by Sam, improved by Ivan Romanov. Closes + Patch#141 and solves TODO#105.
+Bump the maximum number of action and filter files to 100 each. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Fixed handling of filters with "split-large-forms 1" when using the CGI editor. Reported by withoutname + in #921.
+Better detect a mismatch of connection details when figuring out whether or not a connection can be + reused.
+Don't send a "Connection failure" message instead of the "DNS failure" message. Sponsored by: Robert + Klemme
+Let LOG_LEVEL_REQUEST log all requests. Previously unencrypted requests were only logged with + LOG_LEVEL_REQUEST when they weren't crunched (in which case they were logged with LOG_LEVEL_CRUNCH). This + was documented behaviour, but logging all requests seems more useful.
+Fixed locking around localtime() and gmtime().
+Removed OS/2 support. We haven't provided OS/2 packages in years, it complicated the code and it + depended on a fallback snprintf() implementation which is GPLv2 only.
+Remove the fallback snprintf() implementation Now that OS/2 support is gone we no longer need it.
+Fixed a bunch of format specifiers log messages.
+Added a missing apostrophe in the 'More Privoxy' menu.
+Explicitly prevent use of FEATURE_CONNECTION_SHARING without FEATURE_CONNECTION_KEEP_ALIVE. It makes no + sense and does not compile anyway. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Fix build without FEATURE_CONNECTION_KEEP_ALIVE. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Downgrade the 'Graceful termination requested' message to LOG_LEVEL_INFO as it isn't an error. Sponsored + by: Robert Klemme
+decompress_iob(): Downgrade the no-content message to LOG_LEVEL_RE_FILTER While at it, fix a typo in a + comment. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Fixed a couple of cppcheck warnings.
+Rename LOG_LEVEL_GPC to LOG_LEVEL_REQUEST. Only the shadow knows what "GPC" is supposed to stand + for.
+Remove SourceForge references in copyright headers.
+Upgrade a bunch of links to the homepage to https://.
+Add 'no-brotli-accepted' filter which prevents the use of Brotli compression.
+Changed license for pcrs to GPLv2+ after getting the permission from Andreas. This allows to + redistribute Privoxy under the GPLv3 which is required when linking to future mbedTLS versions which are + expected to be licensed under the Apache 2.0 license only.
+Updated a bunch of tests that have to expect status code 403 now after r1.168/070e904afa5.
+Lowercase the host name in the request line.
+Only set SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH if it's not already set so distributions can overwrite it through the + environment.
+Documentation changes:
+Explain that Privoxy has to be distributed under the GPLv3 (or later) when linked with an MbedTLS + version that is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.
+Import the GNU GPLv3 and include it the user manual.
+Clarify FEATURE_FORCE_LOAD's description. It allows to bypass blocking not filtering and only does it if + blocks aren't enforced. Reported by: Robert Klemme
+FAQ: Remove Zwiebelfreunde e.V. from the list of fiduciary sponsors As of 2021 they no longer handle + donations for foreign organisations due to lack of resources.
+FAQ: Remove an obsolete comment with a link to the long-gone PDF manual.
+FAQ: Add a link to the TODO list.
+FAQ: Change the sponsor amounts to USD slightly rounding the converted amounts up to get simple numbers. + Receiving USD is apparently easier for SPI and SPI is preferred by sponsors as they can send invoices.
+Advertise the client-tags CGI page in the user manual.
+Stop advertising the show-version CGI page which no longer exists.
+Add yet another reason why +prevent-compression may cause problems.
+Don't claim that contributors need ssh. It's only needed for committers.
+Replace obsolete CVS instructions with Git instructions.
+Remove an obsolete comment
+Config file changes:
+Change the suggested default-server-timeout to 5 to match the suggested keep-alive-timeout. Otherwise + using the defaults would result in Privoxy reducing the default-server-timeout and logging an error + message. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Update the 'debug 1' description.
+Add a missing 'client-specific-tag' directive.
+Comment out trusted-cgi-referer pointing to example.org.
+Action file improvements:
+Block requests to /(.*/)?piwik\.php
+Block requests to .connectaserver.de/
+Block requests to pixel.inforsea.com/
+Block requests to t.vi-serve.com/
+Block requests to .ioam.de/
+Block requests to t.9gag.com/img.gif
+Block requests to .pixel.parsely.com/ as image
+Block requests to pixel.wp.com/
+Disable fast-redirects for .librarything.com/
+Disable fast-redirects for issue.freebsdfoundation.org/
+Disable fast-redirects for .twitter.com/.*origin=http
+Unblock belco24.de/
+Add fast-redirects exception for .wikipedia.org/
+Add fast-redirects exception for oss-fuzz.com/
+Disable fast-redirects for .consensu.org/delivery/pixel\.php and block the requests as image instead
+Unblock .adbinstaller.com/ Reported by lvm in #942.
+Unblock .adbshell.com Reported by lvm in #942.
+Unblock .tagesschau.de/
+Disable fast-redirects for collector.githubapp.com/ and block requests to it as image instead
+Unblock 'ada*.'
+Add fast-redirects{} exception for sourcepoint.vice.com/
+Unblock adaway.org/ Reported by DRS David Soft in AF#945.
+Change two block reasons that previously were the same. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Added a +delay-response{} test.
+Updated the location of the development version of default.action.master.
+Privoxy-Log-Parser:
+Added a --keep-date option to keep the date in highlighted messages.
+Highlight new log messages.
+Make gather_loglevel_clf_stats() more tolerant. While at it, count all CLF messages as requests, even if + the request is invalid.
+Only show HTTP version distribution if at least one version has been detected.
+Only show crunch statistics if crunches were detected.
+Warn if the request counts differ.
+Generate statistics if the log only contains LOG_LEVEL_CLF messages so it can be used with vanilla + webserver logs. Previously Privoxy-specific "Request:" messages were required.
+Align the client-HTTP-version distribution like other distributions
+Bump version to 0.9.1
+Include status code distribution in the stats.
+Let the statistics include the size of the content Privoxy transferred excluding HTTP headers.
+Get with the program and expect all requests to be logged with LOG_LEVEL_REQUEST. It's no longer + necessary to count both LOG_LEVEL_REQUEST and LOG_LEVEL_CRUNCH messages to get the total number of + requests.
+Leverage the LOG_LEVEL_CLF message to gather statistics that where previously taken from + LOG_LEVEL_HEADER lines. This results in less confusing results if https inspection is enabled in which case + there are two LOG_LEVEL_HEADER lines with request lines. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Properly highlight the filter results message. Previously a brace got lost.
+Prefer the number of CLF lines to get the total number of requests as it works with older Privoxy + versions as well.
+Privoxy-Regression-Test:
+Turn curl's globbing mode off so we can allow more characters in URLs.
+Allow '[' and ']' in URLs.
+Include the action file when complaining about missing Sticky Actions.
+Fix a sentence in the documentation.
+Bump version to 0.7.1
+url-pattern-translator:
+Detect a couple of pattern prefixes case-insensitively. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Skip CLIENT-TAG patterns. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Skip patterns that have already been converted. It should now be safe to "convert" a file multiple + times. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+Add the new 'PCRE-HOST-PATTERN:' prefix. Sponsored by: Robert Klemme
+A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier versions of Privoxy:
+The recommended way to upgrade Privoxy is to backup your old + configuration files, install the new ones, verify that Privoxy is working + correctly and finally merge back your changes using diff and maybe + patch.
+There are a number of new features in each Privoxy 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 Privoxy 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!
+On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration files, thinking you will want + to do that yourself.
+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 Privoxy 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.
+