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5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
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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 SYSTEM "doc_version.tmp">
15 <!entity p-status SYSTEM "doc_status.tmp">
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17 <!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
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">
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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 2.2 2002/09/05 05:45:30 hal9 Exp $
37 Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
40 ========================================================================
41 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
42 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
43 ========================================================================
50 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
54 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
55 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
56 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
57 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
61 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.2 2002/09/05 05:45:30 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
65 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
66 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
67 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
68 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
75 <holder>Privoxy Developers</holder>
78 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
80 text goes here ........
92 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
93 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
94 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
100 The <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
101 install, configure and use <ulink
102 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
105 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
107 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
110 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
111 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
112 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
113 contact the developers.
117 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
123 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
124 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
126 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
127 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
128 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
129 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
130 configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
131 completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over
132 earlier versions. The target release date for
133 stable v3.0 is <quote>soon</quote> ;-)]]>.
136 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
139 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
140 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
141 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
146 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
147 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
149 In addition to <application>Internet Junkbuster's</application> traditional
150 features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
151 <application>Privoxy</application> provides new features<![%p-not-stable;[,
152 some of them currently under development]]>:
154 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
156 <!-- end boilerplate -->
161 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
164 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
165 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
168 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
169 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
170 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
171 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
176 Note: If you have a previous <application>Junkbuster</application> or
177 <application>Privoxy</application> installation on your system, you
178 will need to remove it. On some platforms, this may be done for you as part
179 of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform). In any case
180 <emphasis>be sure to backup your old configuration if it is valuable to
181 you.</emphasis> See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">note to
182 upgraders</link> section below.
185 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
186 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
188 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
191 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
192 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs</title>
195 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
196 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
197 of configuration files.
201 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
202 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
203 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
204 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods. Note that SuSE will
205 automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
209 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
210 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm</literal>. This
211 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
215 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
216 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
217 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
218 automatically, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
222 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
223 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
225 DEBs can be installed with <literal>dpkg -i
226 privoxy_&p-version;-1.deb</literal>, and will use
227 <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of configuration
232 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
233 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
236 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
237 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
238 in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in. We do not
239 use the registry of Windows.
243 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
244 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
247 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
248 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
249 things go. <!-- FIXME, more info needed? -->
253 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
254 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
257 First, make sure that no previous installations of
258 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
259 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
260 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
261 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
267 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
268 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
269 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
270 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
274 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
275 into will contain all of the configuration files.
279 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
280 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OSX</title>
282 Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
283 from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
284 Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
285 <literal>Privoxy.pkg</literal>
286 and follow the installation process.
287 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the folder
288 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal>.
289 It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
290 starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
291 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
294 To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
295 <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> in the
296 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder.
297 Or, type this command in the Terminal:
301 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
305 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
309 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
310 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
312 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
313 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
314 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
315 remove this directory.
319 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
320 <sect3 id="installattion-gentoo"><title>Gentoo</title>
322 Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for <application>Privoxy</application> are
323 contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
324 but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
325 <application>Privoxy</application> Version is added to the Portage Tree).
328 Before installing <application>Privoxy</application> under Gentoo just do
329 first <literal>emerge rsync</literal> to get the latest changes from the
330 Portage tree. With <literal>emerge privoxy</literal> you install the latest
334 Configuration files are in <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename>, the
335 documentation is in <filename>/usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;</filename>
336 and the Log directory is in <filename>/var/log/privoxy</filename>.
342 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
343 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
346 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
347 is to download the source tarball from our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project
352 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
353 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
354 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
355 CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
356 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
360 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
362 <!-- end boilerplate -->
365 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
366 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
368 As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
369 of both the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link> (as a <ulink
370 url="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=11118&release_id=103670">separate
371 package</ulink>) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
376 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
377 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
378 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce/">subscribe
379 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
383 In order not to loose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
384 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
385 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> for your
386 customization of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
387 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
395 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
397 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
398 <sect1 id="upgradersnote">
399 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
401 There are very significant changes from earlier
402 <application>Junkbuster</application> versions to the current
403 <application>Privoxy</application>. The number, names, syntax, and
404 purposes of configuration files have substantially changed.
405 <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> configuration
406 files will not migrate, <application>Junkbuster 2.9.x</application>
407 and <application>Privoxy</application> configurations will need to be
408 ported. The functionalities of the old <filename>blockfile</filename>,
409 <filename>cookiefile</filename> and <filename>imagelist</filename>
410 are now combined into the <link linkend="actions-file"><quote>actions
411 files</quote></link>.
412 <filename>default.action</filename>, is the main actions file. Local
413 exceptions should best be put into <filename>user.action</filename>.
416 A <link linkend="filter-file"><quote>filter file</quote></link> (typically
417 <filename>default.filter</filename>) is new as of <application>Privoxy
418 2.9.x</application>, and provides some of the new sophistication (explained
419 below). <filename>config</filename> is much the same as before.
422 If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
423 files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
424 When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
425 to the new actions files, please note that even the pattern syntax has
426 changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
427 recommended to use the new configuration files.
430 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
438 The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
444 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
445 important configuration files!
450 <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
451 at the special URL: <ulink
452 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
453 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
454 aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
455 <application>Privoxy</application>.
460 The primary configuration files for cookie management, ad and banner
461 blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
462 configuration are the <link linkend="actions-file">actions
463 files</link>. It is strongly recommended to become familiar with the new
464 actions concept below, before modifying these files. Locally defined rules
465 should go into <filename>user.action</filename>.
470 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
471 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
472 Some installers may not automatically start
473 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
481 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
482 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
488 If upgrading, from versions before 2.9.16, please back up any configuration
489 files. See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">Note to Upgraders</link> Section.
495 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
496 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
503 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
504 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
505 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
506 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
513 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
514 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
515 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
521 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
522 HTTPS proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
523 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
524 (<application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions of
525 <application>Privoxy</application> used port 8000.) See the section <link
526 linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link> below
527 for more details on this.
533 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
539 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
540 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
541 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
542 to no initial configuration is required in most cases.
545 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
546 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
547 <![%draft;[ You might also want to look at the <link
548 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
549 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
556 If you experience ads that slipped through, innocent images that are
557 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
558 <application>Privoxy's</application> behaviour, take a look at the <link
559 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
560 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
561 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
562 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
563 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Anatomy of an
564 Action</link></quote> has hints how to debug actions that
565 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
571 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
572 Developers</link> on how to report bugs or problems with websites or to get
579 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy!
587 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
589 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
590 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
592 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
593 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
596 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
597 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
598 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
601 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
602 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
603 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
606 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
607 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
608 things that were not intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
609 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
610 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
611 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
612 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
613 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
614 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
615 habits and preferences.
618 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
619 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
620 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
621 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
622 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
623 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
624 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
625 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
626 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
627 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
630 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
631 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
632 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
633 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
634 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
637 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
638 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
639 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
640 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
641 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
642 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
643 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
644 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
645 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
650 The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: <literal><link
651 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
652 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>, and
653 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
661 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this action stops
662 any contact between your browser and any URL patterns that match this
663 action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads, but also anything
664 that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply stops any
665 communication with the remote server and sends <application>Privoxy</application>'s
666 own built-in BLOCKED page instead to let you now what has happened.
672 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
673 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
674 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
675 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
676 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
677 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
678 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
679 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
680 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
681 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
682 an entire HTML page in most situations.
689 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
690 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
691 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
692 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
693 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
694 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
697 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
701 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
702 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
707 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
708 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
713 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
714 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
723 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
724 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
725 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
726 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
727 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access. Select the
728 appropriate <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
729 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
730 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
731 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
732 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
733 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
734 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
738 A quick and simple step by step example:
746 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
747 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
755 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
760 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
761 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
764 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
766 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
769 <imagedata fileref="../images/files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
772 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
781 You should have a section with only
782 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
783 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
784 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
785 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
786 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
787 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
788 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
789 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
795 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
796 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
797 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
798 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
799 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
800 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
805 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
806 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
814 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
815 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
816 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
817 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
822 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
823 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
824 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
831 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
834 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
836 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
838 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
839 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
840 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is
841 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
842 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
845 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
846 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
849 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
851 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration (Mozilla)</title>
854 <imagedata fileref="../images/proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
857 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
864 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
865 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
869 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
870 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
871 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton>
873 <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton>
875 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton>
877 <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton>
879 <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
883 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>:
887 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
888 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
889 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton>
891 <guibutton>Internet Properties</guibutton>
893 <guibutton>Connections</guibutton>
895 <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
899 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
900 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
905 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
906 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
907 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
908 <application>Privoxy</application>!
912 <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
913 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
914 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
915 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
916 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
919 <sect2 id="start-redhat">
920 <title>Red Hat and Conectiva</title>
922 We use a script. Note that Red Hat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
923 default. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as
924 its main configuration file.
928 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
933 <sect2 id="start-debian">
934 <title>Debian</title>
936 We use a script. Note that Debian starts Privoxy upon booting per
937 default. It will use the file
938 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
943 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
948 <sect2 id="start-suse">
951 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
952 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
962 <sect2 id="start-windows">
963 <title>Windows</title>
965 Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy. If no configuration file is
966 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
967 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
968 automatically start Privoxy upon booting you PC.
972 <sect2 id="start-unices">
973 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
975 Example Unix startup command:
979 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
984 <sect2 id="start-os2">
987 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
988 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
989 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
990 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
994 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
995 <title>Mac OSX</title>
997 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
998 start automatically when the system restarts. To start Privoxy by hand,
999 double-click on the <literal>StartPrivoxy.command</literal> icon in the
1000 <literal>/Library/Privoxy</literal> folder. Or, type this command
1005 /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
1009 You will be prompted for the administrator password.
1014 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
1015 <title>AmigaOS</title>
1017 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
1018 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
1019 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
1020 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
1021 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
1022 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
1023 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
1027 <sect2 id="start-gentoo">
1028 <title>Gentoo</title>
1030 A script is again used. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config
1031 </filename> as its main configuration file.
1035 /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1039 Note that <application>Privoxy</application> is not automatically started at
1040 boot time by default. You can change this with the <literal>rc-update</literal>
1045 rc-update add privoxy default
1053 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1057 must find a better place for this paragraph
1060 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1061 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1062 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1063 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1064 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1065 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1069 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1070 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1071 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1072 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1073 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1074 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1075 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1076 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1077 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1081 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1082 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
1083 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
1085 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
1086 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1087 popups (explained below).
1091 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
1092 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
1093 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1094 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1095 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1096 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1097 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1098 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1099 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1103 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1104 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1105 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1106 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1107 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1108 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1109 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1110 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1111 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1115 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1116 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1117 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1118 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1119 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1120 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1121 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1125 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1126 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1127 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1128 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1129 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1130 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1135 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1136 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1137 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1142 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1143 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1144 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1145 Developers</quote></link> below.
1150 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1151 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1152 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1154 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1155 command-line options:
1163 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1166 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1171 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1174 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1179 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1182 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1183 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1188 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1192 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1193 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1194 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1195 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1200 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1204 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1205 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1206 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1211 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1214 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1215 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1216 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1217 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1218 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1219 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1230 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1233 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1234 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
1236 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1237 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1238 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1239 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1243 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1246 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
1248 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1249 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1250 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1251 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1252 You will see the following section:
1256 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1259 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1263 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1266 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
1269 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1272 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1275 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1278 ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/&p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1286 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1287 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1288 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1289 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1290 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1291 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1295 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1296 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1297 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1298 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1299 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1300 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
1301 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
1302 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
1308 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1313 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1315 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1316 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1318 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
1319 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
1320 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
1321 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1322 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1323 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1327 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1328 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1329 principle configuration files are:
1337 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1338 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1339 on Windows. This is a required file.
1345 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
1346 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1347 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
1348 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
1349 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
1350 as many websites as possible.
1353 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1354 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1355 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1356 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1357 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
1358 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
1359 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is for
1360 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
1363 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1365 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1367 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1368 various actions files.
1374 <filename>default.filter</filename> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1375 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1376 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1377 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1378 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1386 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1387 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1388 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1389 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1390 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1391 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1396 The actions files and <filename>default.filter</filename>
1397 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1398 maximum flexibility.
1402 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1403 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1404 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1405 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1406 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1407 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1408 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1413 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1414 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1415 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1416 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1422 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1425 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1427 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1428 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1429 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1431 <!-- end include -->
1434 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1438 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1440 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1443 The actions files are used to define what actions
1444 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determine
1445 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1446 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
1447 are three such files included with <application>Privoxy</application>, with
1455 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
1456 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
1457 provide a base level of functionality for
1458 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
1459 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well for users everywhere.
1460 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and <link
1461 linkend="installation-keepupdated">making available to users</link>.
1466 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1467 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1468 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1469 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1474 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor,
1475 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
1476 in <filename>default.action</filename>. These have increasing levels of
1477 aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no influence on your browsing unless
1478 you select them explicitly in the editor</emphasis>. It is not recommend
1486 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
1487 file, and are processed in the order they are defined. The content of these
1488 can all be viewed and edited from <ulink
1489 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1493 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
1494 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
1495 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
1496 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
1497 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
1498 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
1499 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
1500 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
1501 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
1502 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
1503 with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
1504 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
1508 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
1509 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
1510 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
1511 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
1512 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
1516 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1518 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
1520 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
1521 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
1522 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
1523 certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
1524 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
1525 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
1526 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per
1527 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
1528 regularly use and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe
1529 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
1533 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
1534 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
1535 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
1536 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
1540 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1542 <title>How to Edit</title>
1544 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
1545 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
1546 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1547 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
1548 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
1549 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Advanced</quote>.
1553 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
1554 the actions files. Look at <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly
1560 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
1561 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
1563 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
1564 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
1565 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
1566 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
1567 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
1568 Below that, there is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
1572 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
1573 compared to all patterns in each action file file. Every time it matches, the list of
1574 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
1575 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
1576 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
1577 the effects are aggregated. E.g. a URL might match a regular section with
1578 a heading line of <literal>{
1579 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
1580 then later another one with just <literal>{
1581 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
1582 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply.
1586 You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
1587 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
1591 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
1592 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
1596 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1597 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
1598 <title>Patterns</title>
1600 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
1601 to determine what actions might apply to which sites and pages your browser
1602 attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild card type
1603 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
1604 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
1605 against many similar patterns.
1609 Generally, a <application>Privoxy</application> pattern has the form
1610 <literal><domain>/<path></literal>, where both the
1611 <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal> are
1612 optional. (This is why the special <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all
1613 URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g.
1614 <literal>http://</literal>) should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in
1615 the pattern. This is assumed already!
1620 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
1623 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
1624 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
1629 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
1632 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
1638 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
1641 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
1642 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
1647 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
1650 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
1651 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
1656 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
1659 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
1660 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
1667 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1668 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
1671 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
1672 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
1678 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
1681 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
1682 <literal>.example.com</literal> (e.g. <literal>www.example.com</literal>)
1687 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
1690 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
1691 <literal>www.</literal>
1696 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
1699 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
1700 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
1707 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
1708 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
1709 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
1710 any single character, you can define character classes in square
1711 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
1716 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
1719 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
1720 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
1725 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
1728 matches all of the above, and then some.
1733 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
1736 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
1737 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
1742 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
1745 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
1746 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
1747 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
1748 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
1756 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1759 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1760 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
1763 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
1764 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
1769 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
1770 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
1771 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
1772 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
1773 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
1774 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
1778 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
1779 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
1780 for the beginning of a line).
1784 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
1785 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
1786 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
1787 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
1788 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
1794 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1797 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1799 <sect2 id="actions">
1800 <title>Actions</title>
1802 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
1803 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
1804 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
1805 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
1806 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
1807 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
1808 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
1809 previously applied.</quote>
1814 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
1815 separated by whitespace, like in
1816 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
1817 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
1818 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
1819 of the actions file.
1823 There are three classes of actions:
1830 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
1831 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
1835 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
1836 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
1839 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
1846 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
1851 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
1852 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
1853 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
1856 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
1857 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
1860 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</literal>
1866 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
1867 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
1868 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
1869 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
1870 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
1871 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
1875 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
1876 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
1877 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
1878 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
1881 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
1882 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
1890 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
1891 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
1892 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
1893 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
1894 files will give a good starting point).
1898 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
1899 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
1900 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files). For
1901 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
1902 Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in
1903 <filename>config</filename> (the default installation has three actions
1904 files). It also quite possible for any given URL pattern to match more than
1905 one pattern and thus more than one set of actions!
1908 <!-- start actions listing -->
1910 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
1914 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
1915 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
1916 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
1918 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
1921 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1923 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
1924 <title>add-header</title>
1928 <term>Typical use:</term>
1930 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
1935 <term>Effect:</term>
1938 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
1945 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
1947 <para>Multi-value.</para>
1952 <term>Parameter:</term>
1955 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
1956 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
1966 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
1967 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
1968 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
1975 <term>Example usage:</term>
1978 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
1986 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1987 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
1988 <title>block</title>
1992 <term>Typical use:</term>
1994 <para>Block ads or other obnoxious content</para>
1999 <term>Effect:</term>
2002 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the requests are not
2003 forwarded to the remote server, but answered locally with a substitute page or image,
2004 as determined by the <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>
2005 and <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> actions.
2012 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2014 <para>Boolean.</para>
2019 <term>Parameter:</term>
2029 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2030 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
2031 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
2032 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
2033 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and text-only
2034 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
2035 right now, you can take a look at the
2036 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
2040 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2041 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2042 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2043 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2044 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2045 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2048 It is important to understand this process, in order
2049 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2050 ads and other unwanted content.
2053 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2054 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2055 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2056 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2057 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2063 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2066 <screen>{+block} # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2067 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2069 {+block +handle-as-image} # Block and replace with image
2080 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2081 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
2082 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
2086 <term>Typical use:</term>
2089 Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
2095 <term>Effect:</term>
2098 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
2105 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2107 <para>Boolean.</para>
2112 <term>Parameter:</term>
2124 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
2125 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
2126 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
2127 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2130 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2131 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2132 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
2133 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
2139 <term>Example usage:</term>
2142 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
2150 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2151 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
2152 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
2156 <term>Typical use:</term>
2159 Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
2165 <term>Effect:</term>
2168 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
2175 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2177 <para>Boolean.</para>
2182 <term>Parameter:</term>
2194 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
2195 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
2196 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
2197 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
2200 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
2201 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
2202 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
2208 <term>Example usage:</term>
2211 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
2220 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2221 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
2222 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
2226 <term>Typical use:</term>
2228 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
2233 <term>Effect:</term>
2236 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
2243 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2245 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2250 <term>Parameter:</term>
2253 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
2262 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
2263 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
2264 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
2265 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
2266 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
2267 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
2270 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
2271 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
2278 <term>Example usage:</term>
2281 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
2288 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2289 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
2290 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
2294 <term>Typical use:</term>
2296 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
2301 <term>Effect:</term>
2304 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
2311 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2313 <para>Boolean.</para>
2318 <term>Parameter:</term>
2330 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
2331 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
2332 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
2333 out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
2334 is a chance you might need this action.
2340 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2343 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
2344 problem-host.example.com</screen>
2352 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2353 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
2354 <title>fast-redirects</title>
2358 <term>Typical use:</term>
2360 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links</para>
2365 <term>Effect:</term>
2368 Cut off all but the last valid URL from requests.
2375 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2377 <para>Boolean.</para>
2382 <term>Parameter:</term>
2394 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
2395 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
2396 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
2397 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
2398 <emphasis>http://some.place/click-tracker.cgi?target=http://some.where.else</emphasis>.
2401 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
2402 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
2403 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
2404 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
2405 browser ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
2409 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
2410 It is likely to break some sites. You should expect to need possibly
2411 many exceptions to this action, if it is enabled by default in
2412 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some sites just don't work without
2419 <term>Example usage:</term>
2422 <screen>{+fast-redirects}</screen>
2431 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2432 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
2433 <title>filter</title>
2437 <term>Typical use:</term>
2439 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), do fun text replacements, etc.</para>
2444 <term>Effect:</term>
2447 Text documents, including HTML and JavaScript, to which this action
2448 applies, are filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular expression
2449 based substitutions.
2456 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2458 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2463 <term>Parameter:</term>
2466 The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>
2467 (typically <filename>default.filter</filename>, set by the
2468 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
2469 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>). Filtering
2470 can be completely disabled without the use of parameters.
2479 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
2480 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
2484 This is potentially a very powerful feature! But <quote>rolling your own</quote>
2485 filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
2488 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
2489 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
2490 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
2491 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
2492 noticeable on slower connections.
2495 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
2496 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
2497 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
2498 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
2499 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
2502 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
2503 Encrypted SSL data (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either since
2504 this would violate the integrity of the secure transaction.
2507 At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
2508 documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
2509 would normally be sent compressed, use the
2510 <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
2511 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
2514 Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
2515 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
2516 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
2517 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
2518 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
2522 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
2523 improved filters is particularly welcome!
2529 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file):</term>
2532 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
2533 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
2536 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
2537 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
2540 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
2541 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners based on their size for this page (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)</screen>
2544 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
2545 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners based on the link they are contained in (experimental)</screen>
2548 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
2549 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
2552 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
2553 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come sneaking in the HTML or JS content</screen>
2556 <anchor id="filter-popups">
2557 <screen>+filter{popups} # Kill all popups in JS and HTML</screen>
2560 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
2561 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
2564 <anchor id="filter-fun">
2565 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
2568 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
2569 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
2572 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
2573 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
2576 <anchor id="filter-nimda">
2577 <screen>+filter{nimda} # Remove Nimda (virus) code.</screen>
2580 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
2581 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
2584 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
2585 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"</screen>
2588 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
2589 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (<emphasis>Radically destructive!</emphasis> Only for extra nasty sites) </screen>
2597 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2598 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
2599 <title>handle-as-image</title>
2603 <term>Typical use:</term>
2605 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis>)</para>
2610 <term>Effect:</term>
2613 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
2614 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
2615 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
2616 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
2617 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
2618 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
2625 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2627 <para>Boolean.</para>
2632 <term>Parameter:</term>
2644 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
2645 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
2649 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
2650 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
2651 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
2654 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
2655 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
2656 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
2657 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
2663 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
2666 <screen># Generic image extensions:
2669 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
2671 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
2672 # blocked as images:
2674 {+block +handle-as-image}
2675 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
2677 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
2687 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2688 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
2689 <title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
2693 <term>Typical use:</term>
2695 <para>Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request</para>
2700 <term>Effect:</term>
2703 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
2704 and prevents adding a new one.
2711 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2713 <para>Boolean.</para>
2718 <term>Parameter:</term>
2730 It is fairly safe to leave this on.
2733 This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate forged
2734 <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> headers using random IP addresses from a specified network,
2735 to make successive requests from the same client look like requests from a pool of different
2736 users sharing the same proxy.
2742 <term>Example usage:</term>
2745 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
2753 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2754 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
2755 <title>hide-from-header</title>
2759 <term>Typical use:</term>
2761 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
2766 <term>Effect:</term>
2769 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
2777 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2779 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2784 <term>Parameter:</term>
2787 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
2796 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
2797 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
2801 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
2802 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
2803 is actually used by a real person.
2806 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
2807 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
2813 <term>Example usage:</term>
2816 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
2817 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
2825 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2826 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
2827 <title>hide-referrer</title>
2828 <anchor id="hide-referer">
2831 <term>Typical use:</term>
2833 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
2838 <term>Effect:</term>
2841 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
2842 or replaces it with a forged one.
2849 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2851 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2856 <term>Parameter:</term>
2860 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header completely.</para>
2863 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
2866 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
2876 <quote>forge</quote> is the preferred option here, since some servers will
2877 not send images back otherwise, in an attempt to prevent their valuable
2878 content from being embedded elsewhere (and hence, without being surrounded
2879 by <emphasis>their</emphasis> banners).
2882 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
2883 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
2884 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
2885 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
2886 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
2892 <term>Example usage:</term>
2895 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
2896 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
2904 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2905 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
2906 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
2910 <term>Typical use:</term>
2912 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
2917 <term>Effect:</term>
2920 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
2921 in client requests with the specified value.
2928 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2930 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2935 <term>Parameter:</term>
2938 Any user-defined string.
2948 This breaks many web sites that depend on looking at this header in order
2949 to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
2950 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> a <ulink
2951 url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
2956 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
2957 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
2958 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
2959 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
2960 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
2961 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
2962 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
2963 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
2964 let <application>Mozilla</application> enter, yet forging to a
2965 <application>Netscape 6.1</application> user-agent works just fine.
2966 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
2969 This action is scheduled for improvement.
2975 <term>Example usage:</term>
2978 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
2986 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2987 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
2988 <title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
2992 <term>Typical use:</term>
2994 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows</para>
2999 <term>Effect:</term>
3002 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
3003 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
3010 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3012 <para>Boolean.</para>
3017 <term>Parameter:</term>
3029 This action is easily confused with the built-in, hardwired <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
3030 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
3031 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
3032 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
3034 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>popups</replaceable>}</literal>
3038 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
3039 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
3040 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
3041 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
3042 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
3043 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
3046 Killing all pop-ups is a dangerous business. Many shops and banks rely on
3047 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and killing only the unwanted pop-ups
3048 would require artificial intelligence in <application>Privoxy</application>.
3049 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
3050 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
3051 one), you might want to use
3053 linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>js-annoyances</replaceable>}</literal>
3059 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
3067 <term>Example usage:</term>
3069 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
3076 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3077 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
3078 <title>limit-connect</title>
3082 <term>Typical use:</term>
3084 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay</para>
3089 <term>Effect:</term>
3092 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
3099 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3101 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3106 <term>Parameter:</term>
3109 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
3110 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
3119 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
3120 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
3121 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
3122 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
3123 for some or all destinations.
3126 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
3127 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
3128 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
3129 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
3130 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
3131 abused as TCP relays very easily.
3134 If you don't know what any of this means, there probably is no reason to
3135 change this one, since the default is already very restrictive.
3141 <term>Example usages:</term>
3143 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
3144 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
3145 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
3147 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
3148 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
3149 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
3150 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK (gaping security hole!)</screen>
3157 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3158 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
3159 <title>prevent-compression</title>
3163 <term>Typical use:</term>
3166 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
3167 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s
3173 <term>Effect:</term>
3176 Adds a header to the request that asks for uncompressed transfer.
3183 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3185 <para>Boolean.</para>
3190 <term>Parameter:</term>
3202 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
3203 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the <literal><link
3204 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
3205 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions to work,
3206 <application>Privoxy</application> needs access to the uncompressed data.
3207 Unfortunately, <application>Privoxy</application> can't yet(!) uncompress, filter, and
3208 re-compress the content on the fly. So if you want to ensure that all websites, including
3209 those that normally compress, can be filtered, you need to use this action.
3212 This will slow down transfers from those websites, though. If you use any of the above-mentioned
3213 actions, you will typically want to use <literal>prevent-compression</literal> in conjunction
3217 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
3218 documents correctly (they send an empty document body). If you use <literal>prevent-compression</literal>
3219 per default, you'll have to add exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
3225 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3228 <screen># Set default:
3230 {+prevent-compression}
3233 # Make exceptions for ill sites:
3235 {-prevent-compression}
3237 www.pclinuxonline.com</screen>
3246 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3247 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
3248 <title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
3252 <term>Typical use:</term>
3255 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
3261 <term>Effect:</term>
3264 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
3265 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
3272 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3274 <para>Boolean.</para>
3279 <term>Parameter:</term>
3291 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
3294 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
3300 <term>Example usage:</term>
3303 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
3312 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3313 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
3314 <title>send-wafer</title>
3318 <term>Typical use:</term>
3321 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
3327 <term>Effect:</term>
3330 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
3337 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3339 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3344 <term>Parameter:</term>
3347 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
3348 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
3357 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
3358 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
3361 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
3366 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3369 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
3370 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
3378 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3379 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
3380 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
3384 <term>Typical use:</term>
3387 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
3393 <term>Effect:</term>
3396 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> server headers.
3397 Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and forget them in between sessions.
3404 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3406 <para>Boolean.</para>
3411 <term>Parameter:</term>
3423 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
3424 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
3425 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
3428 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
3429 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
3430 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
3431 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
3432 sites, and is the recommended setting.
3435 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
3436 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
3437 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
3438 will be plainly killed.
3441 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
3442 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
3448 <term>Example usage:</term>
3451 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
3459 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3460 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
3461 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
3465 <term>Typical use:</term>
3467 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
3472 <term>Effect:</term>
3475 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
3476 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
3477 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
3478 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
3479 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
3480 sent as a replacement.
3487 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3489 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3494 <term>Parameter:</term>
3499 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
3500 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
3505 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
3506 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
3507 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
3508 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
3513 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
3514 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
3515 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem (via <quote>file:///</quote> URL).
3518 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
3519 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
3520 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
3521 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
3522 it over and over again.
3533 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
3534 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
3535 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
3538 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
3539 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
3540 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
3546 <term>Example usage:</term>
3552 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
3555 Redirect to the BSD devil:
3558 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
3561 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
3564 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
3572 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3574 <title>Summary</title>
3576 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
3577 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
3578 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
3579 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
3580 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
3581 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
3587 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3588 <sect2 id="aliases">
3589 <title>Aliases</title>
3591 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
3592 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
3593 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
3594 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
3596 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
3597 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
3598 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
3599 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
3600 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
3604 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
3605 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
3606 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
3607 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
3611 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
3612 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
3613 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
3614 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
3615 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
3616 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
3617 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
3620 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
3621 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
3622 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
3623 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
3624 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
3626 This is likely to change in future versions of <application>Privoxy</application>.
3630 Now let's define some aliases...
3635 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
3637 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
3638 # must be at the top of the actions file!
3642 # These aliases just save typing later:
3643 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
3645 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
3646 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
3647 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
3648 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
3650 # These aliases define combinations of actions
3651 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
3653 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
3654 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
3656 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
3658 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
3659 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
3663 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
3664 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
3665 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
3670 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
3671 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
3674 .office.microsoft.com
3675 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
3679 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
3683 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
3686 # These shops require pop-ups:
3688 {shop -kill-popups -filter{popups}}
3690 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
3694 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are often used for
3695 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require some actions to be disabled
3696 in order to function properly.
3700 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3701 <sect2 id="act-examples">
3702 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
3704 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
3705 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
3706 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
3707 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
3708 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
3709 example <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>user.action</filename>
3710 file and see how all these pieces come together:
3713 <sect3><title>default.action</title>
3716 Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
3720 <screen># Sample default.action file <developers@privoxy.org></screen>
3724 Then, since this is the <filename>default.action</filename> file, the
3725 first section is a special section for internal use that you needn't
3726 change or worry about:
3731 ##########################################################################
3732 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
3733 ##########################################################################
3736 for-privoxy-version=3.0</screen>
3740 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
3741 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
3742 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
3747 ##########################################################################
3749 ##########################################################################
3752 # These aliases just save typing later:
3753 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
3755 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
3756 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
3757 block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
3758 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
3760 # These aliases define combinations of actions
3761 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
3763 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
3764 shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups</screen>
3768 Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied
3769 by URL patterns to which they apply. Remember <emphasis>all actions
3770 are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>, so we have to explicitly
3771 enable the ones we want.
3775 The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only
3776 one pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
3777 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the
3778 set of actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
3779 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
3780 wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
3781 but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
3786 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
3787 no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
3788 to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
3789 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
3790 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
3791 multiple lines with line continuation.
3796 ##########################################################################
3797 # "Defaults" section:
3798 ##########################################################################
3800 -<link linkend="ADD-HEADER">add-header</link> \
3801 -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> \
3802 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> \
3803 -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link> \
3804 +<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
3805 -<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
3806 +<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> \
3807 +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
3808 +<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
3809 -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
3810 +<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> \
3811 +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
3812 -<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
3813 -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
3814 +<link linkend="FILTER-NIMDA">filter{nimda}</link> \
3815 +<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
3816 -<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">filter{banners-by-link}</link> \
3817 -<link linkend="FILTER-IMG-REORDER">filter{img-reorder}</link> \
3818 -<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
3819 -<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
3820 -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-EVENTS">filter{js-events}</link> \
3821 -<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
3822 +<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
3823 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
3824 +<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer{forge}</link> \
3825 -<link linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT">hide-user-agent</link> \
3826 -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> \
3827 -<link linkend="LIMIT-CONNECT">limit-connect</link> \
3828 +<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link> \
3829 -<link linkend="SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">send-vanilla-wafer</link> \
3830 -<link linkend="SEND-WAFER">send-wafer</link> \
3831 +<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> \
3832 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
3834 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.</screen>
3838 The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding
3839 the user agent, are part of a <quote>general policy</quote> that applies
3840 universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
3841 like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
3842 default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
3843 want to block in later sections.
3844 We will also want to make exceptions from our general pop-up-killing,
3845 and use our defined aliases for that.
3849 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
3850 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
3851 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
3852 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
3853 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
3854 of actions explicitly:
3859 ##########################################################################
3860 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
3861 ##########################################################################
3863 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
3866 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
3867 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com</screen>
3871 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
3872 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
3873 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
3882 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
3884 .scan.co.uk</screen>
3888 Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
3889 Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
3890 now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
3891 can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
3893 -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
3894 -<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
3895 and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
3896 action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
3897 chosen in the defaults section:
3902 # These sites require pop-ups too :(
3904 { -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
3907 .deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
3911 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
3912 action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
3913 it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
3918 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
3922 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
3923 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
3924 .nytimes.com</screen>
3928 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
3929 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
3930 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
3931 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
3932 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
3933 would feed the advertisers (in terms of money <emphasis>and</emphasis>
3934 information). We can mark any URL as an image with the <literal><link
3935 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
3936 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
3942 ##########################################################################
3944 ##########################################################################
3946 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
3947 # blocked further down this file:
3949 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
3950 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
3954 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
3955 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
3956 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
3957 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
3958 <literal>block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
3959 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
3960 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
3961 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
3962 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
3963 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
3964 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
3965 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
3970 # Known ad generators:
3975 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
3976 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
3977 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
3984 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
3985 is to block banners. A huge bunch of them are already <quote>blocked</quote>
3986 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
3987 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
3988 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
3989 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
3990 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
3991 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
3992 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
3995 First comes a bunch of generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
3996 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
3997 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
3998 to keep the example short:
4003 ##########################################################################
4004 # Block these fine banners:
4005 ##########################################################################
4006 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link> }
4014 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
4015 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
4017 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
4019 .hitbox.com</screen>
4023 You wouldn't believe how many advertisers actually call their banner
4024 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
4025 in which the banners are stored simply <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
4026 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
4029 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
4030 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
4031 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
4032 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
4033 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
4034 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
4038 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
4039 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
4040 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
4041 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
4042 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
4043 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
4044 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
4045 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
4046 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
4047 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
4052 ##########################################################################
4053 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
4054 ##########################################################################
4058 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
4059 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
4060 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
4061 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
4062 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
4063 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
4071 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
4072 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
4076 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
4077 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
4078 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
4079 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
4080 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
4085 # Don't filter code!
4087 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
4089 .sourceforge.net</screen>
4093 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course more
4094 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
4099 <sect3><title>user.action</title>
4102 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
4103 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
4104 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
4105 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
4106 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
4107 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
4108 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
4109 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
4110 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
4111 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
4112 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
4113 to install updated versions from time to time.
4117 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
4118 <filename>user.action</filename>:
4122 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
4126 # My user.action file. <fred@foobar.com></screen>
4130 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
4131 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
4132 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
4137 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
4140 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
4141 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
4142 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
4143 shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
4144 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} # (see below)</screen>
4149 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
4150 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
4151 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
4152 <literal>mercy-for-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
4153 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and
4154 processing of cookies to make them temporary.
4159 { mercy-for-cookies }
4164 .redhat.com</screen>
4168 Your bank needs popups and is allergic to some filter, but you don't
4169 know which, so you disable them all:
4174 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> }
4175 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
4179 While browsing the web with <application>Privoxy</application> you
4180 noticed some ads that sneaked through, but you were too lazy to
4181 report them through our fine and easy <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>
4182 system, so you have added them here:
4187 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
4188 www.a-popular-site.com/some/unobvious/path
4189 another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
4193 Note that, assuming the banners in the above example have regular image
4194 extensions (most do),
4195 <literal>+<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link></literal>
4196 need not be specified, since all URLs ending in these extensions will
4197 already have been tagged as images in the relevant section of
4198 <filename>default.action</filename> by now.
4202 Then you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
4203 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
4204 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
4205 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
4206 -- whoa! -- it worked:
4212 .forbes.com</screen>
4216 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
4217 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file. (My colleagues on the team just
4218 don't have a sense of humour, that's why! ;-). So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
4219 update-safe config, once and for all:
4224 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
4225 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
4229 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
4230 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
4231 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
4232 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
4233 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
4237 Finally, you might think about how your favourite free websites are
4238 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
4239 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
4240 sites that you feel provide value to you:
4252 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
4253 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4254 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>
4260 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4264 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4266 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
4268 <sect1 id="filter-file">
4269 <title>The Filter File</title>
4272 All text substitutions that can be invoked through the
4273 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action
4274 must first be defined in the filter file, which is typically
4275 called <filename>default.filter</filename> and which can be
4276 selected through the <literal>
4277 <link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config
4282 Typical reasons for doing such substitutions are to eliminate
4283 common annoyances in HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
4284 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
4285 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
4286 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
4287 or just to have fun. The possibilities are endless.
4291 Filtering works on any text-based document type, including plain
4292 text, HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
4293 MIME types). Substitutions are made at the source level, so if
4294 you want to <quote>roll your own</quote> filters, you should be
4295 familiar with HTML syntax.
4299 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
4300 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
4301 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with the
4302 <emphasis>keyword</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>, followed by
4303 the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
4304 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
4305 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
4306 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
4307 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
4308 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
4309 user interface</ulink>.
4313 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
4314 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
4315 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
4316 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
4320 A filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
4325 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
4329 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
4330 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
4331 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
4332 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
4333 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
4334 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/pcrs.3.html">PCRS man page</ulink>
4335 for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most notably, the non-standard
4336 option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported, which turns the default
4337 to ungreedy matching.
4341 If you are new to regular expressions, you might want to take a look at
4342 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
4343 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perl.html">Perl
4345 <ulink url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlop.html#s-PATTERN-REPLACEMENT-egimosx">the
4346 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
4347 url="http://perldoc.com/perl5.6.1/pod/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
4348 expressions</ulink> in general.
4349 The below examples might also help to get you started.
4352 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
4354 <sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
4356 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> filter. We have already defined
4357 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
4358 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
4363 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
4367 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
4368 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
4369 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
4370 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
4374 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
4378 Our complete filter now looks like this:
4381 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
4382 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
4386 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
4387 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
4388 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
4394 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
4396 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
4398 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
4402 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
4403 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
4404 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
4405 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
4409 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
4410 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
4411 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
4412 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
4413 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
4417 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
4418 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
4419 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
4420 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
4421 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
4422 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
4423 in the page (and appear in that order).
4427 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
4428 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
4429 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
4430 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
4431 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
4435 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
4436 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
4437 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
4438 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
4439 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
4440 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
4441 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
4442 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
4443 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
4444 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
4445 substitution is global.
4449 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
4450 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
4451 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
4452 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
4453 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
4457 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
4458 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
4459 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
4460 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
4461 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
4462 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
4463 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
4464 Business!"</literal>.
4468 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
4469 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
4470 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
4471 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
4472 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
4473 information anymore.
4477 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
4478 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
4483 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
4485 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
4489 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
4490 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
4491 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
4492 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
4493 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
4494 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
4495 a backreference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
4496 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
4497 a backreference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
4501 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
4502 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
4503 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
4504 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
4505 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
4506 you move your mouse over links.
4511 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
4513 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
4518 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
4519 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
4520 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
4521 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
4522 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
4523 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
4524 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
4525 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
4526 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
4527 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
4532 The last example is from the fun department:
4537 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
4539 # Spice the daily news:
4541 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
4545 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
4546 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
4547 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
4548 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
4549 still replacing the word everywhere else.
4554 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
4556 s* industry[ -]leading \
4558 | customer[ -]focused \
4559 | market[ -]driven \
4560 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
4561 | high[ -]performance \
4562 | solutions[ -]based \
4566 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
4571 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
4572 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
4581 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4585 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4587 <sect1 id="templates">
4588 <title>Templates</title>
4590 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
4591 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
4592 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
4593 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4595 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
4596 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
4597 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
4602 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
4603 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
4605 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
4609 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
4610 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. You can
4611 edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want to customize them.
4612 (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual user</emphasis>). Note that
4613 just like in configuration files, lines starting with <literal>#</literal> are
4614 ignored when the templates are filled in.
4618 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
4619 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
4620 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
4621 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
4622 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
4626 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
4627 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
4628 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
4629 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
4630 in in an alpha or beta development stage:
4635 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
4637 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
4639 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
4643 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
4644 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
4645 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
4649 <screen><!-- --></screen>
4653 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
4654 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
4659 All templates refer to a style located at
4660 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
4661 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
4662 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
4663 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
4668 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4672 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4674 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
4677 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
4679 <!-- end boilerplate -->
4683 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4686 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4687 <sect1 id="copyright"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Copyright, License and History</title>
4689 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
4691 <!-- end copyright -->
4693 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4694 <sect2><title>License</title>
4695 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
4697 <!-- end copyright -->
4699 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4702 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4704 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
4705 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
4707 <!-- end history -->
4710 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
4711 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
4713 <!-- end authors -->
4718 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4721 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4722 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
4723 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
4725 <!-- end seealso -->
4730 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4731 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
4734 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4736 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
4738 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
4739 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
4740 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
4741 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
4742 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
4746 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
4747 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
4748 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
4749 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
4753 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
4754 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
4755 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
4756 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
4757 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
4758 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
4759 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
4760 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
4764 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
4765 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
4766 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
4767 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
4768 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
4769 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
4770 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
4771 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
4775 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
4776 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
4777 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
4778 and then some examples:
4783 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
4784 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
4786 </simplelist></para>
4790 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
4793 </simplelist></para>
4797 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
4800 </simplelist></para>
4804 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
4807 </simplelist></para>
4811 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
4812 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
4813 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
4814 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
4815 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
4816 meta-character meaning of any single character).
4818 </simplelist></para>
4822 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
4823 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
4824 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
4825 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
4827 </simplelist></para>
4831 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
4832 or multiple sub-expressions.
4834 </simplelist></para>
4838 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
4839 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
4840 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
4841 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
4842 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
4843 example</quote>, and nothing else.
4845 </simplelist></para>
4848 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
4849 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
4850 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
4851 be more illuminating:
4855 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
4856 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
4857 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
4858 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
4859 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
4860 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
4861 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
4862 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
4863 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
4864 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
4865 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
4866 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
4867 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
4868 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
4873 A now something a little more complex:
4877 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
4878 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
4879 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
4880 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
4881 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
4882 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
4883 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
4888 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
4889 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
4890 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
4891 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
4892 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
4893 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
4894 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
4895 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
4896 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
4897 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
4898 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
4899 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
4900 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
4901 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
4902 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
4903 changing our regular expression to:
4904 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
4909 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
4910 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
4911 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
4912 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
4913 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
4914 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
4915 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
4916 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
4917 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
4918 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
4919 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
4920 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
4921 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
4922 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
4923 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
4924 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
4925 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
4926 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
4927 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
4928 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
4929 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
4930 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
4931 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
4932 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
4933 in the expression anywhere).
4937 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
4938 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
4939 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
4940 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
4941 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
4946 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
4947 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
4951 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
4952 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
4957 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4960 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4962 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
4965 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
4966 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
4967 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
4968 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
4969 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
4970 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
4971 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
4977 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
4978 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
4979 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
4980 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
4993 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
4997 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
4998 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
4999 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
5005 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
5006 editing of actions files:
5010 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
5017 Show the source code version numbers:
5021 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
5028 Show the browser's request headers:
5032 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
5039 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
5043 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5050 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
5051 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
5055 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
5059 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
5063 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
5068 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
5077 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
5081 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
5082 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
5084 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
5085 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
5086 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
5087 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
5088 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
5089 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
5092 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
5093 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
5094 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
5095 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
5096 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
5097 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
5106 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>
5113 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>
5120 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)
5127 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>
5133 <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>
5138 <ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
5145 Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
5146 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com/">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
5147 have more information about bookmarklets.
5156 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5158 <title>Chain of Events</title>
5160 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
5161 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
5168 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
5169 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
5170 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
5176 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
5177 pages (e.g http://p.p/) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
5182 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
5184 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
5185 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
5186 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
5187 is then checked and if it does not match, an
5188 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
5189 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <link
5190 linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
5191 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
5196 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
5197 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
5202 If the URL pattern matches the <link
5203 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
5204 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
5209 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
5210 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
5211 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
5212 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
5218 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
5224 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
5225 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
5226 filtered as determined by the
5227 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
5228 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
5229 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
5235 If the <link linkend="KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></link>
5236 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
5237 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
5242 If a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
5244 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
5245 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
5246 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
5247 <filename>default.filter</filename>) are processed against the buffered
5248 content. Filters are applied in the order they are specified in the
5249 <filename>default.filter</filename> file. Animated GIFs, if present, are
5250 reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
5251 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
5252 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
5255 If neither <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>
5257 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
5258 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
5259 to the client browser as it becomes available.
5264 As the browser receives the now (probably filtered) page content, it
5265 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
5266 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
5267 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
5268 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
5269 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
5279 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5280 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
5281 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
5284 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
5285 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
5286 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
5287 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
5288 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
5289 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
5290 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
5291 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
5292 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
5297 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
5298 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
5299 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
5300 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
5301 logs is a good idea too.
5305 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
5306 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5307 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
5308 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
5312 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
5313 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
5314 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
5315 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
5316 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
5317 the <filename>default.filter</filename> file since this is handled very
5318 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
5319 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
5320 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
5321 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
5322 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
5323 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
5324 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
5329 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
5330 and look at it one section at a time:
5335 Matches for http://google.com:
5337 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
5341 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5342 -crunch-incoming-cookies
5343 +deanimate-gifs{last}
5344 -downgrade-http-version
5348 -filter{shockwave-flash}
5349 -filter{crude-parental}
5350 +filter{html-annoyances}
5351 +filter{js-annoyances}
5352 +filter{content-cookies}
5354 +filter{refresh-tags}
5356 +filter{banners-by-size}
5357 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
5358 +hide-from-header{block}
5359 +hide-referer{forge}
5364 +prevent-compression
5367 +session-cookies-only
5368 +set-image-blocker{pattern} }
5371 { -session-cookies-only }
5377 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
5378 (no matches in this file)
5383 This tells us how we have defined our
5384 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
5385 which ones match for our example, <quote>google.com</quote>. The first listing
5386 is any matches for the <filename>standard.action</filename> file. No hits at
5387 all here on <quote>standard</quote>. Then next is <quote>default</quote>, or
5388 our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line listing,
5389 is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default settings.
5390 If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the section
5391 just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This will apply to
5392 all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
5393 -- <quote>/</quote>.
5397 But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
5398 rules, and then list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions would
5399 apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
5400 <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous cookie setting,
5402 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
5403 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google. The
5404 second turns <emphasis>off</emphasis> any
5406 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
5407 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
5408 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
5409 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
5410 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these two actions
5411 defined somewhere in the lower part of our <filename>default.action</filename>
5412 file, and <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter
5417 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
5421 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
5422 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
5423 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
5434 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5435 -crunch-incoming-cookies
5436 +deanimate-gifs{last}
5437 -downgrade-http-version
5441 -filter{shockwave-flash}
5442 -filter{crude-parental}
5443 +filter{html-annoyances}
5444 +filter{js-annoyances}
5445 +filter{content-cookies}
5447 +filter{refresh-tags}
5449 +filter{banners-by-size}
5450 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
5451 +hide-from-header{block}
5452 +hide-referer{forge}
5457 +prevent-compression
5460 -session-cookies-only
5461 +set-image-blocker{pattern}
5466 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
5467 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>.
5471 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
5477 { +block +handle-as-image }
5480 { +block +handle-as-image }
5483 { +block +handle-as-image }
5489 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
5490 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
5491 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
5492 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<link
5493 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
5494 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
5499 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
5500 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
5501 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
5502 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
5503 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
5504 is done here -- as both a <link
5505 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link>
5506 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
5508 linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
5509 The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> just simplifies the process and make
5514 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
5515 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
5521 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
5523 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
5527 -crunch-incoming-cookies
5528 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
5530 -downgrade-http-version
5532 +filter{html-annoyances}
5533 +filter{js-annoyances}
5534 +filter{kill-popups}
5537 +filter{banners-by-size}
5540 +hide-forwarded-for-headers
5541 +hide-from-header{block}
5542 +hide-referer{forge}
5546 +prevent-compression
5549 +session-cookies-only
5550 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
5553 { +block +handle-as-image }
5559 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
5560 we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
5561 now add a new action below this that explicitly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
5562 block (<quote>{-block}</quote>) paths with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are
5563 various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
5575 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
5576 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
5580 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
5587 { +block +handle-as-image }
5593 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
5594 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
5595 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
5596 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
5597 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. These
5598 tend to be harder to troubleshoot. Try adding the URL for the site to one of
5599 aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
5607 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5615 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
5616 <quote>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</quote>.
5617 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
5630 This would turn off all filtering for that site. This would probably be most
5631 appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
5636 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
5637 <quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote> rule, which assumes
5638 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well most of the time
5639 since these tend to be standardized).
5643 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
5644 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
5645 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
5646 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
5655 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
5656 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
5657 Public License as published by the Free Software
5658 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
5659 your option) any later version.
5661 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
5662 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
5663 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
5664 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
5665 License for more details.
5667 The GNU General Public License should be included with
5668 this file. If not, you can view it at
5669 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
5670 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
5671 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
5673 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
5674 Revision 2.2 2002/09/05 05:45:30 hal9
5675 Syncing with 3.0. This should be it for doc sources. Not all builds tested
5676 yet. No new content, just catching up.
5678 Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
5679 Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
5682 Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9
5683 Spell checked (only one typo this time!).
5685 Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt
5686 Update to Mac OSX startup script name
5688 Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes
5689 Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed
5691 Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes
5692 Nits re: actions file download
5694 Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff
5695 Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections
5697 Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff
5698 Added 2 Gentoo sections
5700 Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes
5701 - Added version info to title
5702 - Added info on new filters
5703 - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial
5704 - Added info on where to get updated actions files
5706 Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9
5707 Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols.
5709 Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt
5711 Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change
5713 Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9
5714 Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html.
5716 Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9
5717 Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy.
5719 Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9
5720 Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs.
5722 Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9
5723 This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can
5724 eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file
5725 so that these are in sync with each other.
5727 Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9
5728 Ooops missed something from David.
5730 Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9
5731 Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat).
5732 That's a wrap, I think.
5734 Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9
5735 Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section.
5737 Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9
5738 -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches
5740 Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9
5741 Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton.
5742 Minor corrections/clarifications here and there.
5744 Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes
5745 Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info
5747 Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes
5748 - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the
5749 <literal><link> style.
5750 - Small fixes in the actions chapter
5751 - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking
5752 - Removed <emphasis> from <title>s since the new doc CSS
5753 renders them red (bad in TOC).
5755 Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro
5756 Correct Debian specials (installation and startup).
5758 Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes
5761 Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9
5762 -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking
5763 -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout
5765 Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes
5766 - Reworked & extended Templates chapter
5767 - Small changes to Regex appendix
5768 - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter
5770 Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9
5771 Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section.
5773 Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes
5774 Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes
5776 Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes
5777 More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section
5779 Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes
5780 Extended and further commented the example actions files
5782 Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9
5783 Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and
5786 Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes
5789 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
5790 Restored alphabetical order of actions
5792 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
5793 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
5795 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
5796 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
5798 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
5799 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
5800 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
5802 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
5803 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
5804 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
5805 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
5807 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
5808 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
5810 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
5813 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
5814 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
5815 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
5817 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
5818 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
5820 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
5821 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
5822 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
5824 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
5825 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
5827 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
5828 more structure in starting section
5830 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
5831 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
5832 will probably break links elsewhere :(
5834 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
5835 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
5836 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
5838 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
5839 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
5840 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
5842 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
5843 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
5845 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
5846 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
5847 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
5849 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
5850 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
5851 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
5853 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
5854 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
5856 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
5857 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
5859 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
5860 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
5862 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
5863 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
5865 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
5866 Updated OSX installation section
5867 Added a few English tweaks here an there
5869 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
5870 Re-write actions section.
5872 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
5873 Fix ugly typo (mine).
5875 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
5876 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
5878 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
5879 Added RPM install detail
5881 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
5884 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
5885 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
5887 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
5888 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
5890 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
5891 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
5893 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
5896 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
5897 Proofreading, part one
5899 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
5900 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
5901 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
5903 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
5904 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
5906 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
5907 Add small section on submitting actions.
5909 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
5912 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
5913 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
5915 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
5916 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
5918 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
5921 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
5922 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
5923 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
5924 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
5925 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
5927 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
5928 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
5930 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
5931 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
5933 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
5934 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
5935 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
5936 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
5937 eventually be set by Makefile.
5938 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
5940 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
5941 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
5943 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
5944 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
5946 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
5947 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
5949 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
5950 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
5951 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
5952 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
5954 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
5957 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
5958 Added more to Anatomy section.
5960 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
5961 Touch up intro for new name.
5963 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
5964 we have a new homepage!
5966 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
5967 A few minor catch ups with name change.
5969 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
5970 configure needs to be generated.
5972 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
5973 we are too lazy to make a block-built
5974 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
5976 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
5977 name change related issue.
5979 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
5980 name change. changed filenames.
5982 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
5985 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
5986 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
5987 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
5988 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
5989 comments and remarks to history untouched.
5991 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
5994 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
5995 New section in Appendix.
5997 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
5998 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
6000 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
6001 correct feedback channels
6003 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
6004 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
6006 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
6009 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
6010 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
6012 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
6013 Added imageblock{pattern}.
6015 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
6018 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
6019 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
6021 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
6022 provide correct feedback channels
6024 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
6025 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
6027 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
6028 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
6030 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
6031 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
6033 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
6034 Add new - - user option.
6036 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
6037 Added section on command line options.
6039 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
6040 Changed default port to 8118
6042 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
6043 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
6045 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
6046 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
6047 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
6050 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
6053 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
6054 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
6056 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
6057 Update OS/2 build section
6059 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
6060 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
6061 will work - no other changes are needed.
6063 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
6064 Added a very short section on Templates
6066 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
6067 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
6069 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
6070 Touch ups for *.action files.
6072 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
6075 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
6076 Updates for recent changes.
6078 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
6079 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
6081 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
6082 Correct 2 minor errors
6084 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
6085 *** empty log message ***
6087 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
6088 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
6090 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
6091 wrong url in documentation
6093 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
6094 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
6096 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
6099 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
6102 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
6105 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
6106 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
6108 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
6109 Some additions, and re-arranging.
6111 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
6114 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
6115 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
6117 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
6120 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
6121 source files for junkbuster documentation
6123 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
6124 first proposal of a structure.
6126 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
6127 docs should have an author.
6129 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
6130 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.
projects / privoxy.git / blob