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8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
12 <!entity p-authors SYSTEM "p-authors.sgml">
13 <!entity p-version "2.9.15">
14 <!entity p-status "beta">
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16 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
17 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
18 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
19 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
20 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
21 <!entity % p-config "IGNORE">
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23 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
24 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
30 This file belongs into
31 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
33 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes Exp $
35 Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
38 ========================================================================
39 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
40 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
41 ========================================================================
48 <title>Privoxy User Manual</title>
52 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
53 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
54 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
55 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
59 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes Exp $</pubdate>
63 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
64 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
65 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
66 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
73 <holder>Privoxy Developers</holder>
76 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
78 text goes here ........
90 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
91 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
92 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
98 The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
100 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
103 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
105 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
108 You can find the latest version of the user manual at <ulink
109 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
110 Please see the <ulink url="contact.html">Contact section</ulink> on how to
111 contact the developers.
115 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
121 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
122 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
124 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
125 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
126 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
127 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
128 configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
129 completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over
130 earlier versions. The target release date for
131 stable v3.0 is <quote>soon</quote> ;-)]]>.
134 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
137 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
138 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
139 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
144 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
145 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
147 In addition to <application>Internet Junkbuster's</application> traditional
148 features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
149 <application>Privoxy</application> provides new features<![%p-not-stable;[,
150 some of them currently under development]]>:
152 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
154 <!-- end boilerplate -->
159 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
162 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
163 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
166 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
167 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
168 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
169 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
174 Note: If you have a previous <application>Junkbuster</application> or
175 <application>Privoxy</application> installation on your system, you
176 will need to remove it. On some platforms, this may be done for you as part
177 of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform). In any case
178 <emphasis>be sure to backup your old configuration if it is valuable to
179 you.</emphasis> See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">note to
180 upgraders</link> section below.
183 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
184 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
186 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
189 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
190 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat, SuSE RPMs and Conectiva</title>
193 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
194 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
195 of configuration files.
199 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
200 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
201 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
202 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods. Note that SuSE will
203 automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
207 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
208 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm;</literal>. This
209 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
213 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
214 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
215 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
216 automatically, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
220 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
221 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
227 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
228 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
231 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
232 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
233 in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in. We do not
234 use the registry of Windows.
238 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
239 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
242 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
243 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
248 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
249 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
252 First, make sure that no previous installations of
253 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
254 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
255 system. You can do this by
259 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
260 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
261 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
262 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
266 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
267 into will contain all of the configuration files.
271 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
272 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Max OSX</title>
274 Unzip the downloaded package (you can either double-click on the file
275 in the finder, or on the desktop if you downloaded it there). Then,
276 double-click on the package installer icon and follow the installation
278 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the subdirectory
279 <literal>/Applications/Privoxy.app</literal>.
280 <application>Privoxy</application> will set itself up to start
281 automatically on system bring-up via
282 <literal>/System/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
286 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
287 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
289 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
290 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
291 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
292 remove this directory.
295 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
296 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
297 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
298 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
299 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
300 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
301 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
306 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
307 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
310 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
311 is to download the source tarball from our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project
316 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
317 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
318 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
319 CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
320 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
324 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
326 <!-- end boilerplate -->
332 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
334 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
335 <sect1 id="upgradersnote">
336 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
338 There are very significant changes from earlier
339 <application>Junkbuster</application> versions to the current
340 <application>Privoxy</application>. The number, names, syntax, and
341 purposes of configuration files have substantially changed.
342 <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> configuration
343 files will not migrate, <application>Junkbuster 2.9.x</application>
344 and <application>Privoxy</application> configurations will need to be
345 ported. The functionalities of the old <filename>blockfile</filename>,
346 <filename>cookiefile</filename> and <filename>imagelist</filename>
347 are now combined into the <link linkend="actions-file"><quote>actions
348 files</quote></link>.
349 <filename>default.action</filename>, is the main actions file. Local
350 exceptions should best be put into <filename>user.action</filename>.
353 A <link linkend="filter-file"><quote>filter file</quote></link> (typically
354 <filename>default.filter</filename>) is new as of <application>Privoxy
355 2.9.x</application>, and provides some of the new sophistication (explained
356 below). <filename>config</filename> is much the same as before.
359 If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
360 files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
361 When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
362 to the new actions files, please note that even the pattern syntax has
363 changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
364 recommended to use the new configuration files.
367 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
375 The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
381 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
382 important configuration files!
387 <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
388 at the special URL: <ulink
389 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
390 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
391 aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
392 <application>Privoxy</application>.
397 The primary configuration files for cookie management, ad and banner
398 blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
399 configuration are the <link linkend="actions-file">actions
400 files</link>. It is strongly recommended to become familiar with the new
401 actions concept below, before modifying these files. Locally defined rules
402 should go into <filename>user.action</filename>.
407 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
408 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
409 Some installers may not automatically start
410 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
418 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
419 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
425 If upgrading, from versions before 2.9.16, please back up any configuration
426 files. See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">Note to Upgraders</link> Section.
432 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
433 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
440 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
441 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
442 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
443 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
450 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
451 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
452 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
458 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
459 HTTPS proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
460 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
461 (<application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions of
462 <application>Privoxy</application> used port 8000.) See the section <link
463 linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link> below
464 for more details on this.
470 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
476 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
477 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
478 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
479 to no initial configuration is required in most cases.
482 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
483 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
484 <![%draft;[ You might also want to look at the <link
485 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
486 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
493 If you experience ads that slipped through, innocent images that are
494 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
495 <application>Privoxy's</application> behaviour, take a look at the <link
496 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
497 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
498 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
499 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
500 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Anatomy of an
501 Action</link></quote> has hints how to debug actions that
502 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
508 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
509 Developers</link> on how to report bugs or problems with websites or to get
516 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy!
524 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
526 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
527 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
529 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
530 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
533 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
534 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
535 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
538 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
539 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
540 information provided below, though this is highly recommeneded.
543 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
544 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
545 things that were not intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
546 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
547 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
548 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
549 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
550 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
551 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
552 habits and preferences.
555 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
556 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
557 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
558 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
559 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
560 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
561 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
562 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
563 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
564 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
567 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
568 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
569 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
570 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs.
573 When you connect to a website, the full path of the URL will either match one
574 of the <quote>actions</quote> as defined in
575 <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration, or not. If so, then
576 <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the action accordingly. If
577 not, then nothing special happens. Futhermore, web pages may contain
578 embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will display as it parses the
579 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just a URL
580 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
581 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
586 The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: <link
587 linkend="block">block</link>, <link
588 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link>, and <link
589 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>:
597 <link linkend="block"><emphasis>block</emphasis></link> - this action stops
598 any contact between your browser and any URL patterns that match this
599 action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads, but also anything
600 that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply stops any
601 communication with the remote server. If this is the only action that
602 matches for this particular URL, then <application>Privoxy</application> will
603 display its own BLOCKED page to let you now what has happened.
609 <link linkend="handle-as-image"><emphasis>handle-as-image</emphasis></link> -
610 forces <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as if it were
611 an image. <application>Privoxy</application> knows about common image
612 types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this does not apply.
613 So we'll force it. This is particularly important for ad blocking, since
614 once we can treat it as an image, we can make more intelligent decisisions
615 on how to handle it. There are some limitations to this though. For
616 instance, you can't just force an image substituion for an entire HTML page
624 linkend="set-image-blocker"><emphasis>set-image-blocker</emphasis></link> -
625 tells <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of
626 an ad image that has hit a block rule. For this to come into play,
627 the URL must match a block action somewhere in the configuration.
628 <emphasis>And</emphasis>, it must also either be of a known image type, or
630 linkend="handle-as-image"><emphasis>handle-as-image</emphasis></link>
634 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
638 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkboard pattern, so that an ad
639 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
644 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
645 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
650 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any URL of the
651 user's choosing (advanced usage).
660 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
661 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
662 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
663 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
664 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access. Select the
665 appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
666 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
667 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
668 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
669 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
670 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
671 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
675 A quick and simple step by step example:
683 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
684 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
692 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
697 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
698 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
701 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
703 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
706 <imagedata fileref="../images/files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
709 <phrase>Screenshot of Files in Use</phrase>
718 You should have an Actions section labeled <emphasis>+block</emphasis>.
719 If not, click the <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote> button just
720 under the word <quote>Actions</quote>. This will bring up a list of all
721 actions. Find <emphasis>block</emphasis> near the top, and click in the
722 <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then
723 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> just below the list.
728 Now, in the <emphasis>+block</emphasis> actions section, click the
729 <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
730 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link
731 Location</guimenuitem></quote>. Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at
732 the beginning of the URL. Then, click
733 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>.
738 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
739 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
747 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
748 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
749 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
750 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
755 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
756 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
763 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
766 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
768 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
770 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
771 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
772 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is
773 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
774 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
778 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
779 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under <literal>Edit
780 -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy</literal>.
781 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>: <literal>Tools ->
782 Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting</literal>. Then,
783 check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info (Address:
784 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy support too.
788 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
789 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
790 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
791 <application>Privoxy</application>!
795 <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
796 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
797 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
798 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
799 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
802 <sect2 id="start-redhatdebian">
803 <title>RedHat, Conectiva and Debian</title>
805 We use a script. Note that RedHat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
806 default. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its
807 main configuration file. FIXME: Debian??
811 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
816 <sect2 id="start-suse">
819 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
820 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
830 <sect2 id="start-windows">
831 <title>Windows</title>
833 Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy. If no configuration file is
834 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
835 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
836 automatically start Privoxy upon booting you PC.
840 <sect2 id="start-unices">
841 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
843 Example Unix startup command:
847 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
852 <sect2 id="start-os2">
859 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
860 <title>MAX OSX</title>
867 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
868 <title>AmigaOS</title>
877 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
881 must find a better place for this paragraph
884 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
885 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
886 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
887 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
888 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
889 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
893 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
894 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
895 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
896 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
897 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
898 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
899 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
900 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
901 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
905 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
906 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
907 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
909 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
910 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
911 popups (explained below).
915 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
916 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
917 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
918 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
919 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
920 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
921 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
922 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
923 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
927 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
928 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
929 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
930 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
931 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
932 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
933 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
934 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
935 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
939 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
940 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
941 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
942 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
943 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
944 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
945 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
949 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
950 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
951 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
952 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
953 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
954 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
959 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <ulink
960 url="actions-file.html#ACTIONSFILE">read more about the actions concept</ulink>
961 or even dive deep into the <ulink url="appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">Appendix
966 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
967 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
968 section <ulink url="contact.html"><quote>Contacting the
969 Developers</quote></ulink> below.
974 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
975 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
976 <title>Command Line Options</title>
978 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
979 command-line options:
987 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
990 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
995 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
998 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1003 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1006 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1007 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1012 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1016 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1017 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1018 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1019 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1024 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1028 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1029 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1030 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1035 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1038 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1039 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1040 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1041 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1042 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1043 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1054 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1057 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1058 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
1060 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1061 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1062 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1063 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1067 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1070 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
1072 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1073 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1074 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1075 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1076 You will see the following section:
1080 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1083 <bridgehead renderas="sect2">Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1087 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1090 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1093 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1096 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1099 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1107 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1108 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1109 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1110 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1111 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1112 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1116 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1117 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1118 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1119 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1120 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1121 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1122 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1123 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1129 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1134 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1136 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1137 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1139 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1140 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1141 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1142 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1143 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1144 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1148 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1149 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1150 principle configuration files are:
1158 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1159 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1160 on Windows. This is a required file.
1166 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1167 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1168 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1169 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1170 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1171 as many websites as possible.
1174 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1175 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1176 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1177 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1178 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1179 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1180 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is for
1181 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1184 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1186 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1188 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1189 various actions files.
1195 <filename>default.filter</filename> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1196 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1197 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1198 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1199 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1207 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1208 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1209 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1210 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1211 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1212 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1217 The actions files and <filename>default.filter</filename>
1218 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1219 maximum flexibility.
1223 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1224 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1225 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1226 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1227 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1228 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1229 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1234 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1235 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1236 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1237 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1243 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1246 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1249 <title>The Main Configuration File</title>
1252 Again, the main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename> on
1253 Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, and <filename>config.txt</filename> on Windows.
1254 Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of
1255 values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For
1263 <emphasis>confdir /etc/privoxy</emphasis></literallayout>
1269 Assigns the value <literal>/etc/privoxy</literal> to the option
1270 <literal>confdir</literal> and thus indicates that the configuration
1271 directory is named <quote>/etc/privoxy/</quote>.
1275 All options in the config file except for <literal>confdir</literal> and
1276 <literal>logdir</literal> are optional. Watch out in the below description
1277 for what happens if you leave them unset.
1281 The main config file controls all aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>'s
1282 operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter
1283 where you may be surfing).
1287 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1289 <sect2 id="conf-log-loc">
1290 <title>Configuration and Log File Locations</title>
1293 <application>Privoxy</application> can (and normally does) use a number of
1294 other files for additional configuration, help and logging.
1295 This section of the configuration file tells <application>Privoxy</application>
1296 where to find those other files.
1300 The user running Privoxy, must have read permission for all
1301 configuration files, and write permission to any files that would
1302 be modified, such as log files.
1305 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="confdir"><title>confdir</title>
1309 <term>Specifies:</term>
1311 <para>The directory where the other configuration files are located</para>
1315 <term>Type of value:</term>
1317 <para>Path name</para>
1321 <term>Default value:</term>
1323 <para>/etc/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
1327 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1329 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
1336 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
1339 When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
1340 per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of <quote>confdir</quote>.
1341 For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
1342 <filename>confdir/templates</filename>, where the HTML templates for CGI
1343 output reside (e.g. <application>Privoxy's</application> 404 error page).
1351 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logdir"><title>logdir</title>
1355 <term>Specifies:</term>
1358 The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where <filename>logfile</filename> and
1359 <filename>jarfile</filename> are located)
1364 <term>Type of value:</term>
1366 <para>Path name</para>
1370 <term>Default value:</term>
1372 <para>/var/log/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
1376 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1378 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
1385 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
1392 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="actionsfile"><title>
1395 <anchor id="default.action">
1396 <anchor id="standard.action">
1397 <anchor id="user.action">
1398 <!-- Note: slightly modified this section 04/28/02, hal. See NOTE. -->
1401 <term>Specifies:</term>
1404 The <link linkend="actions-file">actions file(s)</link> to use
1409 <term>Type of value:</term>
1411 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal>, without the <literal>.action</literal> suffix</para>
1415 <term>Default values:</term>
1419 <msgtext><literallayout> standard # Internal purposes, no editing recommended</literallayout></msgtext>
1422 <msgtext><literallayout> default # Main actions file</literallayout></msgtext>
1425 <msgtext><literallayout> user # User customizations</literallayout></msgtext>
1431 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1434 No actions are taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
1442 Multiple <literal>actionsfile</literal> lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended!
1445 The default values include standard.action, which is used for internal
1446 purposes and should be loaded, default.action, which is the
1447 <quote>main</quote> actions file maintained by the developers, and
1448 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can make your personal additions.
1451 Actions files are where all the per site and per URL configuration is done for
1452 ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc.
1453 There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without at
1454 least one actions file.
1461 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filterfile"><title>filterfile</title>
1462 <anchor id="default.filter">
1465 <term>Specifies:</term>
1468 The <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link> to use
1473 <term>Type of value:</term>
1475 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1479 <term>Default value:</term>
1481 <para>default.filter (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.filter.txt (Windows)</para>
1485 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1488 No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
1489 <literal>+<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
1490 actions in the actions files are turned neutral.
1498 The <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link> contains content modification
1499 rules that use <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link>. These rules permit
1500 powerful changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable your favorite
1501 JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some
1502 fun replacing <quote>Microsoft</quote> with <quote>MicroSuck</quote> wherever
1503 it appears on a Web page.
1507 <literal>+<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
1508 actions rely on the relevant filter (<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>)
1509 to be defined in the filter file!
1512 A pre-defined filter file called <filename>default.filter</filename> that contains
1513 a bunch of handy filters for common problems is included in the distribution.
1514 See the section on the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
1522 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logfile"><title>logfile</title>
1526 <term>Specifies:</term>
1534 <term>Type of value:</term>
1536 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1540 <term>Default value:</term>
1542 <para>logfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.log (Windows)</para>
1546 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1549 No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (<literal>stderr</literal>).
1557 The windows version will additionally log to the console.
1560 The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
1561 of detail and number of messages are set with the <literal>debug</literal>
1562 option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
1563 <application>Privoxy</application> (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you
1564 think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it.
1567 Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
1568 periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
1569 (see <quote>man cron</quote>). For Red Hat, a <command>logrotate</command>
1570 script has been included.
1573 On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like <quote>/var/log/privoxy.*
1574 +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup</quote> in <filename>/etc/logfiles</filename>, with
1575 the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the
1576 log, when it exceeds 1M size.
1579 Any log files must be writable by whatever user <application>Privoxy</application>
1580 is being run as (default on UNIX, user id is <quote>privoxy</quote>).
1587 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jarfile"><title>jarfile</title>
1591 <term>Specifies:</term>
1594 The file to store intercepted cookies in
1599 <term>Type of value:</term>
1601 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1605 <term>Default value:</term>
1607 <para>jarfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.jar (Windows)</para>
1611 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1614 Intercepted cookies are not stored at all.
1622 The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
1629 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trustfile"><title>trustfile</title>
1632 <term>Specifies:</term>
1635 The trust file to use
1640 <term>Type of value:</term>
1642 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1646 <term>Default value:</term>
1648 <para><emphasis>Unset (commented out)</emphasis>. When activated: trust (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> trust.txt (Windows)</para>
1652 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1655 The whole trust mechanism is turned off.
1663 The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should
1664 be used with care. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> recommended for the casual user.
1667 If you specify a trust file, <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow
1668 access to sites that are named in the trustfile.
1669 You can also mark sites as trusted referrers (with <literal>+</literal>), with
1670 the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a
1671 trusted referrer was used.
1672 The link target will then be added to the <quote>trustfile</quote>.
1673 Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
1676 If you use <literal>+</literal> operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over time.
1684 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1688 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1690 <sect2 id="local-set-up">
1691 <title>Local Set-up Documentation</title>
1694 If you intend to operate <application>Privoxy</application> for more users
1695 than just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach
1696 you, what you block and why you do that, your policies, etc.
1699 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="user-manual"><title>user-manual</title>
1702 <term>Specifies:</term>
1705 Location of the <application>Privoxy</application> User Manual.
1710 <term>Type of value:</term>
1712 <para>A fully qualified URI</para>
1716 <term>Default value:</term>
1718 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1722 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1725 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/<replaceable class="parameter">version</replaceable>/user-manual/</ulink>
1726 will be used, where <replaceable class="parameter">version</replaceable> is the <application>Privoxy</application> version.
1734 The User Manual URI is used for help links from some of the internal CGI pages.
1735 The manual itself is normally packaged with the binary distributions, so you probably want
1736 to set this to a locally installed copy. For multi-user setups, you could provide a copy on
1737 a local webserver for all your users and use the corresponding URL here.
1743 Unix, in local filesystem:
1746 <screen>user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;/user-manual/</screen>
1749 Any platform, on local webserver (called <quote>local-webserver</quote>):
1752 <screen>user-manual http://local-webserver/privoxy-user-manual/</screen>
1756 If set, this option should be <emphasis>the first option in the config file</emphasis>, because
1757 it is used while the config file is being read.
1765 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trust-info-url"><title>trust-info-url</title>
1769 <term>Specifies:</term>
1772 A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied.
1777 <term>Type of value:</term>
1783 <term>Default value:</term>
1785 <para>Two example URL are provided</para>
1789 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1792 No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
1800 The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been
1801 activated. (See <link linkend="trustfile"><emphasis>trustfile</emphasis></link> above.)
1804 If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
1805 documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here.
1806 Use multiple times for multiple URLs.
1809 The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up
1810 locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place!
1817 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="admin-address"><title>admin-address</title>
1821 <term>Specifies:</term>
1824 An email address to reach the proxy administrator.
1829 <term>Type of value:</term>
1831 <para>Email address</para>
1835 <term>Default value:</term>
1837 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1841 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1844 No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1852 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1853 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1861 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="proxy-info-url"><title>proxy-info-url</title>
1865 <term>Specifies:</term>
1868 A URL to documentation about the local <application>Privoxy</application> setup,
1869 configuration or policies.
1874 <term>Type of value:</term>
1880 <term>Default value:</term>
1882 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1886 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1889 No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1897 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1898 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1902 This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
1910 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1912 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1914 <sect2 id="debugging">
1915 <title>Debugging</title>
1918 These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem.
1919 Note that you might also want to invoke
1920 <application>Privoxy</application> with the <literal>--no-daemon</literal>
1921 command line option when debugging.
1924 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="debug"><title>debug</title>
1928 <term>Specifies:</term>
1931 Key values that determine what information gets logged to the
1932 <link linkend="logfile"><emphasis>logfile</emphasis></link>.
1937 <term>Type of value:</term>
1939 <para>Integer values</para>
1943 <term>Default value:</term>
1945 <para>12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)</para>
1949 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1952 Nothing gets logged.
1960 The available debug levels are:
1964 debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
1965 debug 2 # show each connection status
1966 debug 4 # show I/O status
1967 debug 8 # show header parsing
1968 debug 16 # log all data into the logfile
1969 debug 32 # debug force feature
1970 debug 64 # debug regular expression filter
1971 debug 128 # debug fast redirects
1972 debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
1973 debug 512 # Common Log Format
1974 debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
1975 debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
1976 debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
1980 To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use
1981 multiple <literal>debug</literal> lines.
1984 A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request
1985 as it happens. <emphasis>1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended</emphasis>
1986 so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are probably
1987 only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce
1988 a hell of an output (especially 16).
1992 The reporting of <emphasis>fatal</emphasis> errors (i.e. ones which crash
1993 <application>Privoxy</application>) is always on and cannot be disabled.
1996 If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set <quote>debug
1997 512</quote> <emphasis>ONLY</emphasis> and not enable anything else.
2004 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="single-threaded"><title>single-threaded</title>
2008 <term>Specifies:</term>
2011 Whether to run only one server thread
2016 <term>Type of value:</term>
2018 <para><emphasis>None</emphasis></para>
2022 <term>Default value:</term>
2024 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2028 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2031 Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability to
2032 serve multiple requests simultaneously.
2040 This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never
2041 need to use it. <emphasis>It will drastically reduce performance.</emphasis>
2050 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2052 <sect2 id="access-control">
2053 <title>Access Control and Security</title>
2056 This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
2057 of <application>Privoxy</application>'s configuration.
2060 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="listen-address"><title>listen-address</title>
2064 <term>Specifies:</term>
2067 The IP address and TCP port on which <application>Privoxy</application> will
2068 listen for client requests.
2073 <term>Type of value:</term>
2075 <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">IP-Address</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
2080 <term>Default value:</term>
2082 <para>127.0.0.1:8118</para>
2086 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2089 Bind to 127.0.0.1 (localhost), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended for
2090 home users who run <application>Privoxy</application> on the same machine as
2099 You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
2102 If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
2103 serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
2104 will need to override the default.
2107 If you leave out the IP address, <application>Privoxy</application> will
2108 bind to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable
2109 from the Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (ACL's)
2110 (see <quote>ACLs</quote> below), or a firewall.
2115 <term>Example:</term>
2118 Suppose you are running <application>Privoxy</application> on
2119 a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network
2120 (192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address.
2121 You want it to serve requests from inside only:
2125 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
2133 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="toggle"><title>toggle</title>
2137 <term>Specifies:</term>
2140 Initial state of "toggle" status
2145 <term>Type of value:</term>
2151 <term>Default value:</term>
2157 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2160 Act as if toggled on
2168 If set to 0, <application>Privoxy</application> will start in
2169 <quote>toggled off</quote> mode, i.e. behave like a normal, content-neutral
2170 proxy where all ad blocking, filtering, etc are disabled. See
2171 <literal>enable-remote-toggle</literal> below. This is not really useful
2172 anymore, since toggling is much easier via <ulink
2173 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">the web interface</ulink> than via
2174 editing the <filename>conf</filename> file.
2177 The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
2178 if this option is present.
2186 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-remote-toggle"><title>enable-remote-toggle</title>
2189 <term>Specifies:</term>
2192 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">web-based toggle
2193 feature</ulink> may be used
2198 <term>Type of value:</term>
2204 <term>Default value:</term>
2210 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2213 The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
2221 When toggled off, <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal,
2222 content-neutral proxy, i.e. it acts as if none of the actions applied to
2226 For the time being, access to the toggle feature can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
2227 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
2228 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
2229 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
2230 toggle it for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>
2231 for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
2234 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
2235 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
2243 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-edit-actions"><title>enable-edit-actions</title>
2246 <term>Specifies:</term>
2249 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions
2250 file editor</ulink> may be used
2255 <term>Type of value:</term>
2261 <term>Default value:</term>
2267 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2270 The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
2278 For the time being, access to the editor can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
2279 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
2280 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
2281 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
2282 modify its configuration for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not
2283 recommended</emphasis> for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
2286 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
2287 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
2294 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="acls"><title>
2295 ACLs: permit-access and deny-access</title>
2296 <anchor id="permit-acces">
2297 <anchor id="deny-acces">
2301 <term>Specifies:</term>
2304 Who can access what.
2309 <term>Type of value:</term>
2312 <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable>]
2313 [<replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable>]]
2316 Where <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable> and
2317 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
2318 DNS names, and <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> and
2319 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable> are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
2320 values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
2321 destination part are optional.
2326 <term>Default value:</term>
2328 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2332 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2335 Don't restrict access further than implied by <literal>listen-address</literal>
2343 Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
2344 administrators, and <emphasis>are not usually needed by individual users</emphasis>.
2345 For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
2346 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens on the localhost
2347 (127.0.0.1) or internal (home) network address by means of the
2348 <link linkend="listen-address"><emphasis>listen-address</emphasis></link>
2352 Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute
2353 for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security
2357 Multiple ACL lines are OK.
2358 If any ACLs are specified, then the <application>Privoxy</application>
2359 talks only to IP addresses that match at least one <literal>permit-access</literal> line
2360 and don't match any subsequent <literal>deny-access</literal> line. In other words, the
2361 last match wins, with the default being <literal>deny-access</literal>.
2364 If <application>Privoxy</application> is using a forwarder (see <literal>forward</literal> below)
2365 for a particular destination URL, the <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>
2366 that is examined is the address of the forwarder and <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the address
2367 of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
2368 <application>Privoxy</application> to determine the IP address of the
2369 ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
2372 You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
2373 time. All DNS names must resolve! You can <emphasis>not</emphasis> use domain patterns
2374 like <quote>*.org</quote> or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
2375 IP addresses, only the first one is used.
2378 Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
2379 if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
2384 <term>Examples:</term>
2387 Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
2388 <literal>listen-address</literal> are set: <quote>localhost</quote>
2389 is OK. The absence of a <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> implies that
2390 <emphasis>all</emphasis> destination addresses are OK:
2394 permit-access localhost
2398 Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
2399 nothing but www.example.com:
2403 permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
2407 Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
2408 with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
2412 permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
2413 deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
2421 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="buffer-limit"><title>buffer-limit</title>
2425 <term>Specifies:</term>
2428 Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
2433 <term>Type of value:</term>
2435 <para>Size in Kbytes</para>
2439 <term>Default value:</term>
2445 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2448 Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
2456 For content filtering, i.e. the <literal>+filter</literal> and
2457 <literal>+deanimate-gif</literal> actions, it is necessary that
2458 <application>Privoxy</application> buffers the entire document body.
2459 This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
2460 data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
2464 When a document buffer size reaches the <literal>buffer-limit</literal>, it is
2465 flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
2466 filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
2467 running, which might require up to <literal>buffer-limit</literal> Kbytes
2468 <emphasis>each</emphasis>, unless you have enabled <quote>single-threaded</quote>
2478 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2481 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2483 <sect2 id="forwarding">
2484 <title>Forwarding</title>
2487 This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
2489 It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
2490 accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains
2491 through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. <ulink
2492 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm</ulink>)
2493 Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
2494 proxy may be necessary because the machine that <application>Privoxy</application>
2495 runs on has no direct Internet access.
2499 Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. <application>Privoxy</application>
2500 supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols.
2503 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward"><title>forward</title>
2506 <term>Specifies:</term>
2509 To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
2514 <term>Type of value:</term>
2517 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2518 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2521 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
2522 chapter on domain matching in the <filename>default.action</filename> file),
2523 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is the address of the parent HTTP proxy
2524 as an IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or as a valid DNS name (or <quote>.</quote> to denote
2525 <quote>no forwarding</quote>, and the optional
2526 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer
2527 values from 1 to 64535
2532 <term>Default value:</term>
2534 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2538 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2541 Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
2549 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2550 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
2553 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2558 <term>Examples:</term>
2561 Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
2565 forward .* anon-proxy.example.org:8080
2570 Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
2571 to that ISP's sites:
2575 forward .*. caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
2576 forward .example-isp.net .
2584 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="socks"><title>
2585 forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a</title>
2586 <anchor id="forward-socks4">
2587 <anchor id="forward-socks4a">
2591 <term>Specifies:</term>
2594 Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
2599 <term>Type of value:</term>
2602 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2603 <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2604 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2607 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
2608 chapter on domain matching in the <filename>default.action</filename> file),
2609 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> and <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>
2610 are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (<replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>
2611 may be <quote>.</quote> to denote <quote>no HTTP forwarding</quote>), and the optional
2612 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
2617 <term>Default value:</term>
2619 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2623 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2626 Don't use SOCKS proxies.
2634 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2637 The difference between <literal>forward-socks4</literal> and <literal>forward-socks4a</literal>
2638 is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
2639 server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
2642 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2643 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
2649 <term>Examples:</term>
2652 From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
2653 <quote>internal</quote> domains, but everything outbound goes through
2654 their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
2659 forward-socks4a .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
2660 forward .example.com .
2664 A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
2668 forward-socks4 .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
2676 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="advanced-forwarding-examples"><title>Advanced Forwarding Examples</title>
2679 If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
2680 only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple <application>Privoxies</application>
2681 which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
2682 <emphasis>your</emphasis> users can see the internal content of all ISPs.
2686 Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
2687 isp-b.net. Both run <application>Privoxy</application>. Their forwarding
2688 configuration can look like this:
2698 forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
2709 forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
2714 Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
2715 host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
2716 of both isp-a and isp-b.
2720 If you intend to chain <application>Privoxy</application> and
2721 <application>squid</application> locally, then chain as
2722 <literal>browser -> squid -> privoxy</literal> is the recommended way.
2726 Assuming that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>squid</application>
2727 run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this:
2732 # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
2733 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
2735 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
2738 # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
2739 always_direct allow ftp
2741 # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
2742 never_direct allow all</screen>
2746 You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to <application>squid</application>'s address and port.
2747 Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult <literal>http_port</literal> in <filename>squid.conf</filename>.
2754 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2757 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2759 <sect2 id="windows-gui">
2760 <title>Windows GUI Options</title>
2762 <application>Privoxy</application> has a number of options specific to the
2763 Windows GUI interface:
2766 <anchor id="activity-animation">
2768 If <quote>activity-animation</quote> is set to 1, the
2769 <application>Privoxy</application> icon will animate when
2770 <quote>Privoxy</quote> is active. To turn off, set to 0.
2777 <emphasis>activity-animation 1</emphasis>
2783 <anchor id="log-messages">
2785 If <quote>log-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2786 <application>Privoxy</application> will log messages to the console
2794 <emphasis>log-messages 1</emphasis>
2800 <anchor id="log-buffer-size">
2802 If <quote>log-buffer-size</quote> is set to 1, the size of the log buffer,
2803 i.e. the amount of memory used for the log messages displayed in the
2804 console window, will be limited to <quote>log-max-lines</quote> (see below).
2808 Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and
2809 eat up all your memory!
2816 <emphasis>log-buffer-size 1</emphasis>
2822 <anchor id="log-max-lines">
2824 <application>log-max-lines</application> is the maximum number of lines held
2825 in the log buffer. See above.
2832 <emphasis>log-max-lines 200</emphasis>
2838 <anchor id="log-highlight-messages">
2840 If <quote>log-highlight-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2841 <application>Privoxy</application> will highlight portions of the log
2842 messages with a bold-faced font:
2849 <emphasis>log-highlight-messages 1</emphasis>
2855 <anchor id="log-font-name">
2857 The font used in the console window:
2864 <emphasis>log-font-name Comic Sans MS</emphasis>
2870 <anchor id="log-font-size">
2872 Font size used in the console window:
2879 <emphasis>log-font-size 8</emphasis>
2885 <anchor id="show-on-task-bar">
2887 <quote>show-on-task-bar</quote> controls whether or not
2888 <application>Privoxy</application> will appear as a button on the Task bar
2896 <emphasis>show-on-task-bar 0</emphasis>
2902 <anchor id="close-button-minimizes">
2904 If <quote>close-button-minimizes</quote> is set to 1, the Windows close
2905 button will minimize <application>Privoxy</application> instead of closing
2906 the program (close with the exit option on the File menu).
2913 <emphasis>close-button-minimizes 1</emphasis>
2919 <anchor id="hide-console">
2921 The <quote>hide-console</quote> option is specific to the MS-Win console
2922 version of <application>Privoxy</application>. If this option is used,
2923 <application>Privoxy</application> will disconnect from and hide the
2931 #<emphasis>hide-console</emphasis>
2940 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2944 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2946 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
2949 The actions files are used to define what actions
2950 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determine
2951 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
2952 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
2953 are three such files included with <application>Privoxy</application> (as of
2954 version 2.9.15), with differing purposes:
2961 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
2962 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
2963 provide a base level of functionality for
2964 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
2965 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well for users everywhere.
2966 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and making
2972 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
2973 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
2974 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
2975 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
2980 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor,
2981 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
2982 in <filename>default.action</filename>. These have increasing levels of
2983 aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no influence on your browsing unless
2984 you select them explicitly in the editor</emphasis>. It is not recommend
2992 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2993 file, and are processed in the order they are defined. The content of these
2994 can all be viewed and edited from <ulink
2995 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2999 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
3000 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
3001 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
3002 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
3003 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
3004 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
3005 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
3006 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
3007 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
3008 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
3009 with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
3010 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
3014 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
3015 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
3016 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
3017 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
3018 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
3022 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3024 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
3026 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
3027 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
3028 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
3029 certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
3030 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
3031 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
3032 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per
3033 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
3034 regularly use and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe
3035 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
3039 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
3040 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
3041 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
3042 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
3046 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3048 <title>How to Edit</title>
3050 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
3051 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
3052 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
3053 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
3054 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
3055 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Advanced</quote>.
3059 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
3060 the actions files. Look at <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly
3066 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
3067 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
3069 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
3070 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will be discussed later. For now
3071 let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a heading line (often split
3072 up to multiple lines for readability) which consist of a list of actions,
3073 separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces. Below that, there
3074 is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
3078 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
3079 compared to all patterns in each action file file. Every time it matches, the list of
3080 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
3081 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
3082 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
3083 the effects are aggregated (e.g. a URL might match both the
3084 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>
3085 and <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> actions).
3090 You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
3091 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
3095 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
3096 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
3100 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3101 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
3102 <title>Patterns</title>
3104 Generally, a pattern has the form <literal><domain>/<path></literal>,
3105 where both the <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal>
3106 are optional. (This is why the pattern <literal>/</literal> matches all URLs).
3111 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
3114 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
3115 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
3120 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
3123 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
3129 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
3132 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
3133 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
3138 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
3141 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
3142 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
3147 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
3150 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
3151 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
3158 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3159 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
3162 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
3163 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
3169 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
3172 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
3173 <literal>.example.com</literal>
3178 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
3181 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
3182 <literal>www.</literal>
3187 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
3190 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
3191 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
3198 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
3199 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
3200 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
3201 any single character, you can define character classes in square
3202 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
3207 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
3210 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
3211 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
3216 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
3219 matches all of the above, and then some.
3224 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
3227 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
3228 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
3233 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
3236 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
3237 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
3238 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
3239 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
3247 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3250 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3251 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
3254 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
3255 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
3260 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
3261 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
3262 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
3263 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
3264 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
3265 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
3269 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
3270 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
3271 for the beginning of a line).
3275 Please also note that matching in the path is case
3276 <emphasis>INSENSITIVE</emphasis> by default, but you can switch to case
3277 sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
3278 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch:
3279 <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match only
3280 documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
3281 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
3287 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3290 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3292 <sect2 id="actions">
3293 <title>Actions</title>
3295 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
3296 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
3297 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
3298 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
3299 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
3300 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
3301 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
3302 previously applied.</quote>
3307 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
3308 separated by whitespace, like in
3309 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
3310 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
3311 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
3312 of the actions file.
3316 There are three classes of actions:
3323 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
3324 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
3328 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
3329 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
3332 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
3339 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
3344 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
3345 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
3346 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
3349 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
3350 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
3353 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</literal>
3359 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
3360 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
3361 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
3362 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
3363 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
3364 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
3368 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
3369 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
3370 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
3371 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
3374 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
3375 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
3383 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
3384 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
3385 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
3386 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
3387 files will give a good starting point).
3391 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
3392 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
3393 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files). For
3394 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
3395 Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in
3396 <filename>config</filename> (the default installation has three actions
3397 files). It also quite possible for any given URL pattern to match more than
3398 one pattern and thus more than one set of actions!
3401 <!-- start actions listing -->
3403 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
3407 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3408 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
3409 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
3411 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3414 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3416 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
3417 <title><emphasis>add-header</emphasis></title>
3421 <term>Typical use:</term>
3423 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
3428 <term>Effect:</term>
3431 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
3438 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3440 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3445 <term>Parameter:</term>
3448 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
3449 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
3459 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
3460 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
3461 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
3468 <term>Example usage:</term>
3471 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
3479 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3480 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
3481 <title><emphasis>block</emphasis></title>
3485 <term>Typical use:</term>
3487 <para>Block ads or other obnoxious content</para>
3492 <term>Effect:</term>
3495 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the requests are not
3496 forwarded to the remote server, but answered locally with a substitute page or image,
3497 as determined by the <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>
3498 and <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> actions.
3505 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3507 <para>Boolean.</para>
3512 <term>Parameter:</term>
3522 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
3523 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
3524 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
3525 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
3526 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
3527 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
3528 right now, you can take a look at the
3529 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
3533 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
3534 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
3535 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
3536 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
3537 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
3538 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
3541 It is important to understand this process, in order
3542 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
3543 ads and other unwanted content.
3546 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
3547 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
3548 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
3549 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
3550 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
3556 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3559 <screen>{+block} # Block and replace with "blocked" page
3560 .nasty-stuff.example.com
3562 {+block +handle-as-image} # Block and replace with image
3573 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3574 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3575 <title><emphasis>crunch-incoming-cookies</emphasis></title>
3579 <term>Typical use:</term>
3582 Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
3588 <term>Effect:</term>
3591 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3598 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3600 <para>Boolean.</para>
3605 <term>Parameter:</term>
3617 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
3618 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
3619 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3620 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
3623 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3624 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3625 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set.
3631 <term>Example usage:</term>
3634 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3642 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3643 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3644 <title><emphasis>crunch-outgoing-cookies</emphasis></title>
3648 <term>Typical use:</term>
3651 Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
3657 <term>Effect:</term>
3660 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3667 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3669 <para>Boolean.</para>
3674 <term>Parameter:</term>
3686 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
3687 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
3688 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3689 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
3692 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3693 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3694 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3700 <term>Example usage:</term>
3703 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3712 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3713 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3714 <title><emphasis>deanimate-gifs</emphasis></title>
3718 <term>Typical use:</term>
3720 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3725 <term>Effect:</term>
3728 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3735 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3737 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3742 <term>Parameter:</term>
3745 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3754 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3755 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3756 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3757 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3758 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3759 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3762 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3763 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3770 <term>Example usage:</term>
3773 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3780 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3781 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3782 <title><emphasis>downgrade-http-version</emphasis></title>
3786 <term>Typical use:</term>
3788 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3793 <term>Effect:</term>
3796 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3803 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3805 <para>Boolean.</para>
3810 <term>Parameter:</term>
3822 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3823 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3824 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3825 out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
3826 is a chance you might need this action.
3832 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3835 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3836 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3844 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3845 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3846 <title><emphasis>fast-redirects</emphasis></title>
3850 <term>Typical use:</term>
3852 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links</para>
3857 <term>Effect:</term>
3860 Cut off all but the last valid URL from requests.
3867 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3869 <para>Boolean.</para>
3874 <term>Parameter:</term>
3886 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3887 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3888 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3889 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3890 <emphasis>http://some.place/click-tracker.cgi?target=http://some.where.else</emphasis>.
3893 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3894 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3895 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3896 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3897 browser ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3901 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3902 It is likely to break some sites. You should expect to need possibly
3903 many exceptions to this action, if it is enabled by default in
3904 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some sites just don't work without
3911 <term>Example usage:</term>
3914 <screen>{+fast-redirects}</screen>
3923 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3924 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3925 <title><emphasis>filter</emphasis></title>
3929 <term>Typical use:</term>
3931 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), do fun text replacements, etc.</para>
3936 <term>Effect:</term>
3939 Text documents, including HTML and JavaScript, to which this action applies, are filtered on-the-fly
3940 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
3947 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3949 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3954 <term>Parameter:</term>
3957 The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>
3958 (typically <filename>default.filter</filename>, set by the
3959 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3960 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>)
3969 For your convenience, there are a bunch of pre-defined filters available
3970 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the example below for
3974 This is potentially a very powerful feature! But <quote>rolling your own</quote>
3975 filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
3978 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3979 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3980 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3981 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3982 noticeable on slower connections.
3985 At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
3986 documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
3987 would normally be sent compressed, use the
3988 <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3989 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3992 Filtering can achieve some of the effects as the
3993 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3994 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners.
3997 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or improved filters is particularly
4004 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file):</term>
4007 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
4008 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
4011 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
4012 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
4015 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
4016 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)</screen>
4019 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
4020 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come sneaking in the HTML or JS content</screen>
4023 <anchor id="filter-popups">
4024 <screen>+filter{popups} # Kill all popups in JS and HTML</screen>
4027 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
4028 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
4031 <anchor id="filter-fun">
4032 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
4035 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
4036 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
4039 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
4040 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
4043 <anchor id="filter-nimda">
4044 <screen>+filter{nimda} # Remove Nimda (virus) code.</screen>
4047 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
4048 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
4051 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
4052 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"</screen>
4060 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4061 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4062 <title><emphasis>handle-as-image</emphasis></title>
4066 <term>Typical use:</term>
4068 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis>)</para>
4073 <term>Effect:</term>
4076 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4077 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4078 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4079 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4080 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4081 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4088 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4090 <para>Boolean.</para>
4095 <term>Parameter:</term>
4107 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4108 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4112 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4113 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4114 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4117 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (inline) ad
4118 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4119 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4120 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4126 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4129 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4132 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4134 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4135 # blocked as images:
4137 {+block +handle-as-image}
4138 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
4140 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
4150 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4151 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
4152 <title><emphasis>hide-forwarded-for-headers</emphasis></title>
4156 <term>Typical use:</term>
4158 <para>Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request</para>
4163 <term>Effect:</term>
4166 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
4167 and prevents adding a new one.
4174 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4176 <para>Boolean.</para>
4181 <term>Parameter:</term>
4193 It is fairly safe to leave this on.
4196 This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate forged
4197 <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> headers using random IP addresses from a specified network,
4198 to make successive requests from the same client look like requests from a pool of different
4199 users sharing the same proxy.
4205 <term>Example usage:</term>
4208 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
4216 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4217 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4218 <title><emphasis>hide-from-header</emphasis></title>
4222 <term>Typical use:</term>
4224 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4229 <term>Effect:</term>
4232 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4240 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4242 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4247 <term>Parameter:</term>
4250 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4259 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4260 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4264 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4265 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4266 is actually used by a real person.
4269 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4270 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4276 <term>Example usage:</term>
4279 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4280 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4288 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4289 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4290 <title><emphasis>hide-referrer</emphasis></title>
4291 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4294 <term>Typical use:</term>
4296 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4301 <term>Effect:</term>
4304 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4305 or replaces it with a forged one.
4312 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4314 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4319 <term>Parameter:</term>
4323 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header completely.</para>
4326 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4329 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4339 <quote>forge</quote> is the preferred option here, since some servers will
4340 not send images back otherwise, in an attempt to prevent their valuable
4341 content from being embedded elsewhere (and hence, without being surrounded
4342 by <emphasis>their</emphasis> banners).
4345 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4346 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4347 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4348 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4349 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4355 <term>Example usage:</term>
4358 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4359 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4367 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4368 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4369 <title><emphasis>hide-user-agent</emphasis></title>
4373 <term>Typical use:</term>
4375 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4380 <term>Effect:</term>
4383 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4384 in client requests with the specified value.
4391 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4393 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4398 <term>Parameter:</term>
4401 Any user-defined string.
4411 This breaks many web sites that depend on looking at this header in order
4412 to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4413 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> a <ulink
4414 url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
4419 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4420 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4421 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4422 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4423 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4424 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4425 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4426 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4427 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4428 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4429 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4432 This action is scheduled for improvement.
4438 <term>Example usage:</term>
4441 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4449 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4450 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
4451 <title><emphasis>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></emphasis></title>
4455 <term>Typical use:</term>
4457 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows</para>
4462 <term>Effect:</term>
4465 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
4466 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
4473 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4475 <para>Boolean.</para>
4480 <term>Parameter:</term>
4492 This action is easily confused with the built-in, hardwired <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
4493 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
4494 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
4495 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
4497 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>popups</replaceable>}</literal>
4501 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
4502 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
4503 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
4504 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
4505 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
4506 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
4509 Killing all pop-ups is a dangerous business. Many shops and banks rely on
4510 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and killing only the unwanted pop-ups
4511 would require artificial intelligence in <application>Privoxy</application>.
4512 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
4513 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
4514 one), you might want to use
4516 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
4522 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
4530 <term>Example usage:</term>
4532 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
4539 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4540 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
4541 <title><emphasis>limit-connect</emphasis></title>
4545 <term>Typical use:</term>
4547 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay</para>
4552 <term>Effect:</term>
4555 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
4562 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4564 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4569 <term>Parameter:</term>
4572 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
4573 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
4582 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
4583 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
4584 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
4585 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
4586 for some or all destinations.
4589 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
4590 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
4591 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
4592 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
4593 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
4594 abused as TCP relays very easily.
4597 If you don't know what any of this means, there probably is no reason to
4598 change this one, since the default is already very restrictive.
4604 <term>Example usages:</term>
4606 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
4607 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
4608 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
4610 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
4611 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
4612 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
4613 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK (gaping security hole!)</screen>
4620 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4621 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
4622 <title><emphasis>prevent-compression</emphasis></title>
4626 <term>Typical use:</term>
4629 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
4630 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s
4636 <term>Effect:</term>
4639 Adds a header to the request that asks for uncompressed transfer.
4646 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4648 <para>Boolean.</para>
4653 <term>Parameter:</term>
4665 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
4666 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the <literal><link
4667 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
4668 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions to work,
4669 <application>Privoxy</application> needs access to the uncompressed data.
4670 Unfortunately, <application>Privoxy</application> can't yet(!) uncompress, filter, and
4671 re-compress the content on the fly. So if you want to ensure that all websites, including
4672 those that normally compress, can be filtered, you need to use this action.
4675 This will slow down transfers from those websites, though. If you use any of the above-mentioned
4676 actions, you will typically want to use <literal>prevent-compression</literal> in conjunction
4680 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
4681 documents correctly (they send an empty document body). If you use <literal>prevent-compression</literal>
4682 per default, you'll have to add exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
4688 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4691 <screen># Set default:
4693 {+prevent-compression}
4696 # Make exceptions for ill sites:
4698 {-prevent-compression}
4700 www.pclinuxonline.com</screen>
4709 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4710 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
4711 <title><emphasis>send-vanilla-wafer</emphasis></title>
4715 <term>Typical use:</term>
4718 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
4724 <term>Effect:</term>
4727 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
4728 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
4735 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4737 <para>Boolean.</para>
4742 <term>Parameter:</term>
4754 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
4757 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
4763 <term>Example usage:</term>
4766 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
4775 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4776 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
4777 <title><emphasis>send-wafer</emphasis></title>
4781 <term>Typical use:</term>
4784 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
4790 <term>Effect:</term>
4793 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
4800 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4802 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4807 <term>Parameter:</term>
4810 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
4811 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
4820 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
4821 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
4824 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
4829 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4832 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
4833 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
4841 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4842 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
4843 <title><emphasis>session-cookies-only</emphasis></title>
4847 <term>Typical use:</term>
4850 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
4856 <term>Effect:</term>
4859 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> server headers.
4860 Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and forget them in between sessions.
4867 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4869 <para>Boolean.</para>
4874 <term>Parameter:</term>
4886 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
4887 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
4888 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
4891 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
4892 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
4893 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
4894 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
4895 sites, and is the recommended setting.
4898 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
4899 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
4900 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
4901 will be plainly killed.
4904 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
4905 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
4911 <term>Example usage:</term>
4914 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
4922 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4923 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
4924 <title><emphasis>set-image-blocker</emphasis></title>
4928 <term>Typical use:</term>
4930 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
4935 <term>Effect:</term>
4938 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
4939 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
4940 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
4941 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
4942 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
4943 sent as a replacement.
4950 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4952 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4957 <term>Parameter:</term>
4962 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
4963 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
4968 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
4969 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
4970 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
4971 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
4976 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
4977 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
4978 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem (via <quote>file:///</quote> URL).
4981 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
4982 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
4983 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
4984 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
4985 it over and over again.
4996 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
4997 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
4998 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5001 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5002 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5003 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5009 <term>Example usage:</term>
5015 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5018 Redirect to the BSD devil:
5021 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5024 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5027 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5035 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5037 <title>Summary</title>
5039 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
5040 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
5041 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
5042 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
5043 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
5044 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
5050 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5051 <sect2 id="aliases">
5052 <title>Aliases</title>
5054 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
5055 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
5056 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
5057 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
5059 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
5060 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
5061 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
5062 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
5063 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
5067 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
5068 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
5069 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
5070 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
5074 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
5075 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
5076 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
5077 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
5078 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
5079 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
5080 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
5083 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
5084 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
5085 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
5086 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
5087 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
5089 This is likely to change in future versions of <application>Privoxy</application>.
5093 Now let's define some aliases...
5098 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
5100 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
5101 # must be at the top of the actions file!
5105 # These aliases just save typing later:
5106 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5108 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
5109 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5110 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5111 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
5113 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5114 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5116 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
5117 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
5119 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
5121 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
5122 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
5126 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
5127 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
5128 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
5133 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
5134 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
5137 .office.microsoft.com
5138 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5142 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
5146 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5149 # These shops require pop-ups:
5151 {shop -kill-popups -filter{popups}}
5153 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
5157 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are often used for
5158 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require some actions to be disabled
5159 in order to function properly.
5163 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5164 <sect2 id="act-examples">
5165 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
5167 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
5168 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
5169 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
5170 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
5171 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
5172 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
5173 file and see how all these pieces come together:
5176 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
5179 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
5183 <screen># Sample default.action file <developers@privoxy.org></screen>
5187 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
5188 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
5189 change or worry about:
5194 ##########################################################################
5195 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
5196 ##########################################################################
5199 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
5203 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
5204 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
5205 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
5210 ##########################################################################
5212 ##########################################################################
5215 # These aliases just save typing later:
5216 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5218 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
5219 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5220 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5221 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
5223 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5224 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5226 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
5227 shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups</screen>
5231 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
5232 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
5233 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
5234 enable the ones we want.
5238 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
5239 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
5240 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs.</link>. Therefore, the
5241 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
5242 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
5243 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
5244 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
5249 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
5250 no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
5251 to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: A <quote>+</quote>
5252 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
5253 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
5254 multiple lines with line continuation.
5259 ##########################################################################
5260 # "Defaults" section:
5261 ##########################################################################
5263 -<link linkend="ADD-HEADER">add-header</link> \
5264 -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> \
5265 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> \
5266 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link> \
5267 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
5268 -<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
5269 +<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> \
5270 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
5271 +<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
5272 -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
5273 +<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> \
5274 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
5275 -<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
5276 -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
5277 +<link linkend="FILTER-NIMDA">filter{nimda}</link> \
5278 +<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
5279 -<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
5280 -<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
5281 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
5282 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
5283 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
5284 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
5285 -<link linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT">hide-user-agent</link> \
5286 -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> \
5287 -<link linkend="LIMIT-CONNECT">limit-connect</link> \
5288 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
5289 -<link linkend="SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">send-vanilla-wafer</link> \
5290 -<link linkend="SEND-WAFER">send-wafer</link> \
5291 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
5292 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
5294 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
5298 The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding
5299 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
5300 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
5301 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
5302 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
5303 want to block in later sections.
5304 We will also want to make exceptions from our general pop-up-killing,
5305 and use our defined aliases for that.
5309 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
5310 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
5311 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
5312 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
5313 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
5314 of actions explicitly:
5319 ##########################################################################
5320 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
5321 ##########################################################################
5323 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
5326 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
5327 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com</screen>
5331 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
5332 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
5333 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
5342 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5344 .scan.co.uk</screen>
5348 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
5349 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
5350 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
5351 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
5353 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
5354 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
5355 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
5356 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
5357 chosen in the defaults section:
5362 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
5364 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
5367 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
5371 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
5372 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
5373 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
5378 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
5382 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
5383 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
5384 .nytimes.com</screen>
5388 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
5389 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
5390 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
5391 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
5392 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
5393 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
5394 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
5395 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
5396 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
5402 ##########################################################################
5404 ##########################################################################
5406 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
5407 # blocked further down this file:
5409 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
5410 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
5414 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
5415 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
5416 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
5417 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
5418 <literal>block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
5419 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
5420 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
5421 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
5422 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
5423 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
5424 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
5425 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
5430 # Known ad generators:
5435 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
5436 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
5437 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
5444 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
5445 is to block banners. A huge bunch of them are already <quote>blocked</quote>
5446 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
5447 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
5448 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
5449 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
5450 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
5451 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
5452 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
5455 First comes a bunch of generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
5456 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
5457 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
5458 to keep the example short:
5463 ##########################################################################
5464 # Block these fine banners:
5465 ##########################################################################
5466 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
5474 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
5475 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
5477 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
5479 .hitbox.com</screen>
5483 You wouldn't believe how many advertisers actually call their banner
5484 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
5485 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
5486 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
5489 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
5490 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
5491 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
5492 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
5493 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
5494 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
5498 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
5499 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
5500 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
5501 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
5502 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
5503 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
5504 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
5505 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
5506 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
5507 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
5512 ##########################################################################
5513 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
5514 ##########################################################################
5518 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
5519 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
5520 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
5521 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
5522 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
5523 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
5531 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
5532 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
5536 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
5537 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
5538 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
5539 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
5540 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
5545 # Don't filter code!
5547 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
5549 .sourceforge.net</screen>
5553 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course more
5554 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
5559 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
5562 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
5563 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
5564 you'd maybe want to be more specific and have customized rules that
5565 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
5566 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
5567 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
5568 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
5569 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
5570 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
5571 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
5572 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
5573 to install updated versions from time to time.
5577 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
5578 <filename>user.action</filename>:
5582 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
5586 # My user.action file. <fred@foobar.com></screen>
5590 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
5591 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
5592 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
5597 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
5600 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5601 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
5602 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
5603 shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
5604 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} # (see below)</screen>
5609 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
5610 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
5611 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
5612 <literal>mercy-for-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
5613 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and
5614 processing of cookies to make them temporary.
5619 { mercy-for-cookies }
5624 .redhat.com</screen>
5628 Your bank needs popups and is allergic to some filter, but you don't
5629 know which, so you disable them all:
5634 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> }
5635 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
5639 While browsing the web with <application>Privoxy</application> you
5640 noticed some ads that sneaked through, but you were too lazy to
5641 report them through our fine and easy <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>
5642 system, so you have added them here:
5647 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
5648 www.a-popular-site.com/some/unobvious/path
5649 another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
5653 Note that, assuming the banners in the above example have regular image
5654 extensions (most do),
5655 <literal>+<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link></literal>
5656 need not be specified, since all URLs ending in these extensions will
5657 already have been tagged as images in the relevant section of
5658 <filename>default.action</filename> by now.
5662 Then you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
5663 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
5664 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
5665 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
5666 -- whoa! -- it worked:
5672 .forbes.com</screen>
5676 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
5677 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file. (My colleagues on the team just
5678 don't have a sense of humour, that's why! ;-). So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
5679 update-safe config, once and for all:
5684 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
5685 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
5689 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
5690 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
5691 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
5692 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
5693 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
5697 Finally, you might think about how your favourite free websites are
5698 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
5699 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
5700 sites that you feel provide value to you:
5712 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
5713 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
5714 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>
5720 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5724 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5726 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
5728 <sect1 id="filter-file">
5729 <title>The Filter File</title>
5732 All text substitutions that can be invoked through the
5733 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action
5734 must first be defined in the filter file, which is typically
5735 called <filename>default.filter</filename> and which can be
5736 selected through the <literal>
5737 <link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config
5742 Typical reasons for doing such substitutions are to eliminate
5743 common annoyances in HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
5744 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
5745 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
5746 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
5747 or just to have fun. The possibilities are endless.
5751 Filtering works on any text-based document type, including plain
5752 text, HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
5753 MIME types). Substitutions are made at the source level, so if
5754 you want to <quote>roll your own</quote> filters, you should be
5755 familiar with HTML syntax.
5759 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
5760 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
5761 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with the
5762 <emphasis>keyword</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>, followed by
5763 the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
5764 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
5765 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
5766 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
5767 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
5768 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
5769 user interface</ulink>.
5773 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
5774 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
5775 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
5776 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
5780 A filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
5785 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
5789 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
5790 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
5791 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
5792 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
5793 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
5794 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/pcrs.1.html">PCRS man page</ulink>
5795 for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most notably, the non-standard
5796 option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported, which turns the default
5797 to ungreedy matching.
5801 If you are new to regular expressions, you might want to take a look at
5802 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
5803 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perl.html">Perl
5805 <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlop.html#s-PATTERN-REPLACEMENT-egimosx">the
5806 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
5807 url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
5808 expressions</ulink> in general.
5809 The below examples might also help to get you started.
5812 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
5814 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
5816 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> filter. We have already defined
5817 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
5818 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
5823 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
5827 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
5828 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
5829 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
5830 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
5834 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
5838 Our complete filter now looks like this:
5841 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
5842 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
5846 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
5847 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
5848 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
5854 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
5856 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
5858 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
5862 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
5863 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
5864 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
5865 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
5869 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
5870 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
5871 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
5872 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
5873 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
5877 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
5878 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
5879 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
5880 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
5881 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
5882 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
5883 in the page (and appear in that order).
5887 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
5888 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
5889 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
5890 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
5891 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
5895 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
5896 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
5897 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
5898 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
5899 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
5900 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
5901 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
5902 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
5903 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
5904 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
5905 substitution is global.
5909 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
5910 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
5911 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
5912 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
5913 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
5917 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
5918 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
5919 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
5920 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
5921 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
5922 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
5923 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
5924 Business!"</literal>.
5928 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
5929 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
5930 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
5931 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
5932 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
5933 information anymore.
5937 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
5938 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
5943 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
5945 s/window\.status\s*=\s*['"].*?['"]/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
5949 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
5950 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
5951 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
5952 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
5953 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
5954 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>.
5958 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
5959 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
5960 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
5961 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
5962 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
5963 you move your mouse over links.
5968 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
5970 s/(<body .*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
5975 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
5976 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
5977 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
5978 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
5979 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
5980 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
5985 The last example is from the fun department:
5990 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
5992 # Spice the daily news:
5994 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
5998 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
5999 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
6000 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
6001 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being messed, while
6002 still replacing the word everywhere else.
6007 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
6009 s* industry[ -]leading \
6011 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
6012 | high[ -]performance \
6013 | solutions[ -]based \
6017 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
6022 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
6023 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
6032 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6036 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6038 <sect1 id="templates">
6039 <title>Templates</title>
6041 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
6042 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
6043 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
6044 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
6046 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6047 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
6048 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
6053 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
6054 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On unixish platforms,
6056 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
6060 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
6061 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. You can
6062 edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want to customize them.
6063 (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual user</emphasis>). Note that
6064 just like in configuration files, lines starting with <literal>#</literal> are
6065 ignored when the templates are filled in.
6069 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
6070 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
6071 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
6072 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
6073 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
6077 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
6078 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
6079 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
6080 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
6081 in in an alpha or beta development stage:
6086 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
6088 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
6090 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
6094 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
6095 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
6096 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
6100 <screen><!-- --></screen>
6104 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
6105 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
6110 All templates refer to a style located at
6111 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
6112 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
6113 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
6114 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
6119 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6123 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6125 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
6128 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
6130 <!-- end boilerplate -->
6134 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6137 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6138 <sect1 id="copyright"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Copyright, License and History</title>
6140 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
6142 <!-- end copyright -->
6144 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6145 <sect2><title>License</title>
6146 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
6148 <!-- end copyright -->
6150 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6153 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6155 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
6156 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
6158 <!-- end history -->
6161 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
6162 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
6164 <!-- end authors -->
6169 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6172 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6173 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
6174 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
6176 <!-- end seealso -->
6181 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6182 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
6185 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6187 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
6189 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
6190 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
6191 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
6192 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
6193 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
6197 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
6198 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
6199 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
6200 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
6204 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
6205 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
6206 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
6207 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
6208 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
6209 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
6210 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
6211 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
6215 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
6216 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
6217 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
6218 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
6219 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
6220 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
6221 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
6222 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
6226 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
6227 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
6228 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
6229 and then some examples:
6234 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
6235 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
6237 </simplelist></para>
6241 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
6244 </simplelist></para>
6248 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
6251 </simplelist></para>
6255 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
6258 </simplelist></para>
6262 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
6263 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
6264 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
6265 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
6266 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
6267 meta-character meaning of any single character).
6269 </simplelist></para>
6273 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
6274 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
6275 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
6276 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
6278 </simplelist></para>
6282 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
6283 or multiple sub-expressions.
6285 </simplelist></para>
6289 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
6290 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
6291 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
6292 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
6293 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
6294 example</quote>, and nothing else.
6296 </simplelist></para>
6299 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
6300 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
6301 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
6302 be more illuminating:
6306 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
6307 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
6308 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
6309 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
6310 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
6311 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
6312 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
6313 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
6314 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
6315 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
6316 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
6317 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
6318 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
6319 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
6324 A now something a little more complex:
6328 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
6329 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
6330 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
6331 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
6332 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
6333 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
6334 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
6339 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
6340 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
6341 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
6342 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
6343 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
6344 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
6345 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
6346 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
6347 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
6348 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
6349 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
6350 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
6351 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
6352 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
6353 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
6354 changing our regular expression to:
6355 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
6360 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
6361 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
6362 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
6363 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
6364 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
6365 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
6366 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
6367 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
6368 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
6369 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
6370 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
6371 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
6372 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
6373 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
6374 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
6375 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
6376 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
6377 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
6378 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
6379 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
6380 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
6381 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
6382 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
6383 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
6384 in the expression anywhere).
6388 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
6389 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
6390 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
6391 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
6392 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
6397 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
6398 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
6402 For information on regular expression based substititions and their applications
6403 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
6408 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6411 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6413 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
6416 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
6417 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
6418 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
6419 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
6420 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
6421 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
6422 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
6428 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
6429 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
6430 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
6431 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
6444 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
6448 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
6449 doesn't provide a fallback to a real page, in case the request is not
6450 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
6456 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
6457 editing of actions files:
6461 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
6468 Show the source code version numbers:
6472 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
6479 Show the browser's request headers:
6483 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
6490 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
6494 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
6501 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
6502 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
6506 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
6510 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
6514 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
6519 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
6528 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
6532 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
6533 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
6535 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
6536 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
6537 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
6538 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
6539 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
6540 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
6543 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
6544 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
6545 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
6546 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
6547 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
6548 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
6557 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=enabled','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Enable</ulink>
6564 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=disabled','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Disable</ulink>
6571 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=toggle','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Toggle Privoxy</ulink> (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
6578 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y','ijbstatus','width=250,height=2,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy- View Status</ulink>
6584 <ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions/index.php?url='+escape(location.href),'Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Submit Actions File Feedback</ulink>
6592 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
6593 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
6594 have more information about bookmarklets.
6603 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6605 <title>Chain of Events</title>
6607 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
6608 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
6615 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
6616 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
6617 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
6623 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
6624 pages (e.g http://p.p/) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
6629 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
6631 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
6632 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
6633 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
6634 is then checked and if it does not match, an
6635 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
6636 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <link
6637 linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
6638 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
6643 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
6644 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
6649 If the URL pattern matches the <link
6650 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
6651 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
6656 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
6657 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
6658 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
6659 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
6665 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
6671 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
6672 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
6673 filtered as deterimed by the
6674 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
6675 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
6676 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
6682 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
6683 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
6684 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
6689 If a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
6691 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
6692 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
6693 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
6694 <filename>default.filter</filename>) are processed against the buffered
6695 content. Filters are applied in the order they are specified in the
6696 <filename>default.filter</filename> file. Animated GIFs, if present, are
6697 reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
6698 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
6699 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
6702 If neither <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
6704 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
6705 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
6706 to the client browser as it becomes available.
6711 As the browser receives the now (probably filtered) page content, it
6712 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
6713 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
6714 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
6715 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
6716 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
6726 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6727 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
6728 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
6731 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
6732 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
6733 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
6734 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
6735 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
6736 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
6737 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
6738 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
6739 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
6744 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
6745 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
6746 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
6747 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!).
6751 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
6752 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
6753 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
6754 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
6758 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
6759 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
6760 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
6761 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
6762 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
6763 the <filename>default.filter</filename> file since this is handled very
6764 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
6765 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
6766 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
6767 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
6768 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
6769 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
6770 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
6775 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
6776 and look at it one section at a time:
6781 Matches for http://google.com:
6783 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
6787 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6788 -crunch-incoming-cookies
6789 +deanimate-gifs{last}
6790 -downgrade-http-version
6794 -filter{shockwave-flash}
6795 -filter{crude-parental}
6796 +filter{html-annoyances}
6797 +filter{js-annoyances}
6798 +filter{content-cookies}
6800 +filter{refresh-tags}
6802 +filter{banners-by-size}
6803 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
6804 +hide-from-header{block}
6805 +hide-referer{forge}
6810 +prevent-compression
6813 +session-cookies-only
6814 +set-image-blocker{pattern} }
6817 { -session-cookies-only }
6823 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
6824 (no matches in this file)
6829 This tells us how we have defined our
6830 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
6831 which ones match for our example, <quote>google.com</quote>. The first listing
6832 is any matches for the <filename>standard.action</filename> file. No hits at
6833 all here on <quote>standard</quote>. Then next is <quote>default</quote>, or
6834 our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line listing,
6835 is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default settings.
6836 If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the section
6837 just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This will apply to
6838 all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
6839 -- <quote>/</quote>.
6843 But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
6844 rules, and then list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions would
6845 apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
6846 <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous cookie setting,
6848 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
6849 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google. The
6850 second turns <emphasis>off</emphasis> any
6852 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
6853 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
6854 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
6855 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
6856 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these two actions
6857 defined somewhere in the lower part of our <filename>default.action</filename>
6858 file, and <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter
6863 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
6867 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
6868 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
6869 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
6880 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6881 -crunch-incoming-cookies
6882 +deanimate-gifs{last}
6883 -downgrade-http-version
6887 -filter{shockwave-flash}
6888 -filter{crude-parental}
6889 +filter{html-annoyances}
6890 +filter{js-annoyances}
6891 +filter{content-cookies}
6893 +filter{refresh-tags}
6895 +filter{banners-by-size}
6896 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
6897 +hide-from-header{block}
6898 +hide-referer{forge}
6903 +prevent-compression
6906 -session-cookies-only
6907 +set-image-blocker{pattern}
6912 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
6913 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>.
6917 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
6923 { +block +handle-as-image }
6926 { +block +handle-as-image }
6929 { +block +handle-as-image }
6935 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
6936 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
6937 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
6938 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<link
6939 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
6940 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
6945 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
6946 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
6947 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
6948 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
6949 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
6950 is done here -- as both a <link
6951 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
6952 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
6954 linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
6955 The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> just simplifies the process and make
6960 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
6961 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm...
6967 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
6969 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
6973 -crunch-incoming-cookies
6974 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6976 -downgrade-http-version
6978 +filter{html-annoyances}
6979 +filter{js-annoyances}
6980 +filter{kill-popups}
6983 +filter{banners-by-size}
6986 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
6987 +hide-from-header{block}
6988 +hide-referer{forge}
6992 +prevent-compression
6995 +session-cookies-only
6996 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
6999 { +block +handle-as-image }
7005 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
7006 we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
7007 now add a new action below this that explicitly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
7008 block (<quote>{-block}</quote>) paths with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are
7009 various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
7021 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
7022 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
7026 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
7033 { +block +handle-as-image }
7039 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
7040 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
7041 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
7042 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
7043 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. Try
7044 adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
7052 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
7060 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
7061 <quote>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</quote>.
7062 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
7075 This would probably be most appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>,
7076 for local site exceptions.
7080 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
7081 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
7082 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
7083 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
7092 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
7093 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
7094 Public License as published by the Free Software
7095 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
7096 your option) any later version.
7098 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
7099 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
7100 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
7101 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
7102 License for more details.
7104 The GNU General Public License should be included with
7105 this file. If not, you can view it at
7106 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
7107 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
7108 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
7110 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
7111 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
7112 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
7113 - Small changes to Regex appendix
7114 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
7116 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
7117 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
7119 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
7120 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
7122 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
7123 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
7125 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
7126 Extended and further commented the example actions files
7128 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
7129 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
7132 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
7135 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
7136 Restored alphabetical order of actions
7138 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
7139 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
7141 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
7142 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
7144 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
7145 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
7146 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
7148 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
7149 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
7150 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
7151 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
7153 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
7154 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
7156 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
7159 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
7160 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
7161 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
7163 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
7164 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
7166 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
7167 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
7168 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
7170 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
7171 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
7173 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
7174 more structure in starting section
7176 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
7177 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
7178 will probably break links elsewhere :(
7180 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
7181 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
7182 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
7184 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
7185 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
7186 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
7188 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
7189 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
7191 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
7192 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
7193 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
7195 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
7196 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
7197 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
7199 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
7200 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
7202 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
7203 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
7205 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
7206 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
7208 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
7209 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
7211 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
7212 Updated OSX installation section
7213 Added a few English tweaks here an there
7215 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
7216 Re-write actions section.
7218 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
7219 Fix ugly typo (mine).
7221 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
7222 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
7224 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
7225 Added RPM install detail
7227 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
7230 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
7231 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
7233 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
7234 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
7236 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
7237 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
7239 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
7242 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
7243 Proofreading, part one
7245 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
7246 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
7247 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
7249 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
7250 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
7252 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
7253 Add small section on submitting actions.
7255 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
7258 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
7259 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
7261 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
7262 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
7264 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
7267 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
7268 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
7269 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
7270 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
7271 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
7273 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
7274 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
7276 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
7277 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
7279 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
7280 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
7281 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
7282 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
7283 eventually be set by Makefile.
7284 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
7286 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
7287 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
7289 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
7290 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
7292 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
7293 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
7295 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
7296 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
7297 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
7298 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
7300 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
7303 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
7304 Added more to Anatomy section.
7306 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
7307 Touch up intro for new name.
7309 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
7310 we have a new homepage!
7312 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
7313 A few minor catch ups with name change.
7315 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
7316 configure needs to be generated.
7318 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
7319 we are too lazy to make a block-built
7320 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
7322 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
7323 name change related issue.
7325 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
7326 name change. changed filenames.
7328 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
7331 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
7332 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
7333 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
7334 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
7335 comments and remarks to history untouched.
7337 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
7340 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
7341 New section in Appendix.
7343 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
7344 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
7346 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
7347 correct feedback channels
7349 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
7350 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
7352 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
7355 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
7356 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
7358 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
7359 Added imageblock{pattern}.
7361 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
7364 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
7365 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
7367 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
7368 provide correct feedback channels
7370 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
7371 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
7373 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
7374 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
7376 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
7377 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
7379 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
7380 Add new - - user option.
7382 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
7383 Added section on command line options.
7385 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
7386 Changed default port to 8118
7388 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
7389 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
7391 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
7392 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
7393 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
7396 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
7399 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
7400 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
7402 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
7403 Update OS/2 build section
7405 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
7406 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
7407 will work - no other changes are needed.
7409 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
7410 Added a very short section on Templates
7412 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
7413 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
7415 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
7416 Touch ups for *.action files.
7418 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
7421 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
7422 Updates for recent changes.
7424 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
7425 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
7427 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
7428 Correct 2 minor errors
7430 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
7431 *** empty log message ***
7433 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
7434 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
7436 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
7437 wrong url in documentation
7439 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
7440 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
7442 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
7445 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
7448 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
7451 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
7452 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
7454 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
7455 Some additions, and re-arranging.
7457 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
7460 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
7461 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
7463 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
7466 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
7467 source files for junkbuster documentation
7469 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
7470 first proposal of a structure.
7472 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
7473 docs should have an author.
7475 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
7476 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.
projects / privoxy.git / blob