1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
12 <!entity p-authors SYSTEM "p-authors.sgml">
13 <!entity config SYSTEM "p-config.sgml">
14 <!entity p-version "3.0.4">
15 <!entity p-status "beta">
16 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
17 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
18 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
20 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
21 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
23 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
24 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
25 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
26 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
29 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
32 This file belongs into
33 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
35 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9 Exp $
37 Copyright (C) 2001- 2006 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
40 ========================================================================
41 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
42 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
43 ========================================================================
50 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
54 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
55 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
56 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001 - 2006 by
57 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
61 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
65 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
66 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
67 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
68 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
81 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
82 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
83 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
89 The <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
90 install, configure and use <ulink
91 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
94 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
96 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
99 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
100 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
101 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
102 contact the developers.
106 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
112 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
113 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
115 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
116 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
117 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
118 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
119 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
120 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
121 earlier versions. ]]>.
124 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
127 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
128 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
129 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
134 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
135 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
137 In addition to the core
138 features of ad blocking and cookie management,
139 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
140 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
141 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
143 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
145 <!-- end boilerplate -->
150 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
153 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
154 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
157 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
158 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
159 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
160 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
165 Note: If you have a previous <application>Junkbuster</application> or
166 <application>Privoxy</application> installation on your system, you
167 will need to remove it. On some platforms, this may be done for you as part
168 of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform). In any case
169 <emphasis>be sure to backup your old configuration if it is valuable to
170 you.</emphasis> See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">note to
171 upgraders</link> section below.
174 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
175 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
177 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
180 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
181 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs</title>
184 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
185 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
186 of configuration files.
190 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
191 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
192 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
193 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods. Note that SuSE will
194 automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
198 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
199 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
200 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
204 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
205 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
206 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
207 automatically, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
211 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
212 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
214 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
215 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
220 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
221 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
224 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
225 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
226 in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in.
230 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
231 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
234 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
235 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
236 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
240 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
241 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
244 First, make sure that no previous installations of
245 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
246 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
247 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
248 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
254 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
255 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
256 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
257 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
261 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
262 into will contain all of the configuration files.
266 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
267 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OSX</title>
269 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
270 from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
271 Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
272 <literal>Privoxy.pkg</literal>
273 and follow the installation process.
274 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the folder
275 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal>.
276 It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
277 starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
278 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
281 To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
282 <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> in the
283 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder.
284 Or, type this command in the Terminal:
288 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
292 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
296 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
297 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
299 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
300 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
301 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
302 remove this directory.
306 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
307 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
309 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
310 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
311 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
312 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
315 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
316 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
317 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
321 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
322 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
323 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
329 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
330 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
333 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
334 is to download the source tarball from our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project
339 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
340 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
341 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
342 CVS repository</ulink>.
344 deprecated...out of business.
345 or simply download <ulink
346 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
351 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
353 <!-- end boilerplate -->
356 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
357 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
359 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
360 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
361 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
362 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
367 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
368 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
369 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
370 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
374 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
375 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
376 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
377 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
378 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
379 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
387 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
389 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
390 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
391 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
393 There are many improvements and new features in <application>Privoxy</application> &p-version;
401 Mulitiple <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link> can now be specifed in <filename>config</filename>. This allows for
402 locally defined filters that can be maintained separately from the filters as
403 supplied by the developers.
409 There are a number of new <link linkend="actions-file">actions</link>:
417 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>
422 <literal><link linkend="crunch-client-header">crunch-client-header</link></literal>
427 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>
432 <literal><link linkend="crunch-server-header">crunch-server-header</link></literal>
437 <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
442 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
447 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>
452 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>
457 <literal><link linkend="hide-accept-language">hide-accept-language</link></literal>
462 <literal><link linkend="hide-content-disposition">hide-content-disposition</link></literal>
467 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
472 <literal><link linkend="inspect-jpegs">inspect-jpegs</link></literal>
477 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
482 <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal>
487 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
494 In addition, <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
495 has been significantly improved with enhanced syntax.
498 And <literal><link linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal>
499 has a new option, <literal>conditional block</literal>.
506 <application>MS-Windows</application> versions can now be installed and
507 started as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
513 In addition, there are various bug fixes and significant enhancements, including
514 error pages are no longer cached, better DNS error handling, and various logging
523 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
525 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
526 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
529 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
530 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
538 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including
539 configuration files. Save any important configuration files!
544 See the full documentation on
545 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
546 which has changed syntax, and may require adjustments to local configs.
551 The <filename>jarfile</filename>, cookie logger, is off by default now.
557 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
558 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
559 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
560 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
566 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
567 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
568 Some installers may not automatically start
569 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
578 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
579 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
585 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
586 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
593 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
594 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
595 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
596 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
603 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
604 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
605 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
611 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
612 HTTPS (SSL) proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
613 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
614 (<application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions of
615 <application>Privoxy</application> used port 8000.) See the section <link
616 linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link> below
617 for more details on this.
623 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
624 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage cookies, you should
625 remove any currently stored cookies too.
631 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
632 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
633 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
634 to no initial configuration is required in most cases.
637 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
638 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
639 <![%draft;[ You might also want to look at the <link
640 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
641 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
648 If you experience ads that slipped through, innocent images that are
649 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
650 <application>Privoxy's</application> behaviour, take a look at the <link
651 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
652 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
653 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
654 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
655 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Anatomy of an
656 Action</link></quote> has hints how to debug actions that
657 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
663 For easy access to Privoxy's most important controls, drag the provided
664 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
671 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
672 Developers</link> on how to report bugs or problems with websites or to get
679 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
687 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
689 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
690 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
692 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
693 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
696 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
697 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
698 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
701 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
702 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
703 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
706 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
707 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
708 things that were not intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
709 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
710 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
711 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
712 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
713 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
714 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
715 habits and preferences.
718 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
719 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
720 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
721 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
722 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
723 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
724 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
725 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
726 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
727 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
730 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
731 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
732 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
733 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
734 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
737 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
738 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
739 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
740 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
741 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
742 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
743 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
744 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
745 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
750 The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: <literal><link
751 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
752 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>, and
753 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
761 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this action stops
762 any contact between your browser and any URL patterns that match this
763 action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads, but also anything
764 that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply stops any
765 communication with the remote server and sends <application>Privoxy</application>'s
766 own built-in BLOCKED page instead to let you now what has happened.
772 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
773 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
774 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
775 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
776 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
777 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
778 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
779 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
780 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
781 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
782 an entire HTML page in most situations.
789 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
790 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
791 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
792 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
793 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
794 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
797 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
801 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
802 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
807 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
808 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
813 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
814 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
823 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
824 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
825 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
826 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
827 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access. Select the
828 appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
829 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
830 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
831 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
832 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
833 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
834 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
838 A quick and simple step by step example:
846 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
847 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
855 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
860 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
861 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
864 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
866 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
869 <imagedata fileref="../images/files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
872 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
881 You should have a section with only
882 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
883 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
884 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
885 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
886 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
887 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
888 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
889 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
895 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
896 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
897 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
898 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
899 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
900 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
905 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
906 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
914 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
915 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
916 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
917 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
922 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
923 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
924 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
931 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
934 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
936 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
938 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
939 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
940 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is
941 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
942 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
945 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
946 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
949 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
951 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration (Mozilla)</title>
954 <imagedata fileref="../images/proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
957 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
965 With <application>Firefox</application>, this can be set under:
969 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
970 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
971 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton>
973 <guibutton>Options</guibutton>
975 <guibutton>General</guibutton>
977 <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton>
979 <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
984 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
985 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
990 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
991 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
992 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton>
994 <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton>
996 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton>
998 <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton>
1000 <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1004 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>:
1008 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1009 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1010 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton>
1012 <guibutton>Internet Properties</guibutton>
1014 <guibutton>Connections</guibutton>
1016 <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1020 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1021 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1026 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1027 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
1028 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1029 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1033 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1034 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1035 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1036 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1037 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1040 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1041 <title>Red Hat and Conectiva</title>
1043 We use a script. Note that Red Hat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
1044 default. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as
1045 its main configuration file.
1049 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1054 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1055 <title>Debian</title>
1057 We use a script. Note that Debian starts Privoxy upon booting per
1058 default. It will use the file
1059 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1064 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1069 <sect2 id="start-suse">
1072 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
1073 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
1083 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1084 <title>Windows</title>
1086 Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy. If no configuration file is
1087 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1088 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1089 automatically start Privoxy when the system starts if you chose that option
1096 Version 3.0.4 introduces full Windows service functionality.
1097 On Windows only, the Privoxy program has two new command line arguments
1098 to install and uninstall Privoxy as a service.
1101 <term>Arguments:</term>
1104 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
1109 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
1116 After invoking Privoxy with <command>--install</command>,
1117 you will need to bring up the Windows service console to assign the user you
1118 want Privoxy to run under, and whether or not you want it to run whenever the
1119 system starts. You can start the Windows services console with the following command:
1120 <command>services.msc</command> If you do not take the manual step of modifying
1121 Privoxy's service settings, it will not start. Note too that you will need to
1122 give Privoxy a user account that actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
1123 write its log files.
1127 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1128 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1130 Example Unix startup command:
1134 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1139 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1142 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1143 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1144 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1145 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1149 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1150 <title>Mac OSX</title>
1152 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1153 start automatically when the system restarts. To start Privoxy by hand,
1154 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
1155 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1160 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1164 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1169 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1170 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1172 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1173 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1174 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1175 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1176 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1177 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1178 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1182 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1183 <title>Gentoo</title>
1185 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1186 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1190 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1194 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1195 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1200 rc-update add privoxy default
1208 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1212 must find a better place for this paragraph
1215 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1216 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1217 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1218 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1219 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1220 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1224 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1225 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1226 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1227 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1228 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1229 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1230 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1231 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1232 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1236 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1237 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
1238 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
1240 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
1241 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1242 popups (explained below).
1246 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
1247 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
1248 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1249 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1250 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1251 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1252 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1253 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1254 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1258 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1259 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1260 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1261 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1262 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1263 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1264 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1265 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1266 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1270 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1271 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1272 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1273 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1274 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1275 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1276 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1280 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1281 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1282 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1283 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1284 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1285 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1290 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1291 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1292 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1297 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1298 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1299 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1300 Developers</quote></link> below.
1305 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1306 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1307 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1309 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1310 command-line options:
1318 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1321 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1326 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1329 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1334 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1337 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1338 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1343 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1347 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1348 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1349 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1350 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1355 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1359 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1360 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1361 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1366 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1370 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1371 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the Privoxy
1372 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1373 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in Privoxy to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1379 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1382 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1383 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1384 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1385 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1386 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1387 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1398 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1401 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1402 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
1404 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1405 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1406 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1407 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1411 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1414 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
1416 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1417 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1418 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1419 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1420 You will see the following section:
1424 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1427 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1431 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1434 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1437 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1440 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1443 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1446 ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/
1447 &p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1455 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1456 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1457 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1458 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1459 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1460 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1464 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1465 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1466 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1467 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1468 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1469 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1470 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1471 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1477 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1482 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1484 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1485 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1487 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1488 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1489 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1490 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1491 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1492 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1496 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1497 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1498 principle configuration files are:
1506 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1507 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1508 on Windows. This is a required file.
1514 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1515 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1516 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1517 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1518 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1519 as many websites as possible.
1522 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1523 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1524 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1525 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1526 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1527 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1528 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is for
1529 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1532 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1534 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1536 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1537 various actions files.
1543 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1544 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1545 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1546 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1547 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1548 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1549 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1550 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1551 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1552 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1553 locally defined filters or customizations.
1561 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1562 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1563 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1564 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1565 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1566 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1571 The actions files and filter files
1572 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1573 maximum flexibility.
1577 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1578 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1579 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1580 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1581 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1582 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1583 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1588 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1589 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1590 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1591 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1597 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1600 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1602 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1603 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1604 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1606 <!-- end include -->
1609 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1613 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1615 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1618 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1619 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1620 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1621 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1622 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1623 Each action does something a little different.
1624 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1625 our control, preferences and independence.
1629 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1637 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1638 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1639 provide a base level of functionality for
1640 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1641 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well for users everywhere.
1642 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1643 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1648 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1649 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1650 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1651 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1656 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor,
1657 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1658 in <filename>default.action</filename>. These have increasing levels of
1659 aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no influence on your browsing unless
1660 you select them explicitly in the editor</emphasis>. It is not recommend
1664 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1665 <filename>standard.action</filename> are:
1668 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1669 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1670 <colspec colname=c1>
1671 <colspec colname=c2>
1672 <colspec colname=c3>
1673 <colspec colname=c4>
1676 <entry>Feature</entry>
1677 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1678 <entry>Medium</entry>
1679 <entry>Adventuresome</entry>
1684 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
1685 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
1686 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
1687 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
1693 <entry>Ad-blocking by URL</entry>
1700 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
1707 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
1714 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
1721 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
1723 <entry>session-only</entry>
1728 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
1729 <entry>unsolicited</entry>
1730 <entry>unsolicited</entry>
1735 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
1742 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
1749 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
1756 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
1763 <entry>Fun text replacements</entry>
1770 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
1777 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
1784 <entry>Demoronizer</entry>
1801 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
1802 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
1803 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically process before
1804 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
1806 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1810 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
1811 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
1812 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
1813 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
1814 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
1815 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
1816 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
1817 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
1818 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
1819 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
1820 with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
1821 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
1825 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
1826 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
1827 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
1828 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
1829 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
1833 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1835 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
1837 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
1838 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
1839 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
1840 certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
1841 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
1842 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
1843 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
1844 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
1845 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful puposes, like maybe
1846 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
1850 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
1851 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
1852 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
1853 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
1857 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1859 <title>How to Edit</title>
1861 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
1862 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
1863 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1864 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
1865 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
1866 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Adventuresome</quote>.
1867 Warning: the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> setting is not only more aggressive,
1868 but includes settings that are fun and subversive, and which some may find of
1873 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
1874 the actions files. Look at <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly
1880 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
1881 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
1883 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
1884 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
1885 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
1886 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
1887 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
1888 Below that, there is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
1892 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
1893 compared to all patterns in each <quote>action file</quote> file. Every time it matches, the list of
1894 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
1895 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
1896 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
1897 the effects are aggregated. E.g. a URL might match a regular section with
1898 a heading line of <literal>{
1899 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
1900 then later another one with just <literal>{
1901 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
1902 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply.
1906 You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
1907 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
1911 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
1912 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
1916 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1917 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
1918 <title>Patterns</title>
1920 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
1921 to determine what actions might apply to which sites and pages your browser
1922 attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild card type
1923 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
1924 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
1925 against many similar patterns.
1929 Generally, a <application>Privoxy</application> pattern has the form
1930 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
1931 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
1932 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
1933 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
1934 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
1935 the pattern. This is assumed already!
1940 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
1943 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
1944 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
1949 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
1952 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
1958 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
1961 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
1962 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
1967 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
1970 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
1971 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
1976 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
1979 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
1980 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
1987 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1988 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
1991 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
1992 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
1998 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2001 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2002 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2007 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2010 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2011 <literal>www.</literal>
2016 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2019 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
2020 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
2027 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2028 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
2029 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
2030 any single character, you can define character classes in square
2031 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
2036 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2039 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2040 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2045 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2048 matches all of the above, and then some.
2053 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2056 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2057 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2062 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2065 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2066 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2067 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2068 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2076 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2079 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2080 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2083 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
2084 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2089 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2090 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2091 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2092 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2093 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2094 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
2098 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2099 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2100 for the beginning of a line).
2104 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2105 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2106 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2107 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2108 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2114 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2117 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2119 <sect2 id="actions">
2120 <title>Actions</title>
2122 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2123 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2124 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2125 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2126 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2127 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2128 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2129 previously applied.</quote>
2134 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2135 separated by whitespace, like in
2136 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2137 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2138 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2139 of the actions file.
2143 There are three classes of actions:
2150 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2151 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2155 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2156 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2159 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
2166 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2171 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2172 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2173 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2176 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2177 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2180 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</literal>
2186 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2187 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2188 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2189 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2190 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2191 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2195 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2196 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2197 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2198 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2201 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2202 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2210 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2211 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2212 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
2213 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2214 files will give a good starting point).
2218 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
2219 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2220 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files). For
2221 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
2222 Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in
2223 <filename>config</filename> (the default installation has three actions
2224 files). It also quite possible for any given URL pattern to match more than
2225 one pattern and thus more than one set of actions!
2228 <!-- start actions listing -->
2230 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2234 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2235 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2236 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2238 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2241 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2243 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2244 <title>add-header</title>
2248 <term>Typical use:</term>
2250 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2255 <term>Effect:</term>
2258 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2265 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2267 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2272 <term>Parameter:</term>
2275 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2276 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2286 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2287 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2288 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2295 <term>Example usage:</term>
2298 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2306 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2307 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2308 <title>block</title>
2312 <term>Typical use:</term>
2314 <para>Block ads or other obnoxious content</para>
2319 <term>Effect:</term>
2322 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the requests are not
2323 forwarded to the remote server, but answered locally with a substitute page or image,
2324 as determined by the <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>
2325 and <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> actions.
2332 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2334 <para>Boolean.</para>
2339 <term>Parameter:</term>
2349 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2350 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
2351 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
2352 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2353 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2354 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2355 right now, you can take a look at the
2356 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2360 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2361 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2362 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2363 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2364 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2365 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2368 It is important to understand this process, in order
2369 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2370 ads and other unwanted content.
2373 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2374 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2375 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2376 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2377 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2383 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2386 <screen>{+block} # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2387 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2389 {+block +handle-as-image} # Block and replace with image
2401 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2402 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
2406 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
2410 <term>Typical use:</term>
2412 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
2417 <term>Effect:</term>
2420 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
2427 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2429 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2434 <term>Parameter:</term>
2446 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
2447 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
2448 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
2449 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
2450 supported by the browser.
2453 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
2454 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
2455 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
2456 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
2457 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
2460 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
2461 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use Privoxy
2462 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
2463 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
2464 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
2467 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
2468 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
2469 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
2470 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
2473 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
2474 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
2475 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
2476 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
2477 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
2480 Most of the time it's easier to enable
2481 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
2482 and replace this action with a custom regular expression. It allows you
2483 to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
2484 only replace the content types you aimed at.
2487 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
2488 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
2489 more work to get the same precision.
2495 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
2498 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
2499 {+content-type-overwrite {application/xml}}
2501 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
2502 {-content-type-overwrite}
2503 www.example.net/*.\.css$
2504 www.example.net/*.style
2513 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2514 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
2518 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
2522 <term>Typical use:</term>
2524 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
2529 <term>Effect:</term>
2532 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
2539 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2541 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2546 <term>Parameter:</term>
2558 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
2559 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
2560 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
2561 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
2564 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
2565 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
2566 they contain the same string.
2569 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
2570 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
2571 parts of them, you should enable
2572 <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
2573 and create your own filter.
2577 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
2584 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2587 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
2588 {+crunch-client-header {Privacy-Violation:}}
2598 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2599 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
2600 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
2606 <term>Typical use:</term>
2608 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
2613 <term>Effect:</term>
2616 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
2623 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2625 <para>Boolean.</para>
2630 <term>Parameter:</term>
2642 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
2643 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
2644 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
2645 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
2648 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
2652 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
2653 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
2654 isn't blocked as well.
2657 It is recommended to use this action together with
2658 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
2660 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
2666 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2669 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents without being tracked across sessions
2670 {+hide-if-modified-since {-1} \
2671 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize} \
2672 +crunch-if-none-match}
2681 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2682 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
2683 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
2687 <term>Typical use:</term>
2690 Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
2696 <term>Effect:</term>
2699 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
2706 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2708 <para>Boolean.</para>
2713 <term>Parameter:</term>
2725 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
2726 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
2727 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
2728 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2731 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2732 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2733 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
2734 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
2740 <term>Example usage:</term>
2743 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
2751 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2752 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
2753 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
2759 <term>Typical use:</term>
2761 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
2766 <term>Effect:</term>
2769 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
2776 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2778 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2783 <term>Parameter:</term>
2795 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
2796 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
2797 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
2800 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
2801 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
2802 they contain the same string.
2805 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
2806 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
2807 parts of them, you should enable
2808 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
2809 and create your own filter.
2813 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
2820 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2823 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
2824 {+crunch-server-header {no-cache}}
2833 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2834 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
2835 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
2839 <term>Typical use:</term>
2842 Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
2848 <term>Effect:</term>
2851 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
2858 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2860 <para>Boolean.</para>
2865 <term>Parameter:</term>
2877 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
2878 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
2879 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
2880 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2883 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2884 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2885 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
2891 <term>Example usage:</term>
2894 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
2903 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2904 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
2905 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
2909 <term>Typical use:</term>
2911 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
2916 <term>Effect:</term>
2919 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
2926 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2928 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2933 <term>Parameter:</term>
2936 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
2945 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
2946 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
2947 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
2948 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
2949 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
2950 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
2953 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
2954 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
2961 <term>Example usage:</term>
2964 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
2971 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2972 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
2973 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
2977 <term>Typical use:</term>
2979 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
2984 <term>Effect:</term>
2987 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
2994 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2996 <para>Boolean.</para>
3001 <term>Parameter:</term>
3013 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3014 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3015 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3016 out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
3017 is a chance you might need this action.
3023 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3026 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3027 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3035 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3036 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3037 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3041 <term>Typical use:</term>
3043 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3048 <term>Effect:</term>
3051 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3052 the redirection server first.
3059 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3061 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3066 <term>Parameter:</term>
3071 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3072 to detect redirection URLs.
3077 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3078 for redirection URLs.
3089 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3090 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3091 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3092 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3093 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3096 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3097 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3098 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3099 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3100 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3104 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3105 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3106 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3109 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3110 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3111 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3112 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3113 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3114 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3115 the user gets redirected anyway.
3118 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3120 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3121 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3122 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3123 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3124 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3125 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. It is possible to fix these redirected
3126 requests with <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
3127 but it requires a little effort.
3130 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3131 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3132 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3133 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3134 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3135 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3136 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3142 <term>Example usage:</term>
3145 <screen>+fast-redirects{simple-check}</screen>
3148 <screen>+fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</screen>
3157 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3158 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3159 <title>filter</title>
3163 <term>Typical use:</term>
3165 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), do fun text replacements, etc.</para>
3170 <term>Effect:</term>
3173 All files of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which this
3174 action applies, are filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular expression
3175 based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
3176 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
3177 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they
3178 don't know.) By default, filtering works only on the document content
3179 itself, not the headers.
3186 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3188 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3193 <term>Parameter:</term>
3196 The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3197 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3198 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3199 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3200 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3201 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3202 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
3205 When used in its negative form,
3206 and without parameters, filtering is completely disabled.
3215 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3216 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3220 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3221 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3222 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3223 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3224 noticeable on slower connections.
3227 This is very powerful feature, and <quote>rolling your own</quote>
3228 filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
3231 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3232 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
3233 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
3234 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3235 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3238 Inadequate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3239 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3240 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3241 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3242 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3243 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> sections.
3246 At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
3247 documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
3248 would normally be sent compressed, use the
3249 <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3250 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3253 Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3254 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3255 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3256 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3257 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3261 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
3262 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3265 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3266 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
3267 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
3268 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
3274 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
3275 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
3276 more explanation on each:</term>
3279 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3280 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
3283 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
3284 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites)</screen>
3287 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3288 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse</screen>
3291 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3292 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content</screen>
3295 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3296 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
3299 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
3300 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows</screen>
3303 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
3304 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML</screen>
3307 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
3308 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
3311 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3312 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size</screen>
3315 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
3316 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers</screen>
3319 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3320 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
3323 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
3324 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap</screen>
3327 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
3328 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves</screen>
3331 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3332 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable</screen>
3335 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
3336 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets</screen>
3339 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3340 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
3343 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
3344 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable</screen>
3347 <anchor id="filter-fun">
3348 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
3351 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
3352 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering (demo only)</screen>
3355 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
3356 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits</screen>
3364 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3365 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter-client-headers">
3366 <title>filter-client-headers</title>
3370 <term>Typical use:</term>
3373 To apply filtering to the client's (browser's) headers
3379 <term>Effect:</term>
3382 By default, <application>Privoxy's</application> filters only apply
3383 to the document content itself. This will extend those filters to
3384 include the client's headers as well.
3391 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3393 <para>Boolean.</para>
3398 <term>Parameter:</term>
3410 Regular expressions can be used to filter headers as well. Check your
3411 filters closely before activating this action, as it can easily lead to broken
3415 These filters are applied to each header on its own, not to them
3416 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3417 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is
3421 The filters are used after the other header actions have finished and can
3422 use their output as input.
3426 Whenever possible one should specify <literal>^</literal>,
3427 <literal>$</literal>, the whole header name and the colon, to make sure
3428 the filter doesn't cause havoc to other headers or the
3429 page itself. For example if you want to transform
3430 <application>Galeon</application> User-Agents to
3431 <application>Firefox</application> User-Agents you
3436 s@Galeon/\d\.\d\.\d @@
3442 s@^(User-Agent:.*) Galeon/\d\.\d\.\d (Firefox/\d\.\d\.\d\.\d)$@$1 $2@
3449 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3453 {+filter-client-headers +filter{test_filter}}
3454 problem-host.example.com
3464 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3465 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter-server-headers">
3466 <title>filter-server-headers</title>
3470 <term>Typical use:</term>
3473 To apply filtering to the server's headers
3479 <term>Effect:</term>
3482 By default, <application>Privoxy's</application> filters only apply
3483 to the document content itself. This will extend those filters to
3484 include the server's headers as well.
3491 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3493 <para>Boolean.</para>
3498 <term>Parameter:</term>
3510 Similar to <literal>filter-client-headers</literal>, but works on
3511 the server instead. To filter both server and client, use both.
3514 As with <literal>filter-client-headers</literal>, check your
3515 filters before activating this action, as it can easily lead to broken
3519 These filters are applied to each header on its own, not to them
3520 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3521 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is
3525 The filters are used after the other header actions have finished and can
3526 use their output as input.
3529 Remember too, whenever possible one should specify <literal>^</literal>,
3530 <literal>$</literal>, the whole header name and the colon, to make sure
3531 the filter doesn't cause havoc to other headers or the
3532 page itself. See above for example.
3539 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3543 {+filter-server-headers +filter{test_filter}}
3544 problem-host.example.com
3554 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3555 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
3556 <title>force-text-mode</title>
3562 <term>Typical use:</term>
3564 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
3569 <term>Effect:</term>
3572 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
3579 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3581 <para>Boolean.</para>
3586 <term>Parameter:</term>
3598 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
3599 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
3600 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
3601 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
3602 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
3603 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
3607 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
3608 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
3615 <term>Example usage:</term>
3628 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3629 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
3630 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
3636 <term>Typical use:</term>
3638 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
3643 <term>Effect:</term>
3646 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
3647 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
3648 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
3649 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
3650 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
3657 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3659 <para>Boolean.</para>
3664 <term>Parameter:</term>
3676 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
3677 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
3678 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
3681 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
3682 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
3683 but usually this isn't necessary.
3689 <term>Example usage:</term>
3692 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
3693 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
3694 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
3704 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3705 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
3706 <title>handle-as-image</title>
3710 <term>Typical use:</term>
3712 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by imagee <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis>)</para>
3717 <term>Effect:</term>
3720 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
3721 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
3722 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
3723 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
3724 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
3725 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
3732 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3734 <para>Boolean.</para>
3739 <term>Parameter:</term>
3751 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
3752 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
3756 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
3757 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
3758 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
3761 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
3762 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
3763 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
3764 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
3770 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3773 <screen># Generic image extensions:
3776 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
3778 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
3779 # blocked as images:
3781 {+block +handle-as-image}
3782 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
3784 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
3794 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3795 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
3796 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
3802 <term>Typical use:</term>
3804 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
3809 <term>Effect:</term>
3812 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
3819 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3821 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3826 <term>Parameter:</term>
3829 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
3838 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
3839 foreign User-Agent set with
3840 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
3844 However some sites with content in different languages check the
3845 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
3846 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
3847 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
3850 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
3851 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
3852 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
3855 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
3856 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
3857 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
3858 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
3859 you should stick to a common language.
3865 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3868 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
3869 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
3870 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
3880 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3881 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
3882 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
3888 <term>Typical use:</term>
3890 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
3895 <term>Effect:</term>
3898 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
3905 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3907 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3912 <term>Parameter:</term>
3915 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
3924 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
3925 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
3926 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
3927 the browser is supposed to use by default.
3930 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
3931 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
3932 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
3935 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
3936 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
3937 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
3938 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
3939 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
3943 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
3944 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
3951 <term>Example usage:</term>
3954 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
3956 +content-type-overwrite {text/plain}\
3957 +hide-content-disposition {block} }
3958 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download.php</screen>
3966 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3967 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
3968 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
3974 <term>Typical use:</term>
3976 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3981 <term>Effect:</term>
3984 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
3991 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3993 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3998 <term>Parameter:</term>
4001 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4010 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4011 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4012 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4015 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4016 also add or substract a random amount of time to/from the headers value.
4017 You specify a range of hours were the random factor should be chosen from and
4018 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4019 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4022 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4023 sure it isn't used as a cookie replacement, but you will run into
4024 caching problems if the random range is too high.
4027 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4028 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4029 handle the greater changes.
4032 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4033 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
4039 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4042 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
4043 {+hide-if-modified-since {-1}\
4044 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
4045 +crunch-if-none-match}
4054 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4055 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
4056 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
4062 <term>Typical use:</term>
4064 <para>Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request</para>
4069 <term>Effect:</term>
4072 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
4073 and prevents adding a new one.
4080 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4082 <para>Boolean.</para>
4087 <term>Parameter:</term>
4099 It is fairly safe to leave this on.
4102 This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate forged
4103 <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> headers using random IP addresses from a specified network,
4104 to make successive requests from the same client look like requests from a pool of different
4105 users sharing the same proxy.
4111 <term>Example usage:</term>
4114 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
4122 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4123 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4124 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4128 <term>Typical use:</term>
4130 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4135 <term>Effect:</term>
4138 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4146 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4148 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4153 <term>Parameter:</term>
4156 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4165 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4166 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4170 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4171 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4172 is actually used by a real person.
4175 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4176 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4182 <term>Example usage:</term>
4185 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4186 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4194 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4195 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4196 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4197 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4200 <term>Typical use:</term>
4202 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4207 <term>Effect:</term>
4210 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4211 or replaces it with a forged one.
4218 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4220 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4225 <term>Parameter:</term>
4229 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4232 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4235 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4238 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4248 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
4249 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
4250 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
4251 typed in the address directly.
4254 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
4255 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
4256 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
4257 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
4258 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
4262 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
4263 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
4264 requests, in an attempt to prevent their valuable content from being
4265 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
4268 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
4269 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
4270 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
4273 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4274 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4275 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4276 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4277 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4283 <term>Example usage:</term>
4286 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4287 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4295 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4296 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4297 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4301 <term>Typical use:</term>
4303 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4308 <term>Effect:</term>
4311 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4312 in client requests with the specified value.
4319 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4321 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4326 <term>Parameter:</term>
4329 Any user-defined string.
4339 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
4340 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4341 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
4342 work browser-independently).
4344 <ulink url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
4350 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4351 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4352 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4353 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4354 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4355 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4356 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4357 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4358 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4359 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4360 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4363 This action is scheduled for improvement.
4369 <term>Example usage:</term>
4372 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4380 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4381 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="inspect-jpegs">
4382 <title>inspect-jpegs</title>
4388 <term>Typical use:</term>
4390 <para>To protect against the MS buffer over-run in JPEG processing</para>
4395 <term>Effect:</term>
4398 Protect against a known exploit
4405 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4407 <para>Boolean.</para>
4412 <term>Parameter:</term>
4424 See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-028. JPEG images are one of the most
4425 common image types found across the Internet. The exploit as described can
4426 allow execution of code on the target system, giving an attacker access
4427 to the system in question by merely planting an altered JPEG image, which
4428 would have no obvious indications of what lurks inside. This action
4429 prevents unwanted intrusion.
4436 <term>Example usage:</term>
4438 <para><screen>+inspect-jpegs</screen></para>
4447 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4448 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
4449 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
4453 <term>Typical use:</term>
4455 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows (deprecated)</para>
4460 <term>Effect:</term>
4463 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
4464 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
4471 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4473 <para>Boolean.</para>
4478 <term>Parameter:</term>
4490 This action is basically a built-in, hardwired special-purpose filter
4491 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
4492 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
4493 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
4495 linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>all-popups</replaceable>}</link></literal>
4496 does and is not as smart as <literal><link
4497 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
4501 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
4502 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
4503 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
4504 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
4505 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
4506 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
4509 Killing all pop-ups unconditionally is problematic. Many shops and banks rely on
4510 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and the <literal><link
4511 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
4512 </literal> does a fairly good job of catching only the unwanted ones.
4515 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
4516 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
4517 one), you might want to use
4519 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
4525 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
4533 <term>Example usage:</term>
4535 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
4542 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4543 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
4544 <title>limit-connect</title>
4548 <term>Typical use:</term>
4550 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
4555 <term>Effect:</term>
4558 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
4565 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4567 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4572 <term>Parameter:</term>
4575 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
4576 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
4585 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
4586 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
4587 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
4588 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
4589 for some or all destinations.
4592 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
4593 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
4594 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
4595 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
4596 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
4597 abused as TCP relays very easily.
4600 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
4601 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent Privoxy's
4602 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
4603 If you plan to disable SSL by default, consider enabling
4604 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks ">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
4605 as well, to be able to quickly create exceptions.
4611 <term>Example usages:</term>
4613 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
4614 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
4615 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
4617 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
4618 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
4619 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
4620 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
4621 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS traffic is allowed</screen>
4628 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4629 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
4630 <title>prevent-compression</title>
4634 <term>Typical use:</term>
4637 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
4638 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
4644 <term>Effect:</term>
4647 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
4654 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4656 <para>Boolean.</para>
4661 <term>Parameter:</term>
4673 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
4674 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the <literal><link
4675 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
4676 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions to work,
4677 <application>Privoxy</application> needs access to the uncompressed data.
4678 Unfortunately, <application>Privoxy</application> can't yet(!) uncompress, filter, and
4679 re-compress the content on the fly. So if you want to ensure that all websites, including
4680 those that normally compress, can be filtered, you need to use this action.
4683 This will slow down transfers from those websites, though. If you use any of the above-mentioned
4684 actions, you will typically want to use <literal>prevent-compression</literal> in conjunction
4688 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
4689 documents correctly (they send an empty document body). If you use <literal>prevent-compression</literal>
4690 per default, you'll have to add exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
4696 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4699 <screen># Set default:
4701 {+prevent-compression}
4704 # Make exceptions for ill sites:
4706 {-prevent-compression}
4708 www.pclinuxonline.com</screen>
4717 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4718 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
4719 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
4725 <term>Typical use:</term>
4727 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4732 <term>Effect:</term>
4735 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
4742 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4744 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4749 <term>Parameter:</term>
4752 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
4753 and <quote>randomize</quote>
4762 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
4763 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
4764 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
4765 version of the page.
4768 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
4769 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
4770 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
4771 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
4772 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
4773 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
4776 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
4777 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
4778 this option together with
4779 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
4780 to further customize your random range.
4783 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
4784 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
4785 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
4786 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
4787 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
4788 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
4792 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4793 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
4799 <term>Example usage:</term>
4802 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
4803 {+hide-if-modified-since {-1}\
4804 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
4805 +crunch-if-none-match}
4814 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4815 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
4816 <title>redirect</title>
4822 <term>Typical use:</term>
4825 Redirect requests to other sites.
4831 <term>Effect:</term>
4834 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
4835 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
4842 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4844 <para>Parameterized</para>
4849 <term>Parameter:</term>
4861 This action is useful to replace whole documents with your own
4862 ones. For that to work, they have to be available on another server,
4863 and both should resolve.
4866 You can do the same by combining the actions
4867 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
4868 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> and
4869 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{URL}</link></literal>.
4870 It doesn't sound right for non-image documents, and that's why this action
4874 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
4875 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
4881 <term>Example usage:</term>
4884 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
4885 {+redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css}}
4886 example.com/stylesheet.css</screen>
4895 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4896 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
4897 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
4901 <term>Typical use:</term>
4904 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
4910 <term>Effect:</term>
4913 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
4914 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
4921 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4923 <para>Boolean.</para>
4928 <term>Parameter:</term>
4940 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
4943 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
4949 <term>Example usage:</term>
4952 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
4961 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4962 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
4963 <title>send-wafer</title>
4967 <term>Typical use:</term>
4970 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
4976 <term>Effect:</term>
4979 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
4986 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4988 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4993 <term>Parameter:</term>
4996 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
4997 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
5006 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
5007 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
5010 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5015 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5018 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
5019 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
5027 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5028 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5029 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5033 <term>Typical use:</term>
5036 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5037 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5043 <term>Effect:</term>
5046 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5047 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5048 forget them in between sessions.
5055 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5057 <para>Boolean.</para>
5062 <term>Parameter:</term>
5074 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5075 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5076 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5079 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5080 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5081 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5082 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5083 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5086 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5087 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5088 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5089 will be plainly killed.
5092 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5093 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5096 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5097 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5098 These would have to be removed manually.
5101 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5102 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5103 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5104 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5110 <term>Example usage:</term>
5113 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5121 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5122 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5123 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5127 <term>Typical use:</term>
5129 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5134 <term>Effect:</term>
5137 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5138 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5139 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5140 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5141 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5142 sent as a replacement.
5149 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5151 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5156 <term>Parameter:</term>
5161 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5162 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5167 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5168 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5169 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5170 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5175 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5176 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5177 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5178 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5181 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5182 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5183 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5184 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5185 it over and over again.
5196 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5197 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5198 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5201 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5202 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5203 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5209 <term>Example usage:</term>
5215 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5218 Redirect to the BSD devil:
5221 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5224 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5227 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5235 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5236 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">
5237 <title>treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</title>
5243 <term>Typical use:</term>
5245 <para>Block forbidden connects with an easy to find error message.</para>
5250 <term>Effect:</term>
5253 If this action is enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> no longer
5254 makes a difference between forbidden connects and ordinary blocks.
5261 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5263 <para>Boolean</para>
5268 <term>Parameter:</term>
5278 By default <application>Privoxy</application> answers
5279 <link linkend="limit-connect">forbidden <quote>Connect</quote> requests</link>
5280 with a short error message inside the headers. If the browser doesn't display
5281 headers (most don't), you just see an empty page.
5284 With this action enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> displays
5285 the message that is used for ordinary blocks instead. If you decide
5286 to make an exception for the page in question, you can do so by
5287 following the <quote>See why</quote> link.
5290 For <quote>Connect</quote> requests the clients tell
5291 <application>Privoxy</application> which host they are interested
5292 in, but not which document they plan to get later. As a result, the
5293 <quote>Go there anyway</quote> link becomes rather useless:
5294 it lets the client request the home page of the forbidden host
5295 through unencrypted HTTP, still using the port of the last request.
5298 If you previously configured <application>Privoxy</application> to do the
5299 request through a SSL tunnel, everything will work. Most likely you haven't
5300 and the server will respond with an error message because it is expecting
5307 <term>Example usage:</term>
5310 <screen>+treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</screen>
5318 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5320 <title>Summary</title>
5322 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
5323 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
5324 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
5325 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
5326 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
5327 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
5333 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5334 <sect2 id="aliases">
5335 <title>Aliases</title>
5337 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
5338 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
5339 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
5340 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
5342 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
5343 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
5344 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
5345 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
5346 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
5350 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
5351 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
5352 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
5353 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
5357 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
5358 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
5359 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
5360 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
5361 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
5362 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
5363 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
5366 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
5367 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
5368 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
5369 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
5370 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
5372 This is likely to change in future versions of <application>Privoxy</application>.
5376 Now let's define some aliases...
5381 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
5383 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
5384 # must be at the top of the actions file!
5388 # These aliases just save typing later:
5389 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5391 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5392 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5393 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5394 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5396 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5397 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5399 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
5400 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
5402 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
5404 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
5405 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
5409 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
5410 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
5411 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
5416 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
5417 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
5420 .office.microsoft.com
5421 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5425 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
5429 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5432 # These shops require pop-ups:
5434 {shop -kill-popups -filter{all-popups}}
5436 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
5440 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are often used for
5441 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require some actions to be disabled
5442 in order to function properly.
5448 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5449 <sect2 id="act-examples">
5450 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
5452 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
5453 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
5454 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
5455 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
5456 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
5457 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
5458 file and see how all these pieces come together:
5461 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
5464 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
5468 <screen># Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net></screen>
5472 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
5473 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
5474 change or worry about:
5479 ##########################################################################
5480 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
5481 ##########################################################################
5484 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
5488 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
5489 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
5490 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
5495 ##########################################################################
5497 ##########################################################################
5500 # These aliases just save typing later:
5501 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5503 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5504 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5505 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5506 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5508 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5509 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5511 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
5512 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></screen>
5516 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
5517 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
5518 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
5519 enable the ones we want.
5523 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
5524 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
5525 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
5526 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
5527 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
5528 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
5529 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
5534 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
5535 no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
5536 to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
5537 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
5538 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
5539 multiple lines with line continuation.
5544 ##########################################################################
5545 # "Defaults" section:
5546 ##########################################################################
5548 -<link linkend="ADD-HEADER">add-header</link> \
5549 -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> \
5550 -<link linkend="CONTENT-TYPE-OVERWRITE">content-type-overwrite</link> \
5551 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-CLIENT-HEADER">crunch-client-header</link> \
5552 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-IF-NONE-MATCH">crunch-if-none-match</link> \
5553 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> \
5554 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-SERVER-HEADER">crunch-server-header</link> \
5555 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link> \
5556 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
5557 -<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
5558 +<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link> \
5559 +<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
5560 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-EVENTS">filter{js-events}</link> \
5561 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
5562 -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
5563 +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
5564 +<link linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{unsolicited-popups}</link> \
5565 -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> \
5566 +<link linkend="FILTER-IMG-REORDER">filter{img-reorder}</link> \
5567 +<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
5568 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">filter{banners-by-link}</link> \
5569 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
5570 -<link linkend="FILTER-TINY-TEXTFORMS">filter{tiny-textforms}</link> \
5571 +<link linkend="FILTER-JUMPING-WINDOWS">filter{jumping-windows}</link> \
5572 -<link linkend="FILTER-FRAMESET-BORDERS">filter{frameset-borders}</link> \
5573 -<link linkend="FILTER-DEMORONIZER">filter{demoronizer}</link> \
5574 -<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
5575 -<link linkend="FILTER-QUICKTIME-KIOSKMODE">filter{quicktime-kioskmode}</link> \
5576 -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
5577 -<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
5578 +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
5579 -<link linkend="FILTER-CLIENT-HEADERS">filter-client-headers</link> \
5580 -<link linkend="FILTER-SERVER-HEADERS">filter-server-headers</link> \
5581 -<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> \
5582 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT">handle-as-empty-document</link> \
5583 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
5584 -<link linkend="HIDE-ACCEPT-LANGUAGE">hide-accept-language</link> \
5585 -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link> \
5586 -<link linkend="HIDE-IF-MODIFIED-SINCE">hide-if-modified-since</link> \
5587 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
5588 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
5589 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
5590 -<link linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT">hide-user-agent</link> \
5591 -<link linkend="INSPECT-JPEGS">inspect-jpegs</link> \
5592 -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> \
5593 -<link linkend="LIMIT-CONNECT">limit-connect</link> \
5594 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
5595 -<link linkend="OVERWRITE-LAST-MODIFIED">overwrite-last-modified</link> \
5596 -<link linkend="REDIRECT">redirect</link> \
5597 -<link linkend="SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">send-vanilla-wafer</link> \
5598 -<link linkend="SEND-WAFER">send-wafer</link> \
5599 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
5600 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
5601 -<link linkend="TREAT-FORBIDDEN-CONNECTS-LIKE-BLOCKS">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link> \
5603 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
5607 The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding
5608 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
5609 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
5610 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
5611 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
5612 want to block in later sections.
5616 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
5617 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
5618 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
5619 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
5620 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
5621 of actions explicitly:
5626 ##########################################################################
5627 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
5628 ##########################################################################
5630 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
5633 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
5634 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com</screen>
5638 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
5639 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
5640 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
5649 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5651 .scan.co.uk</screen>
5654 <!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
5657 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
5658 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
5659 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
5660 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
5662 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
5663 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
5664 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
5665 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
5666 chosen in the defaults section:
5671 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
5673 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
5676 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
5679 END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
5682 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
5683 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
5684 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
5689 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
5693 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
5694 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
5695 .nytimes.com</screen>
5699 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
5700 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
5701 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
5702 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
5703 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
5704 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
5705 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
5706 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
5707 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
5713 ##########################################################################
5715 ##########################################################################
5717 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
5718 # blocked further down this file:
5720 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
5721 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
5725 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
5726 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
5727 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
5728 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
5729 <literal>block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
5730 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
5731 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
5732 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
5733 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
5734 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
5735 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
5736 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
5741 # Known ad generators:
5746 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
5747 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
5748 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
5755 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
5756 is to block banners. A huge bunch of them can be <quote>blocked</quote>
5757 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
5758 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
5759 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
5760 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
5761 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
5762 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
5763 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
5766 First comes a bunch of generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
5767 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
5768 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
5769 to keep the example short:
5774 ##########################################################################
5775 # Block these fine banners:
5776 ##########################################################################
5777 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
5785 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
5786 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
5788 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
5790 .hitbox.com</screen>
5794 You wouldn't believe how many advertisers actually call their banner
5795 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
5796 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
5797 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
5800 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
5801 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
5802 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
5803 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
5804 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
5805 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
5809 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
5810 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
5811 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
5812 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
5813 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
5814 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
5815 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
5816 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
5817 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
5818 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
5823 ##########################################################################
5824 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
5825 ##########################################################################
5829 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
5830 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
5831 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
5832 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
5833 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
5834 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
5842 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
5843 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
5847 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
5848 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
5849 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
5850 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
5851 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
5856 # Don't filter code!
5858 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
5860 .sourceforge.net</screen>
5864 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
5865 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
5870 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
5873 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
5874 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
5875 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
5876 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
5877 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
5878 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
5879 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
5880 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
5881 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
5882 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
5883 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
5884 to install updated versions from time to time.
5888 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
5889 <filename>user.action</filename>:
5893 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
5897 # My user.action file. <fred@foobar.com></screen>
5901 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
5902 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
5903 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
5908 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
5909 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
5913 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
5914 # be self explanatory.
5916 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
5917 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5918 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
5919 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups} -kill-popups
5920 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5921 -block-as-image = -block
5923 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
5924 # certain types of sites:
5926 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer -kill-popups
5927 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
5929 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
5931 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
5933 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
5934 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
5935 handle-as-text = -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> +-<link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{text/plain}</link> +-<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link></screen>
5940 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
5941 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
5942 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
5943 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
5944 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
5945 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
5950 { allow-all-cookies }
5956 .redhat.com</screen>
5960 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
5965 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
5966 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
5970 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
5975 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
5976 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
5981 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
5982 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
5984 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
5988 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
5989 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
5990 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
5991 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
5992 <literal>{ +block }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
5993 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
5994 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
5995 in default.action anyway:
6000 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6001 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.gif
6002 another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6006 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6007 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6008 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6009 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6010 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6012 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6013 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6014 browser. Use cautiously.
6022 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6026 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6027 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6028 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6029 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6030 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6031 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6032 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6033 that is causing the problem or not.
6039 .forbes.com</screen>
6043 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6044 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file. (My colleagues on the team just
6045 don't have a sense of humour, that's why! ;-). So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6046 update-safe config, once and for all:
6051 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6052 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6056 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6057 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6058 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6059 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6060 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6064 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6065 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6066 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6067 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6079 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6080 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6081 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6082 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6086 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6087 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6088 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6089 it should I choose to.
6099 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6100 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6101 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6102 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6103 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6104 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6110 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6111 / # ALL sites</screen>
6117 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6121 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6123 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6125 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6126 <title>Filter Files</title>
6129 On-the-fly text substitutions that can be invoked through the
6130 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action need
6131 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6132 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>. Mulitple filter files can be
6133 defined through the <literal> <link
6134 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6135 as supplied by the developers will be found in
6136 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6137 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6138 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6143 Typical reasons for doing these kinds of substitutions are to eliminate
6144 common annoyances in HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6145 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6146 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6147 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6148 or just to have fun. The possibilities are endless.
6152 Filtering works on any text-based document type, including
6153 HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
6154 MIME types, <emphasis>except</emphasis> <literal>text/plain</literal>).
6155 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6156 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6157 and, of course, regular expressions. By default, filters are only applied
6158 to the document content, but can be extended to the headers with
6159 the supplemental actions:
6160 <link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link> and
6161 <link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link>.
6165 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6166 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6167 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with the
6168 <emphasis>keyword</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>, followed by
6169 the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6170 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6171 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6172 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6173 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6174 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6175 user interface</ulink>.
6179 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6180 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6181 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6182 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6186 A filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6191 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6195 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6196 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6197 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6198 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6199 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6200 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6201 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6202 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6206 If you are new to regular expressions, you might want to take a look at
6207 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6208 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perl.html">Perl
6210 <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlop.html#s-PATTERN-REPLACEMENT-egimosx">the
6211 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6212 url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6213 expressions</ulink> in general.
6214 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6218 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6220 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
6222 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> filter. We have already defined
6223 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
6224 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
6229 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
6233 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
6234 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
6235 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
6236 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
6240 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6244 Our complete filter now looks like this:
6247 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
6248 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6252 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
6253 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
6254 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
6260 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
6262 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
6264 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
6268 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
6269 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
6270 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
6271 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
6275 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
6276 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
6277 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
6278 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
6279 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
6283 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
6284 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
6285 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
6286 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
6287 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
6288 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
6289 in the page (and appear in that order).
6293 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
6294 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
6295 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
6296 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
6297 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
6301 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
6302 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
6303 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
6304 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
6305 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
6306 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
6307 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
6308 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
6309 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
6310 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
6311 substitution is global.
6315 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
6316 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
6317 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
6318 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
6319 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
6323 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
6324 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
6325 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
6326 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
6327 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
6328 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
6329 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
6330 Business!"</literal>.
6334 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
6335 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
6336 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
6337 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
6338 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
6339 information anymore.
6343 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
6344 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
6349 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
6351 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
6355 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
6356 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
6357 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
6358 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
6359 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
6360 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
6361 a backreference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
6362 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
6363 a backreference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
6367 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
6368 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
6369 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
6370 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
6371 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
6372 you move your mouse over links.
6377 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
6379 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
6384 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
6385 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
6386 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
6387 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
6388 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
6389 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
6390 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
6391 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
6392 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
6393 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
6398 The last example is from the fun department:
6403 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
6405 # Spice the daily news:
6407 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
6411 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
6412 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
6413 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
6414 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
6415 still replacing the word everywhere else.
6420 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
6422 s* industry[ -]leading \
6424 | customer[ -]focused \
6425 | market[ -]driven \
6426 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
6427 | high[ -]performance \
6428 | solutions[ -]based \
6432 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
6437 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
6438 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
6446 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6448 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
6452 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
6453 keep these listings in sync.
6458 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
6459 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
6464 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6467 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
6472 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
6473 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
6474 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
6479 removes the bindings to the DOM's
6480 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
6481 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
6482 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
6487 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
6488 full-screen, non-resizable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
6497 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
6500 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
6501 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
6502 resizing etc, anymore.
6505 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
6506 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
6513 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6516 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
6519 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
6520 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
6521 resizable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
6522 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
6528 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
6531 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialogue, where they can be intercepted
6533 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
6534 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
6535 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
6536 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
6539 This filter disables HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets cookies. Use
6540 it wherever you would also use the cookie crunch actions.
6546 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
6549 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
6550 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
6551 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
6558 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
6561 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
6562 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
6563 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
6564 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
6567 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
6568 function to a dummy function during the loading and rendering phase of each
6569 HTML page access, and restoring the function afterwards.
6575 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
6578 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
6579 Note this should be used with more discretion than the above, since it is
6580 more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal usage. Use
6587 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
6590 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
6591 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
6592 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
6598 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
6601 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
6602 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
6603 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
6606 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
6607 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
6613 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
6616 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
6617 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
6618 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
6624 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
6627 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
6628 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
6629 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
6630 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
6631 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
6632 the use ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
6633 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
6636 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
6642 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
6645 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
6646 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
6647 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
6648 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
6651 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
6657 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
6660 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
6661 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
6662 or behave as intended when using this filter.
6668 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
6671 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
6672 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
6673 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
6674 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
6675 small to show their whole content.
6678 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
6685 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
6688 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
6689 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
6690 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
6693 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
6694 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
6695 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
6696 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if wierd garbage characters
6697 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
6700 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
6701 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
6702 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
6709 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
6712 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
6713 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
6721 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
6724 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
6725 prevents saving, is disabled.
6731 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
6734 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
6735 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
6741 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
6744 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
6745 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
6751 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
6754 A collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
6755 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
6758 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
6759 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
6765 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
6768 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
6769 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
6772 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
6773 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
6774 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
6775 anything regarding this filter.
6782 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
6796 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6800 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6802 <sect1 id="templates">
6803 <title>Templates</title>
6805 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
6806 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
6807 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
6808 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
6810 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6811 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
6812 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
6817 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
6818 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
6820 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
6824 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
6825 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. You can
6826 edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want to customize them.
6827 (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual user</emphasis>). Note that
6828 just like in configuration files, lines starting with <literal>#</literal> are
6829 ignored when the templates are filled in.
6833 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
6834 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
6835 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
6836 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
6837 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
6841 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
6842 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
6843 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
6844 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
6845 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
6850 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
6852 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
6854 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
6858 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
6859 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
6860 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
6864 <screen><!-- --></screen>
6868 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
6869 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
6874 All templates refer to a style located at
6875 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
6876 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
6877 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
6878 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
6883 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6887 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6889 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
6892 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
6894 <!-- end boilerplate -->
6898 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6901 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6902 <sect1 id="copyright"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Copyright, License and History</title>
6904 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
6906 <!-- end copyright -->
6908 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6909 <sect2><title>License</title>
6910 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
6912 <!-- end copyright -->
6914 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6917 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6919 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
6920 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
6922 <!-- end history -->
6925 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
6926 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
6928 <!-- end authors -->
6933 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6936 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6937 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
6938 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
6940 <!-- end seealso -->
6945 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6946 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
6949 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6951 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
6953 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
6954 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
6955 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
6956 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
6959 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
6961 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
6965 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
6966 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
6967 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
6968 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
6972 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
6973 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
6974 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
6975 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
6976 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
6977 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
6978 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
6979 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
6983 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
6984 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
6985 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
6986 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
6987 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
6988 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
6989 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
6990 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
6994 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
6995 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
6996 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
6997 and then some examples:
7002 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7003 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7005 </simplelist></para>
7009 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7012 </simplelist></para>
7016 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7019 </simplelist></para>
7023 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7026 </simplelist></para>
7030 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7031 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7032 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7033 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7034 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7035 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7037 </simplelist></para>
7041 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7042 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7043 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7044 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7046 </simplelist></para>
7050 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7051 or multiple sub-expressions.
7053 </simplelist></para>
7057 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7058 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7059 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7060 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7061 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7062 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7064 </simplelist></para>
7067 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7068 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7069 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7070 be more illuminating:
7074 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7075 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7076 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7077 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7078 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7079 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7080 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7081 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7082 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7083 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7084 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7085 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7086 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7087 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7092 A now something a little more complex:
7096 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7097 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
7098 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
7099 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
7100 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
7101 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
7102 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
7107 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
7108 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
7109 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
7110 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
7111 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
7112 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
7113 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
7114 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
7115 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
7116 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
7117 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
7118 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
7119 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
7120 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
7121 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
7122 changing our regular expression to:
7123 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
7128 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
7129 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
7130 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
7131 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
7132 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
7133 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
7134 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
7135 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
7136 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
7137 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
7138 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
7139 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
7140 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
7141 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
7142 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
7143 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
7144 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
7145 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
7146 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
7147 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
7148 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
7149 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
7150 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
7151 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
7152 in the expression anywhere).
7156 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
7157 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
7158 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
7159 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
7160 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
7165 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
7166 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
7170 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
7171 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
7176 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7179 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7181 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
7184 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
7185 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
7186 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
7187 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
7188 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
7189 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
7190 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
7196 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
7197 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
7198 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
7199 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
7212 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
7216 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
7217 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
7218 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
7224 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
7225 editing of actions files:
7229 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
7236 Show the source code version numbers:
7240 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
7247 Show the browser's request headers:
7251 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
7258 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
7262 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7269 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
7270 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
7274 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
7278 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
7282 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
7287 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
7296 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
7300 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
7301 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
7303 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
7304 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7305 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
7306 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
7307 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
7308 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
7311 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
7312 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
7313 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
7314 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
7315 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
7316 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
7325 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>
7332 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>
7339 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)
7346 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>
7352 <ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions/index.php?url='+escape(location.href),'Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Submit Actions File Feedback</ulink>
7358 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
7365 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
7366 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
7367 have more information about bookmarklets.
7376 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7378 <title>Chain of Events</title>
7380 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
7381 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
7388 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
7389 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
7390 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
7396 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
7397 pages (e.g http://p.p/) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
7402 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
7404 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
7405 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
7406 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
7407 is then checked and if it does not match, an
7408 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
7409 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <link
7410 linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
7411 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
7416 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
7417 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
7422 If the URL pattern matches the <link
7423 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
7424 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
7429 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
7430 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
7431 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
7432 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
7438 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
7444 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
7445 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
7446 filtered as determined by the
7447 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
7448 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
7449 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
7455 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
7456 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
7457 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
7462 If a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
7464 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7465 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
7466 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
7467 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
7468 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
7469 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
7470 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
7471 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
7472 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
7475 If neither <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
7477 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7478 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
7479 to the client browser as it becomes available.
7484 As the browser receives the now (probably filtered) page content, it
7485 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
7486 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
7487 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
7488 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
7489 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
7499 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7500 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
7501 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
7504 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
7505 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
7506 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
7507 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
7508 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
7509 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
7510 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
7511 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
7512 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
7517 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
7518 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
7519 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
7520 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
7521 logs is a good idea too.
7525 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
7526 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7527 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
7528 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
7532 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
7533 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
7534 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
7535 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
7536 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
7537 one of the filter files since this is handled very
7538 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
7539 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
7540 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
7541 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
7542 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
7543 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
7544 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
7549 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
7550 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
7551 configuration may vary):
7556 Matches for http://google.com:
7558 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
7562 -content-type-overwrite
7563 -crunch-client-header
7564 -crunch-if-none-match
7565 -crunch-incoming-cookies
7566 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
7567 -crunch-server-header
7568 +deanimate-gifs {last}
7569 -downgrade-http-version
7570 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
7572 -filter {content-cookies}
7573 -filter {all-popups}
7574 -filter {banners-by-link}
7575 -filter {tiny-textforms}
7576 -filter {frameset-borders}
7577 -filter {demoronizer}
7578 -filter {shockwave-flash}
7579 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
7581 -filter {crude-parental}
7582 -filter {site-specifics}
7583 +filter {js-annoyances}
7584 +filter {html-annoyances}
7585 +filter {refresh-tags}
7586 +filter {unsolicited-popups}
7587 +filter {img-reorder}
7588 +filter {banners-by-size}
7590 +filter {jumping-windows}
7591 +filter {ie-exploits}
7592 -filter-client-headers
7593 -filter-server-headers
7595 -handle-as-empty-document
7597 -hide-accept-language
7598 -hide-content-disposition
7599 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
7600 +hide-from-header {block}
7601 -hide-if-modified-since
7602 +hide-referrer {forge}
7607 -overwrite-last-modified
7608 +prevent-compression
7612 +session-cookies-only
7613 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
7614 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
7617 { -session-cookies-only }
7623 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
7624 (no matches in this file)
7629 This is telling us how we have defined our
7630 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
7631 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
7632 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
7633 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
7634 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
7635 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
7636 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
7640 is any matches for the <filename>standard.action</filename> file. No hits at
7641 all here on <quote>standard</quote>. Then next is <quote>default</quote>, or
7642 our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line listing,
7643 is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default settings.
7644 If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the section
7645 just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This will apply to
7646 all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
7647 -- <quote>/</quote>.
7651 But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
7652 rules, and then list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions would
7653 apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
7654 <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous cookie setting,
7656 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
7657 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
7658 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
7659 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any
7661 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
7662 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
7663 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
7664 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
7665 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these two actions
7666 defined somewhere in the lower part of our <filename>default.action</filename>
7667 file, and <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter
7672 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
7673 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
7678 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
7679 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
7680 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
7691 -content-type-overwrite
7692 -crunch-client-header
7693 -crunch-if-none-match
7694 -crunch-incoming-cookies
7695 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
7696 -crunch-server-header
7697 +deanimate-gifs {last}
7698 -downgrade-http-version
7700 +filter {js-annoyances}
7701 +filter {html-annoyances}
7702 +filter {refresh-tags}
7703 +filter {unsolicited-popups}
7704 +filter {img-reorder}
7705 +filter {banners-by-size}
7707 +filter {jumping-windows}
7708 +filter {ie-exploits}
7709 -filter-client-headers
7710 -filter-server-headers
7712 -handle-as-empty-document
7714 -hide-accept-language
7715 -hide-content-disposition
7716 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
7717 +hide-from-header {block}
7718 -hide-if-modified-since
7719 +hide-referrer {forge}
7724 -overwrite-last-modified
7725 +prevent-compression
7729 -session-cookies-only
7730 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
7731 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks </screen>
7735 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
7736 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
7737 which are actived specifically for this site in our configuration,
7738 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
7742 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
7748 { +block +handle-as-image }
7751 { +block +handle-as-image }
7754 { +block +handle-as-image }
7760 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
7761 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
7762 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
7763 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<link
7764 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
7765 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
7770 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
7771 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
7772 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
7773 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
7774 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
7775 is done here -- as both a <link
7776 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
7777 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
7779 linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
7780 The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> just simplifies the process and make
7785 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
7786 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
7792 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
7794 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
7798 -content-type-overwrite
7799 -crunch-client-header
7800 -crunch-if-none-match
7801 -crunch-incoming-cookies
7802 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
7803 -crunch-server-header
7805 -downgrade-http-version
7806 +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}
7807 +filter{html-annoyances}
7808 +filter{js-annoyances}
7809 +filter{kill-popups}
7812 +filter{banners-by-size}
7815 -filter-client-headers
7816 -filter-server-headers
7818 -handle-as-empty-document
7820 -hide-accept-language
7821 -hide-content-disposition
7822 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
7823 +hide-from-header{block}
7824 +hide-referer{forge}
7828 -overwrite-last-modified
7829 +prevent-compression
7833 +session-cookies-only
7834 +set-image-blocker{blank}
7835 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
7838 { +block +handle-as-image }
7844 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
7845 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
7846 blank page. We could now add a new action below this that explicitly
7847 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (<quote>{-block}</quote>) paths with
7848 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration wins).
7849 There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
7861 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
7862 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
7866 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
7873 { +block +handle-as-image }
7879 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
7880 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
7881 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
7882 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
7883 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. These
7884 tend to be harder to troubleshoot. Try adding the URL for the site to one of
7885 aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
7893 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
7901 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
7902 <quote>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</quote>.
7903 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
7916 This would turn off all filtering for that site. This would probably be most
7917 appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
7922 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
7923 <quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote> rule, which assumes
7924 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well most of the time
7925 since these tend to be standardized).
7929 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
7930 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
7931 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
7932 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
7941 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
7942 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
7943 Public License as published by the Free Software
7944 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
7945 your option) any later version.
7947 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
7948 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
7949 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
7950 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
7951 License for more details.
7953 The GNU General Public License should be included with
7954 this file. If not, you can view it at
7955 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
7956 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
7957 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
7959 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
7960 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
7961 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
7963 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
7964 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
7965 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
7966 and proof reading left to do.
7968 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
7969 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
7970 files, and assorted other minor changes.
7972 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
7973 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
7974 stubbed in. More to be done.
7976 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
7977 Documented new actions that were part of
7978 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
7980 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
7981 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
7982 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
7984 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
7987 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
7988 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
7990 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
7993 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
7994 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
7995 is dependent on browser.
7997 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
7998 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
8000 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
8001 Some minor clarifications
8003 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
8004 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
8005 and copyright notice dates.
8007 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
8008 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
8010 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
8011 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
8013 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
8014 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
8016 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
8017 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
8018 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
8020 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
8021 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
8024 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
8025 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
8027 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
8028 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
8030 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
8031 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
8033 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
8034 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
8035 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
8038 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
8039 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
8041 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
8042 Added documentation for new chroot option
8044 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
8045 Adapted to the new filters
8047 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
8048 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
8051 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
8052 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
8054 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
8055 Add demoronizer to filter section.
8057 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
8058 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
8060 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
8061 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
8062 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
8064 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
8065 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
8067 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
8068 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
8071 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
8072 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
8074 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
8075 Update to Mac OSX startup script name
8077 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
8078 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
8080 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
8081 Nits re: actions file download
8083 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
8084 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
8086 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
8087 Added 2 Gentoo sections
8089 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
8090 - Added version info to title
8091 - Added info on new filters
8092 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
8093 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
8095 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
8096 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
8098 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
8100 Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
8102 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
8103 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
8105 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
8106 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
8108 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
8109 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
8111 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
8112 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
8113 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
8114 so that these are in sync with each other.
8116 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
8117 Ooops missed something from David.
8119 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
8120 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
8121 That's a wrap, I think.
8123 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
8124 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
8126 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
8127 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
8129 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
8130 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
8131 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
8133 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
8134 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
8136 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
8137 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
8138 <literal><link> style.
8139 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
8140 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
8141 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
8142 renders them red (bad in TOC).
8144 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
8145 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
8147 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
8150 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
8151 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
8152 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
8154 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
8155 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
8156 - Small changes to Regex appendix
8157 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
8159 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
8160 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
8162 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
8163 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
8165 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
8166 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
8168 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
8169 Extended and further commented the example actions files
8171 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
8172 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
8175 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
8178 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
8179 Restored alphabetical order of actions
8181 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
8182 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
8184 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
8185 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
8187 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
8188 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
8189 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
8191 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
8192 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
8193 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
8194 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
8196 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
8197 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
8199 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
8202 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
8203 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
8204 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
8206 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
8207 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
8209 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
8210 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
8211 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
8213 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
8214 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
8216 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
8217 more structure in starting section
8219 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
8220 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
8221 will probably break links elsewhere :(
8223 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
8224 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
8225 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
8227 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
8228 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
8229 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
8231 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
8232 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
8234 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
8235 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
8236 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
8238 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
8239 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
8240 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
8242 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
8243 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
8245 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
8246 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
8248 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
8249 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
8251 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
8252 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
8254 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
8255 Updated OSX installation section
8256 Added a few English tweaks here an there
8258 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
8259 Re-write actions section.
8261 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
8262 Fix ugly typo (mine).
8264 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
8265 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
8267 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
8268 Added RPM install detail
8270 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
8273 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
8274 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
8276 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
8277 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
8279 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
8280 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
8282 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
8285 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
8286 Proofreading, part one
8288 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
8289 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
8290 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
8292 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
8293 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
8295 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
8296 Add small section on submitting actions.
8298 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
8301 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
8302 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
8304 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
8305 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
8307 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
8310 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
8311 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
8312 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
8313 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
8314 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
8316 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
8317 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
8319 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
8320 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
8322 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
8323 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
8324 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
8325 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
8326 eventually be set by Makefile.
8327 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
8329 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
8330 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
8332 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
8333 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
8335 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
8336 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
8338 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
8339 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
8340 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
8341 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
8343 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
8346 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
8347 Added more to Anatomy section.
8349 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
8350 Touch up intro for new name.
8352 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
8353 we have a new homepage!
8355 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
8356 A few minor catch ups with name change.
8358 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
8359 configure needs to be generated.
8361 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
8362 we are too lazy to make a block-built
8363 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
8365 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
8366 name change related issue.
8368 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
8369 name change. changed filenames.
8371 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
8374 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
8375 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
8376 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
8377 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
8378 comments and remarks to history untouched.
8380 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
8383 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
8384 New section in Appendix.
8386 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
8387 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
8389 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
8390 correct feedback channels
8392 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
8393 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
8395 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
8398 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
8399 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
8401 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
8402 Added imageblock{pattern}.
8404 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
8407 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
8408 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
8410 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
8411 provide correct feedback channels
8413 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
8414 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
8416 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
8417 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
8419 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
8420 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
8422 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
8423 Add new - - user option.
8425 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
8426 Added section on command line options.
8428 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
8429 Changed default port to 8118
8431 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
8432 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
8434 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
8435 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
8436 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
8439 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
8442 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
8443 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
8445 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
8446 Update OS/2 build section
8448 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
8449 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
8450 will work - no other changes are needed.
8452 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
8453 Added a very short section on Templates
8455 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
8456 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
8458 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
8459 Touch ups for *.action files.
8461 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
8464 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
8465 Updates for recent changes.
8467 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
8468 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
8470 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
8471 Correct 2 minor errors
8473 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
8474 *** empty log message ***
8476 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
8477 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
8479 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
8480 wrong url in documentation
8482 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
8483 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
8485 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
8488 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
8491 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
8494 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
8495 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
8497 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
8498 Some additions, and re-arranging.
8500 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
8503 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
8504 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
8506 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
8509 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
8510 source files for junkbuster documentation
8512 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
8513 first proposal of a structure.
8515 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
8516 docs should have an author.
8518 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
8519 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.