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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">
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14 <!entity p-version SYSTEM "doc_version.tmp">
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17 <!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
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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 -->
29 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
32 This file belongs into
33 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
35 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.9 2003/04/11 03:14:53 hal9 Exp $
37 Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
40 ========================================================================
41 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
42 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
43 ========================================================================
50 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
54 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
55 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
56 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
57 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
61 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.9 2003/04/11 03:14:53 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
65 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
66 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
67 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
68 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
75 <holder>Privoxy Developers</holder>
78 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
80 text goes here ........
92 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
93 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
94 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
100 The <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
101 install, configure and use <ulink
102 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
105 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
107 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
110 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
111 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
112 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
113 contact the developers.
117 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
123 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
124 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
126 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
127 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
128 and is mostly complete at this point.
129 Development of version 3.2 is just beginning,
130 and will include many significant changes and enhancements over
134 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
137 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
138 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
139 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
140 not many! Please find them!
144 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
145 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
147 In addition to <application>Internet Junkbuster's</application> traditional
148 features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
149 <application>Privoxy</application> provides new features<![%p-not-stable;[,
150 some of them currently under development]]>:
152 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
154 <!-- end boilerplate -->
159 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
162 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
163 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
166 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
167 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
168 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
169 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
174 Note: If you have a previous <application>Junkbuster</application> or
175 <application>Privoxy</application> installation on your system, you
176 will need to remove it. On some platforms, this may be done for you as part
177 of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform). In any case
178 <emphasis>be sure to backup your old configuration if it is valuable to
179 you.</emphasis> See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">note to
180 upgraders</link> section below.
183 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
184 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
186 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
189 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
190 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs</title>
193 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
194 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
195 of configuration files.
199 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
200 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
201 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
202 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods. Note that SuSE will
203 automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
207 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
208 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
209 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
213 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
214 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
215 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
216 automatically, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
220 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
221 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
223 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
224 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
229 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
230 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
233 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
234 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
235 in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in. We do not
236 use the registry of Windows.
240 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
241 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
244 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
245 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
246 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
250 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
251 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
254 First, make sure that no previous installations of
255 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
256 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
257 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
258 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
264 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
265 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
266 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
267 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
271 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
272 into will contain all of the configuration files.
276 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
277 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OSX</title>
279 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
280 from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
281 Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
282 <literal>Privoxy.pkg</literal>
283 and follow the installation process.
284 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the folder
285 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal>.
286 It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
287 starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
288 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
291 To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
292 <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> in the
293 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder.
294 Or, type this command in the Terminal:
298 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
302 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
306 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
307 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
309 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
310 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
311 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
312 remove this directory.
316 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
317 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
319 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
320 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
321 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
322 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
325 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
326 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
327 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
331 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
332 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
333 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
339 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
340 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
343 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
344 is to download the source tarball from our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project
349 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
350 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
351 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
352 CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
353 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
357 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
359 <!-- end boilerplate -->
362 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
363 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
365 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
366 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
367 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
368 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
373 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
374 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
375 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
376 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
380 In order not to loose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
381 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
382 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> for your
383 customization of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
384 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
392 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
394 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
395 <sect1 id="upgradersnote">
396 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
398 There are very significant changes from earlier
399 <application>Junkbuster</application> versions to the current
400 <application>Privoxy</application>. The number, names, syntax, and
401 purposes of configuration files have substantially changed.
402 <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> configuration
403 files will not migrate, <application>Junkbuster 2.9.x</application>
404 and <application>Privoxy</application> configurations will need to be
405 ported. The functionalities of the old <filename>blockfile</filename>,
406 <filename>cookiefile</filename> and <filename>imagelist</filename>
407 are now combined into the <link linkend="actions-file"><quote>actions
408 files</quote></link>.
409 <filename>default.action</filename>, is the main actions file. Local
410 exceptions should best be put into <filename>user.action</filename>.
413 A <link linkend="filter-file"><quote>filter file</quote></link> (typically
414 <filename>default.filter</filename>) is new as of <application>Privoxy
415 2.9.x</application>, and provides some of the new sophistication (explained
416 below). <filename>config</filename> is much the same as before.
419 If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
420 files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
421 When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
422 to the new actions files, please note that even the pattern syntax has
423 changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
424 recommended to use the new configuration files.
427 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
435 The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
441 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
442 important configuration files!
447 <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
448 at the special URL: <ulink
449 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
450 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
451 aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
452 <application>Privoxy</application>.
457 The primary configuration files for cookie management, ad and banner
458 blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
459 configuration are the <link linkend="actions-file">actions
460 files</link>. It is strongly recommended to become familiar with the new
461 actions concept below, before modifying these files. Locally defined rules
462 should go into <filename>user.action</filename>.
467 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
468 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
469 Some installers may not automatically start
470 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
478 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
479 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
485 If upgrading, from versions before 2.9.16, please back up any configuration
486 files. See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">Note to Upgraders</link> Section.
492 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
493 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
500 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
501 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
502 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
503 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
510 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
511 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
512 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
518 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
519 HTTPS (SSL) proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
520 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
521 (<application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions of
522 <application>Privoxy</application> used port 8000.) See the section <link
523 linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link> below
524 for more details on this.
530 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
531 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage cookies, you should
532 remove any currently stored cookies too.
538 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
539 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
540 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
541 to no initial configuration is required in most cases.
544 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
545 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
546 <![%draft;[ You might also want to look at the <link
547 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
548 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
555 If you experience ads that slipped through, innocent images that are
556 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
557 <application>Privoxy's</application> behaviour, take a look at the <link
558 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
559 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
560 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
561 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
562 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Anatomy of an
563 Action</link></quote> has hints how to debug actions that
564 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
570 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
571 Developers</link> on how to report bugs or problems with websites or to get
578 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy!
586 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
588 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
589 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
591 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
592 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
595 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
596 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
597 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
600 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
601 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
602 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
605 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
606 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
607 things that were not intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
608 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
609 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
610 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
611 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
612 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
613 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
614 habits and preferences.
617 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
618 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
619 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
620 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
621 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
622 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
623 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
624 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
625 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
626 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
629 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
630 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
631 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
632 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
633 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
636 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
637 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
638 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
639 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
640 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
641 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
642 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
643 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
644 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
649 The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: <literal><link
650 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
651 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>, and
652 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
660 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this action stops
661 any contact between your browser and any URL patterns that match this
662 action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads, but also anything
663 that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply stops any
664 communication with the remote server and sends <application>Privoxy</application>'s
665 own built-in BLOCKED page instead to let you now what has happened.
671 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
672 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
673 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
674 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
675 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
676 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
677 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
678 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
679 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
680 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
681 an entire HTML page in most situations.
688 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
689 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
690 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
691 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
692 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
693 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
696 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
700 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
701 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
706 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
707 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
712 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
713 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
722 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
723 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
724 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
725 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
726 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access. Select the
727 appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
728 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
729 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
730 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
731 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
732 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
733 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
737 A quick and simple step by step example:
745 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
746 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
754 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
759 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
760 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
763 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
765 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
768 <imagedata fileref="../images/files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
771 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
780 You should have a section with only
781 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
782 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
783 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
784 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
785 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
786 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
787 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
788 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
794 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
795 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
796 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
797 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
798 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
799 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
804 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
805 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
813 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
814 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
815 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
816 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
821 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
822 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
823 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
830 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
833 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
835 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
837 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
838 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
839 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is
840 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
841 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
844 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
845 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
848 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
850 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration (Mozilla)</title>
853 <imagedata fileref="../images/proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
856 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
863 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
864 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
868 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
869 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
870 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton>
872 <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton>
874 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton>
876 <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton>
878 <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
882 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>:
886 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
887 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
888 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton>
890 <guibutton>Internet Properties</guibutton>
892 <guibutton>Connections</guibutton>
894 <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
898 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
899 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
904 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
905 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
906 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
907 <application>Privoxy</application>!
911 <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
912 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
913 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
914 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
915 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
918 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
919 <title>Red Hat and Conectiva</title>
921 We use a script. Note that Red Hat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
922 default. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as
923 its main configuration file.
927 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
932 <sect2 id="start-debian">
933 <title>Debian</title>
935 We use a script. Note that Debian starts Privoxy upon booting per
936 default. It will use the file
937 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
942 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
947 <sect2 id="start-suse">
950 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
951 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
961 <sect2 id="start-windows">
962 <title>Windows</title>
964 Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy. If no configuration file is
965 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
966 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
967 automatically start Privoxy upon booting you PC.
971 <sect2 id="start-unices">
972 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
974 Example Unix startup command:
978 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
983 <sect2 id="start-os2">
986 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
987 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
988 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
989 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
993 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
994 <title>Mac OSX</title>
996 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
997 start automatically when the system restarts. To start Privoxy by hand,
998 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
999 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1004 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1008 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1013 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1014 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1016 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1017 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1018 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1019 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1020 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1021 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1022 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1026 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1027 <title>Gentoo</title>
1029 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1030 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1034 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1038 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1039 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1044 rc-update add privoxy default
1052 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1056 must find a better place for this paragraph
1059 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1060 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1061 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1062 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1063 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1064 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1068 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1069 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1070 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1071 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1072 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1073 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1074 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1075 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1076 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1080 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1081 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
1082 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
1084 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
1085 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1086 popups (explained below).
1090 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
1091 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
1092 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1093 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1094 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1095 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1096 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1097 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1098 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1102 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1103 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1104 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1105 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1106 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1107 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1108 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1109 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1110 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1114 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1115 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1116 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1117 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1118 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1119 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1120 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1124 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1125 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1126 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1127 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1128 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1129 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1134 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1135 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1136 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1141 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1142 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1143 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1144 Developers</quote></link> below.
1149 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1150 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1151 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1153 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1154 command-line options:
1162 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1165 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1170 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1173 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1178 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1181 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1182 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1187 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1191 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1192 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1193 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1194 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1199 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1203 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1204 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1205 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1210 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1213 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1214 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1215 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1216 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1217 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1218 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1229 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1232 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1233 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
1235 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1236 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1237 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1238 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1242 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1245 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
1247 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1248 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1249 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1250 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1251 You will see the following section:
1255 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1258 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1262 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1265 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1268 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1271 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1274 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1277 ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/&p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1285 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1286 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1287 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1288 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1289 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1290 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1294 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1295 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1296 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1297 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1298 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1299 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1300 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1301 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1307 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1312 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1314 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1315 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1317 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1318 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1319 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1320 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1321 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1322 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1326 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1327 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1328 principle configuration files are:
1336 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1337 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1338 on Windows. This is a required file.
1344 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1345 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1346 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1347 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1348 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1349 as many websites as possible.
1352 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1353 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1354 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1355 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1356 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1357 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1358 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is for
1359 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1362 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1364 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1366 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1367 various actions files.
1373 <filename>default.filter</filename> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1374 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1375 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1376 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1377 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files. Only one filter
1378 file may be defined.
1386 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1387 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1388 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1389 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1390 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1391 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1396 The actions files and <filename>default.filter</filename>
1397 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1398 maximum flexibility.
1402 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1403 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1404 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1405 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1406 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1407 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1408 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1413 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1414 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1415 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1416 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1422 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1425 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1427 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1428 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1429 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1431 <!-- end include -->
1434 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1438 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1440 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1443 The actions files are used to define what actions
1444 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determine
1445 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1446 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
1447 are three such files included with <application>Privoxy</application>, with
1455 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1456 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1457 provide a base level of functionality for
1458 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1459 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well for users everywhere.
1460 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1461 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1466 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1467 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1468 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1469 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1474 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor,
1475 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1476 in <filename>default.action</filename>. These have increasing levels of
1477 aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no influence on your browsing unless
1478 you select them explicitly in the editor</emphasis>. It is not recommend
1486 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
1487 file, and are processed in the order they are defined. The content of these
1488 can all be viewed and edited from <ulink
1489 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1493 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
1494 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
1495 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
1496 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
1497 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
1498 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
1499 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
1500 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
1501 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
1502 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
1503 with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
1504 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
1508 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
1509 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
1510 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
1511 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
1512 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
1516 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1518 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
1520 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
1521 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
1522 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
1523 certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
1524 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
1525 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
1526 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per
1527 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
1528 regularly use and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe
1529 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
1533 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
1534 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
1535 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
1536 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
1540 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1542 <title>How to Edit</title>
1544 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
1545 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
1546 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1547 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
1548 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
1549 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Radical</quote>.
1550 Warning: the <quote>Radical</quote> setting is not only more aggressive,
1551 but includes settings that are fun and subversive, and which some may find of
1556 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
1557 the actions files. Look at <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly
1563 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
1564 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
1566 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
1567 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
1568 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
1569 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
1570 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
1571 Below that, there is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
1575 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
1576 compared to all patterns in each action file file. Every time it matches, the list of
1577 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
1578 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
1579 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
1580 the effects are aggregated. E.g. a URL might match a regular section with
1581 a heading line of <literal>{
1582 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
1583 then later another one with just <literal>{
1584 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
1585 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply.
1589 You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
1590 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
1594 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
1595 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
1599 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1600 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
1601 <title>Patterns</title>
1603 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
1604 to determine what actions might apply to which sites and pages your browser
1605 attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild card type
1606 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
1607 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
1608 against many similar patterns.
1612 Generally, a <application>Privoxy</application> pattern has the form
1613 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
1614 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
1615 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
1616 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
1617 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
1618 the pattern. This is assumed already!
1623 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
1626 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
1627 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
1632 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
1635 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
1641 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
1644 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
1645 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
1650 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
1653 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
1654 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
1659 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
1662 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
1663 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
1670 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1671 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
1674 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
1675 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
1681 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
1684 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
1685 <literal>.example.com</literal> (e.g. <literal>www.example.com</literal>)
1690 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
1693 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
1694 <literal>www.</literal>
1699 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
1702 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
1703 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
1710 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
1711 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
1712 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
1713 any single character, you can define character classes in square
1714 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
1719 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
1722 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
1723 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
1728 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
1731 matches all of the above, and then some.
1736 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
1739 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
1740 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
1745 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
1748 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
1749 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
1750 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
1751 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
1759 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1762 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1763 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
1766 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
1767 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
1772 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
1773 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
1774 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
1775 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
1776 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
1777 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
1781 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
1782 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
1783 for the beginning of a line).
1787 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
1788 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
1789 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
1790 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
1791 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
1797 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1800 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1802 <sect2 id="actions">
1803 <title>Actions</title>
1805 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
1806 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
1807 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
1808 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
1809 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
1810 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
1811 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
1812 previously applied.</quote>
1817 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
1818 separated by whitespace, like in
1819 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
1820 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
1821 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
1822 of the actions file.
1826 There are three classes of actions:
1833 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
1834 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
1838 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
1839 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
1842 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
1849 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
1854 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
1855 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
1856 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
1859 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
1860 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
1863 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</literal>
1869 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
1870 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
1871 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
1872 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
1873 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
1874 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
1878 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
1879 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
1880 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
1881 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
1884 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
1885 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
1893 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
1894 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
1895 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
1896 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
1897 files will give a good starting point).
1901 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
1902 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
1903 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files). For
1904 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
1905 Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in
1906 <filename>config</filename> (the default installation has three actions
1907 files). It also quite possible for any given URL pattern to match more than
1908 one pattern and thus more than one set of actions!
1911 <!-- start actions listing -->
1913 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
1917 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
1918 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
1919 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
1921 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
1924 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1926 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
1927 <title>add-header</title>
1931 <term>Typical use:</term>
1933 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
1938 <term>Effect:</term>
1941 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
1948 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
1950 <para>Multi-value.</para>
1955 <term>Parameter:</term>
1958 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
1959 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
1969 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
1970 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
1971 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
1978 <term>Example usage:</term>
1981 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
1989 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1990 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
1991 <title>block</title>
1995 <term>Typical use:</term>
1997 <para>Block ads or other obnoxious content</para>
2002 <term>Effect:</term>
2005 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the requests are not
2006 forwarded to the remote server, but answered locally with a substitute page or image,
2007 as determined by the <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>
2008 and <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> actions.
2015 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2017 <para>Boolean.</para>
2022 <term>Parameter:</term>
2032 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2033 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
2034 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
2035 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2036 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2037 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2038 right now, you can take a look at the
2039 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2043 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2044 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2045 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2046 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2047 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2048 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2051 It is important to understand this process, in order
2052 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2053 ads and other unwanted content.
2056 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2057 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2058 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2059 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2060 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2066 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2069 <screen>{+block} # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2070 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2072 {+block +handle-as-image} # Block and replace with image
2083 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2084 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
2085 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
2089 <term>Typical use:</term>
2092 Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
2098 <term>Effect:</term>
2101 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
2108 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2110 <para>Boolean.</para>
2115 <term>Parameter:</term>
2127 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
2128 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
2129 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
2130 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2133 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2134 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2135 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
2136 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
2142 <term>Example usage:</term>
2145 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
2153 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2154 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
2155 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
2159 <term>Typical use:</term>
2162 Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
2168 <term>Effect:</term>
2171 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
2178 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2180 <para>Boolean.</para>
2185 <term>Parameter:</term>
2197 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
2198 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
2199 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
2200 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2203 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2204 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2205 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
2211 <term>Example usage:</term>
2214 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
2223 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2224 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
2225 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
2229 <term>Typical use:</term>
2231 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
2236 <term>Effect:</term>
2239 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
2246 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2248 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2253 <term>Parameter:</term>
2256 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
2265 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
2266 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
2267 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
2268 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
2269 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
2270 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
2273 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
2274 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
2281 <term>Example usage:</term>
2284 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
2291 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2292 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
2293 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
2297 <term>Typical use:</term>
2299 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
2304 <term>Effect:</term>
2307 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
2314 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2316 <para>Boolean.</para>
2321 <term>Parameter:</term>
2333 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
2334 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
2335 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
2336 out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
2337 is a chance you might need this action.
2343 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2346 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
2347 problem-host.example.com</screen>
2355 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2356 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
2357 <title>fast-redirects</title>
2361 <term>Typical use:</term>
2363 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links</para>
2368 <term>Effect:</term>
2371 Cut off all but the last valid URL from requests.
2378 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2380 <para>Boolean.</para>
2385 <term>Parameter:</term>
2397 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
2398 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
2399 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
2400 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
2401 <emphasis>http://some.place/click-tracker.cgi?target=http://some.where.else</emphasis>.
2404 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
2405 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
2406 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
2407 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
2408 browser ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
2412 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
2413 It is likely to break some sites. You should expect to need possibly
2414 many exceptions to this action, if it is enabled by default in
2415 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some sites just don't work without
2422 <term>Example usage:</term>
2425 <screen>{+fast-redirects}</screen>
2434 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2435 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
2436 <title>filter</title>
2440 <term>Typical use:</term>
2442 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), do fun text replacements, etc.</para>
2447 <term>Effect:</term>
2450 Text documents, including HTML and JavaScript, to which this action
2451 applies, are filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular expression
2452 based substitutions.
2459 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2461 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2466 <term>Parameter:</term>
2469 The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>
2470 (typically <filename>default.filter</filename>, set by the
2471 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
2472 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>). Filtering
2473 can be completely disabled without the use of parameters.
2482 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
2483 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
2487 This is potentially a very powerful feature! But <quote>rolling your own</quote>
2488 filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
2491 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
2492 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
2493 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
2494 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
2495 noticeable on slower connections.
2498 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
2499 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
2500 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
2501 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
2502 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
2505 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
2506 Encrypted SSL data (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either since
2507 this would violate the integrity of the secure transaction.
2510 At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
2511 documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
2512 would normally be sent compressed, use the
2513 <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
2514 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
2517 Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
2518 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
2519 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
2520 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
2521 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
2525 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
2526 improved filters is particularly welcome!
2532 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file):</term>
2535 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
2536 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
2539 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
2540 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
2543 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
2544 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners based on their size for this page (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)</screen>
2547 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
2548 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners based on the link they are contained in (experimental)</screen>
2551 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
2552 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
2555 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
2556 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come sneaking in the HTML or JS content</screen>
2559 <anchor id="filter-popups">
2560 <screen>+filter{popups} # Kill all popups in JS and HTML</screen>
2563 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
2564 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
2567 <anchor id="filter-fun">
2568 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
2571 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
2572 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
2575 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
2576 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
2579 <anchor id="filter-nimda">
2580 <screen>+filter{nimda} # Remove Nimda (virus) code.</screen>
2583 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
2584 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
2587 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
2588 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"</screen>
2591 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
2592 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (<emphasis>Radically destructive!</emphasis> Only for extra nasty sites) </screen>
2595 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
2596 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix non-standard MS font extensions for non-MS browsers</screen>
2604 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2605 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
2606 <title>handle-as-image</title>
2610 <term>Typical use:</term>
2612 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis>)</para>
2617 <term>Effect:</term>
2620 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
2621 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
2622 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
2623 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
2624 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
2625 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
2632 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2634 <para>Boolean.</para>
2639 <term>Parameter:</term>
2651 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
2652 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
2656 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
2657 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
2658 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
2661 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
2662 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
2663 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
2664 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
2670 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
2673 <screen># Generic image extensions:
2676 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
2678 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
2679 # blocked as images:
2681 {+block +handle-as-image}
2682 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
2684 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
2694 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2695 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
2696 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
2700 <term>Typical use:</term>
2702 <para>Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request</para>
2707 <term>Effect:</term>
2710 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
2711 and prevents adding a new one.
2718 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2720 <para>Boolean.</para>
2725 <term>Parameter:</term>
2737 It is fairly safe to leave this on.
2740 This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate forged
2741 <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> headers using random IP addresses from a specified network,
2742 to make successive requests from the same client look like requests from a pool of different
2743 users sharing the same proxy.
2749 <term>Example usage:</term>
2752 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
2760 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2761 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
2762 <title>hide-from-header</title>
2766 <term>Typical use:</term>
2768 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
2773 <term>Effect:</term>
2776 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
2784 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2786 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2791 <term>Parameter:</term>
2794 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
2803 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
2804 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
2808 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
2809 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
2810 is actually used by a real person.
2813 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
2814 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
2820 <term>Example usage:</term>
2823 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
2824 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
2832 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2833 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
2834 <title>hide-referrer</title>
2835 <anchor id="hide-referer">
2838 <term>Typical use:</term>
2840 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
2845 <term>Effect:</term>
2848 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
2849 or replaces it with a forged one.
2856 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2858 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2863 <term>Parameter:</term>
2867 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header completely.</para>
2870 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
2873 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
2883 <quote>forge</quote> is the preferred option here, since some servers will
2884 not send images back otherwise, in an attempt to prevent their valuable
2885 content from being embedded elsewhere (and hence, without being surrounded
2886 by <emphasis>their</emphasis> banners).
2889 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
2890 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
2891 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
2892 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
2893 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
2899 <term>Example usage:</term>
2902 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
2903 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
2911 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2912 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
2913 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
2917 <term>Typical use:</term>
2919 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
2924 <term>Effect:</term>
2927 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
2928 in client requests with the specified value.
2935 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2937 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2942 <term>Parameter:</term>
2945 Any user-defined string.
2955 This breaks many web sites that depend on looking at this header in order
2956 to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
2957 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> a <ulink
2958 url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
2963 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
2964 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
2965 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
2966 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
2967 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
2968 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
2969 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
2970 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
2971 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
2972 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
2973 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
2976 This action is scheduled for improvement.
2982 <term>Example usage:</term>
2985 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
2993 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2994 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
2995 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
2999 <term>Typical use:</term>
3001 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows</para>
3006 <term>Effect:</term>
3009 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
3010 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
3017 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3019 <para>Boolean.</para>
3024 <term>Parameter:</term>
3036 This action is easily confused with the built-in, hardwired <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
3037 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
3038 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
3039 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
3041 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>popups</replaceable>}</literal>
3045 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
3046 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
3047 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
3048 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
3049 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
3050 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
3053 Killing all pop-ups is a dangerous business. Many shops and banks rely on
3054 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and killing only the unwanted pop-ups
3055 would require artificial intelligence in <application>Privoxy</application>.
3056 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
3057 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
3058 one), you might want to use
3060 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
3066 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
3074 <term>Example usage:</term>
3076 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
3083 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3084 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
3085 <title>limit-connect</title>
3089 <term>Typical use:</term>
3091 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay</para>
3096 <term>Effect:</term>
3099 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
3106 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3108 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3113 <term>Parameter:</term>
3116 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
3117 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
3126 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
3127 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
3128 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
3129 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
3130 for some or all destinations.
3133 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
3134 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
3135 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
3136 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
3137 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
3138 abused as TCP relays very easily.
3141 If you don't know what any of this means, there probably is no reason to
3142 change this one, since the default is already very restrictive.
3148 <term>Example usages:</term>
3150 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
3151 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
3152 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
3154 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
3155 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
3156 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
3157 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK (gaping security hole!)</screen>
3164 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3165 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
3166 <title>prevent-compression</title>
3170 <term>Typical use:</term>
3173 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
3174 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s
3180 <term>Effect:</term>
3183 Adds a header to the request that asks for uncompressed transfer.
3190 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3192 <para>Boolean.</para>
3197 <term>Parameter:</term>
3209 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
3210 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the <literal><link
3211 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
3212 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions to work,
3213 <application>Privoxy</application> needs access to the uncompressed data.
3214 Unfortunately, <application>Privoxy</application> can't yet(!) uncompress, filter, and
3215 re-compress the content on the fly. So if you want to ensure that all websites, including
3216 those that normally compress, can be filtered, you need to use this action.
3219 This will slow down transfers from those websites, though. If you use any of the above-mentioned
3220 actions, you will typically want to use <literal>prevent-compression</literal> in conjunction
3224 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
3225 documents correctly (they send an empty document body). If you use <literal>prevent-compression</literal>
3226 per default, you'll have to add exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
3232 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3235 <screen># Set default:
3237 {+prevent-compression}
3240 # Make exceptions for ill sites:
3242 {-prevent-compression}
3244 www.pclinuxonline.com</screen>
3253 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3254 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
3255 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
3259 <term>Typical use:</term>
3262 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
3268 <term>Effect:</term>
3271 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
3272 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
3279 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3281 <para>Boolean.</para>
3286 <term>Parameter:</term>
3298 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
3301 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
3307 <term>Example usage:</term>
3310 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
3319 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3320 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
3321 <title>send-wafer</title>
3325 <term>Typical use:</term>
3328 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
3334 <term>Effect:</term>
3337 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
3344 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3346 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3351 <term>Parameter:</term>
3354 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
3355 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
3364 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
3365 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
3368 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
3373 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3376 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
3377 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
3385 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3386 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
3387 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
3391 <term>Typical use:</term>
3394 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
3400 <term>Effect:</term>
3403 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> server headers.
3404 Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and forget them in between sessions.
3411 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3413 <para>Boolean.</para>
3418 <term>Parameter:</term>
3430 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
3431 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
3432 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
3435 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
3436 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
3437 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
3438 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
3439 sites, and is the recommended setting.
3442 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
3443 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
3444 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
3445 will be plainly killed.
3448 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
3449 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
3452 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
3453 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
3454 These would have to be removed manually.
3457 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
3458 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
3459 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
3460 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
3466 <term>Example usage:</term>
3469 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
3477 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3478 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
3479 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
3483 <term>Typical use:</term>
3485 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
3490 <term>Effect:</term>
3493 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
3494 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
3495 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
3496 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
3497 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
3498 sent as a replacement.
3505 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3507 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3512 <term>Parameter:</term>
3517 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
3518 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
3523 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
3524 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
3525 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
3526 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
3531 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
3532 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
3533 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem (via <quote>file:///</quote> URL).
3536 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
3537 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
3538 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
3539 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
3540 it over and over again.
3551 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
3552 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
3553 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
3556 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
3557 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
3558 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
3564 <term>Example usage:</term>
3570 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
3573 Redirect to the BSD devil:
3576 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
3579 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
3582 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
3590 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3592 <title>Summary</title>
3594 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
3595 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
3596 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
3597 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
3598 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
3599 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
3605 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3606 <sect2 id="aliases">
3607 <title>Aliases</title>
3609 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
3610 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
3611 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
3612 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
3614 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
3615 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
3616 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
3617 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
3618 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
3622 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
3623 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
3624 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
3625 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
3629 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
3630 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
3631 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
3632 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
3633 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
3634 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
3635 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
3638 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
3639 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
3640 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
3641 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
3642 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
3644 This is likely to change in future versions of <application>Privoxy</application>.
3648 Now let's define some aliases...
3653 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
3655 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
3656 # must be at the top of the actions file!
3660 # These aliases just save typing later:
3661 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
3663 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
3664 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
3665 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
3666 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
3668 # These aliases define combinations of actions
3669 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
3671 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
3672 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
3674 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
3676 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
3677 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
3681 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
3682 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
3683 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
3688 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
3689 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
3692 .office.microsoft.com
3693 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
3697 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
3701 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
3704 # These shops require pop-ups:
3706 {shop -kill-popups -filter{popups}}
3708 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
3712 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are often used for
3713 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require some actions to be disabled
3714 in order to function properly.
3718 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3719 <sect2 id="act-examples">
3720 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
3722 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
3723 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
3724 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
3725 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
3726 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
3727 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
3728 file and see how all these pieces come together:
3731 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
3734 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
3738 <screen># Sample default.action file <developers@privoxy.org></screen>
3742 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
3743 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
3744 change or worry about:
3749 ##########################################################################
3750 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
3751 ##########################################################################
3754 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
3758 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
3759 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
3760 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
3765 ##########################################################################
3767 ##########################################################################
3770 # These aliases just save typing later:
3771 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
3773 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
3774 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
3775 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
3776 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
3778 # These aliases define combinations of actions
3779 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
3781 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
3782 shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups</screen>
3786 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
3787 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
3788 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
3789 enable the ones we want.
3793 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
3794 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
3795 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
3796 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
3797 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
3798 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
3799 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
3804 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
3805 no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
3806 to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
3807 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
3808 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
3809 multiple lines with line continuation.
3814 ##########################################################################
3815 # "Defaults" section:
3816 ##########################################################################
3818 -<link linkend="ADD-HEADER">add-header</link> \
3819 -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> \
3820 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> \
3821 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link> \
3822 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
3823 -<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
3824 +<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> \
3825 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
3826 +<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
3827 -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
3828 +<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> \
3829 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
3830 -<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
3831 -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
3832 +<link linkend="FILTER-NIMDA">filter{nimda}</link> \
3833 +<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
3834 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">filter{banners-by-link}</link> \
3835 -<link linkend="FILTER-IMG-REORDER">filter{img-reorder}</link> \
3836 -<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
3837 -<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
3838 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-EVENTS">filter{js-events}</link> \
3839 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
3840 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
3841 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
3842 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
3843 -<link linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT">hide-user-agent</link> \
3844 -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> \
3845 -<link linkend="LIMIT-CONNECT">limit-connect</link> \
3846 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
3847 -<link linkend="SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">send-vanilla-wafer</link> \
3848 -<link linkend="SEND-WAFER">send-wafer</link> \
3849 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
3850 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
3852 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
3856 The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding
3857 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
3858 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
3859 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
3860 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
3861 want to block in later sections.
3862 We will also want to make exceptions from our general pop-up-killing,
3863 and use our defined aliases for that.
3867 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
3868 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
3869 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
3870 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
3871 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
3872 of actions explicitly:
3877 ##########################################################################
3878 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
3879 ##########################################################################
3881 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
3884 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
3885 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com</screen>
3889 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
3890 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
3891 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
3900 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
3902 .scan.co.uk</screen>
3906 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
3907 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
3908 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
3909 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
3911 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
3912 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
3913 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
3914 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
3915 chosen in the defaults section:
3920 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
3922 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
3925 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
3929 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
3930 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
3931 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
3936 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
3940 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
3941 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
3942 .nytimes.com</screen>
3946 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
3947 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
3948 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
3949 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
3950 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
3951 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
3952 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
3953 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
3954 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
3960 ##########################################################################
3962 ##########################################################################
3964 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
3965 # blocked further down this file:
3967 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
3968 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
3972 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
3973 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
3974 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
3975 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
3976 <literal>block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
3977 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
3978 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
3979 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
3980 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
3981 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
3982 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
3983 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
3988 # Known ad generators:
3993 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
3994 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
3995 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
4002 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
4003 is to block banners. A huge bunch of them are already <quote>blocked</quote>
4004 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
4005 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
4006 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
4007 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
4008 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
4009 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
4010 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
4013 First comes a bunch of generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
4014 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
4015 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
4016 to keep the example short:
4021 ##########################################################################
4022 # Block these fine banners:
4023 ##########################################################################
4024 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
4032 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
4033 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
4035 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
4037 .hitbox.com</screen>
4041 You wouldn't believe how many advertisers actually call their banner
4042 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
4043 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
4044 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
4047 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
4048 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
4049 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
4050 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
4051 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
4052 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
4056 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
4057 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
4058 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
4059 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
4060 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
4061 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
4062 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
4063 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
4064 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
4065 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
4070 ##########################################################################
4071 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
4072 ##########################################################################
4076 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
4077 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
4078 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
4079 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
4080 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
4081 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
4089 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
4090 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
4094 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
4095 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
4096 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
4097 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
4098 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
4103 # Don't filter code!
4105 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
4107 .sourceforge.net</screen>
4111 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course more
4112 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
4117 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
4119 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
4120 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
4121 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
4122 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
4123 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
4124 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
4125 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
4126 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
4127 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
4128 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
4129 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
4130 to install updated versions from time to time.
4134 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
4135 <filename>user.action</filename>:
4139 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
4143 # My user.action file. <fred@foobar.com></screen>
4147 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
4148 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
4149 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
4154 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
4155 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
4159 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
4160 # be self explanatory.
4162 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
4163 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
4164 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
4165 allow-popups = -filter{popups} -kill-popups
4166 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
4167 -block-as-image = -block
4169 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
4170 # certain types of sites:
4172 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
4173 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
4175 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
4177 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}</screen>
4183 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
4184 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
4185 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
4186 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
4187 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
4188 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
4193 { allow-all-cookies }
4198 .redhat.com</screen>
4202 Your bank needs popups and is allergic to some filter, but you don't
4203 know which, so you disable them all:
4208 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> }
4209 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
4213 Some hosts and some file types you may not want to filter.
4214 <application>Privoxy</application> makes no distinctions between regular web
4215 pages and downloads done via your web browser if it is an html or text type
4221 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
4225 # A list of common file extensions that are likely to indicate raw text, and best
4227 /(.*/)?.*\.(pl|(s|p)?h|c(c|xx|pp)?|tcl|am|init?|cfg?|conf(ig)?|txt|rc|bat)$
4229 # Documentation should not need filtering (at least on some sites).
4234 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
4235 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
4236 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
4237 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
4238 <literal>{ +block }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
4239 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
4240 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
4241 in default.action anyway:
4246 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
4247 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.gif
4248 another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/
4250 # Here we found one that is not in <application>Privoxy's</application> default blocked list:
4251 .adfactory.net</screen>
4255 To force URLs that tend to have ad images, but it is difficult for
4256 <application>Privoxy</application> to know this since the ultimate returned
4257 object is obscured for one reason or another, we can try to force these to be
4258 treated as images (and thus avoid <application>Privoxy's</application>
4259 <quote>BLOCKED</quote> banner page). Note that if what is returned by the
4260 server turns out NOT to be an image, then your browser typically will display
4261 a broken icon image. Use cautiously.
4267 # A shockwave ad, very annoying.
4275 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
4276 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
4277 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
4278 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
4279 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
4280 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
4281 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
4282 that is causing the problem or not.
4288 .forbes.com</screen>
4292 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
4293 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file. (My colleagues on the team just
4294 don't have a sense of humour, that's why! ;-). So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
4295 update-safe config, once and for all:
4300 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
4301 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
4305 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
4306 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
4307 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
4308 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
4309 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
4313 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
4314 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
4315 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
4316 sites that you feel provide value to you:
4328 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
4329 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
4330 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
4331 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
4335 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
4336 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
4337 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
4338 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
4339 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
4340 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
4346 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
4347 / # ALL sites</screen>
4353 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4357 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4359 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
4361 <sect1 id="filter-file">
4362 <title>The Filter File</title>
4365 All text substitutions that can be invoked through the
4366 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action
4367 must first be defined in the filter file, which is typically
4368 called <filename>default.filter</filename> and which can be
4369 selected through the <literal>
4370 <link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config
4375 Typical reasons for doing such substitutions are to eliminate
4376 common annoyances in HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
4377 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
4378 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
4379 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
4380 or just to have fun. The possibilities are endless.
4384 Filtering works on any text-based document type, including plain
4385 text, HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
4386 MIME types). Substitutions are made at the source level, so if
4387 you want to <quote>roll your own</quote> filters, you should be
4388 familiar with HTML syntax.
4392 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
4393 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
4394 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with the
4395 <emphasis>keyword</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>, followed by
4396 the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
4397 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
4398 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
4399 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
4400 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
4401 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
4402 user interface</ulink>.
4406 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
4407 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
4408 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
4409 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
4413 A filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
4418 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
4422 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
4423 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
4424 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
4425 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
4426 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
4427 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/pcrs.3.html">PCRS man page</ulink>
4428 for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most notably, the non-standard
4429 option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported, which turns the default
4430 to ungreedy matching.
4434 If you are new to regular expressions, you might want to take a look at
4435 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
4436 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perl.html">Perl
4438 <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlop.html#s-PATTERN-REPLACEMENT-egimosx">the
4439 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
4440 url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
4441 expressions</ulink> in general.
4442 The below examples might also help to get you started.
4445 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
4447 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
4449 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> filter. We have already defined
4450 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
4451 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
4456 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
4460 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
4461 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
4462 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
4463 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
4467 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
4471 Our complete filter now looks like this:
4474 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
4475 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
4479 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
4480 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
4481 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
4487 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
4489 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
4491 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
4495 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
4496 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
4497 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
4498 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
4502 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
4503 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
4504 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
4505 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
4506 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
4510 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
4511 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
4512 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
4513 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
4514 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
4515 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
4516 in the page (and appear in that order).
4520 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
4521 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
4522 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
4523 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
4524 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
4528 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
4529 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
4530 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
4531 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
4532 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
4533 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
4534 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
4535 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
4536 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
4537 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
4538 substitution is global.
4542 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
4543 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
4544 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
4545 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
4546 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
4550 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
4551 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
4552 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
4553 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
4554 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
4555 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
4556 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
4557 Business!"</literal>.
4561 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
4562 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
4563 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
4564 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
4565 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
4566 information anymore.
4570 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
4571 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
4576 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
4578 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
4582 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
4583 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
4584 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
4585 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
4586 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
4587 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
4588 a backreference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
4589 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
4590 a backreference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
4594 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
4595 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
4596 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
4597 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
4598 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
4599 you move your mouse over links.
4604 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
4606 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
4611 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
4612 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
4613 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
4614 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
4615 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
4616 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
4617 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
4618 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
4619 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
4620 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
4625 The last example is from the fun department:
4630 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
4632 # Spice the daily news:
4634 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
4638 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
4639 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
4640 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
4641 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
4642 still replacing the word everywhere else.
4647 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
4649 s* industry[ -]leading \
4651 | customer[ -]focused \
4652 | market[ -]driven \
4653 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
4654 | high[ -]performance \
4655 | solutions[ -]based \
4659 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
4664 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
4665 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
4674 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4678 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4680 <sect1 id="templates">
4681 <title>Templates</title>
4683 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
4684 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
4685 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
4686 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4688 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
4689 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
4690 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
4695 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
4696 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
4698 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
4702 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
4703 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. You can
4704 edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want to customize them.
4705 (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual user</emphasis>). Note that
4706 just like in configuration files, lines starting with <literal>#</literal> are
4707 ignored when the templates are filled in.
4711 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
4712 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
4713 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
4714 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
4715 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
4719 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
4720 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
4721 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
4722 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
4723 in in an alpha or beta development stage:
4728 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
4730 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
4732 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
4736 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
4737 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
4738 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
4742 <screen><!-- --></screen>
4746 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
4747 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
4752 All templates refer to a style located at
4753 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
4754 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
4755 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
4756 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
4761 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4765 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4767 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
4770 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
4772 <!-- end boilerplate -->
4776 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4779 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4780 <sect1 id="copyright"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Copyright, License and History</title>
4782 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
4784 <!-- end copyright -->
4786 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4787 <sect2><title>License</title>
4788 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
4790 <!-- end copyright -->
4792 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4795 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4797 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
4798 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
4800 <!-- end history -->
4803 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
4804 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
4806 <!-- end authors -->
4811 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4814 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4815 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
4816 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
4818 <!-- end seealso -->
4823 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4824 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
4827 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4829 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
4831 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
4832 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
4833 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
4834 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
4835 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
4839 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
4840 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
4841 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
4842 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
4846 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
4847 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
4848 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
4849 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
4850 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
4851 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
4852 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
4853 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
4857 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
4858 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
4859 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
4860 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
4861 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
4862 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
4863 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
4864 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
4868 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
4869 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
4870 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
4871 and then some examples:
4876 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
4877 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
4879 </simplelist></para>
4883 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
4886 </simplelist></para>
4890 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
4893 </simplelist></para>
4897 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
4900 </simplelist></para>
4904 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
4905 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
4906 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
4907 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
4908 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
4909 meta-character meaning of any single character).
4911 </simplelist></para>
4915 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
4916 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
4917 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
4918 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
4920 </simplelist></para>
4924 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
4925 or multiple sub-expressions.
4927 </simplelist></para>
4931 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
4932 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
4933 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
4934 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
4935 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
4936 example</quote>, and nothing else.
4938 </simplelist></para>
4941 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
4942 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
4943 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
4944 be more illuminating:
4948 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
4949 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
4950 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
4951 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
4952 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
4953 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
4954 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
4955 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
4956 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
4957 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
4958 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
4959 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
4960 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
4961 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
4966 A now something a little more complex:
4970 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
4971 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
4972 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
4973 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
4974 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
4975 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
4976 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
4981 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
4982 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
4983 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
4984 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
4985 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
4986 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
4987 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
4988 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
4989 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
4990 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
4991 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
4992 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
4993 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
4994 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
4995 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
4996 changing our regular expression to:
4997 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
5002 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
5003 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
5004 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
5005 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
5006 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
5007 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
5008 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
5009 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
5010 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
5011 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
5012 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
5013 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
5014 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
5015 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
5016 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
5017 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
5018 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
5019 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
5020 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
5021 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
5022 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
5023 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
5024 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
5025 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
5026 in the expression anywhere).
5030 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
5031 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
5032 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
5033 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
5034 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
5039 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
5040 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
5044 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
5045 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
5050 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5053 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5055 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
5058 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
5059 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
5060 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
5061 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
5062 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
5063 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
5064 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
5070 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
5071 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
5072 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
5073 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
5086 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
5090 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
5091 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
5092 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
5098 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
5099 editing of actions files:
5103 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
5110 Show the source code version numbers:
5114 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
5121 Show the browser's request headers:
5125 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
5132 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
5136 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5143 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
5144 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
5148 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
5152 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
5156 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
5161 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
5170 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
5174 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
5175 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
5177 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
5178 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
5179 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
5180 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
5181 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
5182 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
5185 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
5186 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
5187 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
5188 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
5189 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
5190 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
5199 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>
5206 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>
5213 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)
5220 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>
5226 <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>
5231 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
5238 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
5239 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
5240 have more information about bookmarklets.
5249 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5251 <title>Chain of Events</title>
5253 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
5254 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
5261 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
5262 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
5263 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
5269 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
5270 pages (e.g http://p.p/) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
5275 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
5277 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
5278 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
5279 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
5280 is then checked and if it does not match, an
5281 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
5282 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <link
5283 linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
5284 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
5289 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
5290 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
5295 If the URL pattern matches the <link
5296 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
5297 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
5302 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
5303 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
5304 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
5305 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
5311 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
5317 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
5318 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
5319 filtered as determined by the
5320 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
5321 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
5322 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
5328 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
5329 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
5330 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
5335 If a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
5337 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
5338 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
5339 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
5340 <filename>default.filter</filename>) are processed against the buffered
5341 content. Filters are applied in the order they are specified in the
5342 <filename>default.filter</filename> file. Animated GIFs, if present, are
5343 reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
5344 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
5345 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
5348 If neither <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
5350 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
5351 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
5352 to the client browser as it becomes available.
5357 As the browser receives the now (probably filtered) page content, it
5358 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
5359 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
5360 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
5361 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
5362 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
5372 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5373 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
5374 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
5377 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
5378 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
5379 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
5380 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
5381 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
5382 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
5383 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
5384 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
5385 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
5390 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
5391 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
5392 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
5393 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
5394 logs is a good idea too.
5398 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
5399 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5400 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
5401 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
5405 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
5406 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
5407 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
5408 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
5409 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
5410 the <filename>default.filter</filename> file since this is handled very
5411 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
5412 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
5413 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
5414 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
5415 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
5416 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
5417 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
5422 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
5423 and look at it one section at a time:
5428 Matches for http://google.com:
5430 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
5434 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5435 -crunch-incoming-cookies
5436 +deanimate-gifs{last}
5437 -downgrade-http-version
5441 -filter{shockwave-flash}
5442 -filter{crude-parental}
5443 +filter{html-annoyances}
5444 +filter{js-annoyances}
5445 +filter{content-cookies}
5447 +filter{refresh-tags}
5449 +filter{banners-by-size}
5450 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
5451 +hide-from-header{block}
5452 +hide-referer{forge}
5457 +prevent-compression
5460 +session-cookies-only
5461 +set-image-blocker{pattern} }
5464 { -session-cookies-only }
5470 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
5471 (no matches in this file)
5476 This tells us how we have defined our
5477 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
5478 which ones match for our example, <quote>google.com</quote>. The first listing
5479 is any matches for the <filename>standard.action</filename> file. No hits at
5480 all here on <quote>standard</quote>. Then next is <quote>default</quote>, or
5481 our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line listing,
5482 is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default settings.
5483 If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the section
5484 just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This will apply to
5485 all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
5486 -- <quote>/</quote>.
5490 But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
5491 rules, and then list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions would
5492 apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
5493 <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous cookie setting,
5495 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
5496 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google. The
5497 second turns <emphasis>off</emphasis> any
5499 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
5500 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
5501 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
5502 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
5503 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these two actions
5504 defined somewhere in the lower part of our <filename>default.action</filename>
5505 file, and <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter
5510 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
5514 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
5515 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
5516 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
5527 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5528 -crunch-incoming-cookies
5529 +deanimate-gifs{last}
5530 -downgrade-http-version
5534 -filter{shockwave-flash}
5535 -filter{crude-parental}
5536 +filter{html-annoyances}
5537 +filter{js-annoyances}
5538 +filter{content-cookies}
5540 +filter{refresh-tags}
5542 +filter{banners-by-size}
5543 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
5544 +hide-from-header{block}
5545 +hide-referer{forge}
5550 +prevent-compression
5553 -session-cookies-only
5554 +set-image-blocker{pattern}
5559 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
5560 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>.
5564 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
5570 { +block +handle-as-image }
5573 { +block +handle-as-image }
5576 { +block +handle-as-image }
5582 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
5583 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
5584 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
5585 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<link
5586 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
5587 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
5592 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
5593 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
5594 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
5595 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
5596 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
5597 is done here -- as both a <link
5598 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
5599 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
5601 linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
5602 The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> just simplifies the process and make
5607 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
5608 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
5614 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
5616 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
5620 -crunch-incoming-cookies
5621 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5623 -downgrade-http-version
5625 +filter{html-annoyances}
5626 +filter{js-annoyances}
5627 +filter{kill-popups}
5630 +filter{banners-by-size}
5633 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
5634 +hide-from-header{block}
5635 +hide-referer{forge}
5639 +prevent-compression
5642 +session-cookies-only
5643 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
5646 { +block +handle-as-image }
5652 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
5653 we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
5654 now add a new action below this that explicitly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
5655 block (<quote>{-block}</quote>) paths with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are
5656 various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
5668 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
5669 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
5673 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
5680 { +block +handle-as-image }
5686 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
5687 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
5688 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
5689 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
5690 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. These
5691 tend to be harder to troubleshoot. Try adding the URL for the site to one of
5692 aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
5700 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5708 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
5709 <quote>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</quote>.
5710 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
5723 This would turn off all filtering for that site. This would probably be most
5724 appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
5729 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
5730 <quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote> rule, which assumes
5731 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well most of the time
5732 since these tend to be standardized).
5736 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
5737 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
5738 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
5739 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
5748 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
5749 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
5750 Public License as published by the Free Software
5751 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
5752 your option) any later version.
5754 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
5755 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
5756 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
5757 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
5758 License for more details.
5760 The GNU General Public License should be included with
5761 this file. If not, you can view it at
5762 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
5763 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
5764 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
5766 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
5767 Revision 2.9 2003/04/11 03:14:53 hal9
5768 Add small note about one filter file may be defined.
5770 Revision 2.8 2002/10/21 02:46:09 hal9
5771 Port changes to user.action examples section from 3.0.
5773 Revision 2.7 2002/10/12 01:14:42 hal9
5774 Updates for demoronizer filter, Radical profile, and the srvany.exe/icon
5777 Revision 2.6 2002/10/10 04:10:38 hal9
5778 s/Advanced/Radical/ for standard.action change.
5780 Revision 2.5 2002/10/10 03:50:38 hal9
5781 Update cookie sections for pre-existing condition, and content cookies not
5782 effected by session-cookies setting.
5784 Revision 2.4 2002/09/26 05:58:07 hal9
5785 Change development status from working on 3.0 to 3.2.
5787 Revision 2.3 2002/09/26 00:12:17 hal9
5788 Additional notes on Privoxy patterns, and filtering vs SSL.
5790 Revision 2.2 2002/09/05 05:45:30 hal9
5791 Syncing with 3.0. This should be it for doc sources. Not all builds tested
5792 yet. No new content, just catching up.
5794 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
5795 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
5798 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
5799 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
5801 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
5802 Update to Mac OSX startup script name
5804 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
5805 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
5807 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
5808 Nits re: actions file download
5810 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
5811 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
5813 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
5814 Added 2 Gentoo sections
5816 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
5817 - Added version info to title
5818 - Added info on new filters
5819 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
5820 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
5822 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
5823 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
5825 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
5827 Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
5829 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
5830 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
5832 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
5833 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
5835 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
5836 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
5838 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
5839 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
5840 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
5841 so that these are in sync with each other.
5843 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
5844 Ooops missed something from David.
5846 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
5847 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
5848 That's a wrap, I think.
5850 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
5851 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
5853 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
5854 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
5856 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
5857 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
5858 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
5860 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
5861 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
5863 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
5864 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
5865 <literal><link> style.
5866 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
5867 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
5868 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
5869 renders them red (bad in TOC).
5871 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
5872 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
5874 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
5877 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
5878 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
5879 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
5881 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
5882 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
5883 - Small changes to Regex appendix
5884 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
5886 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
5887 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
5889 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
5890 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
5892 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
5893 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
5895 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
5896 Extended and further commented the example actions files
5898 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
5899 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
5902 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
5905 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
5906 Restored alphabetical order of actions
5908 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
5909 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
5911 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
5912 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
5914 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
5915 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
5916 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
5918 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
5919 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
5920 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
5921 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
5923 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
5924 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
5926 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
5929 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
5930 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
5931 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
5933 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
5934 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
5936 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
5937 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
5938 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
5940 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
5941 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
5943 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
5944 more structure in starting section
5946 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
5947 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
5948 will probably break links elsewhere :(
5950 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
5951 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
5952 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
5954 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
5955 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
5956 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
5958 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
5959 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
5961 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
5962 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
5963 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
5965 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
5966 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
5967 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
5969 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
5970 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
5972 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
5973 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
5975 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
5976 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
5978 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
5979 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
5981 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
5982 Updated OSX installation section
5983 Added a few English tweaks here an there
5985 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
5986 Re-write actions section.
5988 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
5989 Fix ugly typo (mine).
5991 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
5992 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
5994 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
5995 Added RPM install detail
5997 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
6000 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
6001 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
6003 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
6004 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
6006 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
6007 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
6009 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
6012 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
6013 Proofreading, part one
6015 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
6016 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
6017 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
6019 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
6020 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
6022 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
6023 Add small section on submitting actions.
6025 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
6028 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
6029 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
6031 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
6032 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
6034 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
6037 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
6038 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
6039 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
6040 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
6041 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
6043 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
6044 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
6046 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
6047 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
6049 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
6050 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
6051 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
6052 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
6053 eventually be set by Makefile.
6054 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
6056 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
6057 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
6059 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
6060 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
6062 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
6063 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
6065 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
6066 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
6067 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
6068 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
6070 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
6073 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
6074 Added more to Anatomy section.
6076 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
6077 Touch up intro for new name.
6079 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
6080 we have a new homepage!
6082 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
6083 A few minor catch ups with name change.
6085 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
6086 configure needs to be generated.
6088 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
6089 we are too lazy to make a block-built
6090 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
6092 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
6093 name change related issue.
6095 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
6096 name change. changed filenames.
6098 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
6101 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
6102 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
6103 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
6104 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
6105 comments and remarks to history untouched.
6107 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
6110 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
6111 New section in Appendix.
6113 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
6114 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
6116 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
6117 correct feedback channels
6119 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
6120 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
6122 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
6125 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
6126 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
6128 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
6129 Added imageblock{pattern}.
6131 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
6134 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
6135 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
6137 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
6138 provide correct feedback channels
6140 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
6141 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
6143 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
6144 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
6146 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
6147 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
6149 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
6150 Add new - - user option.
6152 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
6153 Added section on command line options.
6155 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
6156 Changed default port to 8118
6158 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
6159 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
6161 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
6162 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
6163 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
6166 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
6169 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
6170 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
6172 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
6173 Update OS/2 build section
6175 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
6176 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
6177 will work - no other changes are needed.
6179 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
6180 Added a very short section on Templates
6182 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
6183 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
6185 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
6186 Touch ups for *.action files.
6188 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
6191 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
6192 Updates for recent changes.
6194 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
6195 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
6197 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
6198 Correct 2 minor errors
6200 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
6201 *** empty log message ***
6203 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
6204 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
6206 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
6207 wrong url in documentation
6209 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
6210 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
6212 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
6215 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
6218 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
6221 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
6222 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
6224 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
6225 Some additions, and re-arranging.
6227 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
6230 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
6231 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
6233 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
6236 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
6237 source files for junkbuster documentation
6239 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
6240 first proposal of a structure.
6242 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
6243 docs should have an author.
6245 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
6246 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.
projects / privoxy.git / blob