1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
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 config SYSTEM "p-config.sgml">
14 <!entity p-version "3.0.20">
15 <!entity p-status "UNRELEASED">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
27 <!entity % seealso-extra "INCLUDE"> <!-- extra stuff from seealso.sgml -->
28 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
31 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
34 This file belongs into
35 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
37 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.149 2012/04/22 12:15:53 fabiankeil Exp $
39 Copyright (C) 2001-2011 Privoxy Developers http://www.privoxy.org/
42 ========================================================================
43 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
44 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
45 ========================================================================
52 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
56 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
57 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
58 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001-2011 by
59 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
63 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.149 2012/04/22 12:15:53 fabiankeil Exp $</pubdate>
67 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
68 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
69 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
70 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
83 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
84 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
85 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
91 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
92 install, configure and use <ulink
93 url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
96 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
98 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
101 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
102 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
103 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
104 contact the developers.
108 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
114 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
115 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
117 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
118 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
119 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
120 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
121 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
122 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
126 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
129 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
130 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
131 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
136 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
137 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
139 In addition to the core
140 features of ad blocking and
141 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
142 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
143 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
144 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
146 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
148 <!-- end boilerplate -->
153 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
156 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
157 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
160 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
161 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
162 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
163 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
169 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
170 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
171 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
172 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
175 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
176 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
178 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
181 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
183 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
184 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and Fedora RPMs</title>
187 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
188 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
189 of configuration files.
193 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
194 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
195 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
196 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods.
200 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
201 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
202 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
206 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
207 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
208 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
209 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
213 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
214 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian and Ubuntu</title>
216 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
217 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
222 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
223 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
226 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
227 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
228 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
231 Version 3.0.5 beta introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
232 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
233 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
234 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
238 <term>Arguments:</term>
241 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
244 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
250 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
251 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
252 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
253 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
254 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
255 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
256 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
257 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
258 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
259 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
260 write to its log and configuration files.
265 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
266 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris <!--, NetBSD, HP-UX--></title>
269 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
270 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
271 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
275 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
276 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
279 First, make sure that no previous installations of
280 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
281 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
282 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
283 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
289 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
290 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
291 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
292 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
296 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
297 into will contain all of the configuration files.
301 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
302 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OS X</title>
304 Installation instructions for the OS X platform depend upon whether
305 you downloaded a ready-built installation package (.pkg or .mpkg) or have
306 downloaded the source code.
308 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="OS-X-install-from-package">
309 <title>Installation from ready-built package</title>
311 The downloaded file will either be a .pkg (for OS X 10.5 upwards) or a bzipped
312 .mpkg file (for OS X 10.4). The former can be double-clicked as is and the
313 installation will start; double-clicking the latter will unzip the .mpkg file
314 which can then be double-clicked to commence the installation.
317 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful installation
318 (and thereafter every time your computer starts up) however you will need to
319 configure your web browser(s) to use it. To do so, configure them to use a
320 proxy for HTTP and HTTPS at the address 127.0.0.1:8118.
323 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your computer
324 starts up, remove or rename the file <literal>/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ijbswa.privoxy.plist</literal>
325 (on OS X 10.5 and higher) or the folder named
326 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal> (on OS X 10.4 'Tiger').
329 To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the scripts startPrivoxy.sh
330 and stopPrivoxy.sh supplied in /Applications/Privoxy. They must be run from an
331 administrator account, using sudo.
334 To uninstall, run /Applications/Privoxy/uninstall.command as sudo from an
335 administrator account.
337 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="OS-X-install-from-source">
338 <title>Installation from source</title>
340 To build and install the Privoxy source code on OS X you will need to obtain
341 the macsetup module from the Privoxy Sourceforge CVS repository (refer to
342 Sourceforge help for details of how to set up a CVS client to have read-only
343 access to the repository). This module contains scripts that leverage the usual
344 open-source tools (available as part of Apple's free of charge Xcode
345 distribution or via the usual open-source software package managers for OS X
346 (MacPorts, Homebrew, Fink etc.) to build and then install the privoxy binary
347 and associated files. The macsetup module's README file contains complete
348 instructions for its use.
351 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful installation
352 (and thereafter every time your computer starts up) however you will need to
353 configure your web browser(s) to use it. To do so, configure them to use a
354 proxy for HTTP and HTTPS at the address 127.0.0.1:8118.
357 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your computer
358 starts up, remove or rename the file <literal>/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ijbswa.privoxy.plist</literal>
359 (on OS X 10.5 and higher) or the folder named
360 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal> (on OS X 10.4 'Tiger').
363 To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the Privoxy Utility
364 for Mac OS X (also part of the macsetup module). This application can start
365 and stop the privoxy service and display its log and configuration files.
368 To uninstall, run the macsetup module's uninstall.sh as sudo from an
369 administrator account.
373 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
374 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
376 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
377 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
378 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
379 remove this directory.
383 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
384 <sect3 id="installation-tbz"><title>FreeBSD</title>
387 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
388 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
391 If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
392 the package with <literal>pkg_add -r privoxy</literal>.
395 The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
396 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118">File Release
397 Page</ulink>, but there's no reason to use them unless you're interested in the
398 beta releases which are only available there.
402 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
403 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
405 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
406 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
407 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
408 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
411 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
412 first <literal>emerge --sync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
413 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
417 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
418 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
419 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
425 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
426 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
429 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
430 is to download the source tarball from our
431 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&package_id=10571">project download
436 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
437 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
438 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
439 CVS repository</ulink>.
441 deprecated...out of business.
442 or simply download <ulink
443 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
448 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
450 <!-- end boilerplate -->
453 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
454 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
456 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
457 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
458 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
459 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
464 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
465 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
466 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
467 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
471 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
472 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
473 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
474 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
475 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
476 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
484 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
486 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
487 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
488 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
490 <application>Privoxy 3.0.19</application> is a stable release.
491 The changes since 3.0.18 stable are:
502 Prevent a segmentation fault when de-chunking buffered content.
503 It could be triggered by malicious web servers if Privoxy was
504 configured to filter the content and running on a platform
505 where SIZE_T_MAX isn't larger than UINT_MAX, which probably
506 includes most 32-bit systems. On those platforms, all Privoxy
507 versions before 3.0.19 appear to be affected.
508 To be on the safe side, this bug should be presumed to allow
509 code execution as proving that it doesn't seems unrealistic.
514 Do not expect a response from the SOCKS4/4A server until it
515 got something to respond to. This regression was introduced
516 in 3.0.18 and prevented the SOCKS4/4A negotiation from working.
517 Reported by qqqqqw in #3459781.
525 General improvements:
529 Fix an off-by-one in an error message about connect failures.
534 Use a GNUMakefile variable for the webserver root directory and
535 update the path. Sourceforge changed it which broke various
541 Update the CODE_STATUS description.
551 The following changes were made between 3.0.17 and 3.0.18:
562 If a generated redirect URL contains characters RFC 3986 doesn't
563 permit, they are (re)encoded. Not doing this makes Privoxy versions
564 from 3.0.5 to 3.0.17 susceptible to HTTP response splitting (CWE-113)
565 attacks if the +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} action is used.
570 Fix a logic bug that could cause Privoxy to reuse a server
571 socket after it got tainted by a server-header-tagger-induced
572 block that was triggered before the whole server response had
573 been read. If keep-alive was enabled and the request following
574 the blocked one was to the same host and using the same forwarding
575 settings, Privoxy would send it on the tainted server socket.
576 While the server would simply treat it as a pipelined request,
577 Privoxy would later on fail to properly parse the server's
578 response as it would try to parse the unread data from the
579 first response as server headers for the second one.
580 Regression introduced in 3.0.17.
585 When implying keep-alive in client_connection(), remember that
586 the client didn't. Fixes a regression introduced in 3.0.13 that
587 would cause Privoxy to wait for additional client requests after
588 receiving a HTTP/1.1 request with "Connection: close" set
589 and connection sharing enabled.
590 With clients which terminates the client connection after detecting
591 that the whole body has been received it doesn't really matter,
592 but with clients that don't the connection would be kept open until
598 Fix a subtle race condition between prepare_csp_for_next_request()
599 and sweep(). A thread preparing itself for the next client request
600 could briefly appear to be inactive.
601 If all other threads were already using more recent files,
602 the thread could get its files swept away under its feet.
603 So far this has only been reproduced while stress testing in
604 valgrind while touching action files in a loop. It's unlikely
605 to have caused any actual problems in the real world.
610 Disable filters if SDCH compression is used unless filtering is forced.
611 If SDCH was combined with a supported compression algorithm, Privoxy
612 previously could try to decompress it and ditch the Content-Encoding
613 header even though the SDCH compression wasn't dealt with.
614 Reported by zebul666 in #3225863.
619 Make a copy of the --user value and only mess with that when splitting
620 user and group. On some operating systems modifying the value directly
621 is reflected in the output of ps and friends and can be misleading.
622 Reported by zepard in #3292710.
627 If forwarded-connect-retries is set, only retry if Privoxy is actually
628 forwarding the request. Previously direct connections would be retried
634 Fixed a small memory leak when retrying connections with IPv6
640 Remove an incorrect assertion in compile_dynamic_pcrs_job_list()
641 It could be triggered by a pcrs job with an invalid pcre
642 pattern (for example one that contains a lone quantifier).
647 If the --user argument user[.group] contains a dot, always bail out
648 if no group has been specified. Previously the intended, but undocumented
649 (and apparently untested), behaviour was to try interpreting the whole
650 argument as user name, but the detection was flawed and checked for '0'
651 instead of '\0', thus merely preventing group names beginning with a zero.
656 In html_code_map[], use a numeric character reference instead of '
657 which wasn't standardized before XHTML 1.0.
662 Fix an invalid free when compiled with FEATURE_GRACEFUL_TERMINATION
663 and shut down through http://config.privoxy.org/die
668 In get_actions(), fix the "temporary" backwards compatibility hack
669 to accept block actions without reason.
670 It also covered other actions that should be rejected as invalid.
671 Reported by Billy Crook.
679 General improvements:
683 Privoxy can (re)compress buffered content before delivering
684 it to the client. Disabled by default as most users wouldn't
690 The +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} action checks URL
691 segments separately. If there are other parameters behind
692 the redirect URL, this makes it unnecessary to cut them off
693 by additionally using a +redirect{} pcrs command.
694 Initial patch submitted by Jamie Zawinski in #3429848.
699 When loading action sections, verify that the referenced filters
700 exist. Currently missing filters only result in an error message,
701 but eventually the severity will be upgraded to fatal.
706 Allow to bind to multiple separate addresses.
707 Patch set submitted by Petr Pisar in #3354485.
712 Set socket_error to errno if connecting fails in rfc2553_connect_to().
713 Previously rejected direct connections could be incorrectly reported
714 as DNS issues if Privoxy was compiled with IPv6 support.
719 Adjust url_code_map[] so spaces are replaced with %20 instead of '+'
720 While '+' can be used by client's submitting form data, this is not
721 actually what Privoxy is using the lookups for. This is more of a
722 cosmetic issue and doesn't fix any known problems.
727 When compiled without FEATURE_FAST_REDIRECTS, do not silently
728 ignore +fast-redirect{} directives
733 Added a workaround for GNU libc's strptime() reporting negative
734 year values when the parsed year is only specified with two digits.
735 On affected systems cookies with such a date would not be turned
736 into session cookies by the +session-cookies-only action.
737 Reported by Vaeinoe in #3403560
742 Fixed bind failures with certain GNU libc versions if no non-loopback
743 IP address has been configured on the system. This is mainly an issue
744 if the system is using DHCP and Privoxy is started before the network
745 is completely configured.
746 Reported by Raphael Marichez in #3349356.
747 Additional insight from Petr Pisar.
752 Privoxy log messages now use the ISO 8601 date format %Y-%m-%d.
753 It's only slightly longer than the old format, but contains
754 the full date including the year and allows sorting by date
755 (when grepping in multiple log files) without hassle.
760 In get_last_url(), do not bother trying to decode URLs that do
761 not contain at least one '%' sign. It reduces the log noise and
762 a number of unnecessary memory allocations.
767 In case of SOCKS5 failures, dump the socks response in the log message.
772 Simplify the signal setup in main().
777 Streamline socks5_connect() slightly.
782 In socks5_connect(), require a complete socks response from the server.
783 Previously Privoxy didn't care how much data the server response
784 contained as long as the first two bytes contained the expected
785 values. While at it, shrink the buffer size so Privoxy can't read
786 more than a whole socks response.
791 In chat(), do not bother to generate a client request in case of
792 direct CONNECT requests. It will not be used anyway.
797 Reduce server_last_modified()'s stack size.
802 Shorten get_http_time() by using strftime().
807 Constify the known_http_methods pointers in unknown_method().
812 Constify the time_formats pointers in parse_header_time().
817 Constify the formerly_valid_actions pointers in action_used_to_be_valid().
822 Introduce a GNUMakefile MAN_PAGE variable that defaults to privoxy.1.
823 The Debian package uses section 8 for the man page and this
824 should simplify the patch.
829 Deduplicate the INADDR_NONE definition for Solaris by moving it to jbsockets.h
834 In block_url(), ditch the obsolete workaround for ancient Netscape versions
835 that supposedly couldn't properly deal with status code 403.
840 Remove a useless NULL pointer check in load_trustfile().
845 Remove two useless NULL pointer checks in load_one_re_filterfile().
850 Change url_code_map[] from an array of pointers to an array of arrays
851 It removes an unnecessary layer of indirection and on 64bit system reduces
852 the size of the binary a bit.
857 Fix various typos. Fixes taken from Debian's 29_typos.dpatch by Roland Rosenfeld.
862 Add a dok-tidy GNUMakefile target to clean up the messy HTML
863 generated by the other dok targets.
868 GNUisms in the GNUMakefile have been removed.
873 Change the HTTP version in static responses to 1.1
878 Synced config.sub and config.guess with upstream
879 2011-11-11/386c7218162c145f5f9e1ff7f558a3fbb66c37c5.
884 Add a dedicated function to parse the values of toggles. Reduces duplicated
885 code in load_config() and provides better error handling. Invalid or missing
886 toggle values are now a fatal error instead of being silently ignored.
891 Terminate HTML lines in static error messages with \n instead of \r\n.
896 Simplify cgi_error_unknown() a bit.
901 In LogPutString(), don't bother looking at pszText when not
902 actually logging anything.
907 Change ssplit()'s fourth parameter from int to size_t.
908 Fixes a clang complaint.
913 Add a warning that the statistics currently can't be trusted.
914 Mention Privoxy-Log-Parser's --statistics option as
915 an alternative for the time being.
920 In rfc2553_connect_to(), start setting cgi->error_message on error.
925 Change the expected status code returned for http://p.p/die depending
926 on whether or not FEATURE_GRACEFUL_TERMINATION is available.
931 In cgi_die(), mark the client connection for closing.
932 If the client will fetch the style sheet through another connection
933 it gets the main thread out of the accept() state and should thus
934 trigger the actual shutdown.
939 Add a proper CGI message for cgi_die().
944 Don't enforce a logical line length limit in read_config_line().
949 Slightly refactor server_last_modified() to remove useless gmtime*() calls.
954 In get_content_type(), also recognize '.jpeg' as JPEG extension.
959 Add '.png' to the list of recognized file extensions in get_content_type().
964 In block_url(), consistently use the block reason "Request blocked by Privoxy"
965 In two places the reason was "Request for blocked URL" which hides the
966 fact that the request got blocked by Privoxy and isn't necessarily
967 correct as the block may be due to tags.
972 In listen_loop(), reload the configuration files after accepting
973 a new connection instead of before.
974 Previously the first connection that arrived after a configuration
975 change would still be handled with the old configuration.
980 In chat()'s receive-data loop, skip a client socket check if
981 the socket will be written to right away anyway. This can
982 increase the transfer speed for unfiltered content on fast
988 The socket timeout is used for SOCKS negotiations as well which
989 previously couldn't timeout.
994 Don't keep the client connection alive if any configuration file
995 changed since the time the connection came in. This is closer to
996 Privoxy's behaviour before keep-alive support for client connection
997 has been added and also less confusing in general.
1002 Treat all Content-Type header values containing the pattern
1003 'script' as a sign of text. Reported by pribog in #3134970.
1011 Action file improvements:
1015 Moved the site-specific block pattern section below the one for the
1016 generic patterns so for requests that are matched in both, the block
1017 reason for the domain is shown which is usually more useful than showing
1018 the one for the generic pattern.
1023 Remove -prevent-compression from the fragile alias. It's no longer
1024 used anywhere by default and isn't known to break stuff anyway.
1029 Add a (disabled) section to block various Facebook tracking URLs.
1030 Reported by Dan Stahlke in #3421764.
1035 Add a (disabled) section to rewrite and redirect click-tracking
1036 URLs used on news.google.com.
1037 Reported by Dan Stahlke in #3421755.
1042 Unblock linuxcounter.net/.
1043 Reported by Dan Stahlke in #3422612.
1048 Block 'www91.intel.com/' which is used by Omniture.
1049 Reported by Adam Piggott in #3167370.
1054 Disable the handle-as-empty-doc-returns-ok option and mark it as deprecated.
1055 Reminded by tceverling in #2790091.
1060 Add ".ivwbox.de/" to the "Cross-site user tracking" section.
1061 Reported by Nettozahler in #3172525.
1066 Unblock and fast-redirect ".awin1.com/.*=http://".
1067 Reported by Adam Piggott in #3170921.
1072 Block "b.collective-media.net/".
1077 Widen the Debian popcon exception to "qa.debian.org/popcon".
1078 Seen in Debian's 05_default_action.dpatch by Roland Rosenfeld.
1083 Block ".gemius.pl/" which only seems to be used for user tracking.
1084 Reported by johnd16 in #3002731. Additional input from Lee and movax.
1089 Disable banners-by-size filters for '.thinkgeek.com/'.
1090 The filter only seems to catch pictures of the inventory.
1095 Block requests for 'go.idmnet.bbelements.com/please/showit/'.
1096 Reported by kacperdominik in #3372959.
1101 Unblock adainitiative.org/.
1106 Add a fast-redirects exception for '.googleusercontent.com/.*=cache'.
1111 Add a fast-redirects exception for webcache.googleusercontent.com/.
1116 Unblock http://adassier.wordpress.com/ and http://adassier.files.wordpress.com/.
1124 Filter file improvements:
1128 Let the yahoo filter hide '.ads'.
1133 Let the msn filter hide overlay ads for Facebook 'likes' in search
1134 results and elements with the id 's_notf_div'. They only seem to be
1135 used to advertise site 'enhancements'.
1140 Let the js-events filter additionally disarm setInterval().
1141 Suggested by dg1727 in #3423775.
1149 Documentation improvements:
1153 Clarify the effect of compiling Privoxy with zlib support.
1154 Suggested by dg1727 in #3423782.
1159 Point out that the SourceForge messaging system works like a black
1160 hole and should thus not be used to contact individual developers.
1165 Mention some of the problems one can experience when not explicitly
1166 configuring an IP addresses as listen address.
1171 Explicitly mention that hostnames can be used instead of IP addresses
1172 for the listen-address, that only the first address returned will be
1173 used and what happens if the address is invalid.
1174 Requested by Calestyo in #3302213.
1182 Log message improvements:
1186 If only the server connection is kept alive, do not pretend to
1187 wait for a new client request.
1192 Remove a superfluous log message in forget_connection().
1197 In chat(), properly report missing server responses as such
1198 instead of calling them empty.
1203 In forwarded_connect(), fix a log message nobody should ever see.
1208 Fix a log message in socks5_connect(), a failed write operation
1209 was logged as failed read operation.
1214 Let load_one_actions_file() properly complain about a missing
1215 '{' at the beginning of the file.
1216 Simply stating that a line is invalid isn't particularly helpful.
1221 Do not claim to listen on a socket until Privoxy actually does.
1222 Patch submitted by Petr Pisar #3354485
1227 Prevent a duplicated LOG_LEVEL_CLF message when sending out
1228 the "no-server-data" response.
1233 Also log the client socket when dropping a connection.
1238 Include the destination host in the 'Request ... marked for
1239 blocking. limit-connect{...} doesn't allow CONNECT ...' message
1240 Patch submitted by Saperski in #3296250.
1245 Prevent a duplicated log message if none of the resolved IP
1246 addresses were reachable.
1251 In connect_to(), do not pretend to retry if forwarded-connect-retries
1257 When a specified user or group can't be found, put the name in
1258 single-quotes when logging it.
1263 In rfc2553_connect_to(), explain getnameinfo() errors better.
1268 Remove a useless log message in chat().
1273 When retrying to connect, also log the maximum number of connection
1279 Rephrase a log message in compile_dynamic_pcrs_job_list().
1280 Divide the error code and its meaning with a colon. Call the pcrs
1281 job dynamic and not the filter. Filters may contain dynamic and
1282 non-dynamic pcrs jobs at the same time. Only mention the name of
1283 the filter or tagger, but don't claim it's a filter when it could
1289 In a fatal error message in load_one_actions_file(), cover both
1290 URL and TAG patterns.
1295 In pcrs_strerror(), properly report unknown positive error code
1296 values as such. Previously they were handled like 0 (no error).
1301 In compile_dynamic_pcrs_job_list(), also log the actual error code as
1302 pcrs_strerror() doesn't handle all errors reported by pcre.
1307 Don't bother trying to continue chatting if the client didn't ask for it.
1308 Reduces log noise a bit.
1313 Make two fatal error message in load_one_actions_file() more descriptive.
1318 In cgi_send_user_manual(), log when rejecting a file name due to '/' or '..'.
1323 In load_file(), log a message if opening a file failed.
1324 The CGI error message alone isn't too helpful.
1329 In connection_destination_matches(), improve two log messages
1330 to help understand why the destinations don't match.
1335 Rephrase a log message in serve(). Client request arrival
1336 should be differentiated from closed client connections now.
1341 In serve(), log if a client connection isn't reused due to a
1342 configuration file change.
1347 Let mark_server_socket_tainted() always mark the server socket tainted,
1348 just don't talk about it in cases where it has no effect. It doesn't change
1349 Privoxy's behaviour, but makes understanding the log file easier.
1361 Added a --disable-ipv6-support switch for platforms where support
1362 is detected but doesn't actually work.
1367 Do not check for the existence of strerror() and memmove() twice
1372 Remove a useless test for setpgrp(2). Privoxy doesn't need it and
1373 it can cause problems when cross-compiling.
1378 Rename the --disable-acl-files switch to --disable-acl-support.
1379 Since about 2001, ACL directives are specified in the standard
1385 Update the URL of the 'Removing outdated PCRE version after the
1386 next stable release' posting. The old URL stopped working after
1387 one of SF's recent site "optimizations". Reported by Han Liu.
1395 Privoxy-Regression-Test:
1399 Added --shuffle-tests option to increase the chances of detection race conditions.
1404 Added a --local-test-file option that allows to use Privoxy-Regression-Test without Privoxy.
1409 Added tests for missing socks4 and socks4a forwarders.
1414 The --privoxy-address option now works with IPv6 addresses containing brackets, too.
1419 Perform limited sanity checks for parameters that are supposed to have numerical values.
1424 Added a --sleep-time option to specify a number of seconds to
1425 sleep between tests, defaults to 0.
1430 Disable the range-requests tagger for tests that break if it's enabled.
1435 Log messages use the ISO 8601 date format %Y-%m-%d.
1440 Fix spelling in two error messages.
1445 In the --help output, include a list of supported tests and their default levels.
1450 Adjust the tests to properly deal with FEATURE_TOGGLE being disabled.
1462 Perform limited sanity checks for command line parameters that
1463 are supposed to have numerical values.
1468 Implement a --unbreak-lines-only option to try to revert MUA breakage.
1473 Accept and highlight: Added header: Content-Encoding: deflate
1478 Accept and highlight: Compressed content from 29258 to 8630 bytes.
1483 Accept and highlight: Client request arrived in time on socket 21.
1488 Highlight: Didn't receive data in time: a.fsdn.com:443
1493 Accept log messages with ISO 8601 time stamps, too.
1505 Bump generated Firefox version to 8.0.
1510 Only randomize the release date if the new --randomize-release-date
1511 option is enabled. Firefox versions after 4 use a fixed date string
1522 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1524 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
1525 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
1528 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
1529 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
1537 The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
1538 configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
1539 is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
1540 <application>diff</application> and maybe <application>patch</application>.
1543 There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
1544 most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
1545 files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
1546 to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
1547 &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
1552 Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
1553 including configuration files, therefore you should really save
1554 any important configuration files!
1559 On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
1560 files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
1565 <filename>standard.action</filename> has been merged into
1566 the <filename>default.action</filename> file.
1571 In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
1572 You can change that in the <link linkend="DEBUG">debug section</link>
1573 of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
1574 logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
1581 Three other config file settings are now off by default:
1582 <link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link>,
1583 <link linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
1584 and <link linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link>.
1585 If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
1586 be aware of the security issues involved.
1593 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
1594 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
1595 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
1596 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
1597 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
1598 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
1599 settings as yet (see above).
1606 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
1607 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
1608 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
1609 standards and past practices. See <ulink
1610 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
1611 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
1612 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
1618 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
1619 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
1620 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
1621 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
1625 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
1629 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
1630 to turn off compression for all sites in
1631 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
1632 <filename>user.action</filename>).
1639 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
1640 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
1641 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
1648 Some installers may not automatically start
1649 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
1660 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1661 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
1667 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
1668 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
1675 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
1676 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
1677 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
1678 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
1685 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
1686 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
1687 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
1693 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
1694 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
1695 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
1696 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
1697 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
1698 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
1699 browser from using these protocols.
1705 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
1706 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
1707 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1708 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
1714 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
1715 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
1716 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
1717 to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
1719 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">web-based action editor</ulink> though.
1720 Be sure to read the warnings first.
1723 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
1724 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
1725 You might also want to look at the <link
1726 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
1727 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
1734 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
1735 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
1736 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
1737 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
1738 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
1739 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
1740 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
1741 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
1742 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
1743 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
1748 Did anyone test these lately?
1752 For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
1753 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
1761 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
1762 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
1769 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
1777 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1779 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
1780 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
1782 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
1783 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
1786 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
1787 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
1788 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
1791 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
1792 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
1793 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
1796 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
1797 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
1798 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
1799 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
1800 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
1801 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
1802 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
1803 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
1804 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
1805 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
1806 habits and preferences.
1809 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
1810 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
1811 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
1812 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
1813 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
1814 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
1815 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
1816 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
1817 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
1818 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
1821 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
1822 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
1823 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
1824 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
1825 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
1828 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
1829 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
1830 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
1831 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
1832 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
1833 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
1834 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
1835 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
1836 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
1837 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
1838 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
1843 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
1844 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
1845 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
1847 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
1848 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
1856 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
1857 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
1858 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
1859 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
1860 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
1861 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
1862 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
1863 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
1869 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
1870 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
1871 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
1872 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
1873 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
1874 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
1875 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
1876 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
1877 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
1878 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
1879 an entire HTML page in most situations.
1885 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
1886 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
1887 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
1888 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
1895 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
1896 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
1897 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
1898 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
1899 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
1900 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
1903 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
1907 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
1908 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
1913 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
1914 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
1919 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
1920 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
1929 Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
1930 <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal> as well. Filters
1931 are very different from <literal><link
1932 linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>.
1933 A <quote>block</quote> blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
1934 are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
1935 filter usage: a text replacement of <quote>no-no</quote> for
1936 <quote>nasty-word</quote>. That is a very simple example. This process can be
1937 used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
1938 some pitfalls to be wary off.
1942 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
1943 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
1944 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1945 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
1946 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
1950 Note that as of <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta the
1951 action editor is disabled by default. Check the
1952 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions
1953 section in the configuration file</ulink> to learn why and in which
1954 cases it's safe to enable again.
1958 If you decided to enable the action editor, select the appropriate
1959 <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
1960 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
1961 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
1962 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
1963 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
1964 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
1965 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
1969 A quick and simple step by step example:
1977 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
1978 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
1986 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1991 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
1992 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
1995 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
1997 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
2000 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
2003 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
2012 You should have a section with only
2013 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
2014 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
2015 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
2016 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
2017 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
2018 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
2019 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
2020 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
2021 just below the list.
2026 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
2027 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
2028 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
2029 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
2030 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
2031 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
2036 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
2037 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
2045 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
2046 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
2047 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
2048 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
2053 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
2054 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
2055 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
2058 There are also various
2059 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
2060 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
2061 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
2062 depth in later sections.
2069 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2072 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2073 <sect1 id="startup">
2074 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
2076 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
2077 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
2078 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
2079 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
2080 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
2081 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
2085 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
2086 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
2089 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
2091 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
2092 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
2095 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
2098 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
2106 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
2110 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Network</guibutton> -><guibutton>Connection</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Settings</guibutton>
2115 Or optionally on some platforms:
2119 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
2125 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
2126 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
2131 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
2132 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
2133 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
2138 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-7</application>:
2142 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
2146 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
2147 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
2148 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
2149 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
2150 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
2153 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
2155 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
2156 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
2159 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
2162 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
2170 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
2171 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
2172 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
2173 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
2174 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
2175 <application>Privoxy</application>!
2179 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
2180 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
2181 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
2182 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
2183 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
2186 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
2187 <title>Red Hat and Fedora</title>
2189 A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
2190 the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
2195 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
2203 # service privoxy start
2208 <sect2 id="start-debian">
2209 <title>Debian</title>
2211 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
2212 default. It will use the file
2213 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
2218 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
2223 <sect2 id="start-windows">
2224 <title>Windows</title>
2226 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
2227 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
2228 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
2229 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
2233 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
2234 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
2235 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
2236 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
2237 instructions</link> for details.
2241 <sect2 id="start-unices">
2242 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
2244 Example Unix startup command:
2248 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
2253 <sect2 id="start-os2">
2256 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
2257 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
2258 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
2259 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
2263 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
2264 <title>Mac OS X</title>
2266 After downloading the privoxy software, unzip the downloaded file by
2267 double-clicking on the zip file icon. Then, double-click on the
2268 installer package icon and follow the installation process.
2271 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
2272 installation. In addition, the privoxy service will automatically
2273 start every time your computer starts up.
2276 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
2277 computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
2278 /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
2281 A simple application named Privoxy Utility has been created which
2282 enables administrators to easily start and stop the privoxy service.
2285 In addition, the Privoxy Utility presents a simple way for
2286 administrators to edit the various privoxy config files. A method
2287 to uninstall the software is also available.
2290 An administrator username and password must be supplied in order for
2291 the Privoxy Utility to perform any of the tasks.
2296 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
2297 <title>AmigaOS</title>
2299 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
2300 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
2301 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
2302 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
2303 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
2304 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
2305 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
2309 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
2310 <title>Gentoo</title>
2312 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
2313 </filename> as its main configuration file.
2317 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
2321 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
2322 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
2327 rc-update add privoxy default
2335 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
2339 must find a better place for this paragraph
2342 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
2343 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
2344 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
2345 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
2346 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
2347 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
2351 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
2352 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
2353 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
2354 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
2355 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
2356 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
2357 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
2358 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
2359 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
2363 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
2364 sites is the popup-killing (through <ulink
2365 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>),
2366 because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
2367 popups (explained below).
2371 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
2372 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
2373 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
2374 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
2375 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
2376 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
2377 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
2378 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
2379 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
2383 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
2384 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
2385 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
2386 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
2387 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
2388 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
2389 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
2390 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
2391 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
2395 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
2396 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
2397 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
2398 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
2399 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
2400 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
2401 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
2405 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
2406 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
2407 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
2408 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
2409 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
2410 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
2415 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
2416 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
2417 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
2422 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
2423 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
2424 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
2425 Developers</quote></link> below.
2430 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2431 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
2432 <title>Command Line Options</title>
2434 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
2435 command-line options:
2443 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
2446 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
2451 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
2454 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
2459 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
2462 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
2463 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
2468 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
2471 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
2472 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
2473 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
2474 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
2479 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
2482 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
2483 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
2484 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
2489 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
2492 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
2493 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
2494 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
2495 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
2501 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
2504 Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
2505 resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
2506 libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
2507 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
2510 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
2511 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
2512 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
2513 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
2519 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
2522 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
2523 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
2524 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
2525 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
2526 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
2527 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
2535 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
2536 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
2537 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
2538 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
2546 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2549 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2550 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
2552 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
2553 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
2554 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
2555 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
2559 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2562 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
2564 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
2565 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
2566 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
2567 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
2568 You will see the following section:
2572 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
2575 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
2579 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
2582 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
2585 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
2588 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
2591 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
2594 ▪ <ulink
2595 url="http://www.privoxy.org/&p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
2603 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
2604 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
2605 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
2606 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
2607 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
2608 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
2612 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
2613 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
2614 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
2615 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
2616 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
2617 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
2618 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
2619 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
2624 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
2625 in <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta and later.
2627 <ulink url="config.html">configuration file</ulink> to learn why
2628 and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
2633 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2638 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2640 <sect2 id="confoverview">
2641 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
2643 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
2644 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
2645 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
2646 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
2647 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
2648 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
2652 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
2653 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
2654 principle configuration files are:
2662 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
2663 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
2664 on Windows. This is a required file.
2670 <filename>match-all.action</filename> is used to define which <quote>actions</quote>
2671 relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups, content modification, cookie handling
2672 etc should be applied by default. It should be the first actions file loaded.
2675 <filename>default.action</filename> defines many exceptions (both positive and negative)
2676 from the default set of actions that's configured in <filename>match-all.action</filename>.
2677 It should be the second actions file loaded and shouldn't be edited by the user.
2680 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
2681 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
2682 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
2683 <filename>match-all.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
2684 to define sooner or later) are best applied in <filename>user.action</filename>,
2685 where you can preserve them across upgrades. The file isn't installed by all
2686 installers, but you can easily create it yourself with a text editor.
2689 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
2691 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
2693 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
2694 various actions files.
2700 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
2701 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
2702 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
2703 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
2704 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
2705 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
2706 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
2707 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
2708 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
2709 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
2710 locally defined filters or customizations.
2718 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
2719 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
2720 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
2724 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
2725 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
2726 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
2727 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
2728 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
2729 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
2730 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
2734 The actions files and filter files
2735 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
2736 maximum flexibility.
2740 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
2741 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
2742 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
2743 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
2744 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
2745 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
2746 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
2751 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
2752 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
2753 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
2754 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
2760 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2763 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2765 <!-- **************************************************** -->
2766 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
2767 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
2769 <!-- end include -->
2772 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2776 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2778 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
2782 XXX: similar descriptions are in the Configuration Files sections.
2783 We should only describe them at one place.
2786 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
2787 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
2788 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
2789 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
2790 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
2791 Each action does something a little different.
2792 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
2793 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
2794 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
2798 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
2805 <filename>match-all.action</filename> - is used to define which
2806 <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
2807 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default.
2808 It should be the first actions file loaded
2813 <filename>default.action</filename> - defines many exceptions (both
2814 positive and negative) from the default set of actions that's configured
2815 in <filename>match-all.action</filename>. It is a set of rules that should
2816 work reasonably well as-is for most users. This file is only supposed to
2817 be edited by the developers. It should be the second actions file loaded.
2822 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
2823 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
2824 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
2825 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
2830 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
2833 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
2834 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
2835 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
2836 <literal>Cautious</literal>. New users should try this for a while before
2837 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
2838 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
2839 not working as they should.
2842 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
2843 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
2844 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
2845 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
2846 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
2847 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
2848 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
2849 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
2850 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
2851 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
2852 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
2853 lower sections of this internal page.
2856 While the actions file editor allows to enable these settings in all
2857 actions files, they are only supposed to be enabled in the first one
2858 to make sure you don't unintentionally overrule earlier rules.
2861 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
2862 <filename>default.action</filename> are:
2865 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
2866 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
2867 <colspec colname=c1>
2868 <colspec colname=c2>
2869 <colspec colname=c3>
2870 <colspec colname=c4>
2873 <entry>Feature</entry>
2874 <entry>Cautious</entry>
2875 <entry>Medium</entry>
2876 <entry>Advanced</entry>
2881 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
2882 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
2883 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
2884 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
2890 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
2891 <entry>medium</entry>
2897 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
2904 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
2910 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
2911 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2912 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2913 <entry>blocks only</entry>
2917 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
2919 <entry>medium</entry>
2920 <entry>medium/high</entry>
2924 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
2926 <entry>session-only</entry>
2931 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
2938 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
2945 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
2952 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
2959 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
2966 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
2973 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
2989 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2990 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
2991 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
2992 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
2994 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2995 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
2996 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
2997 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
2998 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
2999 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
3000 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
3001 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
3005 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
3006 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
3007 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
3008 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
3009 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
3010 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
3011 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
3012 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
3013 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
3014 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
3015 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
3016 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
3020 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
3021 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
3022 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
3023 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
3024 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
3028 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3030 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
3032 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
3033 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
3034 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
3035 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
3036 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
3037 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
3038 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
3039 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
3040 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
3041 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
3042 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
3046 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
3047 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
3048 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
3049 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
3053 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3055 <title>How to Edit</title>
3057 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
3058 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
3059 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
3060 Note: the config file option <link
3061 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link> must be enabled for
3062 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
3063 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
3064 like <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or
3065 <quote>Advanced</quote>. Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more
3066 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
3067 Experienced users only!
3071 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
3072 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
3073 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
3079 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
3080 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
3082 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
3083 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
3084 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
3085 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
3086 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
3087 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
3091 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
3092 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
3093 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
3094 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
3095 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
3099 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
3100 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
3101 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
3102 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
3103 then later another one with just <literal>{
3104 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
3105 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
3106 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
3112 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block{Banner ads.}</literal> }
3113 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
3115 media.example.com/.*banners
3116 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
3120 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
3121 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
3125 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
3126 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
3130 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3131 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
3132 <title>Patterns</title>
3134 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
3135 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
3136 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
3137 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
3138 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
3139 against many similar patterns.
3143 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
3144 <literal><domain><port>/<path></literal>, where the
3145 <literal><domain></literal>, the <literal><port></literal>
3146 and the <literal><path></literal> are optional. (This is why the special
3147 <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all URLs). Note that the protocol
3148 portion of the URL pattern (e.g. <literal>http://</literal>) should
3149 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in the pattern. This is assumed already!
3152 The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
3153 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
3154 while the path part uses more flexible
3155 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3156 Expressions</quote></ulink> (POSIX 1003.2).
3159 The port part of a pattern is a decimal port number preceded by a colon
3160 (<literal>:</literal>). If the domain part contains a numerical IPv6 address,
3161 it has to be put into angle brackets
3162 (<literal><</literal>, <literal>></literal>).
3167 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
3170 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
3171 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
3172 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
3173 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
3178 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
3181 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
3187 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
3190 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
3191 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
3196 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
3199 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
3200 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
3205 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
3208 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
3209 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
3214 <term><literal>/</literal></term>
3217 Matches any URL because there's no requirement for either the
3218 domain or the path to match anything.
3223 <term><literal>:8000/</literal></term>
3226 Matches any URL pointing to TCP port 8000.
3231 <term><literal><2001:db8::1>/</literal></term>
3234 Matches any URL with the host address <literal>2001:db8::1</literal>.
3235 (Note that the real URL uses plain brackets, not angle brackets.)
3240 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
3243 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
3244 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
3252 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3253 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
3256 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
3257 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
3263 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
3266 matches any domain with first-level domain <literal>com</literal>
3267 and second-level domain <literal>example</literal>.
3268 For example <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
3269 <literal>example.com</literal> and <literal>foo.bar.baz.example.com</literal>.
3270 Note that it wouldn't match if the second-level domain was <literal>another-example</literal>.
3275 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
3278 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
3279 <literal>www.</literal> (It also matches the domain
3280 <literal>www</literal> but most of the time that doesn't matter.)
3285 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
3288 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
3289 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
3290 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
3291 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
3292 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
3293 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
3294 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
3302 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
3303 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
3304 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
3306 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3307 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
3308 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
3309 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
3310 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
3311 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
3316 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
3319 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
3320 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
3325 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
3328 matches all of the above, and then some.
3333 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
3336 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
3337 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
3342 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
3345 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
3346 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
3347 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
3348 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
3355 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
3360 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3363 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3364 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
3367 <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>modern</quote> POSIX 1003.2
3368 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
3369 Expressions</quote></ulink> for matching the path portion (after the slash),
3370 and is thus more flexible.
3374 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
3375 expressions, you also might want to have a look at your operating system's documentation
3376 on regular expressions (try <literal>man re_format</literal>).
3380 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
3381 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
3382 for the beginning of a line).
3386 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
3387 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
3388 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
3389 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
3390 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
3395 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
3398 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
3399 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
3400 regular expression. This is redundant
3405 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
3408 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
3409 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
3410 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
3411 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
3412 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
3413 requirement. It also would match
3414 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
3415 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
3420 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
3423 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
3424 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
3425 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
3426 <quote>.html</quote> (but does not have to end with that!).
3431 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
3434 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
3435 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
3436 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
3437 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
3442 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
3445 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
3446 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
3447 one is limited to common image formats.
3454 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
3455 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
3460 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3463 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3464 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Tag Pattern</title>
3467 Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
3468 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
3469 <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
3470 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
3474 Tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
3475 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
3476 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
3477 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
3478 automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
3479 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
3483 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
3484 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
3485 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
3486 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
3487 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
3491 Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
3492 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
3493 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
3497 Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
3498 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
3499 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
3500 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
3504 For example you could tag client requests which use the
3505 <literal>POST</literal> method,
3506 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
3507 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
3508 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
3509 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
3510 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
3511 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
3512 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
3516 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
3517 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
3518 make too much sense.
3525 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3528 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3530 <sect2 id="actions">
3531 <title>Actions</title>
3533 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
3534 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
3535 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
3536 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
3537 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
3538 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
3539 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
3540 previously applied.</quote>
3545 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
3546 separated by whitespace, like in
3547 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
3548 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
3549 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
3550 of the actions file.
3554 Actions fall into three categories:
3561 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
3562 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
3566 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
3567 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
3570 Example: <literal>+handle-as-image</literal>
3577 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
3582 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
3583 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
3584 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
3587 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
3588 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
3591 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070602 Firefox/2.0.0.4}</literal>
3597 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
3598 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
3599 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
3600 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
3601 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
3602 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
3606 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
3607 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
3608 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
3609 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
3612 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
3613 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
3621 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
3622 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
3623 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
3624 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
3625 files will give a good starting point).
3629 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
3630 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
3631 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
3632 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
3633 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
3634 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
3635 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
3636 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
3637 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
3641 <!-- start actions listing -->
3643 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
3647 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3648 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
3649 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
3651 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3654 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3656 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
3657 <title>add-header</title>
3661 <term>Typical use:</term>
3663 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
3668 <term>Effect:</term>
3671 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
3678 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3680 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3685 <term>Parameter:</term>
3688 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
3689 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
3699 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
3700 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
3701 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
3705 Headers added by this action are not modified by other actions.
3711 <term>Example usage:</term>
3714 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
3722 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3723 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
3724 <title>block</title>
3728 <term>Typical use:</term>
3730 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
3735 <term>Effect:</term>
3738 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
3739 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
3740 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
3742 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
3744 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
3746 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
3754 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3756 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3761 <term>Parameter:</term>
3763 <para>A block reason that should be given to the user.</para>
3771 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
3772 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains the block reason given as
3773 parameter, a link to find out why the block action applies, and a click-through
3774 to the blocked content (the latter only if the force feature is available and
3778 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
3779 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
3780 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
3781 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
3782 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
3783 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
3786 It is important to understand this process, in order
3787 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
3788 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
3789 upon which various other features depend.
3792 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
3793 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
3794 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
3795 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
3796 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
3802 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3805 <screen>{+block{No nasty stuff for you.}}
3806 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
3807 .nasty-stuff.example.com
3809 {+block{Doubleclick banners.} +handle-as-image}
3810 # Block and replace with image
3814 {+block{Layered ads.} +handle-as-empty-document}
3815 # Block and then ignore
3816 adserver.example.net/.*\.js$</screen>
3826 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3827 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="change-x-forwarded-for">
3828 <title>change-x-forwarded-for</title>
3832 <term>Typical use:</term>
3834 <para>Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
3839 <term>Effect:</term>
3842 Deletes the <quote>X-Forwarded-For:</quote> HTTP header from the client request,
3850 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3852 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3857 <term>Parameter:</term>
3861 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header.</para>
3865 <quote>add</quote> to create the header (or append
3866 the client's IP address to an already existing one).
3877 It is safe and recommended to use <literal>block</literal>.
3880 Forwarding the source address of the request may make
3881 sense in some multi-user setups but is also a privacy risk.
3886 <term>Example usage:</term>
3889 <screen>+change-x-forwarded-for{block}</screen>
3896 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3897 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
3898 <title>client-header-filter</title>
3902 <term>Typical use:</term>
3905 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
3911 <term>Effect:</term>
3914 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3915 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
3922 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3924 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3929 <term>Parameter:</term>
3932 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
3933 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3942 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
3943 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3944 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
3945 You can do that by using tags though.
3948 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
3949 and use their output as input.
3952 If the request URL gets changed, &my-app; will detect that and use the new
3953 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
3954 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
3957 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
3958 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
3966 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3970 # Hide Tor exit notation in Host and Referer Headers
3971 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
3982 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3983 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
3984 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
3988 <term>Typical use:</term>
3991 Block requests based on their headers.
3997 <term>Effect:</term>
4000 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
4001 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
4009 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4011 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4016 <term>Parameter:</term>
4019 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
4020 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
4029 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
4030 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
4034 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
4035 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
4041 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4045 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
4046 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
4049 # Tagging itself doesn't change the action
4050 # settings, sections with TAG patterns do:
4052 # If it's a download agent, use a different forwarding proxy,
4053 # show the real User-Agent and make sure resume works.
4054 {+forward-override{forward-socks5 10.0.0.2:2222 .} \
4055 -hide-if-modified-since \
4056 -overwrite-last-modified \
4061 TAG:^User-Agent: NetBSD-ftp/
4062 TAG:^User-Agent: Novell ZYPP Installer
4063 TAG:^User-Agent: RPM APT-HTTP/
4064 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/
4065 TAG:^User-Agent: Ubuntu APT-HTTP/
4066 TAG:^User-Agent: MPlayer/
4071 # Tag all requests with the Range header set
4072 {+client-header-tagger{range-requests}}
4075 # Disable filtering for the tagged requests.
4077 # With filtering enabled Privoxy would remove the Range headers
4078 # to be able to filter the whole response. The downside is that
4079 # it prevents clients from resuming downloads or skipping over
4080 # parts of multimedia files.
4081 {-filter -deanimate-gifs}
4092 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4093 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
4094 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
4098 <term>Typical use:</term>
4100 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
4105 <term>Effect:</term>
4108 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
4115 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4117 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4122 <term>Parameter:</term>
4134 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
4135 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
4136 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
4137 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
4138 supported by the browser.
4141 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
4142 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
4143 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
4144 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
4145 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
4148 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
4149 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
4150 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
4151 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
4152 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
4155 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
4156 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
4157 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
4158 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
4161 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
4162 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
4163 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
4164 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
4165 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
4168 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
4169 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
4170 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
4171 only replace the content types you aimed at.
4174 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
4175 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
4176 more work to get the same precision.
4182 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4185 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
4186 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
4189 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
4190 {-content-type-overwrite}
4191 www.example.net/.*\.css$
4192 www.example.net/.*style
4201 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4202 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
4206 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
4210 <term>Typical use:</term>
4212 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
4217 <term>Effect:</term>
4220 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
4227 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4229 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4234 <term>Parameter:</term>
4246 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
4247 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
4248 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
4249 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
4252 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
4253 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
4254 they contain the same string.
4257 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
4258 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
4259 parts of them, you should use a
4260 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
4264 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
4271 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4274 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
4275 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
4285 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4286 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
4287 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
4293 <term>Typical use:</term>
4295 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4300 <term>Effect:</term>
4303 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
4310 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4312 <para>Boolean.</para>
4317 <term>Parameter:</term>
4329 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
4330 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4331 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
4332 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4335 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
4336 replacement (unlikely but possible).
4339 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
4340 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
4341 isn't blocked or missing as well.
4344 It is recommended to use this action together with
4345 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
4347 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
4353 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4356 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
4357 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
4358 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
4359 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
4360 +crunch-if-none-match}
4369 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4370 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
4371 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
4375 <term>Typical use:</term>
4378 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
4384 <term>Effect:</term>
4387 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
4394 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4396 <para>Boolean.</para>
4401 <term>Parameter:</term>
4413 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
4414 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
4415 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
4416 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
4419 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
4420 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
4421 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
4422 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
4428 <term>Example usage:</term>
4431 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
4439 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4440 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
4441 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
4447 <term>Typical use:</term>
4449 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
4454 <term>Effect:</term>
4457 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
4464 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4466 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4471 <term>Parameter:</term>
4483 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
4484 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
4485 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
4488 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
4489 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
4490 they contain the same string.
4493 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
4494 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
4495 parts of them, you should use a custom
4496 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
4500 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
4507 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4510 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
4511 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
4520 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4521 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
4522 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
4526 <term>Typical use:</term>
4529 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
4535 <term>Effect:</term>
4538 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
4545 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4547 <para>Boolean.</para>
4552 <term>Parameter:</term>
4564 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
4565 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
4566 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
4567 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
4570 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
4571 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
4572 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
4578 <term>Example usage:</term>
4581 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
4590 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4591 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
4592 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
4596 <term>Typical use:</term>
4598 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
4603 <term>Effect:</term>
4606 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
4613 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4615 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4620 <term>Parameter:</term>
4623 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
4632 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
4633 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
4634 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
4635 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
4636 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
4637 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
4640 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
4641 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
4648 <term>Example usage:</term>
4651 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
4658 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4659 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
4660 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
4664 <term>Typical use:</term>
4666 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
4671 <term>Effect:</term>
4674 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
4681 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4683 <para>Boolean.</para>
4688 <term>Parameter:</term>
4700 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
4701 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
4702 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1-related problems with some server
4706 Note that enabling this action is only a workaround. It should not
4707 be enabled for sites that work without it. While it shouldn't break
4708 any pages, it has an (usually negative) performance impact.
4711 If you come across a site where enabling this action helps, please report it,
4712 so the cause of the problem can be analyzed. If the problem turns out to be
4713 caused by a bug in <application>Privoxy</application> it should be
4714 fixed so the following release works without the work around.
4720 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4723 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
4724 problem-host.example.com</screen>
4732 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4733 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
4734 <title>fast-redirects</title>
4738 <term>Typical use:</term>
4740 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
4745 <term>Effect:</term>
4748 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
4749 the redirection server first.
4756 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4758 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4763 <term>Parameter:</term>
4768 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
4769 to detect redirection URLs.
4774 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
4775 for redirection URLs.
4786 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
4787 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
4788 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
4789 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
4790 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
4793 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
4794 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
4795 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
4796 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
4797 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
4801 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
4802 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
4803 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
4806 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
4807 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
4808 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
4809 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
4810 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
4811 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
4812 the user gets redirected anyway.
4815 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
4817 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
4818 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
4819 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
4820 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
4821 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
4822 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
4823 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
4824 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
4827 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
4828 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
4829 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
4830 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
4831 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
4832 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
4833 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
4839 <term>Example usage:</term>
4843 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
4846 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
4847 another.example.com/testing</screen>
4856 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4857 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
4858 <title>filter</title>
4862 <term>Typical use:</term>
4864 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
4865 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
4870 <term>Effect:</term>
4873 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
4874 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
4875 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
4876 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
4877 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
4884 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4886 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4891 <term>Parameter:</term>
4894 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
4895 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
4896 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
4897 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
4898 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
4899 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
4900 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
4903 When used in its negative form,
4904 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
4913 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
4914 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
4918 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
4919 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
4920 passed the filters. (The total time until the page is completely rendered
4921 doesn't change much, but it may be perceived as slower since the page is
4922 not incrementally displayed.)
4923 This effect will be more noticeable on slower connections.
4926 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
4927 filters requires a knowledge of
4928 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
4929 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
4930 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
4931 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
4932 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
4933 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
4936 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
4937 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
4938 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
4939 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
4940 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
4943 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
4944 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
4945 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
4946 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
4947 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
4948 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
4951 Compressed content can't be filtered either, but if &my-app;
4952 is compiled with zlib support and a supported compression algorithm
4953 is used (gzip or deflate), &my-app; can first decompress the content
4957 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
4958 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
4959 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
4960 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
4963 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
4964 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4965 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
4966 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
4967 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
4971 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
4972 improved filters is particularly welcome!
4975 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
4976 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
4977 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
4978 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
4984 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
4985 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
4986 more explanation on each:</term>
4989 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
4990 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.</screen>
4993 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
4994 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings and timers (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites).</screen>
4997 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
4998 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
5001 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
5002 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content.</screen>
5005 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
5006 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups).</screen>
5009 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
5010 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
5013 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
5014 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</screen>
5017 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
5018 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective.</screen>
5021 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
5022 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size.</screen>
5025 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
5026 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers.</screen>
5029 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
5030 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking).</screen>
5033 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
5034 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap.</screen>
5037 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
5038 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves.</screen>
5041 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
5042 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable.</screen>
5045 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
5046 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets.</screen>
5049 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
5050 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects.</screen>
5053 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
5054 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable.</screen>
5057 <anchor id="filter-fun">
5058 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
5061 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
5062 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering. Note that this filter doesn't work reliably.</screen>
5065 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
5066 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits.</screen>
5069 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
5070 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Cure for site-specific problems. Don't apply generally!</screen>
5073 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
5074 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes in <a> and <area> tags.</screen>
5077 <anchor id="filter-google">
5078 <screen>+filter{google} # CSS-based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation and the toolbar advertisement.</screen>
5081 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
5082 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # CSS-based block for Yahoo text ads. Also removes a width limitation.</screen>
5085 <anchor id="filter-msn">
5086 <screen>+filter{msn} # CSS-based block for MSN text ads. Also removes tracking URLs and a width limitation.</screen>
5089 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
5090 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this.</screen>
5098 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5099 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
5100 <title>force-text-mode</title>
5106 <term>Typical use:</term>
5108 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
5113 <term>Effect:</term>
5116 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
5123 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5125 <para>Boolean.</para>
5130 <term>Parameter:</term>
5142 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
5143 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
5144 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
5145 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
5146 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
5147 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
5151 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
5152 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
5159 <term>Example usage:</term>
5172 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5173 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
5174 <title>forward-override</title>
5180 <term>Typical use:</term>
5182 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
5187 <term>Effect:</term>
5190 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
5197 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5199 <para>Multi-value.</para>
5204 <term>Parameter:</term>
5208 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
5212 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
5217 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
5218 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
5219 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
5220 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
5225 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
5226 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
5227 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
5228 (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
5229 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
5240 This action takes parameters similar to the
5241 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
5242 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
5243 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
5247 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
5248 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
5249 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
5252 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
5253 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
5257 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
5258 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
5265 <term>Example usage:</term>
5269 # Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
5270 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
5271 # resuming downloads continues to work.
5272 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
5273 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
5274 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
5275 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
5276 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
5277 {+forward-override{forward .} \
5278 -hide-if-modified-since \
5279 -overwrite-last-modified \
5281 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
5290 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5291 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
5292 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
5298 <term>Typical use:</term>
5300 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
5305 <term>Effect:</term>
5308 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
5309 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
5310 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
5311 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
5312 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
5319 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5321 <para>Boolean.</para>
5326 <term>Parameter:</term>
5338 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
5339 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
5340 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
5341 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
5342 BLOCKED message in frames.
5345 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
5346 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
5347 but usually this isn't necessary.
5353 <term>Example usage:</term>
5356 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
5357 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
5358 {+block{Blocked JavaScript} +handle-as-empty-document}
5368 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5369 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
5370 <title>handle-as-image</title>
5374 <term>Typical use:</term>
5376 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they do get blocked</emphasis>, rather than HTML pages)</para>
5381 <term>Effect:</term>
5384 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
5385 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
5386 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
5387 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
5388 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
5389 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
5396 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5398 <para>Boolean.</para>
5403 <term>Parameter:</term>
5415 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
5416 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
5420 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
5421 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
5422 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
5425 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
5426 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
5427 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
5428 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
5434 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5437 <screen># Generic image extensions:
5440 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
5442 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
5443 # blocked as images:
5445 {+block{Nasty banners.} +handle-as-image}
5446 nasty-banner-server.example.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
5455 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5456 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
5457 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
5463 <term>Typical use:</term>
5465 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
5470 <term>Effect:</term>
5473 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
5480 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5482 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5487 <term>Parameter:</term>
5490 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
5499 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
5500 foreign User-Agent set with
5501 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
5505 However some sites with content in different languages check the
5506 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
5507 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
5508 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
5511 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
5512 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
5513 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
5516 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
5517 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
5518 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
5519 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
5520 you should stick to a common language.
5526 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5529 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
5530 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
5531 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
5541 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5542 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
5543 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
5549 <term>Typical use:</term>
5551 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
5556 <term>Effect:</term>
5559 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
5566 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5568 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5573 <term>Parameter:</term>
5576 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
5585 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
5586 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
5587 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
5588 the browser is supposed to use by default.
5591 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
5592 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
5593 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
5596 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
5597 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
5598 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
5599 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
5600 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
5604 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
5605 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
5609 This action will probably be removed in the future,
5610 use server-header filters instead.
5616 <term>Example usage:</term>
5619 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
5621 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
5622 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
5623 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
5631 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5632 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
5633 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
5639 <term>Typical use:</term>
5641 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5646 <term>Effect:</term>
5649 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
5656 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5658 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5663 <term>Parameter:</term>
5666 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
5675 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
5676 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
5677 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
5680 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
5681 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
5682 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
5683 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
5684 subtracting, a positive value adding.
5687 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
5688 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
5689 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
5692 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
5693 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
5694 handle the greater changes.
5697 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5698 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>,
5699 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
5705 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5708 <screen># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
5709 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5710 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5711 +crunch-if-none-match}
5720 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5721 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
5722 <title>hide-from-header</title>
5726 <term>Typical use:</term>
5728 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
5733 <term>Effect:</term>
5736 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
5744 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5746 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5751 <term>Parameter:</term>
5754 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
5763 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
5764 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
5768 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
5769 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
5770 is actually used by a real person.
5773 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
5774 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
5780 <term>Example usage:</term>
5783 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
5784 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
5792 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5793 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
5794 <title>hide-referrer</title>
5795 <anchor id="hide-referer">
5798 <term>Typical use:</term>
5800 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
5805 <term>Effect:</term>
5808 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
5809 or replaces it with a forged one.
5816 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5818 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5823 <term>Parameter:</term>
5827 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
5830 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
5833 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
5836 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
5839 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
5849 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
5850 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
5851 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
5852 typed in the address directly.
5855 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
5856 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
5857 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
5858 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
5859 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
5863 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
5864 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
5865 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
5866 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
5869 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
5870 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
5871 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
5874 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
5875 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
5876 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
5877 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
5878 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
5884 <term>Example usage:</term>
5887 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
5888 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
5896 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5897 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
5898 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
5902 <term>Typical use:</term>
5904 <para>Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
5909 <term>Effect:</term>
5912 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
5913 in client requests with the specified value.
5920 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5922 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5927 <term>Parameter:</term>
5930 Any user-defined string.
5940 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
5941 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
5942 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
5943 work browser-independently).
5947 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
5948 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
5949 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
5950 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
5951 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
5952 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
5953 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
5954 reason in some cases).
5957 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
5958 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
5960 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
5966 <term>Example usage:</term>
5969 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
5977 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5978 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
5979 <title>limit-connect</title>
5983 <term>Typical use:</term>
5985 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
5990 <term>Effect:</term>
5993 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
6000 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6002 <para>Parameterized.</para>
6007 <term>Parameter:</term>
6010 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
6011 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
6020 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
6021 <application>Privoxy</application> allows HTTP CONNECT requests to all
6022 ports. Use <literal>limit-connect</literal> if fine-grained control
6023 is desired for some or all destinations.
6026 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
6027 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
6028 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
6029 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
6030 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
6033 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
6034 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
6035 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
6041 <term>Example usages:</term>
6043 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
6044 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
6045 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
6047 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # Port 443 is OK.
6048 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
6049 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
6050 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
6051 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
6058 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6059 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
6060 <title>prevent-compression</title>
6064 <term>Typical use:</term>
6067 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
6068 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
6074 <term>Effect:</term>
6077 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
6084 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6086 <para>Boolean.</para>
6091 <term>Parameter:</term>
6103 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
6104 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
6105 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> and
6106 <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
6107 actions need access to the uncompressed data.
6110 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
6111 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
6112 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
6113 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
6116 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
6117 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
6121 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
6122 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
6123 predefined action settings.
6126 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
6127 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
6128 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
6129 <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might want to add
6130 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
6136 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
6140 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
6142 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
6143 # Match only these sites
6148 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
6150 { +prevent-compression }
6153 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
6155 { -prevent-compression }
6156 .compusa.com/</screen>
6165 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6166 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
6167 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
6173 <term>Typical use:</term>
6175 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
6180 <term>Effect:</term>
6183 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
6190 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6192 <para>Parameterized.</para>
6197 <term>Parameter:</term>
6200 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
6201 and <quote>randomize</quote>
6210 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
6211 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
6212 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
6213 version of the page.
6216 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
6217 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
6218 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
6219 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
6220 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
6221 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
6224 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
6225 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
6226 this option together with
6227 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
6228 to further customize your random range.
6231 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
6232 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
6233 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
6234 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
6235 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
6236 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
6240 It is also recommended to use this action together with
6241 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
6247 <term>Example usage:</term>
6250 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
6251 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
6252 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
6253 +crunch-if-none-match}
6262 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6263 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
6264 <title>redirect</title>
6270 <term>Typical use:</term>
6273 Redirect requests to other sites.
6279 <term>Effect:</term>
6282 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
6283 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
6290 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6292 <para>Parameterized</para>
6297 <term>Parameter:</term>
6300 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
6309 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
6310 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
6311 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
6312 single pcrs command to the original URL.
6315 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
6316 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
6317 It can be combined with
6318 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
6319 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
6322 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
6323 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
6324 possible to fingerprint your requests.
6327 In case of problems with your redirects, or simply to watch
6328 them working, enable <link linkend="DEBUG">debug 128</link>.
6334 <term>Example usages:</term>
6337 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
6338 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
6339 example.com/stylesheet\.css
6341 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
6342 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
6343 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
6346 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
6347 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
6348 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
6349 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
6350 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$
6352 # Redirect Google search requests to MSN
6353 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/search\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=$1@}}
6356 # Redirect MSN search requests to Yahoo
6357 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/results\.aspx\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=$1@}}
6358 search.msn.com//results\.aspx\?q=
6360 # Redirect remote requests for this manual
6361 # to the local version delivered by Privoxy
6362 {+redirect{s@^http://www@http://config@}}
6363 www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</screen>
6372 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6373 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
6374 <title>server-header-filter</title>
6378 <term>Typical use:</term>
6381 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
6387 <term>Effect:</term>
6390 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
6391 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
6398 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
6400 <para>Parameterized.</para>
6405 <term>Parameter:</term>
6408 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
6409 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
6418 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
6419 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
6420 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
6421 You can do that by using tags though.
6424 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
6425 and use their output as input.
6428 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
6429 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
6436 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
6440 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
6441 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
6443 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
6444 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
6454 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6455 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
6456 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
6460 <term>Typical use:</term>
6463 Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
6469 <term>Effect:</term>
6472 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
6473 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
6481 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
6483 <para>Parameterized.</para>
6488 <term>Parameter:</term>
6491 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
6492 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
6501 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
6502 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
6506 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
6507 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
6508 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
6509 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
6510 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
6513 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
6514 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
6521 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
6525 # Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
6526 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
6537 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6538 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
6539 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
6543 <term>Typical use:</term>
6546 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
6547 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
6553 <term>Effect:</term>
6556 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
6557 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
6558 forget them in between sessions.
6565 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6567 <para>Boolean.</para>
6572 <term>Parameter:</term>
6584 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
6585 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
6586 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
6589 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
6590 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
6591 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
6592 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
6593 sites, and is the recommended setting.
6596 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
6597 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
6598 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
6599 will be plainly killed.
6602 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
6603 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
6606 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
6607 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
6608 These would have to be removed manually.
6611 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
6612 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
6613 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
6614 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
6620 <term>Example usage:</term>
6623 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
6631 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6632 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
6633 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
6637 <term>Typical use:</term>
6639 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
6644 <term>Effect:</term>
6647 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
6648 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
6649 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
6650 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
6651 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
6652 sent as a replacement.
6659 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6661 <para>Parameterized.</para>
6666 <term>Parameter:</term>
6671 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
6672 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
6677 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
6678 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
6679 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
6680 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
6685 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
6686 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
6687 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
6688 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
6691 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
6692 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
6693 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
6694 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
6695 it over and over again.
6706 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
6707 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
6708 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
6711 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
6712 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
6713 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
6719 <term>Example usage:</term>
6725 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
6728 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
6731 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
6734 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
6737 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
6745 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6747 <title>Summary</title>
6749 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
6750 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
6751 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
6752 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
6753 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
6754 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
6760 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6761 <sect2 id="aliases">
6762 <title>Aliases</title>
6764 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
6765 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
6766 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
6767 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
6769 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
6770 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
6771 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
6772 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
6773 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
6777 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
6778 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
6779 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
6780 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
6784 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
6785 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
6786 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
6787 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
6788 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
6789 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
6790 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
6793 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
6794 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
6795 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
6796 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
6797 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
6802 Now let's define some aliases...
6807 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
6809 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
6810 # must be at the top of the actions file!
6814 # These aliases just save typing later:
6815 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6817 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6818 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6819 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
6820 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6822 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6823 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6825 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link>
6827 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link>
6829 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
6831 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
6832 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
6836 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
6837 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
6838 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
6843 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
6844 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
6847 .office.microsoft.com
6848 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6849 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
6853 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
6857 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6860 # These shops require pop-ups:
6862 {-filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
6864 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
6868 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
6869 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
6870 in order to function properly.
6876 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6877 <sect2 id="act-examples">
6878 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
6880 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
6881 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
6882 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
6883 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
6884 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
6885 example <filename>match-all.action</filename>, <filename>default.action</filename>
6886 and <filename>user.action</filename> file and see how all these pieces come together:
6890 <title>match-all.action</title>
6892 Remember <emphasis>all actions are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>,
6893 so we have to explicitly enable the ones we want.
6897 While the <filename>match-all.action</filename> file only contains a
6898 single section, it is probably the most important one. It has only one
6899 pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
6900 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the set of
6901 actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
6902 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
6903 wholly overridden by other actions files like <filename>default.action</filename>
6904 and <filename>user.action</filename>, but it will still be largely responsible
6905 for your overall browsing experience.
6909 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
6910 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
6911 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
6912 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
6913 multiple lines with line continuation.
6919 +<link linkend="CHANGE-X-FORWARDED-FOR">change-x-forwarded-for{block}</link> \
6920 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
6921 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
6928 The default behavior is now set.
6933 <title>default.action</title>
6936 If you aren't a developer, there's no need for you to edit the
6937 <filename>default.action</filename> file. It is maintained by
6938 the &my-app; developers and if you disagree with some of the
6939 sections, you should overrule them in your <filename>user.action</filename>.
6943 Understanding the <filename>default.action</filename> file can
6944 help you with your <filename>user.action</filename>, though.
6948 The first section in this file is a special section for internal use
6949 that prevents older &my-app; versions from reading the file:
6954 ##########################################################################
6955 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
6956 ##########################################################################
6958 for-privoxy-version=3.0.11</screen>
6962 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
6963 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
6964 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
6969 ##########################################################################
6971 ##########################################################################
6974 # These aliases just save typing later:
6975 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6977 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6978 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6979 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
6980 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6982 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6983 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6985 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link>
6986 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link></screen>
6990 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
6991 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
6992 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
6993 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
6994 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
6995 of actions explicitly:
7000 ##########################################################################
7001 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
7002 ##########################################################################
7004 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
7007 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
7008 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
7009 mail.google.com</screen>
7013 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
7014 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
7015 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
7024 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
7026 .scan.co.uk</screen>
7030 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
7031 action, which may have been enabled in <filename>match-all.action</filename>,
7032 breaks some sites. So disable it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
7037 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
7041 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
7042 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
7043 .nytimes.com</screen>
7047 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
7048 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
7049 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
7050 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
7051 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
7052 would feed the advertisers information about you. We can mark any
7053 URL as an image with the <literal><link
7054 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
7055 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
7061 ##########################################################################
7063 ##########################################################################
7065 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
7066 # blocked further down this file:
7068 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
7069 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
7073 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
7074 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
7075 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
7076 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
7077 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
7078 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
7079 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
7080 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
7081 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
7082 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
7083 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
7084 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
7089 # Known ad generators:
7094 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
7095 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
7096 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
7102 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
7103 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
7104 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
7105 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
7106 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
7107 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
7108 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
7109 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
7110 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
7113 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
7114 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
7115 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
7116 to keep the example short:
7121 ##########################################################################
7122 # Block these fine banners:
7123 ##########################################################################
7124 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block{Banner ads.}</link> }
7132 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
7133 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
7135 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
7137 .hitbox.com</screen>
7141 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
7142 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
7143 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
7144 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
7147 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
7148 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
7149 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
7150 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
7151 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
7152 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
7156 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
7157 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
7158 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
7159 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
7160 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
7161 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
7162 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
7163 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
7164 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
7165 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
7170 ##########################################################################
7171 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
7172 ##########################################################################
7176 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
7177 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
7178 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
7179 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
7180 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
7181 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
7182 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
7190 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
7191 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
7195 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
7196 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
7197 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
7198 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
7199 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
7204 # Don't filter code!
7206 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
7211 .sourceforge.net</screen>
7215 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
7216 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
7221 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
7224 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
7225 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
7226 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
7227 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
7228 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
7229 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
7230 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
7231 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
7232 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
7233 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
7234 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
7235 to install updated versions from time to time.
7239 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
7240 <filename>user.action</filename>:
7244 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
7248 # My user.action file. <fred@example.com></screen>
7252 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
7253 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
7254 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
7259 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
7260 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
7264 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
7265 # be self explanatory.
7267 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
7268 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
7269 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
7270 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups}
7271 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked as image.} +handle-as-image
7272 -block-as-image = -block
7274 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
7275 # certain types of sites:
7277 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer
7278 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
7280 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
7282 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
7284 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
7285 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
7286 handle-as-text = -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> +-<link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{text/plain}</link> +-<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link></screen>
7291 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
7292 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
7293 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
7294 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
7295 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
7296 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
7301 { allow-all-cookies }
7305 .redhat.com</screen>
7309 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
7314 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
7315 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
7319 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
7324 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
7325 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
7330 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
7331 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
7333 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
7337 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
7338 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
7339 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
7340 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
7341 <literal>{ +block{} }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
7342 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
7343 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
7344 in default.action anyway:
7349 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link>{Nasty ads.} }
7350 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
7351 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
7355 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
7356 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
7357 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
7358 the file type just by looking at the URL.
7359 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
7361 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
7362 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
7363 browser. Use cautiously.
7372 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
7376 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
7377 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
7378 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
7379 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
7380 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
7381 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
7382 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
7383 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
7384 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
7392 .mybank.com</screen>
7396 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
7397 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
7398 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
7399 update-safe config, once and for all:
7404 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
7405 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
7409 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
7410 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
7411 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
7412 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
7413 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
7417 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
7418 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
7419 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
7420 sites that you feel provide value to you:
7432 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
7433 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
7434 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
7435 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
7439 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
7440 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
7441 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
7442 it should I choose to.
7452 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
7453 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
7454 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
7455 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
7456 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
7457 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
7463 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
7464 / # ALL sites</screen>
7470 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7474 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7476 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7478 <sect1 id="filter-file">
7479 <title>Filter Files</title>
7482 On-the-fly text substitutions need
7483 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
7484 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
7488 &my-app; supports three different filter actions:
7489 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
7490 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
7491 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
7492 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
7493 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
7494 to rewrite headers that are send by the server.
7498 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
7499 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
7501 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
7502 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the difference
7503 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
7504 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
7505 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
7510 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
7511 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
7512 as supplied by the developers are located in
7513 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
7514 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
7515 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
7519 Common tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
7520 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
7521 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
7522 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
7523 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
7524 or just to have fun.
7528 Enabled content filters are applied to any content whose
7529 <quote>Content Type</quote> header is recognised as a sign
7530 of text-based content, with the exception of <literal>text/plain</literal>.
7531 Use the <link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> action
7532 to also filter other content.
7536 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
7537 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
7538 and, of course, regular expressions.
7542 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
7543 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
7544 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
7545 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
7546 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
7547 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
7548 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
7549 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
7550 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
7551 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
7552 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7553 user interface</ulink>.
7557 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
7558 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
7559 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
7560 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
7564 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
7565 type, the filter name and the filter description.
7566 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
7571 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
7575 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
7576 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
7577 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
7578 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
7579 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
7580 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
7581 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
7582 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
7587 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
7588 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
7589 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
7590 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
7592 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
7593 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
7594 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
7595 expressions</ulink> in general.
7596 The below examples might also help to get you started.
7600 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7602 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
7604 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
7605 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
7606 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
7611 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
7615 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
7616 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
7617 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
7618 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
7622 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7626 Our complete filter now looks like this:
7629 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
7630 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7634 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
7635 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
7636 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
7642 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
7644 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
7646 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
7650 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
7651 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
7652 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
7653 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
7657 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
7658 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
7659 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
7660 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
7661 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
7665 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
7666 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
7667 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
7668 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
7669 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
7670 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
7671 in the page (and appear in that order).
7675 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
7676 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
7677 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
7678 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
7679 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
7683 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
7684 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
7685 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
7686 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
7687 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
7688 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
7689 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
7690 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
7691 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
7692 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
7693 substitution is global.
7697 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
7698 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
7699 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
7700 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
7701 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
7705 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
7706 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
7707 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
7708 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
7709 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
7710 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
7711 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
7712 Business!"</literal>.
7716 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
7717 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
7718 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
7719 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
7720 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
7721 information anymore.
7725 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
7726 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
7731 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
7733 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
7737 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
7738 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
7739 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
7740 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
7741 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
7742 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
7743 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
7744 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
7745 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
7749 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
7750 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
7751 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
7752 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
7753 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
7754 you move your mouse over links.
7759 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
7761 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
7766 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
7767 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
7768 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
7769 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
7770 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
7771 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
7772 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
7773 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
7774 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
7775 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
7780 The last example is from the fun department:
7785 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
7787 # Spice the daily news:
7789 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
7793 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
7794 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
7795 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
7796 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
7797 still replacing the word everywhere else.
7802 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
7804 s* industry[ -]leading \
7806 | customer[ -]focused \
7807 | market[ -]driven \
7808 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
7809 | high[ -]performance \
7810 | solutions[ -]based \
7814 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
7819 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
7820 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
7828 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7830 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
7834 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
7835 keep these listings in sync.
7840 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
7841 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
7846 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7849 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
7854 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
7855 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
7856 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
7861 removes the bindings to the DOM's
7862 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
7863 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
7864 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
7869 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
7870 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
7876 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
7877 rely heavily on JavaScript.
7883 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
7886 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
7887 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
7888 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
7891 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
7892 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
7899 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7902 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
7905 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
7906 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
7907 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
7908 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
7914 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
7917 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
7919 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
7920 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
7921 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
7922 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
7925 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
7926 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
7927 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
7928 use the cookie crunch actions.
7934 <term><emphasis>refresh-tags</emphasis></term>
7937 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
7938 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
7939 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
7946 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
7949 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
7950 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
7951 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
7952 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
7955 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
7956 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
7957 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
7958 restoring the function afterward.
7961 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
7962 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
7963 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
7969 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
7972 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
7973 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
7974 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
7975 usage. Use with caution.
7981 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
7984 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
7985 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
7986 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
7992 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
7995 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
7996 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
7997 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
8000 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
8001 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
8004 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
8005 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
8011 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
8014 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
8015 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
8016 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
8022 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
8025 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
8026 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
8027 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
8028 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
8029 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
8030 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
8031 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
8034 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
8040 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
8043 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
8044 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
8045 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
8046 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
8049 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
8055 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
8058 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
8059 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
8060 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
8066 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
8069 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
8070 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
8071 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
8072 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
8073 small to show their whole content.
8076 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
8083 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
8086 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
8087 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
8088 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
8091 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
8092 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
8093 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
8094 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
8095 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
8098 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
8099 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
8100 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
8107 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
8110 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
8111 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
8119 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
8122 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
8123 prevents saving, is disabled.
8129 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
8132 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
8133 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
8139 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
8142 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
8143 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
8149 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
8152 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
8153 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
8156 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
8157 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
8163 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
8166 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
8167 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
8170 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
8171 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
8172 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
8173 anything regarding this filter.
8179 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
8182 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
8183 and the toolbar advertisement.
8189 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
8192 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
8193 a width limitation as well.
8199 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
8202 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
8203 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
8209 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
8212 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
8215 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
8216 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
8217 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
8218 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
8224 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
8227 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
8233 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
8236 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
8242 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
8245 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
8246 anchor and area HTML tags.
8252 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
8255 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
8256 found in Host and Referer headers.
8259 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
8260 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
8261 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
8262 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
8265 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
8266 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
8267 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
8268 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
8271 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
8272 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
8273 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
8276 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
8277 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
8278 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
8279 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
8280 the request is coming from.
8287 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
8301 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8305 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8307 <sect1 id="templates">
8308 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
8310 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
8311 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
8312 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
8313 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
8315 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
8316 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
8317 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
8322 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
8323 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
8325 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
8329 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
8330 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. It
8331 is possible to edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want
8332 to customize them. (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual
8333 user</emphasis>). Should you create your own custom templates, you should use
8334 the <filename>config</filename> setting <link linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
8335 to specify an alternate location, so your templates do not get overwritten
8339 Note that just like in configuration files, lines starting
8340 with <literal>#</literal> are ignored when the templates are filled in.
8344 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
8345 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
8346 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
8347 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
8348 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
8352 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
8353 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
8354 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
8355 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
8356 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
8361 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
8363 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
8365 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
8369 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
8370 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
8371 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
8375 <screen><!-- --></screen>
8379 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
8380 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
8385 All templates refer to a style located at
8386 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
8387 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
8388 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
8389 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
8394 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8398 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8400 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
8403 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
8405 <!-- end boilerplate -->
8409 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8412 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8413 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
8415 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
8417 <!-- end copyright -->
8419 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8420 <sect2><title>License</title>
8421 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
8423 <!-- end copyright -->
8425 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8428 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8430 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
8431 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
8433 <!-- end history -->
8436 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
8437 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
8439 <!-- end authors -->
8444 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8447 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8448 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
8449 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
8451 <!-- end seealso -->
8456 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8457 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
8460 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8462 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
8464 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
8465 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
8466 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
8467 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
8470 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
8472 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
8476 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
8477 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
8478 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
8479 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
8483 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
8484 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
8485 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
8486 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
8487 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
8488 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
8489 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
8490 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
8494 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
8495 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
8496 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
8497 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
8498 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
8499 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
8500 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
8501 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
8505 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
8506 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
8507 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
8508 and then some examples:
8513 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
8514 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
8516 </simplelist></para>
8520 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
8523 </simplelist></para>
8527 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
8530 </simplelist></para>
8534 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
8537 </simplelist></para>
8541 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
8542 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
8543 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
8544 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
8545 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
8546 meta-character meaning of any single character).
8548 </simplelist></para>
8552 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
8553 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
8554 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
8555 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
8557 </simplelist></para>
8561 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
8562 or multiple sub-expressions.
8564 </simplelist></para>
8568 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
8569 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
8570 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
8571 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
8572 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
8573 example</quote>, and nothing else.
8575 </simplelist></para>
8578 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
8579 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
8580 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
8581 be more illuminating:
8585 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
8586 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
8587 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
8588 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
8589 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
8590 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
8591 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
8592 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
8593 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
8594 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
8595 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
8596 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
8597 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
8598 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
8603 And now something a little more complex:
8607 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
8608 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
8609 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
8610 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
8611 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
8612 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
8613 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
8618 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
8619 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
8620 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
8621 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
8622 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
8623 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
8624 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
8625 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
8626 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
8627 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
8628 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
8629 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
8630 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
8631 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
8632 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
8633 changing our regular expression to:
8634 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
8639 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
8640 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
8641 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
8642 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
8643 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
8644 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
8645 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
8646 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
8647 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
8648 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
8649 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
8650 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
8651 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
8652 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
8653 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
8654 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
8655 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
8656 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
8657 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
8658 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
8659 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
8660 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
8661 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
8662 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
8663 in the expression anywhere).
8667 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
8668 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
8669 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
8670 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
8671 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
8676 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
8677 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
8681 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
8682 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
8687 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8690 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8692 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
8695 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
8696 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
8697 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
8698 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
8699 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
8700 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
8701 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
8707 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
8708 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
8709 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
8710 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
8723 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
8727 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
8728 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
8729 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
8735 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
8736 editing of actions files:
8740 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
8747 Show the source code version numbers:
8751 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
8758 Show the browser's request headers:
8762 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
8769 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
8773 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8780 Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
8781 <filename>config</filename> file. When toggled <quote>off</quote>, <quote>Privoxy</quote>
8782 continues to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking
8787 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
8791 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
8795 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
8800 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
8809 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
8813 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
8814 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
8816 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
8817 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8818 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
8819 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
8820 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
8821 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
8824 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
8825 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
8826 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
8827 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
8828 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
8829 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
8838 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>
8845 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>
8852 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)
8859 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>
8865 <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>
8871 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
8878 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
8879 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
8880 have more information about bookmarklets.
8889 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8891 <title>Chain of Events</title>
8893 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8894 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
8895 page is requested by your browser:
8902 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
8903 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
8904 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
8910 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
8911 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
8916 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
8918 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
8919 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
8920 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
8922 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
8923 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
8924 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
8925 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
8926 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
8927 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
8928 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
8933 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
8934 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
8939 If the URL pattern matches the <link
8940 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
8941 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
8946 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
8947 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
8948 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
8949 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
8955 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
8961 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
8962 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
8963 filtered as determined by the
8964 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
8965 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
8966 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
8972 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8974 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8975 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
8976 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
8977 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
8978 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
8979 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
8980 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
8981 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
8982 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
8985 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8987 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8988 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
8989 to the client browser as it becomes available.
8994 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
8995 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
8996 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
8997 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
8998 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
8999 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
9000 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
9001 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
9002 differing set of actions is triggered.
9009 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
9010 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
9011 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
9017 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
9018 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
9019 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
9022 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
9023 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
9024 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
9025 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
9026 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
9027 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
9028 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
9029 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
9030 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
9035 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
9036 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
9037 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
9038 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
9039 logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
9040 enabled via <filename>config</filename> file settings, and may need to be
9041 turned <quote>on</quote>.)
9044 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
9045 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
9046 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
9047 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
9048 configuration issue.
9052 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
9053 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
9054 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
9055 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
9059 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
9060 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
9061 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
9062 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
9063 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
9064 one of the filter files since this is handled very
9065 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
9066 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
9067 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
9068 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
9069 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
9070 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
9071 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
9076 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
9077 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
9078 configuration may vary):
9083 Matches for http://www.google.com:
9085 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
9087 {+change-x-forwarded-for{block}
9088 +deanimate-gifs {last}
9089 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
9090 +filter {refresh-tags}
9091 +filter {img-reorder}
9092 +filter {banners-by-size}
9094 +filter {jumping-windows}
9095 +filter {ie-exploits}
9096 +hide-from-header {block}
9097 +hide-referrer {forge}
9098 +session-cookies-only
9099 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
9102 { -session-cookies-only }
9108 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
9109 (no matches in this file)
9114 This is telling us how we have defined our
9115 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
9116 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
9117 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
9118 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
9119 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
9120 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
9121 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
9125 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
9126 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
9127 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
9128 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
9129 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
9130 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
9134 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
9135 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
9136 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
9137 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
9138 cookie setting, which was for <link
9139 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
9140 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
9141 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
9142 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
9143 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
9144 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
9145 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
9146 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
9147 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
9148 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
9149 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
9150 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
9151 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
9155 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
9156 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
9157 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
9158 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
9159 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
9160 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
9164 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
9165 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
9166 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
9177 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
9178 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
9179 -content-type-overwrite
9180 -crunch-client-header
9181 -crunch-if-none-match
9182 -crunch-incoming-cookies
9183 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
9184 -crunch-server-header
9185 +deanimate-gifs {last}
9186 -downgrade-http-version
9189 -filter {content-cookies}
9190 -filter {all-popups}
9191 -filter {banners-by-link}
9192 -filter {tiny-textforms}
9193 -filter {frameset-borders}
9194 -filter {demoronizer}
9195 -filter {shockwave-flash}
9196 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
9198 -filter {crude-parental}
9199 -filter {site-specifics}
9200 -filter {js-annoyances}
9201 -filter {html-annoyances}
9202 +filter {refresh-tags}
9203 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
9204 +filter {img-reorder}
9205 +filter {banners-by-size}
9207 +filter {jumping-windows}
9208 +filter {ie-exploits}
9215 -handle-as-empty-document
9217 -hide-accept-language
9218 -hide-content-disposition
9219 +hide-from-header {block}
9220 -hide-if-modified-since
9221 +hide-referrer {forge}
9224 -overwrite-last-modified
9225 -prevent-compression
9227 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
9228 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
9229 -session-cookies-only
9230 +set-image-blocker {pattern} </screen>
9234 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
9235 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
9236 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
9237 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
9241 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
9247 { +block{Domains starts with "ad"} }
9250 { +block{Domain contains "ad"} }
9253 { +block{Doubleclick banner server} +handle-as-image }
9254 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
9259 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
9260 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block{}</quote> sections,
9261 and a <quote>+block{} +handle-as-image</quote>,
9262 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
9263 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
9264 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
9265 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
9270 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
9271 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
9272 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
9273 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
9274 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
9275 is done here -- as both a <link
9276 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block{}</quote></link>
9277 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
9278 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
9279 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
9280 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
9284 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
9285 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
9291 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
9293 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
9297 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
9298 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
9299 -content-type-overwrite
9300 -crunch-client-header
9301 -crunch-if-none-match
9302 -crunch-incoming-cookies
9303 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
9304 -crunch-server-header
9306 -downgrade-http-version
9307 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
9309 -filter {content-cookies}
9310 -filter {all-popups}
9311 -filter {banners-by-link}
9312 -filter {tiny-textforms}
9313 -filter {frameset-borders}
9314 -filter {demoronizer}
9315 -filter {shockwave-flash}
9316 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
9318 -filter {crude-parental}
9319 -filter {site-specifics}
9320 -filter {js-annoyances}
9321 -filter {html-annoyances}
9322 +filter {refresh-tags}
9323 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
9324 +filter {img-reorder}
9325 +filter {banners-by-size}
9327 +filter {jumping-windows}
9328 +filter {ie-exploits}
9335 -handle-as-empty-document
9337 -hide-accept-language
9338 -hide-content-disposition
9339 +hide-from-header{block}
9340 +hide-referer{forge}
9342 -overwrite-last-modified
9343 +prevent-compression
9345 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
9346 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
9347 +session-cookies-only
9348 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
9351 { +block{Path contains "ads".} +handle-as-image }
9357 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
9358 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
9359 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
9360 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
9361 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
9362 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
9363 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
9364 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
9365 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
9366 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
9367 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
9379 Now the page displays ;-)
9380 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
9381 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
9382 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
9386 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
9393 { +block{Path starts with "ads".} +handle-as-image }
9399 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
9400 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
9401 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
9402 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
9403 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
9404 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
9405 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
9406 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
9407 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
9415 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
9423 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
9424 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
9425 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
9433 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
9441 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
9442 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
9443 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
9444 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
9445 automatically in the scope of the action.
9449 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
9450 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
9452 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
9453 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
9457 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
9458 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
9459 last resort for problem sites.
9465 # Handle with care: easy to break
9467 mybank.example.com</screen>
9472 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
9473 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
9474 <quote>.com</quote>). This will effectively match any TLD with
9475 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de.</literal>,
9479 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
9480 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
9489 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
9490 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
9491 Public License as published by the Free Software
9492 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
9493 your option) any later version.
9495 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
9496 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
9497 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
9498 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
9499 License for more details.
9501 The GNU General Public License should be included with
9502 this file. If not, you can view it at
9503 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
9504 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
9505 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,
9508 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
9509 Revision 2.149 2012/04/22 12:15:53 fabiankeil
9510 Use another client-header-tagger{} example: disable filtering for range requests
9512 Revision 2.148 2012/03/18 15:41:49 fabiankeil
9513 Bump entities to 3.0.20 UNRELEASED
9515 Revision 2.147 2012/03/11 19:03:42 diem
9516 Updated user manual to refer to both packaged and source install options for OS X
9518 Revision 2.146 2011/12/26 17:05:40 fabiankeil
9519 Bump entities for 3.0.19
9521 Revision 2.145 2011/12/26 17:04:19 fabiankeil
9522 Import ChangeLog entries for 3.0.19, keeping the ones for 3.0.18 for now
9524 Revision 2.144 2011/12/26 17:01:29 fabiankeil
9525 Try to be less misleading in the downgrade-http-version description
9527 Revision 2.143 2011/11/20 17:16:36 fabiankeil
9528 Last minute ChangeLog changes that didn't make it into the tarball
9530 Revision 2.142 2011/11/20 12:43:38 fabiankeil
9531 Update ChangeLog. Once more, with feeling.
9533 Revision 2.141 2011/11/20 12:41:22 fabiankeil
9534 Document the +fast-redirects{} HTTP response splitting fix
9536 Revision 2.140 2011/11/19 15:18:02 fabiankeil
9539 Revision 2.139 2011/11/18 16:49:29 fabiankeil
9542 Revision 2.138 2011/11/13 17:03:54 fabiankeil
9543 Bump entities for 3.0.18 stable
9545 Revision 2.137 2011/11/13 17:02:59 fabiankeil
9546 Import the first ChangeLog draft for 3.0.18 stable
9548 Revision 2.136 2011/10/14 16:53:10 fabiankeil
9549 Clarify the effect of compiling Privoxy with zlib support
9551 Suggested by dg1727 in #3423782.
9553 zlib support has been available for years now,
9554 so drop the reference to Privoxy 3.0.7
9556 Revision 2.135 2011/09/04 11:10:12 fabiankeil
9557 Ditch trailing whitespace
9559 Revision 2.134 2011/08/18 11:45:02 fabiankeil
9560 Don't use unspecified MSN sites as examples for User-Agent-based descrimination
9562 Without knowing the URLs, nobody can easily verify it and it could
9563 be mistaken as FUD. I also assume that it's no longer an issue anyway.
9565 Revision 2.133 2011/08/18 11:42:50 fabiankeil
9566 Bump some more documentation copyright ranges.
9568 Revision 2.132 2011/08/17 10:40:07 fabiankeil
9569 Update the entities.
9571 This commit is chronological out of order.
9573 Revision 2.131 2011/04/19 13:14:10 fabiankeil
9574 Fix spelling errors in the documentation. Found with codespell.
9576 Revision 2.130 2010/12/01 19:28:28 fabiankeil
9577 Hopefully unbreak the dok target when using some kind of jade.
9581 Revision 2.129 2010/11/13 20:17:11 fabiankeil
9582 Merge ChangeLog updates
9584 Revision 2.128 2010/11/10 22:00:13 fabiankeil
9585 Update the first paragraph of the 'What's New' section.
9587 Revision 2.127 2010/11/10 21:48:54 fabiankeil
9588 Update the "What's New" section.
9590 Revision 2.126 2010/11/06 12:55:48 fabiankeil
9591 Set p-version to 3.0.17
9593 Revision 2.125 2010/09/03 17:39:37 fabiankeil
9594 Slightly improve the explanation of why filtering may appear slower than it is.
9596 Revision 2.124 2010/05/01 18:21:30 fabiankeil
9597 Explicitly mention how to match any URL.
9599 Revision 2.123 2010/02/19 16:00:38 fabiankeil
9602 Revision 2.122 2010/02/19 15:22:47 fabiankeil
9605 Revision 2.121 2010/02/15 15:30:13 fabiankeil
9606 Mention the use of the no-such-domain template for DNS problems with FEATURE_IPV6_SUPPORT enabled.
9608 Revision 2.120 2010/02/13 17:38:39 fabiankeil
9609 Update entities for 3.0.16 stable.
9611 Revision 2.119 2010/02/13 16:37:37 fabiankeil
9612 Update 'What's new?' section.
9614 Revision 2.118 2010/02/11 13:59:48 fabiankeil
9615 Mention that the headers added by the add-header action aren't modified by other actions.
9617 Revision 2.117 2010/01/11 12:56:04 fabiankeil
9618 Bump copyright range as p-config.sgml's copyright line is only used in the config file.
9620 Revision 2.116 2009/11/15 14:24:12 fabiankeil
9621 Prepare to generate docs for 3.0.16 UNRELEASED.
9623 Revision 2.115 2009/10/10 06:19:34 fabiankeil
9624 Ditch a duplicated 'since'.
9626 Revision 2.114 2009/10/10 05:51:48 fabiankeil
9627 Update "What's new" section.
9629 Revision 2.113 2009/10/10 05:48:55 fabiankeil
9630 Prepare for 3.0.15 beta.
9632 Revision 2.112 2009/07/24 12:20:30 fabiankeil
9633 Remove duplicated period.
9635 Revision 2.111 2009/07/18 18:11:11 fabiankeil
9636 Don't claim that NTLM should work when there are multiple reports that it doesn't.
9638 Revision 2.110 2009/07/18 16:25:17 fabiankeil
9639 Fix trailing whitespace.
9641 Revision 2.109 2009/07/18 16:24:39 fabiankeil
9642 Bump entities for 3.0.14 beta.
9644 Revision 2.108 2009/07/18 15:49:23 fabiankeil
9645 Add most of the changes in 3.0.14 to the "What's New" section.
9647 Revision 2.107 2009/06/12 14:30:58 fabiankeil
9648 Update entities for 3.0.13 beta.
9650 Revision 2.106 2009/06/12 11:04:13 fabiankeil
9651 Import ChangeLog for 3.0.13 beta.
9653 Revision 2.105 2009/04/17 11:32:57 fabiankeil
9654 Grammar and spelling fixes.
9656 Revision 2.104 2009/04/17 11:27:49 fabiankeil
9657 Petr Pisar's privoxy-3.0.12-ipv6-3.diff.
9659 Revision 2.103 2009/03/21 10:49:05 fabiankeil
9660 Merge updated ChangeLog.
9662 Revision 2.102 2009/03/15 19:31:36 fabiankeil
9663 Update "What's New in this Release" section.
9665 Revision 2.101 2009/02/25 19:01:56 fabiankeil
9668 Revision 2.100 2009/02/19 17:14:11 fabiankeil
9669 - Copy the release cycle description from announce.txt into
9670 the "What's New" section.
9671 - Stop referring to the ChangeLog for a "complete list of changes".
9672 The "What's New" section already contains the complete list.
9674 Revision 2.99 2009/02/19 02:20:22 hal9
9675 Make some links in seealso conditional. Man page is now privoxy only links.
9677 Revision 2.98 2009/02/16 17:10:33 fabiankeil
9678 Fix entry about shortened log messages. Noticed by Lee.
9680 Revision 2.97 2009/02/14 18:01:00 fabiankeil
9683 Revision 2.96 2009/02/14 13:14:03 fabiankeil
9686 Revision 2.95 2009/02/14 12:51:26 fabiankeil
9687 Mention match-all.action in the "Actions Files Tutorial" section.
9689 Revision 2.94 2009/02/14 11:50:31 fabiankeil
9690 Some indentation fixes.
9692 Revision 2.93 2009/02/14 10:14:42 fabiankeil
9693 Mention match-all.action in the action file descriptions.
9695 Revision 2.92 2009/02/12 16:08:26 fabiankeil
9696 Declare the code stable.
9698 Revision 2.91 2009/01/13 16:50:35 fabiankeil
9699 The standard.action file is gone.
9701 Revision 2.90 2008/09/26 16:53:09 fabiankeil
9702 Update "What's new" section.
9704 Revision 2.89 2008/09/21 15:38:56 fabiankeil
9705 Fix Portage tree sync instructions in Gentoo section.
9706 Anonymously reported at ijbswa-developers@.
9708 Revision 2.88 2008/09/21 14:42:52 fabiankeil
9709 Add documentation for change-x-forwarded-for{},
9710 remove documentation for hide-forwarded-for-headers.
9712 Revision 2.87 2008/08/30 15:37:35 fabiankeil
9715 Revision 2.86 2008/08/16 10:12:23 fabiankeil
9716 Merge two sentences and move the URL to the end of the item.
9718 Revision 2.85 2008/08/16 10:04:59 fabiankeil
9719 Some more syntax fixes. This version actually builds.
9721 Revision 2.84 2008/08/16 09:42:45 fabiankeil
9722 Turns out building docs works better if the syntax is valid.
9724 Revision 2.83 2008/08/16 09:32:02 fabiankeil
9725 Mention changes since 3.0.9 beta.
9727 Revision 2.82 2008/08/16 09:00:52 fabiankeil
9728 Fix example URL pattern (once more with feeling).
9730 Revision 2.81 2008/08/16 08:51:28 fabiankeil
9731 Update version-related entities.
9733 Revision 2.80 2008/07/18 16:54:30 fabiankeil
9734 Remove erroneous whitespace in documentation link.
9735 Reported by John Chronister in #2021611.
9737 Revision 2.79 2008/06/27 18:00:53 markm68k
9738 remove outdated startup information for mac os x
9740 Revision 2.78 2008/06/21 17:03:03 fabiankeil
9743 Revision 2.77 2008/06/14 13:45:22 fabiankeil
9744 Re-add a colon I unintentionally removed a few revisions ago.
9746 Revision 2.76 2008/06/14 13:21:28 fabiankeil
9747 Prepare for the upcoming 3.0.9 beta release.
9749 Revision 2.75 2008/06/13 16:06:48 fabiankeil
9750 Update the "What's New in this Release" section with
9751 the ChangeLog entries changelog2doc.pl could handle.
9753 Revision 2.74 2008/05/26 15:55:46 fabiankeil
9754 - Update "default profiles" table.
9755 - Add some more pcrs redirect examples and note that
9756 enabling debug 128 helps to get redirects working.
9758 Revision 2.73 2008/05/23 14:43:18 fabiankeil
9759 Remove previously out-commented block that caused syntax problems.
9761 Revision 2.72 2008/05/12 10:26:14 fabiankeil
9762 Synchronize content filter descriptions with the ones in default.filter.
9764 Revision 2.71 2008/04/10 17:37:16 fabiankeil
9765 Actually we use "modern" POSIX 1003.2 regular
9766 expressions in path patterns, not PCRE.
9768 Revision 2.70 2008/04/10 15:59:12 fabiankeil
9769 Add another section to the client-header-tagger example that shows
9770 how to actually change the action settings once the tag is created.
9772 Revision 2.69 2008/03/29 12:14:25 fabiankeil
9773 Remove send-wafer and send-vanilla-wafer actions.
9775 Revision 2.68 2008/03/28 15:13:43 fabiankeil
9776 Remove inspect-jpegs action.
9778 Revision 2.67 2008/03/27 18:31:21 fabiankeil
9779 Remove kill-popups action.
9781 Revision 2.66 2008/03/06 16:33:47 fabiankeil
9782 If limit-connect isn't used, don't limit CONNECT requests to port 443.
9784 Revision 2.65 2008/03/04 18:30:40 fabiankeil
9785 Remove the treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks action. We now
9786 use the "blocked" page for forbidden CONNECT requests by default.
9788 Revision 2.64 2008/03/01 14:10:28 fabiankeil
9789 Use new block syntax. Still needs some polishing.
9791 Revision 2.63 2008/02/22 05:50:37 markm68k
9794 Revision 2.62 2008/02/11 11:52:23 hal9
9795 Fix entity ... s/&/&
9797 Revision 2.61 2008/02/11 03:41:47 markm68k
9798 more updates for mac os x
9800 Revision 2.60 2008/02/11 03:40:25 markm68k
9801 more updates for mac os x
9803 Revision 2.59 2008/02/11 00:52:34 markm68k
9804 reflect new changes for mac os x
9806 Revision 2.58 2008/02/03 21:37:40 hal9
9807 Apply patch from Mark: s/OSX/OS X/
9809 Revision 2.57 2008/02/03 19:10:14 fabiankeil
9810 Mention forward-socks5.
9812 Revision 2.56 2008/01/31 19:11:35 fabiankeil
9813 Let the +client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} example apply
9814 to all requests as "tainted" Referers aren't limited to exit TLDs.
9816 Revision 2.55 2008/01/19 21:26:37 hal9
9817 Add IE7 to configuration section per Gerry.
9819 Revision 2.54 2008/01/19 17:52:39 hal9
9820 Re-commit to fix various minor issues for new release.
9822 Revision 2.53 2008/01/19 15:03:05 hal9
9823 Doc sources tagged for 3.0.8 release.
9825 Revision 2.52 2008/01/17 01:49:51 hal9
9826 Change copyright notice for docs s/2007/2008/. All these will be rebuilt soon
9829 Revision 2.51 2007/12/23 16:48:24 fabiankeil
9830 Use more precise example descriptions for the mysterious domain patterns.
9832 Revision 2.50 2007/12/08 12:44:36 fabiankeil
9833 - Remove already commented out pre-3.0.7 changes.
9834 - Update the "new log defaults" paragraph.
9836 Revision 2.49 2007/12/06 18:21:55 fabiankeil
9837 Update hide-forwarded-for-headers description.
9839 Revision 2.48 2007/11/24 19:07:17 fabiankeil
9840 - Mention request rewriting.
9841 - Enable the conditional-forge paragraph.
9844 Revision 2.47 2007/11/18 14:59:47 fabiankeil
9845 A few "Note to Upgraders" updates.
9847 Revision 2.46 2007/11/17 17:24:44 fabiankeil
9848 - Use new action defaults.
9849 - Minor fixes and rewordings.
9851 Revision 2.45 2007/11/16 11:48:46 hal9
9852 Fix one typo, and add a couple of small refinements.
9854 Revision 2.44 2007/11/15 03:30:20 hal9
9855 Results of spell check.
9857 Revision 2.43 2007/11/14 18:45:39 fabiankeil
9858 - Mention some more contributors in the "New in this Release" list.
9861 Revision 2.42 2007/11/12 03:32:40 hal9
9862 Updates for "What's New" and "Notes to Upgraders". Various other changes in
9863 preparation for new release. User Manual is almost ready.
9865 Revision 2.41 2007/11/11 16:32:11 hal9
9866 This is primarily syncing What's New and Note to Upgraders sections with the many
9867 new features and changes (gleaned from memory but mostly from ChangeLog).
9869 Revision 2.40 2007/11/10 17:10:59 fabiankeil
9870 In the first third of the file, mention several times that
9871 the action editor is disabled by default in 3.0.7 beta and later.
9873 Revision 2.39 2007/11/05 02:34:49 hal9
9874 Various changes in preparation for the upcoming release. Much yet to be done.
9876 Revision 2.38 2007/09/22 16:01:42 fabiankeil
9877 Update embedded show-url-info output.
9879 Revision 2.37 2007/08/27 16:09:55 fabiankeil
9880 Fix pre-chroot-nslookup description which I failed to
9881 copy and paste properly. Reported by Stephen Gildea.
9883 Revision 2.36 2007/08/26 16:47:14 fabiankeil
9884 Add Stephen Gildea's pre-chroot-nslookup patch [#1276666],
9885 extensive comments moved to user manual.
9887 Revision 2.35 2007/08/26 14:59:49 fabiankeil
9888 Minor rewordings and fixes.
9890 Revision 2.34 2007/08/05 15:19:50 fabiankeil
9891 - Don't claim HTTP/1.1 compliance.
9892 - Use $ in some of the path pattern examples.
9893 - Use a hide-user-agent example argument without
9894 leading and trailing space.
9895 - Make it clear that the cookie actions work with
9897 - Rephrase the inspect-jpegs text to underline
9898 that it's only meant to protect against a single
9901 Revision 2.33 2007/07/27 10:57:35 hal9
9902 Add references for user-agent strings for hide-user-agenet
9904 Revision 2.32 2007/06/07 12:36:22 fabiankeil
9905 Apply Roland's 29_usermanual.dpatch to fix a bunch
9906 of syntax errors I collected over the last months.
9908 Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil
9909 Start to document forward-override{}.
9911 Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil
9912 - Describe installation for FreeBSD.
9913 - Start to document taggers and tag patterns.
9914 - Don't confuse devils and daemons.
9916 Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil
9917 Some updates regarding header filtering,
9918 handling of compressed content and redirect's
9919 support for pcrs commands.
9921 Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9
9922 Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks.
9924 Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9
9925 Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user
9928 Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9
9931 Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9
9932 Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off
9933 compression to make filters work on all sites.
9935 Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9
9936 More references to the new filters. Include html this time around.
9938 Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9
9939 Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous
9942 Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9
9943 Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless
9944 something changes this should be ready for pending release.
9946 Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt
9947 Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin!
9949 Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9
9950 Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file
9953 Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil
9954 Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values
9955 to reflect the recent changes.
9957 Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9
9959 -Fix a number of broken links.
9960 -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as
9962 -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities.
9965 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
9966 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
9968 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
9969 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
9971 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
9972 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
9973 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
9974 and proof reading left to do.
9976 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
9977 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
9978 files, and assorted other minor changes.
9980 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
9981 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
9982 stubbed in. More to be done.
9984 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
9985 Documented new actions that were part of
9986 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
9988 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
9989 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
9990 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
9992 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
9995 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
9996 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
9998 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
10001 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
10002 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
10003 is dependent on browser.
10005 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
10006 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
10008 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
10009 Some minor clarifications
10011 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
10012 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
10013 and copyright notice dates.
10015 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
10016 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
10018 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
10019 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
10021 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
10022 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
10024 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
10025 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
10026 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
10028 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
10029 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
10032 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
10033 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
10035 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
10036 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
10038 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
10039 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
10041 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
10042 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
10043 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
10046 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
10047 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
10049 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
10050 Added documentation for new chroot option
10052 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
10053 Adapted to the new filters
10055 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
10056 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
10057 Add faq on cookies.
10059 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
10060 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
10062 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
10063 Add demoronizer to filter section.
10065 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
10066 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
10068 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
10069 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
10070 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
10072 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
10073 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
10075 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
10076 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
10079 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
10080 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
10082 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
10083 Update to Mac OS X startup script name
10085 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
10086 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
10088 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
10089 Nits re: actions file download
10091 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
10092 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
10094 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
10095 Added 2 Gentoo sections
10097 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
10098 - Added version info to title
10099 - Added info on new filters
10100 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
10101 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
10103 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
10104 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
10106 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
10108 Updated Mac OS X sections due to installation location change
10110 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
10111 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
10113 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
10114 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
10116 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
10117 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
10119 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
10120 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
10121 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
10122 so that these are in sync with each other.
10124 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
10125 Ooops missed something from David.
10127 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
10128 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and Mac OS X startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
10129 That's a wrap, I think.
10131 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
10132 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
10134 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
10135 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
10137 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
10138 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
10139 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
10141 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
10142 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
10144 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
10145 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
10146 <literal><link> style.
10147 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
10148 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
10149 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
10150 renders them red (bad in TOC).
10152 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
10153 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
10155 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
10156 Added Security hint
10158 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
10159 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
10160 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
10162 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
10163 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
10164 - Small changes to Regex appendix
10165 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
10167 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
10168 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
10170 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
10171 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
10173 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
10174 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
10176 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
10177 Extended and further commented the example actions files
10179 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
10180 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
10183 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
10186 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
10187 Restored alphabetical order of actions
10189 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
10190 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
10192 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
10193 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
10195 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
10196 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
10197 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
10199 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
10200 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
10201 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
10202 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
10204 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
10205 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
10207 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
10210 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
10211 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
10212 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
10214 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
10215 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
10217 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
10218 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
10219 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
10221 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
10222 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
10224 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
10225 more structure in starting section
10227 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
10228 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
10229 will probably break links elsewhere :(
10231 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
10232 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
10233 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
10235 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
10236 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
10237 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
10239 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
10240 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
10242 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
10243 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
10244 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
10246 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
10247 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
10248 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
10250 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
10251 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
10253 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
10254 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
10256 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
10257 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
10259 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
10260 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
10262 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
10263 Updated Mac OS X installation section
10264 Added a few English tweaks here an there
10266 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
10267 Re-write actions section.
10269 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
10270 Fix ugly typo (mine).
10272 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
10273 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
10275 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
10276 Added RPM install detail
10278 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
10281 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
10282 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
10284 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
10285 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
10287 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
10288 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
10290 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
10291 Proofreading part 2
10293 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
10294 Proofreading, part one
10296 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
10297 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
10298 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
10300 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
10301 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
10303 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
10304 Add small section on submitting actions.
10306 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
10309 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
10310 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
10312 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
10313 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
10315 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
10318 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
10319 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
10320 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
10321 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
10322 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
10324 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
10325 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
10327 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
10328 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
10330 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
10331 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
10332 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
10333 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
10334 eventually be set by Makefile.
10335 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
10337 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
10338 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
10340 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
10341 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
10343 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
10344 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
10346 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
10347 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
10348 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
10349 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
10351 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
10354 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
10355 Added more to Anatomy section.
10357 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
10358 Touch up intro for new name.
10360 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
10361 we have a new homepage!
10363 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
10364 A few minor catch ups with name change.
10366 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
10367 configure needs to be generated.
10369 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
10370 we are too lazy to make a block-built
10371 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
10373 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
10374 name change related issue.
10376 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
10377 name change. changed filenames.
10379 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
10382 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
10383 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
10384 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
10385 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
10386 comments and remarks to history untouched.
10388 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
10391 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
10392 New section in Appendix.
10394 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
10395 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
10397 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
10398 correct feedback channels
10400 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
10401 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
10403 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
10406 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
10407 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
10409 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
10410 Added imageblock{pattern}.
10412 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
10415 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
10416 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
10418 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
10419 provide correct feedback channels
10421 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
10422 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
10424 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
10425 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
10427 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
10428 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
10430 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
10431 Add new - - user option.
10433 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
10434 Added section on command line options.
10436 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
10437 Changed default port to 8118
10439 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
10440 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
10442 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
10443 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
10444 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
10447 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
10450 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
10451 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
10453 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
10454 Update OS/2 build section
10456 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
10457 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
10458 will work - no other changes are needed.
10460 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
10461 Added a very short section on Templates
10463 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
10464 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
10466 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
10467 Touch ups for *.action files.
10469 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
10472 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
10473 Updates for recent changes.
10475 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
10476 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
10478 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
10479 Correct 2 minor errors
10481 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
10482 *** empty log message ***
10484 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
10485 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
10487 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
10488 wrong url in documentation
10490 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
10491 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
10493 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
10494 Very minor changes.
10496 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
10499 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
10502 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
10503 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
10505 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
10506 Some additions, and re-arranging.
10508 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
10511 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
10512 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
10514 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
10517 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
10518 source files for junkbuster documentation
10520 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
10521 first proposal of a structure.
10523 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
10524 docs should have an author.
10526 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
10527 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.
projects / privoxy.git / blob