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 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt 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 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt 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
166 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
167 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
168 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
169 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
172 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
173 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
175 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
178 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
179 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs</title>
182 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
183 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
184 of configuration files.
188 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
189 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
190 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
191 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods. Note that SuSE will
192 automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
196 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
197 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
198 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
202 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
203 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
204 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
205 automatically if found, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
209 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
210 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
212 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
213 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
218 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
219 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
222 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
223 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
224 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
227 Version 3.0.4 introduces full <application>Windows</application> service
228 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
229 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
230 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
234 <term>Arguments:</term>
237 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
240 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
246 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
247 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
248 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
249 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
250 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
251 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
252 command: <command>services.msc</command> If you do not take the manual step
253 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
254 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
255 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
256 write to its log and configuration files.
261 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
262 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
265 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
266 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
267 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
271 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
272 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
275 First, make sure that no previous installations of
276 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
277 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
278 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
279 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
285 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
286 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
287 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
288 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
292 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
293 into will contain all of the configuration files.
297 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
298 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OSX</title>
300 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
301 from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
302 Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
303 <literal>Privoxy.pkg</literal>
304 and follow the installation process.
305 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the folder
306 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal>.
307 It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
308 starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
309 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
312 To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
313 <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> in the
314 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder.
315 Or, type this command in the Terminal:
319 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
323 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
327 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
328 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
330 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
331 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
332 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
333 remove this directory.
337 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
338 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
340 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
341 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
342 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
343 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
346 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
347 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
348 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
352 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
353 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
354 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
360 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
361 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
364 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
365 is to download the source tarball from our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project
370 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
371 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
372 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
373 CVS repository</ulink>.
375 deprecated...out of business.
376 or simply download <ulink
377 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
382 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
384 <!-- end boilerplate -->
387 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
388 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
390 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
391 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
392 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
393 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
398 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
399 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
400 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
401 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
405 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
406 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
407 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
408 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
409 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
410 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
418 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
420 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
421 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
422 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
424 There are many improvements and new features in <application>Privoxy</application> &p-version;
432 Mulitiple <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link> can now be specifed in <filename>config</filename>. This allows for
433 locally defined filters that can be maintained separately from the filters as
434 supplied by the developers.
440 There are a number of new <link linkend="actions-file">actions</link>:
448 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>
453 <literal><link linkend="crunch-client-header">crunch-client-header</link></literal>
458 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>
463 <literal><link linkend="crunch-server-header">crunch-server-header</link></literal>
468 <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
473 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
478 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>
483 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>
488 <literal><link linkend="hide-accept-language">hide-accept-language</link></literal>
493 <literal><link linkend="hide-content-disposition">hide-content-disposition</link></literal>
498 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
503 <literal><link linkend="inspect-jpegs">inspect-jpegs</link></literal>
508 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
513 <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal>
518 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
525 In addition, <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
526 has been significantly improved with enhanced syntax.
529 And <literal><link linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal>
530 has a new option, <literal>conditional block</literal>.
537 <application>MS-Windows</application> versions can now be
539 linkend="installation-pack-win">installed and
540 started as a <emphasis>Windows service</emphasis></link>.
546 <filename>config</filename> has two new options:
548 linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
550 linkend="forwarded-connect-retries">forwarded-connect-retries</link>.
553 And there is improved handling of the <link
554 linkend="user-manual">user-manual</link>
555 option, for placing documentation and help files on the local system.
561 Actions files problems and suggestions are now being directed to: <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288">http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288</ulink>.
562 Please use this to report such configuration related problems as missed
563 ads, sites that don't function properly due to one action or another,
564 innocent images being blocked, etc.
570 In addition, there are various bug fixes and significant enhancements, including
571 error pages should no longer be cached if the problem is fixed, better DNS
572 error handling, and various logging improvements.
580 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
582 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
583 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
586 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
587 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
595 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including
596 configuration files. Save any important configuration files!
601 On the other hand, some installers may not overwrite any existing configuration
602 files, thinking you will want to do that. You may want to manually check
603 your saved files against the newer versions to see if the improvements have
604 merit, or whether there are new options that you may want to consider.
605 There are a number of new features, but most won't be available unless
606 these features are incorporated into your configuration somehow.
611 See the full documentation on
612 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
613 which has changed syntax, and may require adjustments to local configs.
618 The <filename>jarfile</filename>, cookie logger, is off by default now.
624 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
625 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
626 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
627 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
633 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
634 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
635 Some installers may not automatically start
636 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
645 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
646 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
652 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
653 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
660 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
661 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
662 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
663 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
670 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
671 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
672 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
678 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
679 HTTPS (SSL) proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
680 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
681 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
682 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)! It won't work!
688 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
689 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage cookies, you should
690 remove any currently stored cookies too.
696 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
697 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
698 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
699 to no initial configuration is required in most cases.
702 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
703 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
704 <![%draft;[ You might also want to look at the <link
705 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
706 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
713 If you experience ads that slipped through, innocent images that are
714 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
715 <application>Privoxy's</application> behaviour, take a look at the <link
716 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
717 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
718 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
719 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
720 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Anatomy of an
721 Action</link></quote> has hints how to debug actions that
722 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
728 For easy access to Privoxy's most important controls, drag the provided
729 <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
736 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
737 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
744 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
752 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
754 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
755 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
757 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
758 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
761 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
762 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
763 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
766 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
767 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
768 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
771 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
772 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
773 things that were not intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
774 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
775 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
776 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
777 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
778 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
779 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
780 habits and preferences.
783 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
784 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
785 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
786 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
787 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
788 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
789 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
790 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
791 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
792 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
795 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
796 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
797 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
798 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
799 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
802 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
803 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
804 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
805 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
806 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
807 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
808 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
809 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
810 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
815 The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: <literal><link
816 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
817 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>, and
818 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
826 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this action stops
827 any contact between your browser and any URL patterns that match this
828 action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads, but also anything
829 that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply stops any
830 communication with the remote server and sends <application>Privoxy</application>'s
831 own built-in BLOCKED page instead to let you now what has happened.
837 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
838 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
839 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
840 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
841 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
842 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
843 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
844 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
845 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
846 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
847 an entire HTML page in most situations.
854 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
855 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
856 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
857 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
858 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
859 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
862 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
866 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
867 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
872 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
873 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
878 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
879 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
888 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
889 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
890 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
891 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
892 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access. Select the
893 appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
894 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
895 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
896 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
897 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
898 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
899 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
903 A quick and simple step by step example:
911 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
912 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
920 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
925 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
926 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
929 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
931 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
934 <imagedata fileref="../images/files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
937 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
946 You should have a section with only
947 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
948 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
949 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
950 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
951 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
952 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
953 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
954 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
960 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
961 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
962 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
963 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
964 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
965 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
970 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
971 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
979 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
980 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
981 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
982 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
987 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
988 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
989 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
996 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
999 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1000 <sect1 id="startup">
1001 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
1003 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1004 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1005 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is
1006 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1007 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
1010 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1011 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1014 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1016 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration (Mozilla)</title>
1019 <imagedata fileref="../images/proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1022 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1030 With <application>Firefox</application>, this can be set under:
1034 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1035 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1036 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton>
1038 <guibutton>Options</guibutton>
1040 <guibutton>General</guibutton>
1042 <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton>
1044 <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1049 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1050 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1055 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1056 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1057 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton>
1059 <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton>
1061 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton>
1063 <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton>
1065 <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1069 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>:
1073 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1074 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1075 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton>
1077 <guibutton>Internet Properties</guibutton>
1079 <guibutton>Connections</guibutton>
1081 <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1085 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1086 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1091 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1092 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
1093 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1094 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1098 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1099 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1100 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1101 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1102 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1105 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
1106 <title>Red Hat and Conectiva</title>
1108 We use a script. Note that Red Hat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
1109 default. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as
1110 its main configuration file.
1114 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1119 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1120 <title>Debian</title>
1122 We use a script. Note that Debian starts Privoxy upon booting per
1123 default. It will use the file
1124 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1129 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1134 <sect2 id="start-suse">
1137 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
1138 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
1148 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1149 <title>Windows</title>
1151 Click on the Privoxy Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1152 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1153 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1154 automatically start Privoxy when the system starts if you chose that option
1158 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1159 On Windows only, the Privoxy program has two new command line arguments
1160 to install and uninstall Privoxy as a service. See the
1161 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1162 instructions</link> for details.
1166 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1167 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
1169 Example Unix startup command:
1173 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1178 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1181 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1182 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1183 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1184 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1188 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1189 <title>Mac OSX</title>
1191 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1192 start automatically when the system restarts. To start Privoxy by hand,
1193 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
1194 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1199 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1203 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1208 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1209 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1211 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1212 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1213 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1214 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1215 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1216 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1217 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1221 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1222 <title>Gentoo</title>
1224 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1225 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1229 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1233 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1234 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1239 rc-update add privoxy default
1247 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1251 must find a better place for this paragraph
1254 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1255 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1256 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1257 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1258 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1259 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1263 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1264 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1265 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1266 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1267 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1268 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1269 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1270 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1271 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1275 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1276 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
1277 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
1279 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
1280 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1281 popups (explained below).
1285 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
1286 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
1287 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1288 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1289 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1290 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1291 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1292 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1293 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1297 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1298 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1299 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1300 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1301 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1302 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1303 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1304 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1305 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1309 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1310 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1311 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1312 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1313 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1314 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1315 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1319 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1320 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1321 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1322 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1323 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1324 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1329 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1330 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1331 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1336 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1337 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1338 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1339 Developers</quote></link> below.
1344 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1345 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1346 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1348 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1349 command-line options:
1357 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1360 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1365 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1368 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1373 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1376 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1377 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1382 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1386 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1387 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1388 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1389 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1394 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1398 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1399 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1400 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1405 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1409 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1410 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the Privoxy
1411 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1412 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in Privoxy to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1418 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1421 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1422 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1423 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1424 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1425 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1426 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1434 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two addition
1435 options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1436 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1437 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1445 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1448 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1449 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
1451 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1452 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1453 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1454 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1458 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1461 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
1463 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1464 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1465 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1466 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1467 You will see the following section:
1471 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1474 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1478 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1481 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1484 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1487 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1490 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1493 ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/
1494 &p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1502 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1503 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1504 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1505 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1506 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1507 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1511 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1512 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1513 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1514 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1515 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1516 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1517 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1518 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1524 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1529 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1531 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1532 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1534 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1535 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1536 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1537 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1538 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1539 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1543 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1544 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1545 principle configuration files are:
1553 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1554 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1555 on Windows. This is a required file.
1561 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1562 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1563 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1564 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1565 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1566 as many websites as possible.
1569 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1570 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1571 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1572 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1573 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1574 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1575 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is for
1576 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1579 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1581 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1583 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1584 various actions files.
1590 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1591 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1592 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1593 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1594 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1595 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1596 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1597 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1598 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1599 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1600 locally defined filters or customizations.
1608 The syntax of all configuration files has remained the same throughout the
1609 3.x series. There have been enhancements, but no changes that would preclude
1610 the use of any configuration file from one version to the next.
1614 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1615 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1616 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1617 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1618 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1619 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1624 The actions files and filter files
1625 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1626 maximum flexibility.
1630 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1631 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1632 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1633 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1634 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1635 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1636 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1641 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1642 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1643 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1644 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1650 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1653 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1655 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1656 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1657 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1659 <!-- end include -->
1662 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1666 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1668 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1671 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1672 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1673 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1674 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1675 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1676 Each action does something a little different.
1677 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1678 our control, preferences and independence.
1682 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1690 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1691 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1692 provide a base level of functionality for
1693 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1694 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well for users everywhere.
1695 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1696 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1701 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1702 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1703 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1704 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1709 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor,
1710 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1711 in <filename>default.action</filename>. These have increasing levels of
1712 aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no influence on your browsing unless
1713 you select them explicitly in the editor</emphasis>. It is not recommend
1717 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1718 <filename>standard.action</filename> are:
1721 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1722 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1723 <colspec colname=c1>
1724 <colspec colname=c2>
1725 <colspec colname=c3>
1726 <colspec colname=c4>
1729 <entry>Feature</entry>
1730 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1731 <entry>Medium</entry>
1732 <entry>Adventuresome</entry>
1737 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
1738 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
1739 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
1740 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
1746 <entry>Ad-blocking by URL</entry>
1753 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
1760 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
1767 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
1774 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
1776 <entry>session-only</entry>
1781 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
1782 <entry>unsolicited</entry>
1783 <entry>unsolicited</entry>
1788 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
1795 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
1802 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
1809 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
1816 <entry>Fun text replacements</entry>
1823 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
1830 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
1837 <entry>Demoronizer</entry>
1854 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
1855 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
1856 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically process before
1857 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
1859 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1863 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
1864 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
1865 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
1866 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
1867 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
1868 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
1869 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
1870 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
1871 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
1872 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
1873 with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
1874 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
1878 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
1879 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
1880 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
1881 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
1882 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
1886 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1888 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
1890 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
1891 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
1892 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
1893 certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
1894 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
1895 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
1896 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
1897 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
1898 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful puposes, like maybe
1899 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
1903 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
1904 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
1905 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
1906 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
1910 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1912 <title>How to Edit</title>
1914 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
1915 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
1916 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1917 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
1918 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
1919 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Adventuresome</quote>.
1920 Warning: the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> setting is not only more aggressive,
1921 but includes settings that are fun and subversive, and which some may find of
1926 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
1927 the actions files. Look at <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly
1933 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
1934 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
1936 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
1937 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
1938 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
1939 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
1940 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
1941 Below that, there is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
1945 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
1946 compared to all patterns in each <quote>action file</quote> file. Every time it matches, the list of
1947 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
1948 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
1949 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
1950 the effects are aggregated. E.g. a URL might match a regular section with
1951 a heading line of <literal>{
1952 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
1953 then later another one with just <literal>{
1954 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
1955 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply.
1959 You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
1960 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
1964 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
1965 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
1969 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1970 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
1971 <title>Patterns</title>
1973 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
1974 to determine what actions might apply to which sites and pages your browser
1975 attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild card type
1976 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
1977 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
1978 against many similar patterns.
1982 Generally, a <application>Privoxy</application> pattern has the form
1983 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
1984 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
1985 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
1986 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
1987 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
1988 the pattern. This is assumed already!
1993 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
1996 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
1997 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
2002 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2005 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2011 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2014 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2015 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2020 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
2023 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2024 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
2029 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2032 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2033 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
2040 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2041 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2044 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2045 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2051 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2054 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2055 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2060 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2063 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2064 <literal>www.</literal>
2069 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2072 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
2073 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
2080 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2081 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
2082 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
2083 any single character, you can define character classes in square
2084 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
2089 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2092 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2093 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2098 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2101 matches all of the above, and then some.
2106 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2109 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2110 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2115 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2118 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2119 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2120 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2121 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2129 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2132 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2133 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2136 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
2137 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2142 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2143 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2144 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2145 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2146 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2147 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>.
2151 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2152 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2153 for the beginning of a line).
2157 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2158 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2159 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2160 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2161 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2167 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2170 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2172 <sect2 id="actions">
2173 <title>Actions</title>
2175 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2176 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2177 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2178 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2179 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2180 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2181 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2182 previously applied.</quote>
2187 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2188 separated by whitespace, like in
2189 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2190 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2191 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2192 of the actions file.
2196 There are three classes of actions:
2203 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2204 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2208 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2209 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2212 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
2219 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2224 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2225 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2226 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2229 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2230 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2233 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</literal>
2239 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2240 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2241 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2242 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2243 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2244 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2248 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2249 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2250 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2251 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2254 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2255 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2263 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2264 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2265 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
2266 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2267 files will give a good starting point).
2271 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
2272 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2273 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files). For
2274 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
2275 Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in
2276 <filename>config</filename> (the default installation has three actions
2277 files). It also quite possible for any given URL pattern to match more than
2278 one pattern and thus more than one set of actions!
2281 <!-- start actions listing -->
2283 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2287 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2288 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2289 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2291 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2294 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2296 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2297 <title>add-header</title>
2301 <term>Typical use:</term>
2303 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2308 <term>Effect:</term>
2311 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2318 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2320 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2325 <term>Parameter:</term>
2328 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2329 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2339 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2340 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2341 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2348 <term>Example usage:</term>
2351 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
2359 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2360 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2361 <title>block</title>
2365 <term>Typical use:</term>
2367 <para>Block ads or other obnoxious content</para>
2372 <term>Effect:</term>
2375 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the requests are not
2376 forwarded to the remote server, but answered locally with a substitute page or image,
2377 as determined by the <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>
2378 and <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> actions.
2385 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2387 <para>Boolean.</para>
2392 <term>Parameter:</term>
2402 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2403 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
2404 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
2405 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2406 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2407 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2408 right now, you can take a look at the
2409 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2413 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2414 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2415 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2416 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2417 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2418 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2421 It is important to understand this process, in order
2422 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2423 ads and other unwanted content.
2426 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2427 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2428 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2429 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2430 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2436 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2439 <screen>{+block} # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2440 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2442 {+block +handle-as-image} # Block and replace with image
2454 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2455 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
2459 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
2463 <term>Typical use:</term>
2465 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
2470 <term>Effect:</term>
2473 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
2480 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2482 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2487 <term>Parameter:</term>
2499 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
2500 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
2501 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
2502 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
2503 supported by the browser.
2506 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
2507 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
2508 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
2509 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
2510 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
2513 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
2514 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use Privoxy
2515 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
2516 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
2517 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
2520 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
2521 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
2522 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
2523 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
2526 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
2527 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
2528 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
2529 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
2530 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
2533 Most of the time it's easier to enable
2534 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
2535 and replace this action with a custom regular expression. It allows you
2536 to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
2537 only replace the content types you aimed at.
2540 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
2541 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
2542 more work to get the same precision.
2548 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
2551 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
2552 {+content-type-overwrite {application/xml}}
2554 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
2555 {-content-type-overwrite}
2556 www.example.net/*.\.css$
2557 www.example.net/*.style
2566 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2567 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
2571 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
2575 <term>Typical use:</term>
2577 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
2582 <term>Effect:</term>
2585 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
2592 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2594 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2599 <term>Parameter:</term>
2611 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
2612 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
2613 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
2614 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
2617 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
2618 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
2619 they contain the same string.
2622 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
2623 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
2624 parts of them, you should enable
2625 <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
2626 and create your own filter.
2630 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
2637 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2640 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
2641 {+crunch-client-header {Privacy-Violation:}}
2651 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2652 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
2653 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
2659 <term>Typical use:</term>
2661 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
2666 <term>Effect:</term>
2669 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
2676 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2678 <para>Boolean.</para>
2683 <term>Parameter:</term>
2695 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
2696 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
2697 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
2698 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
2701 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
2705 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
2706 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
2707 isn't blocked as well.
2710 It is recommended to use this action together with
2711 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
2713 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
2719 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2722 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents without being tracked across sessions
2723 {+hide-if-modified-since {-1} \
2724 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize} \
2725 +crunch-if-none-match}
2734 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2735 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
2736 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
2740 <term>Typical use:</term>
2743 Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
2749 <term>Effect:</term>
2752 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
2759 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2761 <para>Boolean.</para>
2766 <term>Parameter:</term>
2778 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
2779 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
2780 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
2781 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2784 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2785 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2786 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
2787 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
2793 <term>Example usage:</term>
2796 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
2804 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2805 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
2806 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
2812 <term>Typical use:</term>
2814 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
2819 <term>Effect:</term>
2822 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
2829 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2831 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2836 <term>Parameter:</term>
2848 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
2849 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
2850 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
2853 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
2854 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
2855 they contain the same string.
2858 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
2859 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
2860 parts of them, you should enable
2861 <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
2862 and create your own filter.
2866 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
2873 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2876 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
2877 {+crunch-server-header {no-cache}}
2886 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2887 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
2888 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
2892 <term>Typical use:</term>
2895 Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
2901 <term>Effect:</term>
2904 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
2911 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2913 <para>Boolean.</para>
2918 <term>Parameter:</term>
2930 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
2931 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
2932 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
2933 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2936 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2937 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2938 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
2944 <term>Example usage:</term>
2947 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
2956 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2957 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
2958 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
2962 <term>Typical use:</term>
2964 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
2969 <term>Effect:</term>
2972 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
2979 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2981 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2986 <term>Parameter:</term>
2989 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
2998 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
2999 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3000 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3001 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3002 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3003 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3006 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3007 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3014 <term>Example usage:</term>
3017 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3024 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3025 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3026 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3030 <term>Typical use:</term>
3032 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3037 <term>Effect:</term>
3040 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3047 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3049 <para>Boolean.</para>
3054 <term>Parameter:</term>
3066 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3067 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3068 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3069 out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
3070 is a chance you might need this action.
3076 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3079 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3080 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3088 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3089 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3090 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3094 <term>Typical use:</term>
3096 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3101 <term>Effect:</term>
3104 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3105 the redirection server first.
3112 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3114 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3119 <term>Parameter:</term>
3124 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3125 to detect redirection URLs.
3130 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3131 for redirection URLs.
3142 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3143 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3144 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3145 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3146 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3149 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3150 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3151 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3152 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3153 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3157 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3158 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3159 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3162 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3163 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3164 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3165 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3166 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3167 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3168 the user gets redirected anyway.
3171 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3173 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3174 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3175 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3176 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3177 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3178 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. It is possible to fix these redirected
3179 requests with <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
3180 but it requires a little effort.
3183 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3184 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3185 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3186 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3187 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3188 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3189 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3195 <term>Example usage:</term>
3198 <screen>+fast-redirects{simple-check}</screen>
3201 <screen>+fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</screen>
3210 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3211 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3212 <title>filter</title>
3216 <term>Typical use:</term>
3218 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), do fun text replacements, etc.</para>
3223 <term>Effect:</term>
3226 All files of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which this
3227 action applies, are filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular expression
3228 based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
3229 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
3230 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they
3231 don't know.) By default, filtering works only on the document content
3232 itself, not the headers.
3239 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3241 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3246 <term>Parameter:</term>
3249 The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3250 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3251 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3252 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3253 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
3254 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3255 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
3258 When used in its negative form,
3259 and without parameters, filtering is completely disabled.
3268 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3269 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3273 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3274 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3275 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3276 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3277 noticeable on slower connections.
3280 This is very powerful feature, and <quote>rolling your own</quote>
3281 filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
3284 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3285 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
3286 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
3287 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3288 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3291 Inadequate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3292 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3293 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3294 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3295 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3296 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> sections.
3299 At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
3300 documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
3301 would normally be sent compressed, use the
3302 <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3303 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3306 Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3307 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3308 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3309 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3310 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3314 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
3315 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3318 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3319 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
3320 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
3321 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
3327 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
3328 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
3329 more explanation on each:</term>
3332 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3333 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
3336 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
3337 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites)</screen>
3340 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3341 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse</screen>
3344 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3345 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content</screen>
3348 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3349 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
3352 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
3353 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows</screen>
3356 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
3357 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML</screen>
3360 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
3361 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
3364 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3365 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size</screen>
3368 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
3369 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers</screen>
3372 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3373 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
3376 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
3377 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap</screen>
3380 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
3381 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves</screen>
3384 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3385 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable</screen>
3388 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
3389 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets</screen>
3392 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3393 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
3396 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
3397 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable</screen>
3400 <anchor id="filter-fun">
3401 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
3404 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
3405 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering (demo only)</screen>
3408 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
3409 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits</screen>
3417 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3418 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter-client-headers">
3419 <title>filter-client-headers</title>
3423 <term>Typical use:</term>
3426 To apply filtering to the client's (browser's) headers
3432 <term>Effect:</term>
3435 By default, <application>Privoxy's</application> filters only apply
3436 to the document content itself. This will extend those filters to
3437 include the client's headers as well.
3444 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3446 <para>Boolean.</para>
3451 <term>Parameter:</term>
3463 Regular expressions can be used to filter headers as well. Check your
3464 filters closely before activating this action, as it can easily lead to broken
3468 These filters are applied to each header on its own, not to them
3469 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3470 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is
3474 The filters are used after the other header actions have finished and can
3475 use their output as input.
3479 Whenever possible one should specify <literal>^</literal>,
3480 <literal>$</literal>, the whole header name and the colon, to make sure
3481 the filter doesn't cause havoc to other headers or the
3482 page itself. For example if you want to transform
3483 <application>Galeon</application> User-Agents to
3484 <application>Firefox</application> User-Agents you
3489 s@Galeon/\d\.\d\.\d @@
3495 s@^(User-Agent:.*) Galeon/\d\.\d\.\d (Firefox/\d\.\d\.\d\.\d)$@$1 $2@
3502 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3506 {+filter-client-headers +filter{test_filter}}
3507 problem-host.example.com
3517 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3518 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter-server-headers">
3519 <title>filter-server-headers</title>
3523 <term>Typical use:</term>
3526 To apply filtering to the server's headers
3532 <term>Effect:</term>
3535 By default, <application>Privoxy's</application> filters only apply
3536 to the document content itself. This will extend those filters to
3537 include the server's headers as well.
3544 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3546 <para>Boolean.</para>
3551 <term>Parameter:</term>
3563 Similar to <literal>filter-client-headers</literal>, but works on
3564 the server instead. To filter both server and client, use both.
3567 As with <literal>filter-client-headers</literal>, check your
3568 filters before activating this action, as it can easily lead to broken
3572 These filters are applied to each header on its own, not to them
3573 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
3574 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is
3578 The filters are used after the other header actions have finished and can
3579 use their output as input.
3582 Remember too, whenever possible one should specify <literal>^</literal>,
3583 <literal>$</literal>, the whole header name and the colon, to make sure
3584 the filter doesn't cause havoc to other headers or the
3585 page itself. See above for example.
3592 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3596 {+filter-server-headers +filter{test_filter}}
3597 problem-host.example.com
3607 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3608 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
3609 <title>force-text-mode</title>
3615 <term>Typical use:</term>
3617 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
3622 <term>Effect:</term>
3625 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
3632 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3634 <para>Boolean.</para>
3639 <term>Parameter:</term>
3651 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
3652 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
3653 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
3654 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
3655 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
3656 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
3660 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
3661 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
3668 <term>Example usage:</term>
3681 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3682 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
3683 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
3689 <term>Typical use:</term>
3691 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
3696 <term>Effect:</term>
3699 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
3700 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
3701 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
3702 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
3703 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
3710 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3712 <para>Boolean.</para>
3717 <term>Parameter:</term>
3729 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
3730 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
3731 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
3734 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
3735 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
3736 but usually this isn't necessary.
3742 <term>Example usage:</term>
3745 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
3746 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
3747 {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
3757 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3758 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
3759 <title>handle-as-image</title>
3763 <term>Typical use:</term>
3765 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by imagee <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis>)</para>
3770 <term>Effect:</term>
3773 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
3774 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
3775 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
3776 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
3777 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
3778 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
3785 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3787 <para>Boolean.</para>
3792 <term>Parameter:</term>
3804 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
3805 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
3809 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
3810 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
3811 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
3814 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
3815 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
3816 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
3817 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
3823 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3826 <screen># Generic image extensions:
3829 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
3831 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
3832 # blocked as images:
3834 {+block +handle-as-image}
3835 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
3837 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
3847 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3848 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
3849 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
3855 <term>Typical use:</term>
3857 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
3862 <term>Effect:</term>
3865 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
3872 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3874 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3879 <term>Parameter:</term>
3882 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
3891 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
3892 foreign User-Agent set with
3893 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
3897 However some sites with content in different languages check the
3898 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
3899 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
3900 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
3903 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
3904 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
3905 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
3908 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
3909 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
3910 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
3911 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
3912 you should stick to a common language.
3918 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3921 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
3922 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
3923 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
3933 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3934 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
3935 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
3941 <term>Typical use:</term>
3943 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
3948 <term>Effect:</term>
3951 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
3958 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3960 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3965 <term>Parameter:</term>
3968 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
3977 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
3978 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
3979 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
3980 the browser is supposed to use by default.
3983 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
3984 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
3985 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
3988 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
3989 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
3990 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
3991 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
3992 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
3996 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
3997 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4004 <term>Example usage:</term>
4007 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4009 +content-type-overwrite {text/plain}\
4010 +hide-content-disposition {block} }
4011 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download.php</screen>
4019 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4020 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4021 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4027 <term>Typical use:</term>
4029 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4034 <term>Effect:</term>
4037 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4044 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4046 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4051 <term>Parameter:</term>
4054 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4063 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4064 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4065 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4068 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4069 also add or substract a random amount of time to/from the headers value.
4070 You specify a range of hours were the random factor should be chosen from and
4071 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4072 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4075 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4076 sure it isn't used as a cookie replacement, but you will run into
4077 caching problems if the random range is too high.
4080 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4081 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4082 handle the greater changes.
4085 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4086 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
4092 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4095 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
4096 {+hide-if-modified-since {-1}\
4097 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
4098 +crunch-if-none-match}
4107 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4108 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
4109 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
4115 <term>Typical use:</term>
4117 <para>Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request</para>
4122 <term>Effect:</term>
4125 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
4126 and prevents adding a new one.
4133 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4135 <para>Boolean.</para>
4140 <term>Parameter:</term>
4152 It is fairly safe to leave this on.
4155 This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate forged
4156 <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> headers using random IP addresses from a specified network,
4157 to make successive requests from the same client look like requests from a pool of different
4158 users sharing the same proxy.
4164 <term>Example usage:</term>
4167 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
4175 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4176 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4177 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4181 <term>Typical use:</term>
4183 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4188 <term>Effect:</term>
4191 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4199 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4201 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4206 <term>Parameter:</term>
4209 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4218 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4219 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4223 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4224 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4225 is actually used by a real person.
4228 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4229 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4235 <term>Example usage:</term>
4238 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
4239 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4247 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4248 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4249 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4250 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4253 <term>Typical use:</term>
4255 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4260 <term>Effect:</term>
4263 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4264 or replaces it with a forged one.
4271 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4273 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4278 <term>Parameter:</term>
4282 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
4285 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
4288 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4291 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4301 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
4302 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
4303 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
4304 typed in the address directly.
4307 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
4308 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
4309 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
4310 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
4311 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
4315 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
4316 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
4317 requests, in an attempt to prevent their valuable content from being
4318 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
4321 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
4322 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
4323 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
4326 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4327 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4328 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4329 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4330 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4336 <term>Example usage:</term>
4339 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4340 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4348 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4349 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4350 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
4354 <term>Typical use:</term>
4356 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4361 <term>Effect:</term>
4364 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4365 in client requests with the specified value.
4372 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4374 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4379 <term>Parameter:</term>
4382 Any user-defined string.
4392 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
4393 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
4394 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
4395 work browser-independently).
4397 <ulink url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
4403 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
4404 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4405 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4406 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4407 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4408 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
4409 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
4410 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
4411 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
4412 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
4413 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
4416 This action is scheduled for improvement.
4422 <term>Example usage:</term>
4425 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4433 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4434 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="inspect-jpegs">
4435 <title>inspect-jpegs</title>
4441 <term>Typical use:</term>
4443 <para>To protect against the MS buffer over-run in JPEG processing</para>
4448 <term>Effect:</term>
4451 Protect against a known exploit
4458 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4460 <para>Boolean.</para>
4465 <term>Parameter:</term>
4477 See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-028. JPEG images are one of the most
4478 common image types found across the Internet. The exploit as described can
4479 allow execution of code on the target system, giving an attacker access
4480 to the system in question by merely planting an altered JPEG image, which
4481 would have no obvious indications of what lurks inside. This action
4482 prevents unwanted intrusion.
4489 <term>Example usage:</term>
4491 <para><screen>+inspect-jpegs</screen></para>
4500 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4501 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
4502 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
4506 <term>Typical use:</term>
4508 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows (deprecated)</para>
4513 <term>Effect:</term>
4516 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
4517 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
4524 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4526 <para>Boolean.</para>
4531 <term>Parameter:</term>
4543 This action is basically a built-in, hardwired special-purpose filter
4544 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
4545 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
4546 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
4548 linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>all-popups</replaceable>}</link></literal>
4549 does and is not as smart as <literal><link
4550 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
4554 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
4555 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
4556 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
4557 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
4558 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
4559 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
4562 Killing all pop-ups unconditionally is problematic. Many shops and banks rely on
4563 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and the <literal><link
4564 linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
4565 </literal> does a fairly good job of catching only the unwanted ones.
4568 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
4569 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
4570 one), you might want to use
4572 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
4578 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
4586 <term>Example usage:</term>
4588 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
4595 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4596 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
4597 <title>limit-connect</title>
4601 <term>Typical use:</term>
4603 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
4608 <term>Effect:</term>
4611 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
4618 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4620 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4625 <term>Parameter:</term>
4628 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
4629 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
4638 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
4639 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
4640 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
4641 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
4642 for some or all destinations.
4645 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
4646 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
4647 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
4648 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
4649 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
4650 abused as TCP relays very easily.
4653 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
4654 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent Privoxy's
4655 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
4656 If you plan to disable SSL by default, consider enabling
4657 <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks ">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
4658 as well, to be able to quickly create exceptions.
4664 <term>Example usages:</term>
4666 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
4667 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
4668 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
4670 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
4671 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
4672 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
4673 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
4674 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS traffic is allowed</screen>
4681 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4682 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
4683 <title>prevent-compression</title>
4687 <term>Typical use:</term>
4690 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
4691 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
4697 <term>Effect:</term>
4700 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
4707 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4709 <para>Boolean.</para>
4714 <term>Parameter:</term>
4726 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
4727 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the <literal><link
4728 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
4729 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions to work,
4730 <application>Privoxy</application> needs access to the uncompressed data.
4731 Unfortunately, <application>Privoxy</application> can't yet(!) uncompress, filter, and
4732 re-compress the content on the fly. So if you want to ensure that all websites, including
4733 those that normally compress, can be filtered, you need to use this action.
4736 This will slow down transfers from those websites, though. If you use any of the above-mentioned
4737 actions, you will typically want to use <literal>prevent-compression</literal> in conjunction
4741 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
4742 documents correctly (they send an empty document body). If you use <literal>prevent-compression</literal>
4743 per default, you'll have to add exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
4749 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4752 <screen># Set default:
4754 {+prevent-compression}
4757 # Make exceptions for ill sites:
4759 {-prevent-compression}
4761 www.pclinuxonline.com</screen>
4770 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4771 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
4772 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
4778 <term>Typical use:</term>
4780 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4785 <term>Effect:</term>
4788 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
4795 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4797 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4802 <term>Parameter:</term>
4805 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
4806 and <quote>randomize</quote>
4815 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
4816 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
4817 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
4818 version of the page.
4821 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
4822 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
4823 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
4824 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
4825 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
4826 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
4829 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
4830 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
4831 this option together with
4832 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
4833 to further customize your random range.
4836 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
4837 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
4838 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
4839 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
4840 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
4841 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
4845 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4846 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
4852 <term>Example usage:</term>
4855 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
4856 {+hide-if-modified-since {-1}\
4857 +overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
4858 +crunch-if-none-match}
4867 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4868 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
4869 <title>redirect</title>
4875 <term>Typical use:</term>
4878 Redirect requests to other sites.
4884 <term>Effect:</term>
4887 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
4888 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
4895 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4897 <para>Parameterized</para>
4902 <term>Parameter:</term>
4914 This action is useful to replace whole documents with your own
4915 ones. For that to work, they have to be available on another server,
4916 and both should resolve.
4919 You can do the same by combining the actions
4920 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
4921 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> and
4922 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{URL}</link></literal>.
4923 It doesn't sound right for non-image documents, and that's why this action
4927 This action will be ignored if you use it together with
4928 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
4934 <term>Example usage:</term>
4937 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
4938 {+redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css}}
4939 example.com/stylesheet.css</screen>
4948 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4949 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
4950 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
4954 <term>Typical use:</term>
4957 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
4963 <term>Effect:</term>
4966 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
4967 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
4974 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4976 <para>Boolean.</para>
4981 <term>Parameter:</term>
4993 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
4996 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5002 <term>Example usage:</term>
5005 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
5014 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5015 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
5016 <title>send-wafer</title>
5020 <term>Typical use:</term>
5023 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
5029 <term>Effect:</term>
5032 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
5039 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5041 <para>Multi-value.</para>
5046 <term>Parameter:</term>
5049 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
5050 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
5059 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
5060 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
5063 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
5068 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5071 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
5072 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
5080 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5081 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5082 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5086 <term>Typical use:</term>
5089 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5090 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5096 <term>Effect:</term>
5099 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5100 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5101 forget them in between sessions.
5108 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5110 <para>Boolean.</para>
5115 <term>Parameter:</term>
5127 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
5128 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
5129 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
5132 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
5133 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
5134 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
5135 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
5136 sites, and is the recommended setting.
5139 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
5140 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
5141 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
5142 will be plainly killed.
5145 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
5146 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
5149 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
5150 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
5151 These would have to be removed manually.
5154 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
5155 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
5156 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
5157 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
5163 <term>Example usage:</term>
5166 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
5174 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5175 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
5176 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
5180 <term>Typical use:</term>
5182 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
5187 <term>Effect:</term>
5190 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
5191 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
5192 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
5193 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
5194 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
5195 sent as a replacement.
5202 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5204 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5209 <term>Parameter:</term>
5214 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
5215 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
5220 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
5221 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
5222 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
5223 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
5228 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
5229 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
5230 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
5231 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
5234 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
5235 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
5236 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
5237 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
5238 it over and over again.
5249 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
5250 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
5251 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
5254 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
5255 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
5256 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
5262 <term>Example usage:</term>
5268 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
5271 Redirect to the BSD devil:
5274 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
5277 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
5280 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
5288 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5289 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">
5290 <title>treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</title>
5296 <term>Typical use:</term>
5298 <para>Block forbidden connects with an easy to find error message.</para>
5303 <term>Effect:</term>
5306 If this action is enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> no longer
5307 makes a difference between forbidden connects and ordinary blocks.
5314 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5316 <para>Boolean</para>
5321 <term>Parameter:</term>
5331 By default <application>Privoxy</application> answers
5332 <link linkend="limit-connect">forbidden <quote>Connect</quote> requests</link>
5333 with a short error message inside the headers. If the browser doesn't display
5334 headers (most don't), you just see an empty page.
5337 With this action enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> displays
5338 the message that is used for ordinary blocks instead. If you decide
5339 to make an exception for the page in question, you can do so by
5340 following the <quote>See why</quote> link.
5343 For <quote>Connect</quote> requests the clients tell
5344 <application>Privoxy</application> which host they are interested
5345 in, but not which document they plan to get later. As a result, the
5346 <quote>Go there anyway</quote> link becomes rather useless:
5347 it lets the client request the home page of the forbidden host
5348 through unencrypted HTTP, still using the port of the last request.
5351 If you previously configured <application>Privoxy</application> to do the
5352 request through a SSL tunnel, everything will work. Most likely you haven't
5353 and the server will respond with an error message because it is expecting
5360 <term>Example usage:</term>
5363 <screen>+treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</screen>
5371 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5373 <title>Summary</title>
5375 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
5376 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
5377 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
5378 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
5379 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
5380 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
5386 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5387 <sect2 id="aliases">
5388 <title>Aliases</title>
5390 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
5391 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
5392 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
5393 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
5395 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
5396 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
5397 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
5398 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
5399 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
5403 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
5404 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
5405 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
5406 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
5410 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
5411 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
5412 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
5413 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
5414 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
5415 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
5416 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
5419 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
5420 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
5421 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
5422 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
5423 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
5425 This is likely to change in future versions of <application>Privoxy</application>.
5429 Now let's define some aliases...
5434 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
5436 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
5437 # must be at the top of the actions file!
5441 # These aliases just save typing later:
5442 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5444 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5445 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5446 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5447 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5449 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5450 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5452 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>
5453 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
5455 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
5457 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
5458 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
5462 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
5463 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
5464 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
5469 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
5470 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
5473 .office.microsoft.com
5474 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
5478 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
5482 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5485 # These shops require pop-ups:
5487 {shop -kill-popups -filter{all-popups}}
5489 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
5493 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are often used for
5494 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require some actions to be disabled
5495 in order to function properly.
5501 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5502 <sect2 id="act-examples">
5503 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
5505 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
5506 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
5507 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
5508 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
5509 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
5510 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
5511 file and see how all these pieces come together:
5514 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
5517 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
5521 <screen># Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net></screen>
5525 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
5526 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
5527 change or worry about:
5532 ##########################################################################
5533 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
5534 ##########################################################################
5537 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
5541 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
5542 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
5543 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
5548 ##########################################################################
5550 ##########################################################################
5553 # These aliases just save typing later:
5554 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
5556 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5557 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
5558 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5559 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
5561 # These aliases define combinations of actions
5562 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
5564 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>
5565 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></screen>
5569 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
5570 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
5571 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
5572 enable the ones we want.
5576 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
5577 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
5578 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
5579 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
5580 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
5581 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
5582 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
5587 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
5588 no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
5589 to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
5590 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
5591 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
5592 multiple lines with line continuation.
5597 ##########################################################################
5598 # "Defaults" section:
5599 ##########################################################################
5601 -<link linkend="ADD-HEADER">add-header</link> \
5602 -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> \
5603 -<link linkend="CONTENT-TYPE-OVERWRITE">content-type-overwrite</link> \
5604 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-CLIENT-HEADER">crunch-client-header</link> \
5605 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-IF-NONE-MATCH">crunch-if-none-match</link> \
5606 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> \
5607 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-SERVER-HEADER">crunch-server-header</link> \
5608 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link> \
5609 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
5610 -<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
5611 +<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link> \
5612 +<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
5613 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-EVENTS">filter{js-events}</link> \
5614 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
5615 -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
5616 +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
5617 +<link linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{unsolicited-popups}</link> \
5618 -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> \
5619 +<link linkend="FILTER-IMG-REORDER">filter{img-reorder}</link> \
5620 +<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
5621 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">filter{banners-by-link}</link> \
5622 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
5623 -<link linkend="FILTER-TINY-TEXTFORMS">filter{tiny-textforms}</link> \
5624 +<link linkend="FILTER-JUMPING-WINDOWS">filter{jumping-windows}</link> \
5625 -<link linkend="FILTER-FRAMESET-BORDERS">filter{frameset-borders}</link> \
5626 -<link linkend="FILTER-DEMORONIZER">filter{demoronizer}</link> \
5627 -<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
5628 -<link linkend="FILTER-QUICKTIME-KIOSKMODE">filter{quicktime-kioskmode}</link> \
5629 -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
5630 -<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
5631 +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
5632 -<link linkend="FILTER-CLIENT-HEADERS">filter-client-headers</link> \
5633 -<link linkend="FILTER-SERVER-HEADERS">filter-server-headers</link> \
5634 -<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> \
5635 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT">handle-as-empty-document</link> \
5636 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
5637 -<link linkend="HIDE-ACCEPT-LANGUAGE">hide-accept-language</link> \
5638 -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link> \
5639 -<link linkend="HIDE-IF-MODIFIED-SINCE">hide-if-modified-since</link> \
5640 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
5641 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
5642 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
5643 -<link linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT">hide-user-agent</link> \
5644 -<link linkend="INSPECT-JPEGS">inspect-jpegs</link> \
5645 -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> \
5646 -<link linkend="LIMIT-CONNECT">limit-connect</link> \
5647 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
5648 -<link linkend="OVERWRITE-LAST-MODIFIED">overwrite-last-modified</link> \
5649 -<link linkend="REDIRECT">redirect</link> \
5650 -<link linkend="SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">send-vanilla-wafer</link> \
5651 -<link linkend="SEND-WAFER">send-wafer</link> \
5652 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
5653 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
5654 -<link linkend="TREAT-FORBIDDEN-CONNECTS-LIKE-BLOCKS">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link> \
5656 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
5660 The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding
5661 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
5662 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
5663 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
5664 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
5665 want to block in later sections.
5669 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
5670 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
5671 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
5672 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
5673 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
5674 of actions explicitly:
5679 ##########################################################################
5680 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
5681 ##########################################################################
5683 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
5686 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
5687 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com</screen>
5691 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
5692 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
5693 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
5702 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5704 .scan.co.uk</screen>
5707 <!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
5710 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
5711 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
5712 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
5713 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
5715 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
5716 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
5717 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
5718 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
5719 chosen in the defaults section:
5724 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
5726 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
5729 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
5732 END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
5735 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
5736 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
5737 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
5742 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
5746 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
5747 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
5748 .nytimes.com</screen>
5752 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
5753 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
5754 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
5755 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
5756 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
5757 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
5758 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
5759 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
5760 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
5766 ##########################################################################
5768 ##########################################################################
5770 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
5771 # blocked further down this file:
5773 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
5774 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
5778 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
5779 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
5780 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
5781 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
5782 <literal>block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
5783 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
5784 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
5785 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
5786 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
5787 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
5788 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
5789 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
5794 # Known ad generators:
5799 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
5800 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
5801 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
5808 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
5809 is to block banners. A huge bunch of them can be <quote>blocked</quote>
5810 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
5811 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
5812 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
5813 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
5814 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
5815 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
5816 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
5819 First comes a bunch of generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
5820 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
5821 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
5822 to keep the example short:
5827 ##########################################################################
5828 # Block these fine banners:
5829 ##########################################################################
5830 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
5838 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
5839 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
5841 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
5843 .hitbox.com</screen>
5847 You wouldn't believe how many advertisers actually call their banner
5848 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
5849 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
5850 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
5853 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
5854 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
5855 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
5856 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
5857 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
5858 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
5862 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
5863 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
5864 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
5865 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
5866 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
5867 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
5868 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
5869 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
5870 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
5871 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
5876 ##########################################################################
5877 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
5878 ##########################################################################
5882 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
5883 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
5884 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
5885 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
5886 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
5887 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
5895 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
5896 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
5900 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
5901 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
5902 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
5903 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
5904 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
5909 # Don't filter code!
5911 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
5913 .sourceforge.net</screen>
5917 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
5918 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
5923 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
5926 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
5927 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
5928 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
5929 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
5930 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
5931 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
5932 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
5933 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
5934 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
5935 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
5936 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
5937 to install updated versions from time to time.
5941 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
5942 <filename>user.action</filename>:
5946 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
5950 # My user.action file. <fred@foobar.com></screen>
5954 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
5955 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
5956 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
5961 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
5962 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
5966 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
5967 # be self explanatory.
5969 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
5970 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5971 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
5972 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups} -kill-popups
5973 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
5974 -block-as-image = -block
5976 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
5977 # certain types of sites:
5979 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer -kill-popups
5980 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
5982 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
5984 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
5986 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
5987 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
5988 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>
5993 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
5994 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
5995 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
5996 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
5997 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
5998 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6003 { allow-all-cookies }
6009 .redhat.com</screen>
6013 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6018 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6019 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6023 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6028 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6029 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6034 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6035 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6037 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6041 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6042 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6043 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6044 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6045 <literal>{ +block }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6046 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6047 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6048 in default.action anyway:
6053 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6054 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.gif
6055 another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6059 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6060 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6061 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6062 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6063 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6065 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6066 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6067 browser. Use cautiously.
6075 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6079 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6080 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6081 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6082 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6083 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6084 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6085 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6086 that is causing the problem or not.
6092 .forbes.com</screen>
6096 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6097 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file. (My colleagues on the team just
6098 don't have a sense of humour, that's why! ;-). So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6099 update-safe config, once and for all:
6104 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6105 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6109 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6110 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6111 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6112 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6113 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6117 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6118 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6119 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6120 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6132 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6133 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6134 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6135 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6139 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6140 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6141 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6142 it should I choose to.
6152 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6153 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6154 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6155 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6156 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6157 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6163 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6164 / # ALL sites</screen>
6170 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6174 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6176 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6178 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6179 <title>Filter Files</title>
6182 On-the-fly text substitutions that can be invoked through the
6183 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action need
6184 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6185 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>. Mulitple filter files can be
6186 defined through the <literal> <link
6187 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6188 as supplied by the developers will be found in
6189 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6190 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6191 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6196 Typical reasons for doing these kinds of substitutions are to eliminate
6197 common annoyances in HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6198 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6199 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6200 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6201 or just to have fun. The possibilities are endless.
6205 Filtering works on any text-based document type, including
6206 HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
6207 MIME types, <emphasis>except</emphasis> <literal>text/plain</literal>).
6208 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6209 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6210 and, of course, regular expressions. By default, filters are only applied
6211 to the document content, but can be extended to the headers with
6212 the supplemental actions:
6213 <link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link> and
6214 <link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link>.
6218 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6219 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6220 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with the
6221 <emphasis>keyword</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>, followed by
6222 the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6223 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6224 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6225 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6226 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6227 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6228 user interface</ulink>.
6232 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6233 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6234 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6235 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6239 A filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6244 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6248 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6249 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6250 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6251 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6252 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6253 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
6254 notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6255 which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
6259 If you are new to regular expressions, you might want to take a look at
6260 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6261 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
6263 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
6264 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6265 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6266 expressions</ulink> in general.
6267 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6271 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6273 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
6275 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> filter. We have already defined
6276 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
6277 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
6282 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
6286 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
6287 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
6288 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
6289 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
6293 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6297 Our complete filter now looks like this:
6300 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
6301 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
6305 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
6306 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
6307 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
6313 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
6315 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
6317 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
6321 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
6322 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
6323 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
6324 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
6328 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
6329 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
6330 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
6331 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
6332 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
6336 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
6337 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
6338 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
6339 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
6340 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
6341 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
6342 in the page (and appear in that order).
6346 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
6347 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
6348 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
6349 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
6350 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
6354 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
6355 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
6356 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
6357 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
6358 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
6359 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
6360 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
6361 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
6362 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
6363 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
6364 substitution is global.
6368 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
6369 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
6370 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
6371 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
6372 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
6376 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
6377 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
6378 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
6379 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
6380 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
6381 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
6382 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
6383 Business!"</literal>.
6387 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
6388 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
6389 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
6390 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
6391 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
6392 information anymore.
6396 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
6397 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
6402 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
6404 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
6408 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
6409 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
6410 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
6411 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
6412 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
6413 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
6414 a backreference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
6415 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
6416 a backreference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
6420 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
6421 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
6422 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
6423 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
6424 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
6425 you move your mouse over links.
6430 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
6432 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
6437 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
6438 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
6439 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
6440 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
6441 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
6442 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
6443 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
6444 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
6445 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
6446 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
6451 The last example is from the fun department:
6456 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
6458 # Spice the daily news:
6460 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
6464 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
6465 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
6466 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
6467 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
6468 still replacing the word everywhere else.
6473 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
6475 s* industry[ -]leading \
6477 | customer[ -]focused \
6478 | market[ -]driven \
6479 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
6480 | high[ -]performance \
6481 | solutions[ -]based \
6485 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
6490 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
6491 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
6499 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6501 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
6505 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
6506 keep these listings in sync.
6511 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
6512 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
6517 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6520 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
6525 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
6526 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
6527 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
6532 removes the bindings to the DOM's
6533 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
6534 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
6535 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
6540 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
6541 full-screen, non-resizable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
6550 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
6553 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
6554 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
6555 resizing etc, anymore.
6558 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
6559 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
6566 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
6569 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
6572 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
6573 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
6574 resizable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
6575 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
6581 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
6584 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialogue, where they can be intercepted
6586 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
6587 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
6588 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
6589 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
6592 This filter disables HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets cookies. Use
6593 it wherever you would also use the cookie crunch actions.
6599 <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
6602 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
6603 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
6604 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
6611 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
6614 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
6615 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
6616 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
6617 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
6620 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
6621 function to a dummy function during the loading and rendering phase of each
6622 HTML page access, and restoring the function afterwards.
6628 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
6631 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
6632 Note this should be used with more discretion than the above, since it is
6633 more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal usage. Use
6640 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
6643 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
6644 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
6645 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
6651 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
6654 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
6655 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
6656 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
6659 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
6660 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
6666 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
6669 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
6670 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
6671 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
6677 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
6680 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
6681 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
6682 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
6683 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
6684 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
6685 the use ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
6686 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
6689 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
6695 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
6698 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
6699 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
6700 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
6701 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
6704 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
6710 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
6713 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
6714 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
6715 or behave as intended when using this filter.
6721 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
6724 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
6725 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
6726 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
6727 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
6728 small to show their whole content.
6731 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
6738 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
6741 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
6742 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
6743 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
6746 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
6747 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
6748 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
6749 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if wierd garbage characters
6750 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
6753 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
6754 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
6755 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
6762 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
6765 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
6766 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
6774 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
6777 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
6778 prevents saving, is disabled.
6784 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
6787 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
6788 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
6794 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
6797 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
6798 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
6804 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
6807 A collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
6808 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
6811 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
6812 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
6818 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
6821 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
6822 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
6825 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
6826 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
6827 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
6828 anything regarding this filter.
6835 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
6849 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6853 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6855 <sect1 id="templates">
6856 <title>Templates</title>
6858 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
6859 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
6860 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
6861 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
6863 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6864 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
6865 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
6870 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
6871 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
6873 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
6877 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
6878 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. You can
6879 edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want to customize them.
6880 (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual user</emphasis>). Note that
6881 just like in configuration files, lines starting with <literal>#</literal> are
6882 ignored when the templates are filled in.
6886 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
6887 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
6888 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
6889 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
6890 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
6894 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
6895 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
6896 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
6897 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
6898 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
6903 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
6905 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
6907 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
6911 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
6912 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
6913 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
6917 <screen><!-- --></screen>
6921 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
6922 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
6927 All templates refer to a style located at
6928 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
6929 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
6930 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
6931 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
6936 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6940 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6942 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
6945 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
6947 <!-- end boilerplate -->
6951 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6954 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6955 <sect1 id="copyright"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Copyright, License and History</title>
6957 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
6959 <!-- end copyright -->
6961 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6962 <sect2><title>License</title>
6963 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
6965 <!-- end copyright -->
6967 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6970 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6972 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
6973 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
6975 <!-- end history -->
6978 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
6979 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
6981 <!-- end authors -->
6986 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6989 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6990 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
6991 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
6993 <!-- end seealso -->
6998 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6999 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7002 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7004 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7006 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7007 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7008 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7009 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7012 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7014 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7018 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7019 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7020 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7021 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7025 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7026 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7027 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7028 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7029 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7030 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7031 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7032 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7036 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7037 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7038 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7039 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7040 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7041 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7042 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7043 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7047 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7048 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7049 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7050 and then some examples:
7055 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7056 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7058 </simplelist></para>
7062 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
7065 </simplelist></para>
7069 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
7072 </simplelist></para>
7076 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
7079 </simplelist></para>
7083 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
7084 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
7085 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
7086 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
7087 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
7088 meta-character meaning of any single character).
7090 </simplelist></para>
7094 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
7095 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
7096 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
7097 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
7099 </simplelist></para>
7103 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
7104 or multiple sub-expressions.
7106 </simplelist></para>
7110 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
7111 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
7112 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
7113 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
7114 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
7115 example</quote>, and nothing else.
7117 </simplelist></para>
7120 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
7121 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
7122 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
7123 be more illuminating:
7127 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
7128 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
7129 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
7130 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
7131 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
7132 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
7133 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
7134 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
7135 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
7136 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
7137 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
7138 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
7139 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
7140 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
7145 And now something a little more complex:
7149 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
7150 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
7151 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
7152 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
7153 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
7154 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
7155 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
7160 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
7161 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
7162 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
7163 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
7164 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
7165 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
7166 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
7167 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
7168 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
7169 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
7170 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
7171 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
7172 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
7173 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
7174 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
7175 changing our regular expression to:
7176 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
7181 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
7182 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
7183 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
7184 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
7185 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
7186 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
7187 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
7188 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
7189 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
7190 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
7191 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
7192 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
7193 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
7194 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
7195 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
7196 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
7197 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
7198 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
7199 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
7200 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
7201 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
7202 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
7203 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
7204 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
7205 in the expression anywhere).
7209 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
7210 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
7211 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
7212 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
7213 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
7218 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
7219 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
7223 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
7224 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
7229 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7232 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7234 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
7237 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
7238 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
7239 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
7240 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
7241 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
7242 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
7243 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
7249 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
7250 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
7251 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
7252 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
7265 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
7269 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
7270 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
7271 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
7277 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
7278 editing of actions files:
7282 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
7289 Show the source code version numbers:
7293 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
7300 Show the browser's request headers:
7304 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
7311 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
7315 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7322 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
7323 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
7327 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
7331 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
7335 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
7340 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
7349 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
7353 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
7354 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
7356 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
7357 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
7358 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
7359 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
7360 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
7361 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
7364 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
7365 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
7366 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
7367 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
7368 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
7369 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
7378 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>
7385 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>
7392 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)
7399 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>
7405 <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>
7411 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
7418 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
7419 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
7420 have more information about bookmarklets.
7429 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7431 <title>Chain of Events</title>
7433 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
7434 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
7441 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
7442 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
7443 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
7449 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
7450 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
7455 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
7457 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
7458 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
7459 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
7460 is then checked and if it does not match, an
7461 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
7462 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <link
7463 linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
7464 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
7469 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
7470 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
7475 If the URL pattern matches the <link
7476 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
7477 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
7482 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
7483 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
7484 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
7485 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
7491 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
7497 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
7498 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
7499 filtered as determined by the
7500 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
7501 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
7502 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
7508 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
7509 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
7510 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
7515 If a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
7517 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7518 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
7519 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
7520 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
7521 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
7522 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
7523 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
7524 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
7525 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
7528 If neither <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
7530 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
7531 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
7532 to the client browser as it becomes available.
7537 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
7538 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
7539 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
7540 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
7541 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
7542 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
7552 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7553 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
7554 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
7557 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
7558 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
7559 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
7560 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
7561 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
7562 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
7563 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
7564 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
7565 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
7570 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
7571 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
7572 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
7573 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
7574 logs is a good idea too.
7578 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
7579 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
7580 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
7581 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
7585 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
7586 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
7587 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
7588 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
7589 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
7590 one of the filter files since this is handled very
7591 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
7592 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
7593 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
7594 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
7595 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
7596 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
7597 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
7602 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
7603 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
7604 configuration may vary):
7609 Matches for http://google.com:
7611 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
7615 -content-type-overwrite
7616 -crunch-client-header
7617 -crunch-if-none-match
7618 -crunch-incoming-cookies
7619 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
7620 -crunch-server-header
7621 +deanimate-gifs {last}
7622 -downgrade-http-version
7623 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
7625 -filter {content-cookies}
7626 -filter {all-popups}
7627 -filter {banners-by-link}
7628 -filter {tiny-textforms}
7629 -filter {frameset-borders}
7630 -filter {demoronizer}
7631 -filter {shockwave-flash}
7632 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
7634 -filter {crude-parental}
7635 -filter {site-specifics}
7636 +filter {js-annoyances}
7637 +filter {html-annoyances}
7638 +filter {refresh-tags}
7639 +filter {unsolicited-popups}
7640 +filter {img-reorder}
7641 +filter {banners-by-size}
7643 +filter {jumping-windows}
7644 +filter {ie-exploits}
7645 -filter-client-headers
7646 -filter-server-headers
7648 -handle-as-empty-document
7650 -hide-accept-language
7651 -hide-content-disposition
7652 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
7653 +hide-from-header {block}
7654 -hide-if-modified-since
7655 +hide-referrer {forge}
7660 -overwrite-last-modified
7661 +prevent-compression
7665 +session-cookies-only
7666 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
7667 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
7670 { -session-cookies-only }
7676 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
7677 (no matches in this file)
7682 This is telling us how we have defined our
7683 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
7684 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
7685 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
7686 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
7687 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
7688 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
7689 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
7693 is any matches for the <filename>standard.action</filename> file. No hits at
7694 all here on <quote>standard</quote>. Then next is <quote>default</quote>, or
7695 our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line listing,
7696 is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default settings.
7697 If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the section
7698 just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This will apply to
7699 all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
7700 -- <quote>/</quote>.
7704 But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
7705 rules, and then list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions would
7706 apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
7707 <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous cookie setting,
7709 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
7710 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
7711 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
7712 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any
7714 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
7715 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
7716 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
7717 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
7718 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these two actions
7719 defined somewhere in the lower part of our <filename>default.action</filename>
7720 file, and <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter
7725 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
7726 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
7731 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
7732 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
7733 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
7744 -content-type-overwrite
7745 -crunch-client-header
7746 -crunch-if-none-match
7747 -crunch-incoming-cookies
7748 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
7749 -crunch-server-header
7750 +deanimate-gifs {last}
7751 -downgrade-http-version
7753 +filter {js-annoyances}
7754 +filter {html-annoyances}
7755 +filter {refresh-tags}
7756 +filter {unsolicited-popups}
7757 +filter {img-reorder}
7758 +filter {banners-by-size}
7760 +filter {jumping-windows}
7761 +filter {ie-exploits}
7762 -filter-client-headers
7763 -filter-server-headers
7765 -handle-as-empty-document
7767 -hide-accept-language
7768 -hide-content-disposition
7769 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
7770 +hide-from-header {block}
7771 -hide-if-modified-since
7772 +hide-referrer {forge}
7777 -overwrite-last-modified
7778 +prevent-compression
7782 -session-cookies-only
7783 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
7784 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks </screen>
7788 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
7789 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
7790 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
7791 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
7795 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
7801 { +block +handle-as-image }
7804 { +block +handle-as-image }
7807 { +block +handle-as-image }
7813 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
7814 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
7815 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
7816 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<link
7817 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
7818 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
7823 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
7824 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
7825 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
7826 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
7827 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
7828 is done here -- as both a <link
7829 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
7830 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
7832 linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
7833 The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> just simplifies the process and make
7838 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
7839 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
7845 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
7847 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
7851 -content-type-overwrite
7852 -crunch-client-header
7853 -crunch-if-none-match
7854 -crunch-incoming-cookies
7855 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
7856 -crunch-server-header
7858 -downgrade-http-version
7859 +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}
7860 +filter{html-annoyances}
7861 +filter{js-annoyances}
7862 +filter{kill-popups}
7865 +filter{banners-by-size}
7868 -filter-client-headers
7869 -filter-server-headers
7871 -handle-as-empty-document
7873 -hide-accept-language
7874 -hide-content-disposition
7875 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
7876 +hide-from-header{block}
7877 +hide-referer{forge}
7881 -overwrite-last-modified
7882 +prevent-compression
7886 +session-cookies-only
7887 +set-image-blocker{blank}
7888 -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
7891 { +block +handle-as-image }
7897 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
7898 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
7899 blank page. We could now add a new action below this that explicitly
7900 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (<quote>{-block}</quote>) paths with
7901 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration wins).
7902 There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
7914 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
7915 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
7919 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
7926 { +block +handle-as-image }
7932 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
7933 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
7934 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
7935 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
7936 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. These
7937 tend to be harder to troubleshoot. Try adding the URL for the site to one of
7938 aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
7946 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
7954 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
7955 <quote>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</quote>.
7956 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
7969 This would turn off all filtering for that site. This would probably be most
7970 appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
7975 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
7976 <quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote> rule, which assumes
7977 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well most of the time
7978 since these tend to be standardized).
7982 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
7983 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
7984 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
7985 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
7994 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
7995 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
7996 Public License as published by the Free Software
7997 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
7998 your option) any later version.
8000 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8001 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8002 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8003 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8004 License for more details.
8006 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8007 this file. If not, you can view it at
8008 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8009 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
8010 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
8012 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
8013 Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt
8014 Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other.
8016 Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9
8017 Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc.
8019 Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9
8020 More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New
8021 section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering
8022 and proof reading left to do.
8024 Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9
8025 Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter
8026 files, and assorted other minor changes.
8028 Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
8029 Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
8030 stubbed in. More to be done.
8032 Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
8033 Documented new actions that were part of
8034 the "minor Privoxy improvements".
8036 Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
8037 Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
8038 with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
8040 Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
8043 Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
8044 Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
8046 Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
8049 Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
8050 Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
8051 is dependent on browser.
8053 Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
8054 Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
8056 Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
8057 Some minor clarifications
8059 Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
8060 Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
8061 and copyright notice dates.
8063 Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
8064 Changed the demoronizer filter description.
8066 Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
8067 Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
8069 Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
8070 Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
8072 Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
8073 Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
8074 solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
8076 Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
8077 Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
8080 Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
8081 Updated hard-coded copyright dates
8083 Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
8084 Add new section on Predefined Filters.
8086 Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
8087 More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
8089 Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
8090 Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
8091 causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
8094 Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
8095 s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
8097 Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
8098 Added documentation for new chroot option
8100 Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
8101 Adapted to the new filters
8103 Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
8104 Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
8107 Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
8108 Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
8110 Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
8111 Add demoronizer to filter section.
8113 Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
8114 s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
8116 Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
8117 Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
8118 cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
8120 Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
8121 More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
8123 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
8124 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
8127 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
8128 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
8130 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
8131 Update to Mac OSX startup script name
8133 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
8134 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
8136 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
8137 Nits re: actions file download
8139 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
8140 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
8142 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
8143 Added 2 Gentoo sections
8145 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
8146 - Added version info to title
8147 - Added info on new filters
8148 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
8149 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
8151 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
8152 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
8154 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
8156 Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
8158 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
8159 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
8161 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
8162 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
8164 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
8165 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
8167 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
8168 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
8169 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
8170 so that these are in sync with each other.
8172 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
8173 Ooops missed something from David.
8175 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
8176 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
8177 That's a wrap, I think.
8179 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
8180 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
8182 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
8183 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
8185 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
8186 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
8187 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
8189 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
8190 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
8192 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
8193 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
8194 <literal><link> style.
8195 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
8196 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
8197 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
8198 renders them red (bad in TOC).
8200 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
8201 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
8203 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
8206 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
8207 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
8208 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
8210 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
8211 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
8212 - Small changes to Regex appendix
8213 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
8215 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
8216 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
8218 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
8219 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
8221 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
8222 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
8224 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
8225 Extended and further commented the example actions files
8227 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
8228 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
8231 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
8234 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
8235 Restored alphabetical order of actions
8237 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
8238 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
8240 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
8241 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
8243 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
8244 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
8245 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
8247 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
8248 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
8249 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
8250 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
8252 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
8253 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
8255 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
8258 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
8259 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
8260 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
8262 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
8263 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
8265 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
8266 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
8267 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
8269 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
8270 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
8272 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
8273 more structure in starting section
8275 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
8276 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
8277 will probably break links elsewhere :(
8279 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
8280 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
8281 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
8283 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
8284 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
8285 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
8287 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
8288 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
8290 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
8291 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
8292 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
8294 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
8295 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
8296 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
8298 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
8299 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
8301 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
8302 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
8304 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
8305 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
8307 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
8308 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
8310 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
8311 Updated OSX installation section
8312 Added a few English tweaks here an there
8314 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
8315 Re-write actions section.
8317 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
8318 Fix ugly typo (mine).
8320 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
8321 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
8323 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
8324 Added RPM install detail
8326 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
8329 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
8330 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
8332 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
8333 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
8335 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
8336 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
8338 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
8341 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
8342 Proofreading, part one
8344 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
8345 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
8346 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
8348 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
8349 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
8351 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
8352 Add small section on submitting actions.
8354 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
8357 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
8358 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
8360 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
8361 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
8363 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
8366 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
8367 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
8368 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
8369 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
8370 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
8372 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
8373 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
8375 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
8376 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
8378 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
8379 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
8380 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
8381 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
8382 eventually be set by Makefile.
8383 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
8385 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
8386 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
8388 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
8389 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
8391 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
8392 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
8394 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
8395 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
8396 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
8397 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
8399 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
8402 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
8403 Added more to Anatomy section.
8405 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
8406 Touch up intro for new name.
8408 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
8409 we have a new homepage!
8411 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
8412 A few minor catch ups with name change.
8414 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
8415 configure needs to be generated.
8417 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
8418 we are too lazy to make a block-built
8419 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
8421 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
8422 name change related issue.
8424 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
8425 name change. changed filenames.
8427 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
8430 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
8431 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
8432 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
8433 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
8434 comments and remarks to history untouched.
8436 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
8439 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
8440 New section in Appendix.
8442 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
8443 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
8445 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
8446 correct feedback channels
8448 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
8449 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
8451 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
8454 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
8455 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
8457 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
8458 Added imageblock{pattern}.
8460 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
8463 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
8464 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
8466 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
8467 provide correct feedback channels
8469 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
8470 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
8472 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
8473 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
8475 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
8476 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
8478 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
8479 Add new - - user option.
8481 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
8482 Added section on command line options.
8484 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
8485 Changed default port to 8118
8487 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
8488 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
8490 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
8491 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
8492 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
8495 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
8498 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
8499 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
8501 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
8502 Update OS/2 build section
8504 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
8505 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
8506 will work - no other changes are needed.
8508 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
8509 Added a very short section on Templates
8511 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
8512 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
8514 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
8515 Touch ups for *.action files.
8517 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
8520 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
8521 Updates for recent changes.
8523 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
8524 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
8526 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
8527 Correct 2 minor errors
8529 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
8530 *** empty log message ***
8532 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
8533 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
8535 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
8536 wrong url in documentation
8538 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
8539 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
8541 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
8544 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
8547 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
8550 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
8551 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
8553 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
8554 Some additions, and re-arranging.
8556 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
8559 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
8560 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
8562 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
8565 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
8566 source files for junkbuster documentation
8568 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
8569 first proposal of a structure.
8571 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
8572 docs should have an author.
8574 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
8575 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.