There are many improvements and new features since Privoxy 3.0.3Privoxy 3.0.8, the last stable release:
Multiple filter files can now be specified in config. This allows for - locally defined filters that can be maintained separately from the filters as - supplied by the developers, i.e. default.filter. +> Added SOCKS5 support (with address resolution done by + the SOCKS5 server). Patch provided by Eric M. Hopper.
- There are a number of new actions: -
redirect -
Embedding the content of configuration files in the show-status + page is significantly faster now. For a largish action file (1 MB) + a speedup of about 2450 times has been measured. This is mostly + interesting if you are using large action files or regularly use + Privoxy-Regression-Test while running Privoxy through Valgrind, + for stock configuration files it doesn't really matter. +In addition, fast-redirects - has been significantly improved with enhanced syntax. -
The show-url-info page provides an OpenSearch Description that + allows to access the page through browser search plugins. +And hide-referrer - has a new option, conditional block. +> The obsolete kill-popups action has been removed as the + PCRS-based popup filters can do the same and are slightly + less unreliable.
MS-Windows versions can now be - installed and - started as a Windows service. +> The inspect-jpegs action has been removed.
config has two new options: - enable-remote-http-toggle, - and forwarded-connect-retries. +> The send-wafer and send-vanilla-wafer actions have been removed. + They weren't particular useful and their behaviour could be emulated + with add-header anyway.
And there is improved handling of the user-manual - option, for placing documentation and help files on the local system. +> Privoxy-Regression-Test has been significantly improved.
There are six new filters. +> Most sections in the default.action file contain tests for + Privoxy-Regression-Test to verify that they are working as intended.
Actions files problems and suggestions are now being directed to: - http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288. - Please use this to report such configuration related problems as missed - ads, sites that don't function properly due to one action or another, - innocent images being blocked, etc. +> Parts of Privoxy have been refactored to increase maintainability.
In addition, there are numerous bug fixes and significant enhancements, - including error pages should no longer be cached if the problem is fixed, - much better DNS error handling, various logging improvements, and - configuration updates for better ad blocking and junk elimination. +> Building with zlib (if available) is done by default.
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
- Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including
- configuration files. Save any important configuration files!
+> 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.
- On the other hand, other installers may not overwrite any existing configuration
- files, thinking you will want to do that. You may want to manually check
- your saved files against the newer versions to see if the improvements have
- merit, or whether there are new options that you may want to consider.
- There are a number of new features, but most won't be available unless
- these features are incorporated into your configuration somehow.
+> 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.
See the full documentation on
- fast-redirects
- which has changed syntax, and will require adjustments to local configs,
- such as user.action. You must reference the new
- syntax:
- { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
- .example.com
- mybank.com
- .google.
The jarfile, - cookie logger, is off by default now. -
+ On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration + files, thinking you will want to do that yourself. +- What constitutes a "default" configuration has changed, - and you may want to review which actions are "on" by - default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features - you may have been used to, may now be "off" by default. - There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to - consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default - settings as yet (see above). + standard.action now only includes the enabled actions. + Not all actions as before.
The default actions setting is now Cautious. Previous - releases had a default setting of Medium. Experienced - users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by 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 - standards and past practices. See http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default. New users - should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume. -
The default setting has filtering turned off, which - subsequently means that compression is on. Remember - that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to - use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example: -
{ +filter{google} +prevent-compression }
- .google. |
Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want - to turn off compression for all sites in - default.action (or - user.action). -
version is working + as expected. +Also, session-cookies-only is - off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want - to turn it back on in user.action now. -
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 - The "filter-client-headers" and + "filter-server-headers" actions that were introduced with + Privoxy after installation. -
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. +