1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
12 <!entity p-version "2.9.15">
13 <!entity p-status "beta">
14 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
15 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
16 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
17 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
18 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-config "IGNORE">
20 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
21 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
24 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
27 This file belongs into
28 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
30 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes Exp $
32 Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
35 ========================================================================
36 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
37 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
38 ========================================================================
45 <title>Privoxy User Manual</title>
49 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
50 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
51 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
52 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
56 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes Exp $</pubdate>
60 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
61 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
62 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
63 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
70 <holder>Privoxy Developers</holder>
73 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
75 text goes here ........
87 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
88 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
89 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
95 The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
97 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
100 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
102 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
105 You can find the latest version of the user manual at <ulink
106 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
107 Please see the <ulink url="contact.html">Contact section</ulink> on how to
108 contact the developers.
112 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
118 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
119 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
121 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
122 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
123 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
124 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
125 configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
126 completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over
127 earlier versions. The target release date for
128 stable v3.0 is <quote>soon</quote> ;-)]]>.
131 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
134 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
135 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
136 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
141 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
142 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
144 In addition to <application>Internet Junkbuster's</application> traditional
145 features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
146 <application>Privoxy</application> provides new features<![%p-not-stable;[,
147 some of them currently under development]]>:
149 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
151 <!-- end boilerplate -->
156 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
159 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
160 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
163 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
164 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
165 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
166 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
171 Note: If you have a previous <application>Junkbuster</application> or
172 <application>Privoxy</application> installation on your system, you
173 will need to remove it. On some platforms, this may be done for you as part
174 of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform). In any case
175 <emphasis>be sure to backup your old configuration if it is valuable to
176 you.</emphasis> See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">note to
177 upgraders</link> section below.
180 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
181 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
183 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
186 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
187 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat, SuSE RPMs and Conectiva</title>
190 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
191 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
192 of configuration files.
196 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
197 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
198 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
199 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods. Note that SuSE will
200 automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
204 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
205 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm;</literal>. This
206 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
210 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
211 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
212 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
213 automatically, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
217 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
218 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
224 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
225 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
228 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
229 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
230 in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in. We do not
231 use the registry of Windows.
235 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
236 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
239 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
240 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
245 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
246 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
249 First, make sure that no previous installations of
250 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
251 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
252 system. You can do this by
256 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
257 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
258 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
259 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
263 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
264 into will contain all of the configuration files.
268 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
269 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Max OSX</title>
271 Unzip the downloaded package (you can either double-click on the file
272 in the finder, or on the desktop if you downloaded it there). Then,
273 double-click on the package installer icon and follow the installation
275 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the subdirectory
276 <literal>/Applications/Privoxy.app</literal>.
277 <application>Privoxy</application> will set itself up to start
278 automatically on system bring-up via
279 <literal>/System/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
283 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
284 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
286 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
287 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
288 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
289 remove this directory.
292 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
293 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
294 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
295 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
296 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
297 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
298 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
303 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
304 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
307 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
308 is to download the source tarball from our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project
313 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
314 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
315 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
316 CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
317 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
321 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
323 <!-- end boilerplate -->
329 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
331 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
332 <sect1 id="upgradersnote">
333 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
335 There are very significant changes from earlier
336 <application>Junkbuster</application> versions to the current
337 <application>Privoxy</application>. The number, names, syntax, and
338 purposes of configuration files have substantially changed.
339 <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> configuration
340 files will not migrate, <application>Junkbuster 2.9.x</application>
341 and <application>Privoxy</application> configurations will need to be
342 ported. The functionalities of the old <filename>blockfile</filename>,
343 <filename>cookiefile</filename> and <filename>imagelist</filename>
344 are now combined into the <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions
345 files</quote></ulink>.
346 <filename>default.action</filename>, is the main actions file. Local
347 exceptions should best be put into <filename>user.action</filename>.
350 A <ulink url="filter-file.html"><quote>filter file</quote></ulink> (typically
351 <filename>default.filter</filename>) is new as of <application>Privoxy
352 2.9.x</application>, and provides some of the new sophistication (explained
353 below). <filename>config</filename> is much the same as before.
356 If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
357 files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
358 When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
359 to the new actions files, please note that even the pattern syntax has
360 changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
361 recommended to use the new configuration files.
364 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
372 The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
378 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
379 important configuration files!
384 <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
385 at the special URL: <ulink
386 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
387 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
388 aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
389 <application>Privoxy</application>.
394 The primary configuration file for cookie management, ad and banner
395 blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
396 configuration is in the <ulink url="actions-file.html">actions
397 files</ulink>. It is strongly recommended to become familiar with the new
398 actions concept below, before modifying these files. Locally defined rules
399 should go into <filename>user.action</filename>.
404 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
405 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
406 Some installers may not automatically start
407 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
415 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
416 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
422 If upgrading, please back up any configuration files. See
423 the <link linkend="upgradersnote">Note to Upgraders</link> Section.
428 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
429 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> for platform specific
436 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
437 not done this already. See the section <link linkend="startup">Starting
438 <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
444 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and HTTPS
445 proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
446 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
447 (<application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions of
448 <application>Privoxy</application> used port 8000.) See the section <link
449 linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
455 Flush your browser's caches, to remove any cached ad images.
461 Enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy. You may want to customize the
462 <link linkend="actions-file"><filename>user.action</filename></link> file to
463 personalize your new browsing experience. See the <link
464 linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more configuration
465 options, and how to further customize your installation.
471 If you experience problems with sites that <quote>misbehave</quote>, see
472 the <link linkend="actionsanat">Anatomy of an Action</link> section in the
479 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
480 Developers</link> on how to report bugs or problems with websites or to get
490 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
492 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
494 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
495 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
496 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is
497 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
498 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
502 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
503 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under <literal>Edit
504 -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy</literal>.
505 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>: <literal>Tools ->
506 Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting</literal>. Then,
507 check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info (Address:
508 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy support too.
512 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
513 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
514 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
515 <application>Privoxy</application>!
519 <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
520 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
521 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
522 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
523 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
526 <sect2 id="start-redhatdebian">
527 <title>RedHat, Conectiva and Debian</title>
529 We use a script. Note that RedHat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
530 default. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its
531 main configuration file. FIXME: Debian??
535 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
540 <sect2 id="start-suse">
543 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
544 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
554 <sect2 id="start-windows">
555 <title>Windows</title>
557 Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy. If no configuration file is
558 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
559 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
560 automatically start Privoxy upon booting you PC.
564 <sect2 id="start-unices">
565 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
567 Example Unix startup command:
571 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
576 <sect2 id="start-os2">
583 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
584 <title>MAX OSX</title>
591 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
592 <title>AmigaOS</title>
601 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
605 must find a better place for this paragraph
608 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
609 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
610 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
611 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
612 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
613 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
617 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
618 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
619 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
620 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
621 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
622 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
623 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
624 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
625 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
629 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
630 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
631 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
633 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
634 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
635 popups (explained below).
639 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
640 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
641 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
642 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
643 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
644 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
645 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
646 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
647 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
651 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
652 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
653 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
654 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
655 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
656 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
657 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
658 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
659 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
663 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
664 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
665 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
666 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
667 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
668 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
669 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
673 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
674 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
675 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
676 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
677 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
678 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
683 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <ulink
684 url="actions-file.html#ACTIONSFILE">read more about the actions concept</ulink>
685 or even dive deep into the <ulink url="appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">Appendix
690 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
691 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
692 section <ulink url="contact.html"><quote>Contacting the
693 Developers</quote></ulink> below.
698 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
699 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
700 <title>Command Line Options</title>
702 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
703 command-line options:
711 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
714 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
719 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
722 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
727 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
730 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
731 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
736 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
740 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
741 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
742 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
743 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
748 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
752 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
753 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
754 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
759 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
762 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
763 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
764 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
765 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
766 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
767 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
778 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
781 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
782 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
784 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
785 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
786 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
787 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
791 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
794 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
796 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
797 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
798 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
799 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
800 You will see the following section:
804 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
807 <bridgehead renderas="sect2">Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
811 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
814 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
817 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
820 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
823 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
831 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
832 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
833 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
834 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
835 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
836 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
840 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
841 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
842 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
843 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
844 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
845 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
846 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
847 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
853 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
858 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
860 <sect2 id="confoverview">
861 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
863 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
864 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
865 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
866 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
867 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
868 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
872 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
873 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
874 principle configuration files are:
882 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
883 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
884 on Windows. This is a required file.
890 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
891 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
892 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
893 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
894 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
895 as many websites as possible.
898 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
899 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
900 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
901 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
902 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
903 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
904 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is for
905 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
908 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
910 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
912 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
913 various actions files.
919 <filename>default.filter</filename> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
920 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
921 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
922 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
923 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
931 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
932 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
933 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
934 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
935 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
936 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
941 The actions files and <filename>default.filter</filename>
942 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
947 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
948 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
949 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
950 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
951 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
952 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
953 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
958 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
959 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
960 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
961 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
967 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
970 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
973 <title>The Main Configuration File</title>
976 Again, the main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename> on
977 Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, and <filename>config.txt</filename> on Windows.
978 Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of
979 values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For
987 <emphasis>confdir /etc/privoxy</emphasis></literallayout>
993 Assigns the value <literal>/etc/privoxy</literal> to the option
994 <literal>confdir</literal> and thus indicates that the configuration
995 directory is named <quote>/etc/privoxy/</quote>.
999 All options in the config file except for <literal>confdir</literal> and
1000 <literal>logdir</literal> are optional. Watch out in the below description
1001 for what happens if you leave them unset.
1005 The main config file controls all aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>'s
1006 operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter
1007 where you may be surfing).
1011 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1013 <sect2 id="conf-log-loc">
1014 <title>Configuration and Log File Locations</title>
1017 <application>Privoxy</application> can (and normally does) use a number of
1018 other files for additional configuration, help and logging.
1019 This section of the configuration file tells <application>Privoxy</application>
1020 where to find those other files.
1024 The user running Privoxy, must have read permission for all
1025 configuration files, and write permission to any files that would
1026 be modified, such as log files.
1029 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="confdir"><title>confdir</title>
1033 <term>Specifies:</term>
1035 <para>The directory where the other configuration files are located</para>
1039 <term>Type of value:</term>
1041 <para>Path name</para>
1045 <term>Default value:</term>
1047 <para>/etc/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
1051 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1053 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
1060 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
1063 When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
1064 per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of <quote>confdir</quote>.
1065 For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
1066 <filename>confdir/templates</filename>, where the HTML templates for CGI
1067 output reside (e.g. <application>Privoxy's</application> 404 error page).
1075 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logdir"><title>logdir</title>
1079 <term>Specifies:</term>
1082 The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where <filename>logfile</filename> and
1083 <filename>jarfile</filename> are located)
1088 <term>Type of value:</term>
1090 <para>Path name</para>
1094 <term>Default value:</term>
1096 <para>/var/log/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
1100 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1102 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
1109 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
1116 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="actionsfile"><title>
1119 <anchor id="default.action">
1120 <anchor id="standard.action">
1121 <anchor id="user.action">
1122 <!-- Note: slightly modified this section 04/28/02, hal. See NOTE. -->
1125 <term>Specifies:</term>
1128 The <link linkend="actions-file">actions file(s)</link> to use
1133 <term>Type of value:</term>
1135 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal>, without the <literal>.action</literal> suffix</para>
1139 <term>Default value:</term>
1143 <msgtext><literallayout> standard # Internal purposes, no editing recommended</literallayout></msgtext>
1146 <msgtext><literallayout> default # Main actions file</literallayout></msgtext>
1149 <msgtext><literallayout> user # User customizations</literallayout></msgtext>
1155 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1158 No actions are taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
1166 Multiple <literal>actionsfile</literal> lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended!
1169 The default values include standard.action, which is used for internal
1170 purposes and should be loaded, default.action, which is the
1171 <quote>main</quote> actions file maintained by the developers, and
1172 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can make your personal additions.
1175 Actions files are where all the per site and per URL configuration is done for
1176 ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc.
1177 There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without at
1178 least one actions file.
1185 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filterfile"><title>filterfile</title>
1186 <anchor id="default.filter">
1189 <term>Specifies:</term>
1192 The <link linkend="filter">filter</link> file to use
1197 <term>Type of value:</term>
1199 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1203 <term>Default value:</term>
1205 <para>default.filter (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.filter.txt (Windows)</para>
1209 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1212 No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
1213 <literal>+filter{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
1214 actions in the actions files are turned neutral.
1222 The <quote>default.filter</quote> file contains content modification rules
1223 that use <quote>regular expressions</quote>. These rules permit powerful
1224 changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable your favorite
1225 JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some
1226 fun replacing <quote>Microsoft</quote> with <quote>MicroSuck</quote> wherever
1227 it appears on a Web page.
1234 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logfile"><title>logfile</title>
1238 <term>Specifies:</term>
1246 <term>Type of value:</term>
1248 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1252 <term>Default value:</term>
1254 <para>logfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.log (Windows)</para>
1258 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1261 No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (<literal>stderr</literal>).
1269 The windows version will additionally log to the console.
1272 The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
1273 of detail and number of messages are set with the <literal>debug</literal>
1274 option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
1275 <application>Privoxy</application> (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you
1276 think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it.
1279 Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
1280 periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
1281 (see <quote>man cron</quote>). For Red Hat, a <command>logrotate</command>
1282 script has been included.
1285 On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like <quote>/var/log/privoxy.*
1286 +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup</quote> in <filename>/etc/logfiles</filename>, with
1287 the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the
1288 log, when it exceeds 1M size.
1291 Any log files must be writable by whatever user <application>Privoxy</application>
1292 is being run as (default on UNIX, user id is <quote>privoxy</quote>).
1299 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jarfile"><title>jarfile</title>
1303 <term>Specifies:</term>
1306 The file to store intercepted cookies in
1311 <term>Type of value:</term>
1313 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1317 <term>Default value:</term>
1319 <para>jarfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.jar (Windows)</para>
1323 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1326 Intercepted cookies are not stored at all.
1334 The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
1341 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trustfile"><title>trustfile</title>
1344 <term>Specifies:</term>
1347 The trust file to use
1352 <term>Type of value:</term>
1354 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1358 <term>Default value:</term>
1360 <para><emphasis>Unset (commented out)</emphasis>. When activated: trust (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> trust.txt (Windows)</para>
1364 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1367 The whole trust mechanism is turned off.
1375 The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should
1376 be used with care. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> recommended for the casual user.
1379 If you specify a trust file, <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow
1380 access to sites that are named in the trustfile.
1381 You can also mark sites as trusted referrers (with <literal>+</literal>), with
1382 the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a
1383 trusted referrer was used.
1384 The link target will then be added to the <quote>trustfile</quote>.
1385 Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
1388 If you use <literal>+</literal> operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over time.
1396 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1400 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1402 <sect2 id="local-set-up">
1403 <title>Local Set-up Documentation</title>
1406 If you intend to operate <application>Privoxy</application> for more users
1407 than just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach
1408 you, what you block and why you do that, your policies, etc.
1411 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="user-manual"><title>user-manual</title>
1414 <term>Specifies:</term>
1417 Location of the <application>Privoxy</application> User Manual.
1422 <term>Type of value:</term>
1424 <para>A fully qualified URI</para>
1428 <term>Default value:</term>
1430 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1434 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1437 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/<replaceable class="parameter">version</replaceable>/user-manual/</ulink>
1438 will be used, where <replaceable class="parameter">version</replaceable> is the <application>Privoxy</application> version.
1446 The User Manual URI is used for help links from some of the internal CGI pages.
1447 The manual itself is normally packaged with the binary distributions, so you probably want
1448 to set this to a locally installed copy. For multi-user setups, you could provide a copy on
1449 a local webserver for all your users and use the corresponding URL here.
1455 Unix, in local filesystem:
1458 <screen>user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;/user-manual/</screen>
1461 Any platform, on local webserver (called <quote>local-webserver</quote>):
1464 <screen>user-manual http://local-webserver/privoxy-user-manual/</screen>
1468 If set, this option should be <emphasis>the first option in the config file</emphasis>, because
1469 it is used while the config file is being read.
1477 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trust-info-url"><title>trust-info-url</title>
1481 <term>Specifies:</term>
1484 A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied.
1489 <term>Type of value:</term>
1495 <term>Default value:</term>
1497 <para>Two example URL are provided</para>
1501 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1504 No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
1512 The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been
1513 activated. (See <link linkend="trustfile"><emphasis>trustfile</emphasis></link> above.)
1516 If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
1517 documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here.
1518 Use multiple times for multiple URLs.
1521 The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up
1522 locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place!
1529 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="admin-address"><title>admin-address</title>
1533 <term>Specifies:</term>
1536 An email address to reach the proxy administrator.
1541 <term>Type of value:</term>
1543 <para>Email address</para>
1547 <term>Default value:</term>
1549 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1553 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1556 No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1564 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1565 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1573 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="proxy-info-url"><title>proxy-info-url</title>
1577 <term>Specifies:</term>
1580 A URL to documentation about the local <application>Privoxy</application> setup,
1581 configuration or policies.
1586 <term>Type of value:</term>
1592 <term>Default value:</term>
1594 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1598 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1601 No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1609 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1610 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1614 This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
1622 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1624 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1626 <sect2 id="debugging">
1627 <title>Debugging</title>
1630 These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem.
1631 Note that you might also want to invoke
1632 <application>Privoxy</application> with the <literal>--no-daemon</literal>
1633 command line option when debugging.
1636 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="debug"><title>debug</title>
1640 <term>Specifies:</term>
1643 Key values that determine what information gets logged to the
1644 <link linkend="logfile"><emphasis>logfile</emphasis></link>.
1649 <term>Type of value:</term>
1651 <para>Integer values</para>
1655 <term>Default value:</term>
1657 <para>12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)</para>
1661 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1664 Nothing gets logged.
1672 The available debug levels are:
1676 debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
1677 debug 2 # show each connection status
1678 debug 4 # show I/O status
1679 debug 8 # show header parsing
1680 debug 16 # log all data into the logfile
1681 debug 32 # debug force feature
1682 debug 64 # debug regular expression filter
1683 debug 128 # debug fast redirects
1684 debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
1685 debug 512 # Common Log Format
1686 debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
1687 debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
1688 debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
1692 To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use
1693 multiple <literal>debug</literal> lines.
1696 A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request
1697 as it happens. <emphasis>1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended</emphasis>
1698 so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are probably
1699 only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce
1700 a hell of an output (especially 16).
1704 The reporting of <emphasis>fatal</emphasis> errors (i.e. ones which crash
1705 <application>Privoxy</application>) is always on and cannot be disabled.
1708 If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set <quote>debug
1709 512</quote> <emphasis>ONLY</emphasis> and not enable anything else.
1716 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="single-threaded"><title>single-threaded</title>
1720 <term>Specifies:</term>
1723 Whether to run only one server thread
1728 <term>Type of value:</term>
1730 <para><emphasis>None</emphasis></para>
1734 <term>Default value:</term>
1736 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1740 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1743 Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability to
1744 serve multiple requests simultaneously.
1752 This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never
1753 need to use it. <emphasis>It will drastically reduce performance.</emphasis>
1762 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1764 <sect2 id="access-control">
1765 <title>Access Control and Security</title>
1768 This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
1769 of <application>Privoxy</application>'s configuration.
1772 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="listen-address"><title>listen-address</title>
1776 <term>Specifies:</term>
1779 The IP address and TCP port on which <application>Privoxy</application> will
1780 listen for client requests.
1785 <term>Type of value:</term>
1787 <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">IP-Address</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
1792 <term>Default value:</term>
1794 <para>127.0.0.1:8118</para>
1798 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1801 Bind to 127.0.0.1 (localhost), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended for
1802 home users who run <application>Privoxy</application> on the same machine as
1811 You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
1814 If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
1815 serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
1816 will need to override the default.
1819 If you leave out the IP address, <application>Privoxy</application> will
1820 bind to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable
1821 from the Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (ACL's)
1822 (see <quote>ACLs</quote> below), or a firewall.
1827 <term>Example:</term>
1830 Suppose you are running <application>Privoxy</application> on
1831 a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network
1832 (192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address.
1833 You want it to serve requests from inside only:
1837 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
1845 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="toggle"><title>toggle</title>
1849 <term>Specifies:</term>
1852 Initial state of "toggle" status
1857 <term>Type of value:</term>
1863 <term>Default value:</term>
1869 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1872 Act as if toggled on
1880 If set to 0, <application>Privoxy</application> will start in
1881 <quote>toggled off</quote> mode, i.e. behave like a normal, content-neutral
1882 proxy where all ad blocking, filtering, etc are disabled. See
1883 <literal>enable-remote-toggle</literal> below. This is not really useful
1884 anymore, since toggling is much easier via <ulink
1885 url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">the web interface</ulink> than via
1886 editing the <filename>conf</filename> file.
1889 The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
1890 if this option is present.
1898 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-remote-toggle"><title>enable-remote-toggle</title>
1901 <term>Specifies:</term>
1904 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">web-based toggle
1905 feature</ulink> may be used
1910 <term>Type of value:</term>
1916 <term>Default value:</term>
1922 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1925 The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
1933 When toggled off, <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal,
1934 content-neutral proxy, i.e. it acts as if none of the actions applied to
1938 For the time being, access to the toggle feature can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1939 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1940 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1941 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1942 toggle it for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>
1943 for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1946 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1947 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1955 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-edit-actions"><title>enable-edit-actions</title>
1958 <term>Specifies:</term>
1961 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions
1962 file editor</ulink> may be used
1967 <term>Type of value:</term>
1973 <term>Default value:</term>
1979 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1982 The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
1990 For the time being, access to the editor can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1991 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1992 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1993 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1994 modify its configuration for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not
1995 recommended</emphasis> for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1998 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1999 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
2006 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="acls"><title>
2007 ACLs: permit-access and deny-access</title>
2008 <anchor id="permit-acces">
2009 <anchor id="deny-acces">
2013 <term>Specifies:</term>
2016 Who can access what.
2021 <term>Type of value:</term>
2024 <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable>]
2025 [<replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable>]]
2028 Where <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable> and
2029 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
2030 DNS names, and <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> and
2031 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable> are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
2032 values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
2033 destination part are optional.
2038 <term>Default value:</term>
2040 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2044 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2047 Don't restrict access further than implied by <literal>listen-address</literal>
2055 Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
2056 administrators, and <emphasis>are not usually needed by individual users</emphasis>.
2057 For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
2058 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens on the localhost
2059 (127.0.0.1) or internal (home) network address by means of the
2060 <link linkend="listen-address"><emphasis>listen-address</emphasis></link>
2064 Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute
2065 for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security
2069 Multiple ACL lines are OK.
2070 If any ACLs are specified, then the <application>Privoxy</application>
2071 talks only to IP addresses that match at least one <literal>permit-access</literal> line
2072 and don't match any subsequent <literal>deny-access</literal> line. In other words, the
2073 last match wins, with the default being <literal>deny-access</literal>.
2076 If <application>Privoxy</application> is using a forwarder (see <literal>forward</literal> below)
2077 for a particular destination URL, the <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>
2078 that is examined is the address of the forwarder and <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the address
2079 of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
2080 <application>Privoxy</application> to determine the IP address of the
2081 ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
2084 You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
2085 time. All DNS names must resolve! You can <emphasis>not</emphasis> use domain patterns
2086 like <quote>*.org</quote> or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
2087 IP addresses, only the first one is used.
2090 Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
2091 if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
2096 <term>Examples:</term>
2099 Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
2100 <literal>listen-address</literal> are set: <quote>localhost</quote>
2101 is OK. The absence of a <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> implies that
2102 <emphasis>all</emphasis> destination addresses are OK:
2106 permit-access localhost
2110 Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
2111 nothing but www.example.com:
2115 permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
2119 Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
2120 with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
2124 permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
2125 deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
2133 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="buffer-limit"><title>buffer-limit</title>
2137 <term>Specifies:</term>
2140 Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
2145 <term>Type of value:</term>
2147 <para>Size in Kbytes</para>
2151 <term>Default value:</term>
2157 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2160 Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
2168 For content filtering, i.e. the <literal>+filter</literal> and
2169 <literal>+deanimate-gif</literal> actions, it is necessary that
2170 <application>Privoxy</application> buffers the entire document body.
2171 This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
2172 data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
2176 When a document buffer size reaches the <literal>buffer-limit</literal>, it is
2177 flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
2178 filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
2179 running, which might require up to <literal>buffer-limit</literal> Kbytes
2180 <emphasis>each</emphasis>, unless you have enabled <quote>single-threaded</quote>
2190 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2193 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2195 <sect2 id="forwarding">
2196 <title>Forwarding</title>
2199 This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
2201 It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
2202 accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains
2203 through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. <ulink
2204 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm</ulink>)
2205 Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
2206 proxy may be necessary because the machine that <application>Privoxy</application>
2207 runs on has no direct Internet access.
2211 Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. <application>Privoxy</application>
2212 supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols.
2215 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward"><title>forward</title>
2218 <term>Specifies:</term>
2221 To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
2226 <term>Type of value:</term>
2229 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2230 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2233 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
2234 chapter on domain matching in the <filename>default.action</filename> file),
2235 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is the address of the parent HTTP proxy
2236 as an IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or as a valid DNS name (or <quote>.</quote> to denote
2237 <quote>no forwarding</quote>, and the optional
2238 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer
2239 values from 1 to 64535
2244 <term>Default value:</term>
2246 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2250 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2253 Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
2261 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2262 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
2265 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2270 <term>Examples:</term>
2273 Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
2277 forward .* anon-proxy.example.org:8080
2282 Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
2283 to that ISP's sites:
2287 forward .*. caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
2288 forward .example-isp.net .
2296 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="socks"><title>
2297 forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a</title>
2298 <anchor id="forward-socks4">
2299 <anchor id="forward-socks4a">
2303 <term>Specifies:</term>
2306 Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
2311 <term>Type of value:</term>
2314 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2315 <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2316 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2319 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
2320 chapter on domain matching in the <filename>default.action</filename> file),
2321 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> and <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>
2322 are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (<replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>
2323 may be <quote>.</quote> to denote <quote>no HTTP forwarding</quote>), and the optional
2324 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
2329 <term>Default value:</term>
2331 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2335 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2338 Don't use SOCKS proxies.
2346 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2349 The difference between <literal>forward-socks4</literal> and <literal>forward-socks4a</literal>
2350 is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
2351 server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
2354 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2355 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
2361 <term>Examples:</term>
2364 From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
2365 <quote>internal</quote> domains, but everything outbound goes through
2366 their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
2371 forward-socks4a .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
2372 forward .example.com .
2376 A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
2380 forward-socks4 .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
2388 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="advanced-forwarding-examples"><title>Advanced Forwarding Examples</title>
2391 If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
2392 only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple <application>Privoxies</application>
2393 which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
2394 <emphasis>your</emphasis> users can see the internal content of all ISPs.
2398 Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
2399 isp-b.net. Both run <application>Privoxy</application>. Their forwarding
2400 configuration can look like this:
2410 forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
2421 forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
2426 Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
2427 host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
2428 of both isp-a and isp-b.
2432 If you intend to chain <application>Privoxy</application> and
2433 <application>squid</application> locally, then chain as
2434 <literal>browser -> squid -> privoxy</literal> is the recommended way.
2438 Assuming that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>squid</application>
2439 run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this:
2444 # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
2445 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
2447 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
2450 # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
2451 always_direct allow ftp
2453 # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
2454 never_direct allow all</screen>
2458 You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to <application>squid</application>'s address and port.
2459 Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult <literal>http_port</literal> in <filename>squid.conf</filename>.
2466 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2469 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2471 <sect2 id="windows-gui">
2472 <title>Windows GUI Options</title>
2474 <application>Privoxy</application> has a number of options specific to the
2475 Windows GUI interface:
2478 <anchor id="activity-animation">
2480 If <quote>activity-animation</quote> is set to 1, the
2481 <application>Privoxy</application> icon will animate when
2482 <quote>Privoxy</quote> is active. To turn off, set to 0.
2489 <emphasis>activity-animation 1</emphasis>
2495 <anchor id="log-messages">
2497 If <quote>log-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2498 <application>Privoxy</application> will log messages to the console
2506 <emphasis>log-messages 1</emphasis>
2512 <anchor id="log-buffer-size">
2514 If <quote>log-buffer-size</quote> is set to 1, the size of the log buffer,
2515 i.e. the amount of memory used for the log messages displayed in the
2516 console window, will be limited to <quote>log-max-lines</quote> (see below).
2520 Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and
2521 eat up all your memory!
2528 <emphasis>log-buffer-size 1</emphasis>
2534 <anchor id="log-max-lines">
2536 <application>log-max-lines</application> is the maximum number of lines held
2537 in the log buffer. See above.
2544 <emphasis>log-max-lines 200</emphasis>
2550 <anchor id="log-highlight-messages">
2552 If <quote>log-highlight-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2553 <application>Privoxy</application> will highlight portions of the log
2554 messages with a bold-faced font:
2561 <emphasis>log-highlight-messages 1</emphasis>
2567 <anchor id="log-font-name">
2569 The font used in the console window:
2576 <emphasis>log-font-name Comic Sans MS</emphasis>
2582 <anchor id="log-font-size">
2584 Font size used in the console window:
2591 <emphasis>log-font-size 8</emphasis>
2597 <anchor id="show-on-task-bar">
2599 <quote>show-on-task-bar</quote> controls whether or not
2600 <application>Privoxy</application> will appear as a button on the Task bar
2608 <emphasis>show-on-task-bar 0</emphasis>
2614 <anchor id="close-button-minimizes">
2616 If <quote>close-button-minimizes</quote> is set to 1, the Windows close
2617 button will minimize <application>Privoxy</application> instead of closing
2618 the program (close with the exit option on the File menu).
2625 <emphasis>close-button-minimizes 1</emphasis>
2631 <anchor id="hide-console">
2633 The <quote>hide-console</quote> option is specific to the MS-Win console
2634 version of <application>Privoxy</application>. If this option is used,
2635 <application>Privoxy</application> will disconnect from and hide the
2643 #<emphasis>hide-console</emphasis>
2652 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2656 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2658 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
2661 The actions files are used to define what actions
2662 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determine
2663 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
2664 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
2665 are three such files included with <application>Privoxy</application> (as of
2666 version 2.9.15), with differing purposes:
2673 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor,
2674 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
2675 in <filename>default.action</filename>. These have increasing levels of
2676 aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no influence on your browsing unless
2677 you select them explicitly in the editor</emphasis>. It is not recommend
2683 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
2684 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
2685 provide a base level of functionality for
2686 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
2687 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well for users everywhere.
2688 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and making
2694 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
2695 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
2696 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
2697 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
2704 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2705 file, and are processed in the order they are defined. The content of these
2706 can all be viewed and edited from <ulink
2707 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2711 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
2712 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
2713 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
2714 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
2715 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
2716 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
2717 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
2718 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
2719 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
2720 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
2721 with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
2722 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
2726 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2727 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2728 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2729 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2730 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
2734 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2736 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2738 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2739 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2740 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2741 certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
2742 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2743 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2744 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per
2745 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2746 regularly use and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe
2747 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2751 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2752 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2753 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2754 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2758 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2760 <title>How to Edit</title>
2762 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2763 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2764 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2765 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
2766 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
2767 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Advanced</quote>.
2771 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2772 the actions files. Look at <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly
2779 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
2781 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2782 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will be discussed later. For now
2783 let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a heading line (often split
2784 up to multiple lines for readability) which consist of a list of actions,
2785 separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces. Below that, there
2786 is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
2790 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2791 compared to all patterns in each action file file. Every time it matches, the list of
2792 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
2793 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
2794 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
2795 the effects are aggregated (e.g. a URL might match both the
2796 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>
2797 and <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> actions).
2802 You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
2803 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2807 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2808 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
2812 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2813 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2814 <title>Patterns</title>
2816 Generally, a pattern has the form <literal><domain>/<path></literal>,
2817 where both the <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal>
2818 are optional. (This is why the pattern <literal>/</literal> matches all URLs).
2823 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2826 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2827 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
2832 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2835 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2841 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2844 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2845 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2850 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
2853 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2854 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
2859 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2862 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2863 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
2870 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2871 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2874 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2875 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2881 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2884 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2885 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2890 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2893 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2894 <literal>www.</literal>
2899 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2902 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
2903 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
2910 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2911 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
2912 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
2913 any single character, you can define character classes in square
2914 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
2919 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2922 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2923 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2928 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2931 matches all of the above, and then some.
2936 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2939 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2940 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2945 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2948 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2949 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2950 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2951 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2959 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2962 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2963 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2966 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
2967 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2972 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2973 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2974 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2975 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2976 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2977 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
2981 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2982 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2983 for the beginning of a line).
2987 Please also note that matching in the path is case
2988 <emphasis>INSENSITIVE</emphasis> by default, but you can switch to case
2989 sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2990 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch:
2991 <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match only
2992 documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2993 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2999 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3002 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3004 <sect2 id="actions">
3005 <title>Actions</title>
3007 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
3008 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
3009 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
3010 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
3011 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
3012 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
3013 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
3014 previously applied.</quote>
3019 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
3020 separated by whitespace, like in
3021 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
3022 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
3023 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
3024 of the actions file.
3028 There are three classes of actions:
3035 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
3036 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
3040 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
3041 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
3044 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
3051 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
3056 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
3057 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
3058 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
3061 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
3062 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
3065 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</literal>
3071 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
3072 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
3073 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
3074 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
3075 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
3076 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
3080 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
3081 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
3082 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
3083 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
3086 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
3087 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
3095 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
3096 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
3097 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
3098 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
3099 files will give a good starting point).
3103 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
3104 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
3105 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files). For
3106 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
3107 Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in
3108 <filename>config</filename> (the default installation has three actions
3109 files). It also quite possible for any given URL pattern to match more than
3110 one pattern and thus more than one set of actions!
3113 <!-- start actions listing -->
3115 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
3119 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3120 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
3121 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
3123 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3126 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3128 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
3129 <title><emphasis>add-header</emphasis></title>
3133 <term>Typical use:</term>
3135 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
3140 <term>Effect:</term>
3143 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
3150 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3152 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3157 <term>Parameter:</term>
3160 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
3161 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
3171 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
3172 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
3173 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
3180 <term>Example usage:</term>
3183 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
3191 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3192 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
3193 <title><emphasis>block</emphasis></title>
3197 <term>Typical use:</term>
3199 <para>Block ads or other obnoxious content</para>
3204 <term>Effect:</term>
3207 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the requests are not
3208 forwarded to the remote server, but answered locally with a substitute page or image,
3209 as determined by the <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>
3210 and <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> actions.
3217 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3219 <para>Boolean.</para>
3224 <term>Parameter:</term>
3234 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
3235 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
3236 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
3237 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
3238 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
3239 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
3240 right now, you can take a look at the
3241 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
3245 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
3246 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
3247 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
3248 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
3249 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
3250 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
3253 It is important to understand this process, in order
3254 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
3255 ads and other unwanted content.
3258 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
3259 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
3260 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
3261 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
3262 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
3268 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3271 <screen>{+block} # Block and replace with "blocked" page
3272 .nasty-stuff.example.com
3274 {+block +handle-as-image} # Block and replace with image
3285 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3286 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3287 <title><emphasis>crunch-incoming-cookies</emphasis></title>
3291 <term>Typical use:</term>
3294 Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
3300 <term>Effect:</term>
3303 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3310 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3312 <para>Boolean.</para>
3317 <term>Parameter:</term>
3329 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
3330 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
3331 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3332 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
3335 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3336 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3337 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set.
3343 <term>Example usage:</term>
3346 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3354 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3355 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3356 <title><emphasis>crunch-outgoing-cookies</emphasis></title>
3360 <term>Typical use:</term>
3363 Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
3369 <term>Effect:</term>
3372 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3379 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3381 <para>Boolean.</para>
3386 <term>Parameter:</term>
3398 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
3399 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
3400 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3401 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
3404 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3405 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3406 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3412 <term>Example usage:</term>
3415 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3424 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3425 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3426 <title><emphasis>deanimate-gifs</emphasis></title>
3430 <term>Typical use:</term>
3432 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3437 <term>Effect:</term>
3440 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3447 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3449 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3454 <term>Parameter:</term>
3457 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3466 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3467 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3468 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3469 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3470 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3471 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3474 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3475 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3482 <term>Example usage:</term>
3485 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3492 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3493 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3494 <title><emphasis>downgrade-http-version</emphasis></title>
3498 <term>Typical use:</term>
3500 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3505 <term>Effect:</term>
3508 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3515 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3517 <para>Boolean.</para>
3522 <term>Parameter:</term>
3534 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3535 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3536 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3537 out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
3538 is a chance you might need this action.
3544 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3547 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3548 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3556 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3557 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3558 <title><emphasis>fast-redirects</emphasis></title>
3562 <term>Typical use:</term>
3564 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links</para>
3569 <term>Effect:</term>
3572 Cut off all but the last valid URL from requests.
3579 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3581 <para>Boolean.</para>
3586 <term>Parameter:</term>
3598 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3599 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3600 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3601 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3602 <emphasis>http://some.place/click-tracker.cgi?target=http://some.where.else</emphasis>.
3605 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3606 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3607 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3608 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3609 browser ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3613 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3614 It is likely to break some sites. You should expect to need possibly
3615 many exceptions to this action, if it is enabled by default in
3616 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some sites just don't work without
3623 <term>Example usage:</term>
3626 <screen>{+fast-redirects}</screen>
3635 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3636 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3637 <title><emphasis>filter</emphasis></title>
3641 <term>Typical use:</term>
3643 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), do fun text replacements, etc.</para>
3648 <term>Effect:</term>
3651 Text documents, including HTML and JavaScript, to which this action applies, are filtered on-the-fly
3652 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
3659 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3661 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3666 <term>Parameter:</term>
3669 The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>
3670 (typically <filename>default.filter</filename>, set by the
3671 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3672 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>)
3681 For your convenience, there are a bunch of pre-defined filters available
3682 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the example below for
3686 This is potentially a very powerful feature! But <quote>rolling your own</quote>
3687 filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
3690 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3691 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3692 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3693 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3694 noticeable on slower connections.
3697 At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
3698 documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
3699 would normally be sent compressed, use the
3700 <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3701 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3704 Filtering can achieve some of the effects as the
3705 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3706 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners.
3709 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or improved filters is particularly
3716 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file):</term>
3719 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3720 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
3723 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3724 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
3727 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3728 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)</screen>
3731 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3732 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come sneaking in the HTML or JS content</screen>
3735 <anchor id="filter-popups">
3736 <screen>+filter{popups} # Kill all popups in JS and HTML</screen>
3739 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3740 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
3743 <anchor id="filter-fun">
3744 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
3747 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3748 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
3751 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3752 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
3755 <anchor id="filter-nimda">
3756 <screen>+filter{nimda} # Remove Nimda (virus) code.</screen>
3759 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3760 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
3763 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
3764 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"</screen>
3772 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3773 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
3774 <title><emphasis>handle-as-image</emphasis></title>
3778 <term>Typical use:</term>
3780 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis>)</para>
3785 <term>Effect:</term>
3788 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
3789 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
3790 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
3791 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
3792 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
3793 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
3800 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3802 <para>Boolean.</para>
3807 <term>Parameter:</term>
3819 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
3820 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
3824 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
3825 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
3826 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
3829 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (inline) ad
3830 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
3831 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
3832 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
3838 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3841 <screen># Generic image extensions:
3844 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
3846 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
3847 # blocked as images:
3849 {+block +handle-as-image}
3850 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
3852 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
3862 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3863 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
3864 <title><emphasis>hide-forwarded-for-headers</emphasis></title>
3868 <term>Typical use:</term>
3870 <para>Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request</para>
3875 <term>Effect:</term>
3878 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
3879 and prevents adding a new one.
3886 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3888 <para>Boolean.</para>
3893 <term>Parameter:</term>
3905 It is fairly safe to leave this on.
3908 This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate forged
3909 <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> headers using random IP addresses from a specified network,
3910 to make successive requests from the same client look like requests from a pool of different
3911 users sharing the same proxy.
3917 <term>Example usage:</term>
3920 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
3928 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3929 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
3930 <title><emphasis>hide-from-header</emphasis></title>
3934 <term>Typical use:</term>
3936 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
3941 <term>Effect:</term>
3944 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
3952 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3954 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3959 <term>Parameter:</term>
3962 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
3971 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
3972 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3976 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
3977 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
3978 is actually used by a real person.
3981 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
3982 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
3988 <term>Example usage:</term>
3991 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
3992 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4000 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4001 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4002 <title><emphasis>hide-referrer</emphasis></title>
4003 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4006 <term>Typical use:</term>
4008 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4013 <term>Effect:</term>
4016 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4017 or replaces it with a forged one.
4024 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4026 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4031 <term>Parameter:</term>
4035 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header completely.</para>
4038 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4041 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4051 <quote>forge</quote> is the preferred option here, since some servers will
4052 not send images back otherwise, in an attempt to prevent their valuable
4053 content from being embedded elsewhere (and hence, without being surrounded
4054 by <emphasis>their</emphasis> banners).
4057 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4058 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4059 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4060 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4061 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4067 <term>Example usage:</term>
4070 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4071 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4079 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4080 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4081 <title><emphasis>hide-user-agent</emphasis></title>
4085 <term>Typical use:</term>
4087 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4092 <term>Effect:</term>
4095 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4096 in client requests with the specified value.
4103 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4105 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4110 <term>Parameter:</term>
4113 Any user-defined string.
4123 This breaks many web sites that depend on looking at this header in order
4124 to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4125 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> a <ulink
4126 url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
4131 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4132 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4133 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4134 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4135 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4136 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4137 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4138 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4139 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4140 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4141 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4144 This action is scheduled for improvement.
4150 <term>Example usage:</term>
4153 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4161 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4162 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
4163 <title><emphasis>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></emphasis></title>
4167 <term>Typical use:</term>
4169 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows</para>
4174 <term>Effect:</term>
4177 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
4178 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
4185 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4187 <para>Boolean.</para>
4192 <term>Parameter:</term>
4204 This action is easily confused with the built-in, hardwired <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
4205 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
4206 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
4207 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
4209 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>popups</replaceable>}</literal>
4213 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
4214 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
4215 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
4216 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
4217 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
4218 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over it's filter equivalent.
4221 Killing all pop-ups is a dangerous business. Many shops and banks rely on
4222 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and killing only the unwanted pop-ups
4223 would require artificial intelligence in <application>Privoxy</application>.
4224 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
4225 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
4226 one), you might want to use
4228 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
4234 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
4242 <term>Example usage:</term>
4244 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
4251 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4252 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
4253 <title><emphasis>limit-connect</emphasis></title>
4257 <term>Typical use:</term>
4259 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay</para>
4264 <term>Effect:</term>
4267 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
4274 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4276 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4281 <term>Parameter:</term>
4284 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
4285 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
4294 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
4295 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
4296 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
4297 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
4298 for some or all destinations.
4301 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
4302 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
4303 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
4304 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
4305 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
4306 abused as TCP relays very easily.
4309 If you don't know what any of this means, there probably is no reason to
4310 change this one, since the default is already very restrictive.
4316 <term>Example usages:</term>
4318 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
4319 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
4320 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
4322 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
4323 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
4324 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
4325 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK (gaping security hole!)</screen>
4332 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4333 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
4334 <title><emphasis>prevent-compression</emphasis></title>
4338 <term>Typical use:</term>
4341 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
4342 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s
4348 <term>Effect:</term>
4351 Adds a header to the request that asks for uncompressed transfer.
4358 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4360 <para>Boolean.</para>
4365 <term>Parameter:</term>
4377 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
4378 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the <literal><link
4379 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
4380 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions to work,
4381 <application>Privoxy</application> needs access to the uncompressed data.
4382 Unfortunately, <application>Privoxy</application> can't yet(!) uncompress, filter, and
4383 re-compress the content on the fly. So if you want to ensure that all websites, including
4384 those that normally compress, can be filtered, you need to use this action.
4387 This will slow down transfers from those websites, though. If you use any of the above-mentioned
4388 actions, you will typically want to use <literal>prevent-compression</literal> in conjunction
4392 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
4393 documents correctly (they send an empty document body). If you use <literal>prevent-compression</literal>
4394 per default, you'll have to add exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
4400 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4403 <screen># Set default:
4405 {+prevent-compression}
4408 # Make exceptions for ill sites:
4410 {-prevent-compression}
4412 www.pclinuxonline.com</screen>
4421 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4422 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
4423 <title><emphasis>send-vanilla-wafer</emphasis></title>
4427 <term>Typical use:</term>
4430 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
4436 <term>Effect:</term>
4439 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
4440 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
4447 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4449 <para>Boolean.</para>
4454 <term>Parameter:</term>
4466 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
4469 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
4475 <term>Example usage:</term>
4478 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
4487 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4488 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
4489 <title><emphasis>send-wafer</emphasis></title>
4493 <term>Typical use:</term>
4496 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
4502 <term>Effect:</term>
4505 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
4512 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4514 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4519 <term>Parameter:</term>
4522 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
4523 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
4532 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
4533 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
4536 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
4541 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4544 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
4545 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
4553 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4554 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
4555 <title><emphasis>session-cookies-only</emphasis></title>
4559 <term>Typical use:</term>
4562 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
4568 <term>Effect:</term>
4571 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> server headers.
4572 Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and forget them in between sessions.
4579 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4581 <para>Boolean.</para>
4586 <term>Parameter:</term>
4598 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
4599 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
4600 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
4603 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
4604 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
4605 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
4606 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
4607 sites, and is the recommended setting.
4610 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
4611 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
4612 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
4613 will be plainly killed.
4616 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
4617 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
4623 <term>Example usage:</term>
4626 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
4634 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4635 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
4636 <title><emphasis>set-image-blocker</emphasis></title>
4640 <term>Typical use:</term>
4642 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
4647 <term>Effect:</term>
4650 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
4651 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
4652 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
4653 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
4654 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
4655 sent as a replacement.
4662 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4664 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4669 <term>Parameter:</term>
4674 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
4675 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
4680 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
4681 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
4682 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
4683 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
4688 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
4689 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
4690 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem (via <quote>file:///</quote> URL).
4693 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
4694 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
4695 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
4696 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
4697 it over and over again.
4708 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
4709 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
4710 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
4713 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
4714 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
4715 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
4721 <term>Example usage:</term>
4727 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
4730 Redirect to the BSD devil:
4733 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
4736 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
4739 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
4747 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4749 <title>Summary</title>
4751 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
4752 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
4753 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
4754 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
4755 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
4756 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
4762 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4763 <sect2 id="aliases">
4764 <title>Aliases</title>
4766 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
4767 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
4768 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
4769 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
4771 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
4772 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
4773 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
4774 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
4775 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
4779 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
4780 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
4781 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
4782 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
4786 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
4787 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
4788 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
4789 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
4790 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
4791 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
4792 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
4795 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
4796 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
4797 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
4798 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
4799 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
4801 This is likely to change in future versions of <application>Privoxy</application>.
4805 Now let's define some aliases...
4810 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
4812 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
4813 # must be at the top of the actions file!
4817 # These aliases just save typing later:
4819 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
4820 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
4821 +imageblock = +block +handle-as-image
4823 # These aliases define combinations of actions
4824 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
4826 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
4827 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -fast-redirects
4829 # Aliases defined from other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
4831 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
4832 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
4836 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
4837 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
4838 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
4843 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
4844 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
4847 .office.microsoft.com
4848 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
4852 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
4856 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
4859 # These shops require pop-ups:
4861 {shop -kill-popups -filter{popups}}
4863 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
4867 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are often used for
4868 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require some actions to be disabled
4869 in order to function properly.
4873 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4874 <sect2 id="act-examples">
4875 <title>Sample Actions Files</title>
4877 Remember that the meaning of each action is reversed by preceding
4878 the action with a <quote>-</quote>, in place of the <quote>+</quote>. Also,
4879 that some actions are turned on in the default section of the actions file,
4880 and require little to no additional configuration. These are just <quote>on</quote>.
4884 But, other actions that are turned on in the default section <emphasis>do
4885 typically require</emphasis> exceptions to be listed in the latter sections of
4886 one of our actions file. For instance, by default no URLs are
4887 <quote>blocked</quote> (i.e. in the default definitions of
4888 <filename>default.action</filename>). We need exceptions to this in order to
4889 <emphasis>enable</emphasis> ad blocking in the lower sections. But we need to
4890 be very selective about what we do block. Thus, the default is <quote>off</quote>
4895 Below is a liberally commented sample <filename>default.action</filename> file
4896 to demonstrate how all the pieces come together. And to show how exceptions
4897 to the default policies can be handled. This is followed by a brief
4898 <filename>user.action</filename> with similar examples.
4905 # Sample default.action file <developers@privoxy.org>
4907 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
4909 for-privoxy-version=3.0
4912 ##########################################################################
4913 # <ulink url="actions-file.html#ALIASES">Aliases</ulink> must be defined *before* they are used. These are
4914 # easier to remember, and can combine several actions into one. Once
4915 # defined they can be used just like any built-in action -- but within
4916 # this file only! Aliases do not require a + or - sign.
4917 ##########################################################################
4920 # Some useful aliases.
4921 # Alias to turn off cookie handling, ie allow all cookies unmolested.
4923 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies \
4924 -session-cookies-only
4926 # Alias to both block and treat as if an image for ad blocking
4929 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
4931 # Shops should be allowed to set persistent cookies
4933 shop = -filter mercy-for-cookies
4935 # Fragile sites should receive minimum interference:
4937 fragile = -block -deanimate-gifs -fast-redirects -filter -hide-referer \
4938 mercy-for-cookies -kill-popups
4940 ##########################################################################
4941 # Matching starts here. Remember that at this time, all actions are
4942 # disabled, so we need to explicitly enable the ones we want.
4944 # We begin with "default" action settings, i.e. we define a set of actions
4945 # for a pattern ("/") <link linkend="af-patterns">that matches all URLs</link>. This default set will be
4946 # applied to all requests as a start, and can be partly or wholly overridden
4947 # by later matches further down this file, or in user.action.
4949 # We will show all potential actions here whether they are enabled
4950 # or not. We could omit any disabled action if we wanted, since all
4951 # actions are 'off' by default anyway. Shown for completeness only.
4952 # Actions are enabled if preceded by a '+', otherwise they are disabled
4953 # (unless an alias has been defined without this).
4954 ##########################################################################
4956 <ulink url="actions-file.html#ADD-HEADER">-add-header</ulink> \
4957 <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> \
4958 <ulink url="actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">-deanimate-gifs</ulink> \
4959 <ulink url="actions-file.html#DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">-downgrade-http-version</ulink> \
4960 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS">+fast-redirects</ulink> \
4961 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">+filter{html-annoyances}</ulink> \
4962 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">+filter{js-annoyances}</ulink> \
4963 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">-filter{content-cookies}</ulink> \
4964 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS">-filter{popups}</ulink> \
4965 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-WEBBUGS">+filter{webbugs}</ulink> \
4966 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">-filter{refresh-tags}</ulink> \
4967 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-FUN">-filter{fun}</ulink> \
4968 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-NIMDA">+filter{nimda}</ulink> \
4969 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">+filter{banners-by-size}</ulink> \
4970 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">-filter{shockwave-flash}</ulink> \
4971 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">-filter{crude-parental}</ulink> \
4972 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">+hide-forwarded-for-headers</ulink> \
4973 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-FROM-HEADER">+hide-from-header{block}</ulink> \
4974 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-REFERER">-hide-referrer</ulink> \
4975 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-USER-AGENT">-hide-user-agent</ulink> \
4976 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">-handle-as-image</ulink> \
4977 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">+set-image-blocker{pattern}</ulink> \
4978 <ulink url="actions-file.html#LIMIT-CONNECT">-limit-connect</ulink> \
4979 <ulink url="actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">+prevent-compression</ulink> \
4980 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">-session-cookies-only</ulink> \
4981 <ulink url="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">-crunch-outgoing-cookies</ulink> \
4982 <ulink url="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">-crunch-incoming-cookies</ulink> \
4983 <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS">-kill-popups</ulink> \
4984 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">-send-vanilla-wafer</ulink> \
4985 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SEND-WAFER">-send-wafer</ulink> \
4987 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.
4989 ##########################################################################
4990 # Default behavior is now set. Now we will define some exceptions to our
4991 # default action policies.
4992 ##########################################################################
4994 # These sites are very complex and require very minimal interference.
4995 # We'll disable most actions with our 'fragile' alias:
4997 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
4998 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5001 # Shopping sites - not as fragile but require some special
5002 # handling. We still want to block ads, and we will allow
5003 # persistent cookies via the 'shop' alias:
5006 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5011 # These sites require pop-ups too :( We'll combine our 'shop'
5012 # alias with two other actions into one rule to allow all popups.
5013 { shop <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS">-kill-popups</ulink> <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS">-filter{popups}</ulink> }
5018 # The 'Fast-redirects' action breaks some sites. Disable this action
5019 # for these known sensitive sites:
5020 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS">-fast-redirects</ulink> }
5022 edit.europe.yahoo.com
5024 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
5025 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
5029 # Define which file types will be treated as images. Important
5031 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">+handle-as-image</ulink> }
5032 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)
5035 # Now lets list some domains that are known ad generators. And
5036 # our alias that we use here will block these as well as force
5037 # them to be treated as images. This combination of actions is
5038 # important for ad blocking. What the browser will show instead is
5039 # determined by the setting of <ulink url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></ulink>
5043 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
5044 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
5048 ad.*.doubleclick.net
5051 # These will just simply be blocked. They will generate the BLOCKED
5052 # banner page, if matched. Heavy use of wildcards and regular
5053 # expressions in this example. Enable block action:
5054 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
5059 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
5060 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
5064 # The above block section will probably inadvertently catch some
5065 # sites we DO NOT want blocked via the wildcards and regular expressions.
5066 # Now let's set exceptions to the exceptions so the good guys get better
5067 # treatment. Disable block action:
5068 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
5073 # Let's just trust all .edu top level domains.
5075 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv
5076 # We'll need to access to path names containing 'download'
5079 # 'adv' is for globalintersec and means advanced, not advertisement
5080 www.globalintersec.com/adv
5083 # Don't filter *anything* from our friends at sourceforge.
5084 # Notice we don't have to name the individual filter
5085 # identifiers -- we just turn them all off in one fell swoop.
5086 # Disable all filters for this one site:
5087 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER">-filter</ulink> }
5095 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies.
5096 The above would be a reasonable starting point for many situations. Now,
5097 we want to be more specific and have customized rules that are more suitable
5098 to our personal habits and preferences. These would be for narrowly defined
5099 situations like your ISP or your bank, and should be placed in
5100 <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
5101 actions files and should not be clobbered by upgrades. So any settings here,
5102 will have the last word and over-ride any previously defined actions.
5106 Now a few examples of some things that one might do with a
5107 <filename>user.action</filename> file.
5110 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
5116 # Sample user.action file.
5118 # Any aliases you want to use need to be re-defined here.
5119 # Alias to turn off cookie handling, ie allow all cookies unmolested.
5120 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies \
5121 -session-cookies-only
5123 # Fragile sites should have the minimum changes:
5124 fragile = -block -deanimate-gifs -fast-redirects -filter -hide-referer \
5125 -crunch-all-cookies -kill-popups
5127 # Allow persistent cookies for a few regular sites that we
5128 # trust via our above alias. These will be saved from one browser session
5129 # to the next. We are explicitly turning off any and all cookie handling,
5130 # even though the crunch-*-cookies settings were disabled in our above
5131 # default.action anyway. So cookies from these domains will come through
5133 { -crunch-all-cookies }
5140 # My ISP uses obnoxious self promoting images on many pages.
5141 # Nuke them :) Note that <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink> need not be specified,
5142 # since all URLs ending in .gif will be tagged as images by the
5143 # general rules in default.action anyway.
5144 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
5145 www.my-isp-example.com/logo[0-9].gif
5148 # Say the site where you do your home banking needs to open
5149 # popup windows, but you have chosen to kill popups by
5150 # default. This will allow it for your-example-bank.com:
5152 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS">-filter{popups}</ulink> <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS">-kill-popups</ulink> }
5153 .my-example-bank.com
5156 # This site is delicate, and requires kid-glove
5166 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5172 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5176 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
5178 <sect1 id="filter-file">
5179 <title>The Filter File</title>
5181 Any web page can be dynamically modified with the filter file. This
5182 modification can be removal, or re-writing, of any web page content,
5183 including tags and non-visible content. The default filter file is
5184 oddly enough <filename>default.filter</filename>, located in the config
5189 This is potentially a very powerful feature, and requires knowledge of both
5190 <quote>regular expression</quote> and HTML in order create custom
5191 filters. But, there are a number of useful filters included with
5192 <application>Privoxy</application> for many common situations.
5196 The included example file is divided into sections. Each section begins
5197 with the <literal>FILTER</literal> keyword, followed by the identifier
5198 for that section, e.g. <quote>FILTER: webbugs</quote>. Each section performs
5199 a similar type of filtering, such as <quote>html-annoyances</quote>.
5203 This file uses regular expressions to alter or remove any string in the
5204 target page. The expressions can only operate on one line at a time. Some
5205 examples from the included default <filename>default.filter</filename>:
5209 Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by
5210 deleting such references:
5217 FILTER: html-annoyances
5219 # New browser windows should be resizeable and have a location and status
5222 s/resizable="?(no|0)"?/resizable=1/ig s/noresize/yesresize/ig
5223 s/location="?(no|0)"?/location=1/ig s/status="?(no|0)"?/status=1/ig
5224 s/scrolling="?(no|0|Auto)"?/scrolling=1/ig
5225 s/menubar="?(no|0)"?/menubar=1/ig
5227 # The <BLINK> tag was a crime!
5229 s*<blink>|</blink>**ig
5233 #s/framespacing="?(no|0)"?//ig
5234 #s/margin(height|width)=[0-9]*//gi
5241 Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of <quote>Microsoft</quote> with
5242 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>, and have a little fun with topical buzzwords:
5251 s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig
5255 s/industry-leading|cutting-edge|award-winning/<font color=red><b>BINGO!</b></font>/ig
5262 Kill those pesky little web-bugs:
5269 # webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
5272 s/<img\s+[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1\D[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1(\D[^>]*?)?>/<!-- Squished WebBug -->/sig
5279 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5281 <title>The <emphasis>+filter</emphasis> Action</title>
5283 Filters are enabled with the <ulink
5284 url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink> action from within
5285 one of the actions files. <quote>+filter</quote> requires one parameter, which
5286 should match one of the section identifiers in the filter file itself. Example:
5290 +filter{html-annoyances}
5294 This would activate that particular filter. Similarly, <quote>+filter</quote>
5295 can be turned off for selected sites as:
5296 <quote>-filter{<replaceable>html-annoyances</replaceable>}</quote>. Remember
5297 too, all actions are off by default, unless they are explicitly enabled in one
5298 of the actions files.
5305 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5309 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5311 <sect1 id="templates">
5312 <title>Templates</title>
5314 When <application>Privoxy</application> displays one of its internal
5315 pages, such as a <ulink url="http://bogus_404_page.com">404 Not Found error page</ulink>
5316 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for link to work as
5317 intended), it uses the appropriate template. On Linux, BSD, and Unix, these
5318 are located in <filename>/etc/privoxy/templates</filename> by default. These
5319 may be customized, if desired. <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> is used to
5320 control the HTML attributes (fonts, etc).
5325 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html">Blocked
5326 </ulink> (<application>Privoxy</application> needs to be running for page to
5327 display) banner page with the bright red top banner, is called just
5328 <quote><filename>blocked</filename></quote>. This may be customized or
5329 replaced with something else if desired (not recommended for the casual
5335 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5339 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5341 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
5344 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
5346 <!-- end boilerplate -->
5350 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5353 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5354 <sect1 id="copyright"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Copyright, License and History</title>
5356 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
5358 <!-- end copyright -->
5360 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5361 <sect2><title>License</title>
5362 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
5364 <!-- end copyright -->
5366 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5369 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5371 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
5372 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
5374 <!-- end history -->
5378 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5381 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5382 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
5383 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
5385 <!-- end seealso -->
5390 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5391 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
5394 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5396 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
5398 <application>Privoxy</application> can use <quote>regular expressions</quote>
5399 in various config files. Assuming support for <quote>pcre</quote> (Perl
5400 Compatible Regular Expressions) is compiled in, which is the default. Such
5401 configuration directives do not require regular expressions, but they can be
5402 used to increase flexibility by matching a pattern with wild-cards against
5407 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
5408 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
5409 introduction only. A full explanation would require a book ;-)
5413 <quote>Regular expressions</quote> is a way of matching one character
5414 expression against another to see if it matches or not. One of the
5415 <quote>expressions</quote> is a literal string of readable characters
5416 (letter, numbers, etc), and the other is a complex string of literal
5417 characters combined with wild-cards, and other special characters, called
5418 meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have special meanings and
5419 are used to build the complex pattern to be matched against. Perl Compatible
5420 Regular Expressions is an enhanced form of the regular expression language
5421 with backward compatibility.
5425 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
5426 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
5427 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
5428 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
5429 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
5430 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
5431 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
5432 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
5436 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
5437 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
5438 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
5439 and then some examples:
5444 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
5445 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
5447 </simplelist></para>
5451 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
5454 </simplelist></para>
5458 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
5461 </simplelist></para>
5465 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
5468 </simplelist></para>
5472 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
5473 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
5474 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
5475 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
5476 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
5477 meta-character meaning of any single character).
5479 </simplelist></para>
5483 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
5484 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
5485 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
5486 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
5488 </simplelist></para>
5492 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
5493 or multiple sub-expressions.
5495 </simplelist></para>
5499 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
5500 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
5501 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
5502 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
5503 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
5504 example</quote>, and nothing else.
5506 </simplelist></para>
5510 <emphasis>s/string1/string2/g</emphasis> - This is used to rewrite strings of text.
5511 <quote>string1</quote> is replaced by <quote>string2</quote> in this
5512 example. There must of course be a match on <quote>string1</quote> first.
5514 </simplelist></para>
5517 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
5518 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
5519 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
5520 be more illuminating:
5524 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
5525 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
5526 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
5527 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
5528 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
5529 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
5530 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
5531 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
5532 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
5533 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
5534 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
5535 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
5536 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
5537 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
5542 A now something a little more complex:
5546 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
5547 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
5548 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
5549 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
5550 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
5551 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
5552 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
5557 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
5558 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
5559 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
5560 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
5561 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
5562 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
5563 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
5564 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
5565 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
5566 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
5567 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
5568 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
5569 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
5570 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
5571 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
5572 changing our regular expression to:
5573 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
5578 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
5579 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
5580 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
5581 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
5582 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
5583 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
5584 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
5585 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
5586 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
5587 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
5588 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
5589 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
5590 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
5591 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
5592 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
5593 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
5594 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
5595 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
5596 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
5597 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
5598 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
5599 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
5600 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
5601 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
5602 in the expression anywhere).
5606 <emphasis><literal>s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i</literal></emphasis> - This is
5607 a substitution. <quote>MicroSuck</quote> will replace any occurrence of
5608 <quote>microsoft</quote>. The <quote>i</quote> at the end of the expression
5609 means ignore case. The <quote>(?!.com)</quote> means
5610 the match should fail if <quote>microsoft</quote> is followed by
5611 <quote>.com</quote>. In other words, this acts like a <quote>NOT</quote>
5612 modifier. In case this is a hyperlink, we don't want to break it ;-).
5616 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
5617 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
5618 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
5619 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
5620 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
5625 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
5626 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
5631 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5634 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5636 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
5639 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
5640 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
5641 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
5642 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
5643 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
5644 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
5645 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
5651 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
5652 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
5653 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
5654 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
5667 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
5671 Alternately, this may be reached at <ulink
5672 url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>, but this
5673 variation may not work as reliably as the above in some configurations.
5679 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
5680 editing of actions files:
5684 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
5691 Show the source code version numbers:
5695 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
5702 Show the browser's request headers:
5706 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
5713 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
5717 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5724 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
5725 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
5729 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
5733 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
5737 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
5742 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
5751 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
5755 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
5756 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
5758 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
5759 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
5760 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
5761 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
5762 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
5763 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
5766 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
5767 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
5768 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
5769 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
5770 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
5771 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
5780 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>
5787 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>
5794 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)
5801 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>
5807 <ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions','Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Submit Filter Feedback</ulink>
5817 Credit: The site which gave me the general idea for these bookmarklets is
5818 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
5819 have more information about bookmarklets.
5828 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5830 <title>Chain of Events</title>
5832 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
5833 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
5840 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
5841 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
5842 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
5848 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
5849 pages (e.g http://p.p/) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
5854 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
5856 url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> patterns. If
5857 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
5858 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>
5859 is then checked and if it does not match, an
5860 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
5861 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <ulink
5862 url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></ulink>
5863 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
5868 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
5869 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
5874 If the URL pattern matches the <ulink
5875 url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></ulink> action,
5876 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
5881 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
5882 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <ulink
5883 url="actions-file.html#HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></ulink>,
5884 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
5890 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
5896 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
5897 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
5898 filtered as determined by the
5899 <ulink url="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></ulink>,
5900 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></ulink>,
5901 and <ulink url="actions-file.html#DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></ulink>
5907 If the <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink>
5908 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
5909 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
5914 If a <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink>
5916 url="actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></ulink>
5917 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
5918 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
5919 <filename>default.filter</filename>) are processed against the buffered
5920 content. Filters are applied in the order they are specified in the
5921 <filename>default.filter</filename> file. Animated GIFs, if present, are
5922 reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
5923 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
5924 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
5927 If neither <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink>
5929 url="actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></ulink>
5930 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
5931 to the client browser as it becomes available.
5936 As the browser receives the now (probably filtered) page content, it
5937 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
5938 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
5939 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
5940 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
5941 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
5951 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5952 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
5953 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
5956 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
5957 <ulink url="actions-file.html#ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></ulink>
5958 and <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>filters</quote></ulink>
5959 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
5960 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
5961 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
5962 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
5963 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
5964 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
5965 <quote>regular expressions</quote> whose consequences are not always
5970 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
5971 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
5972 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
5973 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!).
5977 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
5978 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5979 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
5980 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
5984 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
5985 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
5986 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
5987 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <ulink
5988 url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink> action) from
5989 the <filename>default.filter</filename> file since this is handled very
5990 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
5991 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
5992 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
5993 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
5994 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
5995 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
5996 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
6001 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
6002 and look at it one section at a time:
6007 Matches for http://google.com:
6009 --- File standard ---
6010 (no matches in this file)
6012 --- File default ---
6014 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs{last} -downgrade-http-version +fast-redirects
6015 -filter{popups} -filter{fun} -filter{shockwave-flash} -filter{crude-parental}
6016 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{content-cookies}
6017 +filter{webbugs} +filter{refresh-tags} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
6018 +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block} +hide-referer{forge}
6019 -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{pattern} -limit-connect
6020 +prevent-compression +session-cookies-only -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6021 -crunch-incoming-cookies -kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-wafer }
6024 { -session-cookies-only }
6031 (no matches in this file)
6036 This tells us how we have defined our
6037 <ulink url="actions-file.html#ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></ulink>, and
6038 which ones match for our example, <quote>google.com</quote>. The first listing
6039 is any matches for the <filename>standard.action</filename> file. No hits at
6040 all here on <quote>standard</quote>. Then next is <quote>default</quote>, or
6041 our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line listing,
6042 is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default settings.
6043 If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the section
6044 just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This will apply to
6045 all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
6046 -- <quote>/</quote>.
6050 But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
6051 rules, and then list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions would
6052 apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
6053 <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous cookie setting,
6054 which was for <ulink
6055 url="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></ulink>
6056 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google. The
6057 second turns <emphasis>off</emphasis> any
6059 url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></ulink>
6060 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
6061 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
6062 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
6063 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these two actions
6064 defined somewhere in the lower part of our <filename>default.action</filename>
6065 file, and <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter
6070 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
6074 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
6075 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
6076 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
6084 -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs{last} -downgrade-http-version -fast-redirects
6085 -filter{popups} -filter{fun} -filter{shockwave-flash} -filter{crude-parental}
6086 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{content-cookies}
6087 +filter{webbugs} +filter{refresh-tags} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
6088 +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block} +hide-referer{forge}
6089 -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{pattern} -limit-connect
6090 +prevent-compression -session-cookies-only -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6091 -crunch-incoming-cookies -kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-wafer
6096 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
6097 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>.
6101 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
6107 { +block +handle-as-image }
6110 { +block +handle-as-image }
6113 { +block +handle-as-image }
6119 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
6120 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
6121 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
6122 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<ulink
6123 url="actions-file.html#ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></ulink> are defined in
6124 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
6129 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
6130 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
6131 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
6132 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
6133 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
6134 is done here -- as both a <ulink
6135 url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink>
6136 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
6138 url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>.
6139 The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> just simplifies the process and make
6144 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
6145 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm...
6151 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
6153 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade-http-version +fast-redirects
6154 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{kill-popups}
6155 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
6156 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block}
6157 +hide-referer{forge} -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{blank}
6158 +prevent-compression +session-cookies-only -crunch-incoming-cookies
6159 -crunch-outgoing-cookies +kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-wafer }
6162 { +block +handle-as-image }
6168 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
6169 we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
6170 now add a new action below this that explicitly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
6171 block (<quote>{-block}</quote>) paths with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are
6172 various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
6184 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
6185 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
6189 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
6196 { +block +handle-as-image }
6202 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
6203 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
6204 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
6205 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
6206 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. Try
6207 adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
6215 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6223 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
6224 <quote>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</quote>.
6225 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
6238 This would probably be most appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>,
6239 for local site exceptions.
6243 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
6244 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
6245 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
6246 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
6255 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
6256 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
6257 Public License as published by the Free Software
6258 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
6259 your option) any later version.
6261 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
6262 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
6263 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
6264 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
6265 License for more details.
6267 The GNU General Public License should be included with
6268 this file. If not, you can view it at
6269 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
6270 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
6271 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
6273 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
6274 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
6277 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
6278 Restored alphabetical order of actions
6280 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
6281 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
6283 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
6284 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
6286 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
6287 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
6288 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
6290 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
6291 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
6292 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
6293 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
6295 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
6296 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
6298 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
6301 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
6302 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
6303 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
6305 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
6306 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
6308 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
6309 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
6310 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
6312 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
6313 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
6315 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
6316 more structure in starting section
6318 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
6319 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
6320 will probably break links elsewhere :(
6322 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
6323 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
6324 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
6326 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
6327 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
6328 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
6330 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
6331 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
6333 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
6334 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
6335 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
6337 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
6338 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
6339 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
6341 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
6342 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
6344 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
6345 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
6347 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
6348 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
6350 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
6351 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
6353 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
6354 Updated OSX installation section
6355 Added a few English tweaks here an there
6357 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
6358 Re-write actions section.
6360 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
6361 Fix ugly typo (mine).
6363 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
6364 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
6366 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
6367 Added RPM install detail
6369 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
6372 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
6373 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
6375 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
6376 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
6378 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
6379 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
6381 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
6384 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
6385 Proofreading, part one
6387 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
6388 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
6389 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
6391 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
6392 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
6394 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
6395 Add small section on submitting actions.
6397 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
6400 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
6401 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
6403 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
6404 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
6406 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
6409 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
6410 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
6411 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
6412 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
6413 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
6415 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
6416 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
6418 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
6419 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
6421 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
6422 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
6423 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
6424 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
6425 eventually be set by Makefile.
6426 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
6428 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
6429 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
6431 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
6432 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
6434 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
6435 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
6437 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
6438 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
6439 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
6440 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
6442 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
6445 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
6446 Added more to Anatomy section.
6448 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
6449 Touch up intro for new name.
6451 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
6452 we have a new homepage!
6454 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
6455 A few minor catch ups with name change.
6457 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
6458 configure needs to be generated.
6460 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
6461 we are too lazy to make a block-built
6462 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
6464 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
6465 name change related issue.
6467 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
6468 name change. changed filenames.
6470 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
6473 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
6474 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
6475 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
6476 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
6477 comments and remarks to history untouched.
6479 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
6482 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
6483 New section in Appendix.
6485 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
6486 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
6488 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
6489 correct feedback channels
6491 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
6492 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
6494 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
6497 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
6498 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
6500 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
6501 Added imageblock{pattern}.
6503 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
6506 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
6507 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
6509 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
6510 provide correct feedback channels
6512 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
6513 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
6515 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
6516 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
6518 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
6519 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
6521 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
6522 Add new - - user option.
6524 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
6525 Added section on command line options.
6527 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
6528 Changed default port to 8118
6530 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
6531 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
6533 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
6534 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
6535 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
6538 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
6541 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
6542 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
6544 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
6545 Update OS/2 build section
6547 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
6548 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
6549 will work - no other changes are needed.
6551 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
6552 Added a very short section on Templates
6554 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
6555 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
6557 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
6558 Touch ups for *.action files.
6560 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
6563 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
6564 Updates for recent changes.
6566 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
6567 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
6569 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
6570 Correct 2 minor errors
6572 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
6573 *** empty log message ***
6575 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
6576 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
6578 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
6579 wrong url in documentation
6581 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
6582 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
6584 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
6587 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
6590 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
6593 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
6594 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
6596 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
6597 Some additions, and re-arranging.
6599 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
6602 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
6603 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
6605 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
6608 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
6609 source files for junkbuster documentation
6611 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
6612 first proposal of a structure.
6614 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
6615 docs should have an author.
6617 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
6618 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.
projects / privoxy.git / blob