1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity p-version "2.9.14">
12 <!entity p-status "beta">
13 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
14 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
15 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
16 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
17 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
18 <!entity % p-config "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
22 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
25 This file belongs into
26 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
28 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9 Exp $
30 Written by and Copyright (C) 2001 the SourceForge
31 Privoxy team. http://www.privoxy.org/
33 Based on the Internet Junkbuster originally written
34 by and Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and
35 Junkbusters Corporation. http://www.junkbusters.com
38 ========================================================================
39 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
40 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
41 ========================================================================
47 <title>Privoxy User Manual</title>
49 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
54 <orgname>By: Privoxy Developers</orgname>
63 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
64 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
65 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
71 The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
73 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
76 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
78 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
81 You can find the latest version of the user manual at <ulink
82 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
83 Please see the <ulink url="contact.html">Contact section</ulink> on how to
84 contact the developers.
88 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
94 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
95 <sect1 id="intro" label=""><title></title>
96 <!-- dummy section to force TOC on page by itself -->
97 <!-- DO NOT REMOVE! please ;) -->
101 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
102 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
104 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
105 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
106 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
107 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
108 configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
109 completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over
110 earlier versions. The target release date for
111 stable v3.0 is <quote>soon</quote> ;-)]]>.
114 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
117 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
118 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
119 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
124 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
125 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
127 In addition to <application>Internet Junkbuster's</application> traditional
128 features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
129 <application>Privoxy</application> provides new features<![%p-not-stable;[,
130 some of them currently under development]]>:
132 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
134 <!-- end boilerplate -->
139 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
142 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
143 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
146 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
147 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
148 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
149 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
150 Page</ulink>. For installing and compiling the source code, please look
151 into our Developer Manual.
155 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
156 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
157 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
158 CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
159 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
160 tarball.</ulink> Again, we refer you to the Developer Manual.
163 <!-- Include supported.sgml boilerplate -->
165 <!-- end boilerplate -->
168 Note: If you have a previous <application>Junkbuster</application> or
169 <application>Privoxy</application> installation on your system, you
170 will need to remove it. Some platforms do this for you as part
171 of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform).
175 In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup your old configuration
176 if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the
177 <link linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section
181 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
182 <sect2 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and SuSE RPMs</title>
185 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
186 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
187 of configuration files.
191 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
192 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
193 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
194 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods. Note that SuSE will
195 automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
199 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
200 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm;</literal>. This
201 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
205 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
206 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
207 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
208 automatically, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
212 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
213 <sect2 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
219 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
220 <sect2 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
223 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
224 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
225 in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in. We do not
226 use the registry of Windows.
230 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
231 <sect2 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
234 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
235 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
240 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
241 <sect2 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
244 First, make sure that no previous installations of
245 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
246 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
247 system. You can do this by
251 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
252 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
253 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
254 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
258 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
259 into will contain all of the configuration files.
263 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
264 <sect2 id="installation-mac"><title>Max OSX</title>
266 Unzip the downloaded package (you can either double-click on the file
267 in the finder, or on the desktop if you downloaded it there). Then,
268 double-click on the package installer icon and follow the installation
270 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the subdirectory
271 <literal>/Applications/Privoxy.app</literal>.
272 <application>Privoxy</application> will set itself up to start
273 automatically on system bring-up via
274 <literal>/System/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
278 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
279 <sect2 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
281 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
282 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
283 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
284 remove this directory.
287 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
288 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
289 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
290 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
291 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
292 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
293 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
298 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
300 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
301 <sect1 id="upgradersnote">
302 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
304 There are very significant changes from older versions of
305 <application>Junkbuster</application> to the current
306 <application>Privoxy</application>. Configuration is substantially
307 changed. <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> and earlier
308 configuration files will not migrate. The functionality of the old
309 <filename>blockfile</filename>, <filename>cookiefile</filename> and
310 <filename>imagelist</filename>, are now combined into the
311 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions files</quote></ulink>.
312 <filename>default.action</filename>, is the main actions file. Local
313 exceptions should best be put into <filename>user.action</filename>.
316 A <ulink url="filter-file.html"><quote>filter file</quote></ulink> (typically
317 <filename>default.filter</filename>) is new as of <application>Privoxy
318 2.9.x</application>, and provides some of the new sophistication (explained
319 below). <filename>config</filename> is much the same as before.
322 If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
323 files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
324 When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
325 to the new actions files, please note that even the pattern syntax has
326 changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
327 recommended to use the new configuration files.
330 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
338 The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
344 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
345 important configuration files!
350 <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
351 at the special URL: <ulink
352 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
353 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
354 aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
355 <application>Privoxy</application>.
360 The primary configuration file for cookie management, ad and banner
361 blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
362 configuration is in the <ulink url="actions-file.html">actions
363 files</ulink>. It is strongly recommended to become familiar with the new
364 actions concept below, before modifying these files. Locally defined rules
365 should go into <filename>user.action</filename>.
370 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
371 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
372 Some installers may not automatically start
373 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
381 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
382 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
388 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the section <link linkend="installation">Installing</link>.
394 Start <application>Privoxy</application>. See the section <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
400 Change your browser's configuration to use the proxy <literal>localhost</literal> on port
401 <literal>8118</literal>. See the section <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
407 Enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy. Please see the section
408 <link linkend="contact">Contacting the Developers</link> on how to report
409 bugs or problems with websites or to get help. You may want to change the
410 file <filename>user.action</filename> to further tweak your new browsing
420 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
422 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
424 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
425 will want to configure your browser(s) to use <application>Privoxy</application>
426 as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is localhost for the proxy address,
427 and port 8118 (earlier versions used port 8000). This is the one
428 configuration step that must be done!
432 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
433 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under <literal>Edit
434 -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy</literal>.
435 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>: <literal>Tools ->
436 Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting</literal>. Then,
437 check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info (Address:
438 localhost, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy support too.
442 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
443 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
444 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
445 <application>Privoxy</application>!
450 <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
451 main configuration file to be used on the command line. Example Unix startup
457 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
462 See <link linkend="cmdoptions">below</link> for other command line options.
466 An init script is provided for SuSE and Red Hat.
470 For for SuSE: <command>rcprivoxy start</command>
474 For Red Hat and Debian: <command>/etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start</command>
479 If no configuration file is specified on the command line,
480 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
481 <filename>config</filename> in the current directory. Except on Win32 where
482 it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>. If no file is specified on the
483 command line and no default configuration file can be found,
484 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
489 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
490 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
491 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
492 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
493 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
494 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
498 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
499 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
500 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
501 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
502 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
503 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
504 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
505 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
506 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
510 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
511 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
512 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink>and
514 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
515 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
516 popups (explained below).
520 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
521 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
522 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
523 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
524 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
525 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
526 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
527 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
528 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
532 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
533 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
534 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
535 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
536 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
537 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
538 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
539 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
540 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
544 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
545 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
546 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
547 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
548 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
549 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
550 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
554 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
555 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
556 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
557 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
558 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
559 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
564 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <ulink
565 url="actions-file.html#ACTIONSFILE">read more about the actions concept</ulink>
566 or even dive deep into the <ulink url="appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">Appendix
571 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
572 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
573 section <ulink url="contact.html"><quote>Contacting the
574 Developers</quote></ulink> below.
577 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
578 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
579 <title>Command Line Options</title>
581 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
582 command-line options:
590 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
593 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
598 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
601 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
606 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
609 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
610 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
615 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
619 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
620 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
621 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
622 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
627 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
631 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
632 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
633 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
638 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
641 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
642 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
643 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
644 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
645 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
646 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
657 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
660 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
661 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
663 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
664 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
665 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
666 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
670 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
673 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
675 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
676 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
677 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
678 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
679 You will see the following section:
683 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
686 <bridgehead renderas="sect2">Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
690 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
693 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
696 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
699 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
702 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
710 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
711 <quote>actions list</quote>, which is where the ad, banner, cookie,
712 and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
713 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
714 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
715 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
719 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
720 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
721 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
722 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
723 to run as a proxy in this case, but all filtering is disabled. There
724 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
725 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
731 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
736 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
738 <sect2 id="confoverview">
739 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
741 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
742 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
743 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
744 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
745 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
746 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
750 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
751 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
752 principle configuration files are:
760 The main configuration file is named <link linkend="config">config</link>
761 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
762 on Windows. This is a required file.
768 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>) is used to define
769 the default settings for various <quote>actions</quote> relating to images, banners,
770 pop-ups, access restrictions, banners and cookies.
773 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
774 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
775 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
776 <filename>default.action</filename> are probably best applied in
777 <filename>user.action</filename>, which should be preserved across
778 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is also included. This is mostly
779 for <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
782 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
784 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status/">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status/</ulink>
786 url="http://p.p/show-status/">http://p.p/show-status/</ulink>) for the
787 various actions files.
793 <filename>default.filter</filename> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
794 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
795 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
796 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
797 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
805 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
806 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) angd understand line continuation
807 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
808 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
809 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
810 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
815 The actions files and <filename>default.filter</filename>
816 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
821 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
822 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
823 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
824 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
825 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
826 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
827 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
832 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
833 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
834 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
835 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
841 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
844 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
847 <title>The Main Configuration File</title>
850 Again, the main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename> on
851 Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, and <filename>config.txt</filename> on Windows.
852 Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of
853 values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For
861 <emphasis>confdir /etc/privoxy</emphasis>
868 Assigns the value <literal>/etc/privoxy</literal> to the option
869 <literal>confdir</literal> and thus indicates that the configuration
870 directory is named <quote>/etc/privoxy/</quote>.
874 All options in the config file except for <literal>confdir</literal> and
875 <literal>logdir</literal> are optional. Watch out in the below description
876 for what happens if you leave them unset.
880 The main config file controls all aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>'s
881 operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter
882 where you may be surfing).
886 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
888 <sect2 id="conf-log-loc">
889 <title>Configuration and Log File Locations</title>
892 <application>Privoxy</application> can (and normally does) use a number of
893 other files for additional configuration, help and logging.
894 This section of the configuration file tells <application>Privoxy</application>
895 where to find those other files.
899 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="confdir"><title>confdir</title>
903 <term>Specifies:</term>
905 <para>The directory where the other configuration files are located</para>
909 <term>Type of value:</term>
911 <para>Path name</para>
915 <term>Default value:</term>
917 <para>/etc/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
921 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
923 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
930 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
933 When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
934 per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of <quote>confdir</quote>.
935 For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
936 <filename>confdir/templates</filename>, where the HTML templates for CGI
937 output reside (e.g. <application>Privoxy's</application> 404 error page).
945 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logdir"><title>logdir</title>
949 <term>Specifies:</term>
952 The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where <filename>logfile</filename> and
953 <filename>jarfile</filename> are located)
958 <term>Type of value:</term>
960 <para>Path name</para>
964 <term>Default value:</term>
966 <para>/var/log/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
970 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
972 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
979 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
986 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="actionsfile"><title>
989 <anchor id="default.action">
990 <anchor id="standard.action">
991 <anchor id="user.action">
992 <!-- Note: slightly modified this section 04/28/02, hal. See NOTE. -->
995 <term>Specifies:</term>
998 The <link linkend="actions">actions</link> file(s) to use
1003 <term>Type of value:</term>
1005 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1009 <term>Default value:</term>
1013 <msgtext><literallayout> standard # Internal purposes, recommended not editing</literallayout></msgtext>
1016 <msgtext><literallayout> default # Main actions file</literallayout></msgtext>
1019 <msgtext><literallayout> user # User customizations</literallayout></msgtext>
1025 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1028 No actions are taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
1036 Multiple <literal>actionsfile</literal> lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended!
1039 The default values include standard.action, which is used for internal
1040 purposes and should be loaded, default.action, which is the
1041 <quote>main</quote> actions file maintained by the developers, and
1042 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can make your personal additions.
1045 Actions files are where all the per site and per URL configuration is done for
1046 ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc.
1047 There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without at
1048 least one actions file.
1055 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filterfile"><title>filterfile</title>
1056 <anchor id="default.filter">
1059 <term>Specifies:</term>
1062 The <link linkend="filter">filter</link> file to use
1067 <term>Type of value:</term>
1069 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1073 <term>Default value:</term>
1075 <para>default.filter (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.filter.txt (Windows)</para>
1079 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1082 No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
1083 <literal>+filter{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
1084 actions in the actions files are turned off
1092 The <quote>default.filter</quote> file contains content modification rules
1093 that use <quote>regular expressions</quote>. These rules permit powerful
1094 changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable your favorite
1095 JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some
1096 fun replacing <quote>Microsoft</quote> with <quote>MicroSuck</quote> wherever
1097 it appears on a Web page.
1104 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logfile"><title>logfile</title>
1108 <term>Specifies:</term>
1116 <term>Type of value:</term>
1118 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1122 <term>Default value:</term>
1124 <para>logfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.log (Windows)</para>
1128 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1131 No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (<literal>stderr</literal>).
1139 The windows version will additionally log to the console.
1142 The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
1143 of detail and number of messages are set with the <literal>debug</literal>
1144 option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
1145 <application>Privoxy</application> (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you
1146 think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it.
1149 Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
1150 periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
1151 (see <quote>man cron</quote>). For Red Hat, a <command>logrotate</command>
1152 script has been included.
1155 On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like <quote>/var/log/privoxy.*
1156 +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup</quote> in <filename>/etc/logfiles</filename>, with
1157 the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the
1158 log, when it exceeds 1M size.
1165 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jarfile"><title>jarfile</title>
1169 <term>Specifies:</term>
1172 The file to store intercepted cookies in
1177 <term>Type of value:</term>
1179 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1183 <term>Default value:</term>
1185 <para>jarfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.jar (Windows)</para>
1189 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1192 Intercepted cookies are not stored at all.
1200 The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
1207 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trustfile"><title>trustfile</title>
1210 <term>Specifies:</term>
1213 The trust file to use
1218 <term>Type of value:</term>
1220 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1224 <term>Default value:</term>
1226 <para><emphasis>Unset (commented out)</emphasis>. When activated: trust (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> trust.txt (Windows)</para>
1230 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1233 The whole trust mechanism is turned off.
1241 The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should
1242 be used with care. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> recommended for the casual user.
1245 If you specify a trust file, <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow
1246 access to sites that are named in the trustfile.
1247 You can also mark sites as trusted referrers (with <literal>+</literal>), with
1248 the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a
1249 trusted referrer was used.
1250 The link target will then be added to the <quote>trustfile</quote>.
1251 Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
1254 If you use <literal>+</literal> operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over time.
1261 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="user-manual"><title>user-manual</title>
1264 <term>Specifies:</term>
1267 Location of the <application>Privoxy</application> User Manual.
1272 <term>Type of value:</term>
1274 <para>A fully qualified URI</para>
1278 <term>Default value:</term>
1280 <para><ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink></para>
1284 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1287 The default will be used.
1295 The User Manual is used for help hints from some of the internal CGI pages.
1296 It is normally packaged with the binary distributions, and would make more
1297 sense to have this pointed at a locally installed copy.
1300 A more useful example (Unix):
1303 <emphasis>user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;/user-manual/</emphasis>
1312 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1316 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1318 <sect2 id="local-set-up">
1319 <title>Local Set-up Documentation</title>
1322 If you intend to operate <application>Privoxy</application> for more users
1323 that just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach
1324 you, what you block and why you do that, your policies etc.
1327 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trust-info-url"><title>trust-info-url</title>
1331 <term>Specifies:</term>
1334 A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied.
1339 <term>Type of value:</term>
1345 <term>Default value:</term>
1347 <para>Two example URL are provided</para>
1351 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1354 No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
1362 The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been
1363 activated. (See <literal>trustfile</literal> above.)
1366 If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
1367 documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here.
1368 Use multiple times for multiple URLs.
1371 The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up
1372 locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place!
1379 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="admin-address"><title>admin-address</title>
1383 <term>Specifies:</term>
1386 An email address to reach the proxy administrator.
1391 <term>Type of value:</term>
1393 <para>Email address</para>
1397 <term>Default value:</term>
1399 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1403 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1406 No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1414 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1415 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1423 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="proxy-info-url"><title>proxy-info-url</title>
1427 <term>Specifies:</term>
1430 A URL to documentation about the local <application>Privoxy</application> setup,
1431 configuration or policies.
1436 <term>Type of value:</term>
1442 <term>Default value:</term>
1444 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1448 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1451 No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1459 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1460 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1464 This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
1472 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1474 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1476 <sect2 id="debugging">
1477 <title>Debugging</title>
1480 These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem.
1481 Note that you might also want to invoke
1482 <application>Privoxy</application> with the <literal>--no-daemon</literal>
1483 command line option when debugging.
1486 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="debug"><title>debug</title>
1490 <term>Specifies:</term>
1493 Key values that determine what information gets logged.
1498 <term>Type of value:</term>
1500 <para>Integer values</para>
1504 <term>Default value:</term>
1506 <para>12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)</para>
1510 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1513 Nothing gets logged.
1521 The available debug levels are:
1525 debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
1526 debug 2 # show each connection status
1527 debug 4 # show I/O status
1528 debug 8 # show header parsing
1529 debug 16 # log all data into the logfile
1530 debug 32 # debug force feature
1531 debug 64 # debug regular expression filter
1532 debug 128 # debug fast redirects
1533 debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
1534 debug 512 # Common Log Format
1535 debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
1536 debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
1537 debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
1541 To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use
1542 multiple <literal>debug</literal> lines.
1545 A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request
1546 as it happens. <emphasis>1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended</emphasis>
1547 so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are probably
1548 only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce
1549 a hell of an output (especially 16).
1553 The reporting of <emphasis>fatal</emphasis> errors (i.e. ones which crash
1554 <application>Privoxy</application>) is always on and cannot be disabled.
1557 If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set <quote>debug
1558 512</quote> <emphasis>ONLY</emphasis> and not enable anything else.
1565 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="single-threaded"><title>single-threaded</title>
1569 <term>Specifies:</term>
1572 Whether to run only one server thread
1577 <term>Type of value:</term>
1579 <para><emphasis>None</emphasis></para>
1583 <term>Default value:</term>
1585 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1589 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1592 Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability to
1593 serve multiple requests simultaneously.
1601 This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never
1602 need to use it. <emphasis>It will drastically reduce performance.</emphasis>
1611 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1613 <sect2 id="access-control">
1614 <title>Access Control and Security</title>
1617 This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
1618 of <application>Privoxy</application>'s configuration.
1621 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="listen-address"><title>listen-address</title>
1625 <term>Specifies:</term>
1628 The IP address and TCP port on which <application>Privoxy</application> will
1629 listen for client requests.
1634 <term>Type of value:</term>
1636 <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">IP-Address</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
1641 <term>Default value:</term>
1643 <para>localhost:8118</para>
1647 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1650 Bind to localhost (127.0.0.1), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended for
1651 home users who run <application>Privoxy</application> on the same machine as
1660 You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
1663 If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
1664 serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
1665 will need to override the default.
1668 If you leave out the IP address, <application>Privoxy</application> will
1669 bind to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable
1670 from the Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (ACL's)
1671 (see <quote>ACLs</quote> below), or a firewall.
1676 <term>Example:</term>
1679 Suppose you are running <application>Privoxy</application> on
1680 a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network
1681 (192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address.
1682 You want it to serve requests from inside only:
1686 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
1694 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="toggle"><title>toggle</title>
1698 <term>Specifies:</term>
1701 Initial state of "toggle" status
1706 <term>Type of value:</term>
1712 <term>Default value:</term>
1718 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1721 Act as if toggled on
1729 If set to 0, <application>Privoxy</application> will start in
1730 <quote>toggled off</quote> mode, i.e. behave like a normal, content-neutral
1731 proxy. See <literal>enable-remote-toggle</literal>
1732 below. This is not really useful anymore, since toggling is much easier
1733 via <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">the web
1734 interface</ulink> than via editing the <filename>conf</filename> file.
1737 The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
1738 if this option is present.
1746 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-remote-toggle"><title>enable-remote-toggle</title>
1749 <term>Specifies:</term>
1752 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">web-based toggle
1753 feature</ulink> may be used
1758 <term>Type of value:</term>
1764 <term>Default value:</term>
1770 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1773 The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
1781 When toggled off, <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal,
1782 content-neutral proxy, i.e. it acts as if none of the actions applied to
1786 For the time being, access to the toggle feature can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1787 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1788 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1789 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1790 toggle it for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>
1791 for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1794 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1795 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1803 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-edit-actions"><title>enable-edit-actions</title>
1806 <term>Specifies:</term>
1809 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions
1810 file editor</ulink> may be used
1815 <term>Type of value:</term>
1821 <term>Default value:</term>
1827 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1830 The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
1838 For the time being, access to the editor can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1839 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1840 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1841 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1842 modify its configuration for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not
1843 recommended</emphasis> for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1846 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1847 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1854 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="acls"><title>
1855 ACLs: permit-access and deny-access</title>
1856 <anchor id="permit-acces">
1857 <anchor id="deny-acces">
1861 <term>Specifies:</term>
1864 Who can access what.
1869 <term>Type of value:</term>
1872 <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable>]
1873 [<replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable>]]
1876 Where <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable> and
1877 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
1878 DNS names, and <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> and
1879 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable> are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
1880 values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
1881 destination part are optional.
1886 <term>Default value:</term>
1888 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1892 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1895 Don't restrict access further than implied by <literal>listen-address</literal>
1903 Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
1904 administrators, and <emphasis>are not usually needed by individual users</emphasis>.
1905 For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
1906 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens on the localhost or internal (home)
1907 network address by means of the <literal>listen-address</literal> option.
1910 Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute
1911 for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security
1915 Multiple ACL lines are OK.
1916 If any ACLs are specified, then the <application>Privoxy</application>
1917 talks only to IP addresses that match at least one <literal>permit-access</literal> line
1918 and don't match any subsequent <literal>deny-access</literal> line. In other words, the
1919 last match wins, with the default being <literal>deny-access</literal>.
1922 If <application>Privoxy</application> is using a forwarder (see <literal>forward</literal> below)
1923 for a particular destination URL, the <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>
1924 that is examined is the address of the forwarder and <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the address
1925 of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
1926 <application>Privoxy</application> to determine the IP address of the
1927 ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
1930 You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
1931 time. All DNS names must resolve! You can <emphasis>not</emphasis> use domain patterns
1932 like <quote>*.org</quote> or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
1933 IP addresses, only the first one is used.
1936 Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
1937 if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
1942 <term>Examples:</term>
1945 Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
1946 <literal>listen-address</literal> are set: <quote>localhost</quote>
1947 is OK. The absence of a <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> implies that
1948 <emphasis>all</emphasis> destination addresses are OK:
1952 permit-access localhost
1956 Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
1957 nothing but www.example.com:
1961 permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
1965 Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
1966 with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
1970 permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
1971 deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
1979 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="buffer-limit"><title>buffer-limit</title>
1983 <term>Specifies:</term>
1986 Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
1991 <term>Type of value:</term>
1993 <para>Size in Kbytes</para>
1997 <term>Default value:</term>
2003 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2006 Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
2014 For content filtering, i.e. the <literal>+filter</literal> and
2015 <literal>+deanimate-gif</literal> actions, it is necessary that
2016 <application>Privoxy</application> buffers the entire document body.
2017 This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
2018 data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
2022 When a document buffer size reaches the <literal>buffer-limit</literal>, it is
2023 flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
2024 filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
2025 running, which might require up to <literal>buffer-limit</literal> Kbytes
2026 <emphasis>each</emphasis>, unless you have enabled <quote>single-threaded</quote>
2036 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2039 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2041 <sect2 id="forwarding">
2042 <title>Forwarding</title>
2045 This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
2047 It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
2048 accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains
2049 through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. <ulink
2050 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm</ulink>)
2051 Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
2052 proxy may be necessary because the machine that <application>Privoxy</application>
2053 runs on has no direct Internet access.
2057 Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. <application>Privoxy</application>
2058 supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols.
2061 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward"><title>forward</title>
2064 <term>Specifies:</term>
2067 To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
2072 <term>Type of value:</term>
2075 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2076 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2079 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
2080 chapter on domain matching in the <filename>default.action</filename> file),
2081 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is the address of the parent HTTP proxy
2082 as an IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or as a valid DNS name (or <quote>.</quote> to denote
2083 <quote>no forwarding</quote>, and the optional
2084 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer
2085 values from 1 to 64535
2090 <term>Default value:</term>
2092 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2096 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2099 Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
2107 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2108 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
2111 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2116 <term>Examples:</term>
2119 Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
2123 forward .* anon-proxy.example.org:8080
2128 Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
2129 to that ISP's sites:
2133 forward .*. caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
2134 forward .example-isp.net .
2142 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="socks"><title>
2143 forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a</title>
2144 <anchor id="forward-socks4">
2145 <anchor id="forward-socks4a">
2149 <term>Specifies:</term>
2152 Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
2157 <term>Type of value:</term>
2160 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2161 <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2162 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2165 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
2166 chapter on domain matching in the <filename>default.action</filename> file),
2167 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> and <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>
2168 are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (<replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>
2169 may be <quote>.</quote> to denote <quote>no HTTP forwarding</quote>), and the optional
2170 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
2175 <term>Default value:</term>
2177 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2181 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2184 Don't use SOCKS proxies.
2192 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2195 The difference between <literal>forward-socks4</literal> and <literal>forward-socks4a</literal>
2196 is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
2197 server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
2200 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2201 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
2207 <term>Examples:</term>
2210 From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
2211 <quote>internal</quote> domains, but everything outbound goes through
2212 their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
2217 forward-socks4a .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
2218 forward .example.com .
2222 A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
2226 forward-socks4 .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
2234 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="advanced-forwarding-examples"><title>Advanced Forwarding Examples</title>
2237 If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
2238 only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple <application>Privoxies</application>
2239 which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
2240 <emphasis>your</emphasis> users can see the internal content of all ISPs.
2244 Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
2245 isp-b.net. Both run <application>Privoxy</application>. Their forwarding
2246 configuration can look like this:
2256 forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
2267 forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
2272 Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
2273 host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
2274 of both isp-a and isp-b.
2278 If you intend to chain <application>Privoxy</application> and
2279 <application>squid</application> locally, then chain as
2280 <literal>browser -> squid -> privoxy</literal> is the recommended way.
2284 Assuming that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>squid</application>
2285 run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this:
2290 # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
2291 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
2293 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
2296 # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
2297 always_direct allow ftp
2299 # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
2300 never_direct allow all</screen>
2304 You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to <application>squid</application>'s address and port.
2305 Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult <literal>http_port</literal> in <filename>squid.conf</filename>.
2312 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2315 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2317 <sect2 id="windows-gui">
2318 <title>Windows GUI Options</title>
2320 <application>Privoxy</application> has a number of options specific to the
2321 Windows GUI interface:
2324 <anchor id="activity-animation">
2326 If <quote>activity-animation</quote> is set to 1, the
2327 <application>Privoxy</application> icon will animate when
2328 <quote>Privoxy</quote> is active. To turn off, set to 0.
2335 <emphasis>activity-animation 1</emphasis>
2341 <anchor id="log-messages">
2343 If <quote>log-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2344 <application>Privoxy</application> will log messages to the console
2352 <emphasis>log-messages 1</emphasis>
2358 <anchor id="log-buffer-size">
2360 If <quote>log-buffer-size</quote> is set to 1, the size of the log buffer,
2361 i.e. the amount of memory used for the log messages displayed in the
2362 console window, will be limited to <quote>log-max-lines</quote> (see below).
2366 Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and
2367 eat up all your memory!
2374 <emphasis>log-buffer-size 1</emphasis>
2380 <anchor id="log-max-lines">
2382 <application>log-max-lines</application> is the maximum number of lines held
2383 in the log buffer. See above.
2390 <emphasis>log-max-lines 200</emphasis>
2396 <anchor id="log-highlight-messages">
2398 If <quote>log-highlight-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2399 <application>Privoxy</application> will highlight portions of the log
2400 messages with a bold-faced font:
2407 <emphasis>log-highlight-messages 1</emphasis>
2413 <anchor id="log-font-name">
2415 The font used in the console window:
2422 <emphasis>log-font-name Comic Sans MS</emphasis>
2428 <anchor id="log-font-size">
2430 Font size used in the console window:
2437 <emphasis>log-font-size 8</emphasis>
2443 <anchor id="show-on-task-bar">
2445 <quote>show-on-task-bar</quote> controls whether or not
2446 <application>Privoxy</application> will appear as a button on the Task bar
2454 <emphasis>show-on-task-bar 0</emphasis>
2460 <anchor id="close-button-minimizes">
2462 If <quote>close-button-minimizes</quote> is set to 1, the Windows close
2463 button will minimize <application>Privoxy</application> instead of closing
2464 the program (close with the exit option on the File menu).
2471 <emphasis>close-button-minimizes 1</emphasis>
2477 <anchor id="hide-console">
2479 The <quote>hide-console</quote> option is specific to the MS-Win console
2480 version of <application>Privoxy</application>. If this option is used,
2481 <application>Privoxy</application> will disconnect from and hide the
2489 #<emphasis>hide-console</emphasis>
2498 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2502 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2504 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
2507 The actions files are used to define what actions
2508 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
2509 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
2510 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
2511 are three such files included with <application>Privoxy</application>,
2512 with slightly different purposes. <filename>default.action</filename> sets
2513 the default policies. <filename>standard.action</filename> is used by
2514 <application>Privoxy</application> and the web based editor to set
2515 pre-defined values (and normally should not be edited). Local exceptions
2516 are best done in <filename>user.action</filename>. The content of these
2517 can all be viewed and edited from <ulink
2518 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2522 Anything you want can be blocked, including ads, banners, or just some obnoxious
2523 URL that you would rather not see is done here. Cookies can be accepted or rejected, or
2524 accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not written to disk),
2525 content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking fooled, and much more.
2526 See below for a complete list of available actions.
2530 An actions file typically has sections. Near the top, <quote>aliases</quote> are
2531 optionally defined (discussed <ulink
2532 url="actions-file.html#ALIASES">below</ulink>), then the default set of rules
2533 which will apply universally to all sites and pages. And then below that,
2534 exceptions to the defined universal policies.
2537 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2539 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2541 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2542 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2543 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2544 certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
2545 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2546 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2547 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per
2548 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2549 regularly use and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe
2550 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2554 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2555 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2556 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2557 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2561 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2563 <title>How to Edit</title>
2565 The easiest way to edit the <quote>actions</quote> files is with a browser by
2566 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2567 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2571 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2578 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
2580 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2581 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will be discussed later. For now
2582 let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a heading line (often split
2583 up to multiple lines for readability) which consist of a list of actions,
2584 separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces. Below that, there
2585 is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
2589 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2590 compared to all patterns in this file. Every time it matches, the list of
2591 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
2592 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
2593 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
2594 the effects are aggregated (e.g. a URL might match both the
2595 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>
2596 and <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> actions).
2601 You can trace this process by visiting <ulink
2602 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2606 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2607 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
2611 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2613 <title>Patterns</title>
2615 Generally, a pattern has the form <literal><domain>/<path></literal>,
2616 where both the <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal>
2617 are optional. (This is why the pattern <literal>/</literal> matches all URLs).
2622 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2625 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2626 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
2631 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2634 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2640 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2643 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2644 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2649 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
2652 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2653 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
2658 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2661 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2662 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
2669 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2670 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2673 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2674 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2680 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2683 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2684 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2689 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2692 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2693 <literal>www.</literal>
2698 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2701 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
2702 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
2709 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2710 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
2711 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
2712 any single character, you can define character classes in square
2713 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
2718 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2721 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2722 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2727 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2730 matches all of the above, and then some.
2735 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2738 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2739 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2744 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2747 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2748 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2749 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2750 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2758 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2761 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2762 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2765 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
2766 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2771 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2772 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2773 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2774 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2775 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2776 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
2780 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2781 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2782 for the beginning of a line).
2786 Please also note that matching in the path is case
2787 <emphasis>INSENSITIVE</emphasis> by default, but you can switch to case
2788 sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2789 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch:
2790 <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match only
2791 documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2792 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2798 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2801 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2803 <sect2 id="actions">
2804 <title>Actions</title>
2806 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2807 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2808 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2809 <quote>+action</quote> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2810 <quote>+block</quote> means please <quote>block the following URL
2815 Actions are invoked by enclosing the action name in curly braces (e.g.
2816 {+some_action}), followed by a list of URLs (or patterns that match URLs) to
2817 which the action applies. There are three classes of actions:
2825 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>on</quote> or
2826 <quote>off</quote>. Examples:
2832 <emphasis>{+name}</emphasis> # enable this action
2833 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable this action
2843 Parameterized, e.g. <quote>+/-hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</quote>,
2844 where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2851 <emphasis>{+name{param}}</emphasis> # enable action and set parameter to <quote>param</quote>
2852 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable action (<quote>parameter</quote>) can be omitted
2861 <!-- oes, or someone, check this. Re-worded 04/20/02 HB. -->
2862 Multi-value, e.g. <quote>{+/-add-header{Name: value}}</quote> or
2863 <quote>{+/-send-wafer{name=value}}</quote>), where some value needs to be defined
2864 in addition to simply enabling the action. Examples:
2870 <emphasis>{+name{param=value}}</emphasis> # enable action and set <quote>param</quote> to <quote>value</quote>
2871 <emphasis>{-name{param=value}}</emphasis> # remove the parameter <quote>param</quote> completely
2872 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable this action totally and remove <application>param</application> too
2883 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2884 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2885 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
2886 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2887 files will give a good starting point).
2891 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
2892 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2893 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files). For
2894 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
2895 Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in
2896 <filename>config</filename> (the default installation has three actions
2897 files). It also quite possible for any given URL pattern to match more than
2901 <!-- start actions listing -->
2903 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> <quote>actions</quote> are:
2907 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2908 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2909 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2911 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2914 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2916 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2917 <title><emphasis>+add-header</emphasis></title>
2922 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2924 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2929 <term>Typical uses:</term>
2932 Send a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2938 <term>Possible values:</term>
2941 Any value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2947 <term>Example usage:</term>
2950 <emphasis>{+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}}</emphasis>
2951 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
2960 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2961 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2962 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2971 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2972 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2973 <title><emphasis>+block</emphasis></title>
2978 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2980 <para>Boolean.</para>
2985 <term>Typical uses:</term>
2988 Used to block a URL from reaching your browser. The URL may be
2989 anything, but is typically used to block ads or other obnoxious
2996 <term>Possible values:</term>
3003 <term>Example usage:</term>
3006 <emphasis>{+block}</emphasis>
3007 <emphasis>.banners.example.com</emphasis>
3008 <emphasis>.ads.r.us</emphasis>
3017 If a URL matches one of the blocked patterns, <application>Privoxy</application>
3018 will intercept the URL and display its special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
3019 instead. If there is sufficient space, a large red banner will appear with
3020 a friendly message about why the page was blocked, and a way to go there
3021 anyway. If there is insufficient space a smaller <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
3022 page will appear without the red banner.
3023 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html">Click here</ulink>
3024 to view the default blocked HTML page (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running
3025 for this to work as intended!).
3029 A very important exception is if the URL <emphasis>matches both</emphasis>
3030 <quote>+block</quote> and <ulink
3031 url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>,
3032 then it will be handled by
3033 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></ulink>
3034 (see below). It is important to understand this process, in order
3035 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> is able to deal with
3036 ads and other objectionable content.
3039 The <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink>
3040 action can also perform some of the
3041 same functionality as <quote>+block</quote>, but by virtue of very
3042 different programming techniques, and is most often used for different
3052 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3053 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3054 <title><emphasis>+deanimate-gifs</emphasis></title>
3059 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3061 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3066 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3069 To stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.
3075 <term>Possible values:</term>
3078 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3084 <term>Example usage:</term>
3087 <emphasis>{+deanimate-gifs{last}}</emphasis>
3088 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3097 De-animate all animated GIF images, i.e. reduce them to their last frame.
3098 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3099 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3100 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3101 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3102 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3103 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3111 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3112 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3113 <title><emphasis>+downgrade-http-version</emphasis></title>
3118 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3120 <para>Boolean.</para>
3125 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3128 <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> will downgrade HTTP/1.1 client requests to
3129 HTTP/1.0 and downgrade the responses as well.
3135 <term>Possible values:</term>
3144 <term>Example usage:</term>
3147 <emphasis>{+downgrade-http-version}</emphasis>
3148 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3157 Use this action for servers that use HTTP/1.1 protocol features that
3158 <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't handle well yet. HTTP/1.1 is
3159 only partially implemented. Default is not to downgrade requests. This is
3160 an infrequently needed action, and is used to help with rare problem sites only.
3168 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3169 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3170 <title><emphasis>+fast-redirects</emphasis></title>
3175 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3177 <para>Boolean.</para>
3182 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3185 The <quote>+fast-redirects</quote> action enables interception of
3186 <quote>redirect</quote> requests from one server to another, which
3187 are used to track users.<application>Privoxy</application> can cut off
3188 all but the last valid URL in a redirect request and send a local redirect
3189 back to your browser without contacting the intermediate site(s).
3195 <term>Possible values:</term>
3204 <term>Example usage:</term>
3207 <emphasis>{+fast-redirects}</emphasis>
3208 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3217 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3218 will link to some script on their own server, giving the destination as a
3219 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3220 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3221 <emphasis>http://some.place/some_script?http://some.where-else</emphasis>.
3224 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3225 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3226 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3227 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3228 browser ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3232 This is a normally <quote>on</quote> feature, and often requires exceptions
3233 for sites that are sensitive to defeating this mechanism.
3242 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3243 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3244 <title><emphasis>+filter</emphasis></title>
3249 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3251 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3256 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3259 Apply page filtering as defined by named sections of the
3260 <filename>default.filter</filename> file to the specified site(s).
3261 <quote>Filtering</quote> can be any modification of the raw
3262 page content, including re-writing or deletion of content.
3268 <term>Possible values:</term>
3271 <quote>+filter</quote> must include the name of one of the section identifiers
3272 from <filename>default.filter</filename> (or whatever
3273 <emphasis>filterfile</emphasis> is specified in <filename>config</filename>).
3279 <term>Example usage (from the current <filename>default.filter</filename>):</term>
3283 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3284 <emphasis>+filter{html-annoyances}</emphasis>: Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.
3289 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3290 <emphasis>+filter{js-annoyances}</emphasis>: Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
3295 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3296 <emphasis>+filter{content-cookies}</emphasis>: Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content
3301 <anchor id="filter-popups">
3302 <emphasis>+filter{popups}</emphasis>: Kill all popups in JS and HTML
3307 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3308 <emphasis>+filter{frameset-borders}</emphasis>: Give frames a border and make them resizable
3313 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3314 <emphasis>+filter{webbugs}</emphasis>: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
3319 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3320 <emphasis>+filter{refresh-tags}</emphasis>: Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)
3325 <anchor id="filter-fun">
3326 <emphasis>+filter{fun}</emphasis>: Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!
3331 <anchor id="filter-nimda">
3332 <emphasis>+filter{nimda}</emphasis>: Remove Nimda (virus) code.
3337 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3338 <emphasis>+filter{banners-by-size}</emphasis>: Kill banners by size (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)
3343 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3344 <emphasis>+filter{shockwave-flash}</emphasis>: Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects
3349 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
3350 <emphasis>+filter{crude-parental}</emphasis>: Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"
3360 This is potentially a very powerful feature! And requires a knowledge
3361 of regular expressions if you want to <quote>roll your own</quote>.
3362 Filtering operates on a line by line basis throughout the entire page.
3365 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3366 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3367 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3368 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3369 noticeable on slower connections.
3372 Filtering can achieve some of the effects as the
3373 <ulink url="actions-file#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink>
3374 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. In the overall
3375 scheme of things, filtering is one of the first things <quote>Privoxy</quote>
3376 does with a web page. So other most other actions are applied to the
3377 already <quote>filtered</quote> page.
3386 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3387 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
3388 <title><emphasis>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</emphasis></title>
3393 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3395 <para>Boolean.</para>
3400 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3403 Block any existing X-Forwarded-for HTTP header, and do not add a new one.
3409 <term>Possible values:</term>
3418 <term>Example usage:</term>
3421 <emphasis>{+hide-forwarded-for-headers}</emphasis>
3422 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3431 It is fairly safe to leave this on. It does not seem to break many sites.
3440 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3441 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
3442 <title><emphasis>+hide-from-header</emphasis></title>
3447 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3449 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3454 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3457 To block the browser from sending your email address in a <quote>From:</quote>
3464 <term>Possible values:</term>
3467 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
3473 <term>Example usage:</term>
3476 <emphasis>{+hide-from-header{block}}</emphasis>
3477 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3486 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
3487 (not to be confused with the <ulink
3488 url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> action).
3489 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to send to the web
3499 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3500 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referer">
3501 <title><emphasis>+hide-referer</emphasis></title>
3502 <anchor id="hide-referrer">
3506 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3508 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3513 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3516 Don't send the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header to the web site.
3517 Or, alternately send a forged header instead.
3523 <term>Possible values:</term>
3526 Prevent the header from being sent with the keyword, <quote>block</quote>.
3527 Or, <quote>forge</quote> a URL to one from the same server as the request.
3528 Or, set to user defined value of your choice.
3534 <term>Example usage:</term>
3537 <emphasis>{+hide-referer{forge}}</emphasis>
3538 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3547 <quote>forge</quote> is the preferred option here, since some servers will
3548 not send images back otherwise.
3551 <quote>+hide-referrer</quote> is an alternate spelling of
3552 <quote>+hide-referer</quote>. It has the exact same parameters, and can be freely
3553 mixed with, <quote>+hide-referer</quote>. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
3554 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
3555 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
3564 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3565 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
3566 <title><emphasis>+hide-user-agent</emphasis></title>
3571 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3573 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3578 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3581 To change the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> header so web servers can't tell
3582 your browser type. Who's business is it anyway?
3588 <term>Possible values:</term>
3591 Any user defined string.
3597 <term>Example usage:</term>
3600 <emphasis>{+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}}</emphasis>
3601 <emphasis>.msn.com</emphasis>
3610 Warning! This breaks many web sites that depend on this in order
3611 to determine how the target browser will respond to various
3612 requests. Use with caution.
3620 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3621 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
3622 <title><emphasis>+handle-as-image</emphasis></title>
3627 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3629 <para>Boolean.</para>
3634 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3637 To define what <application>Privoxy</application> should treat
3638 automatically as an image, and is an important ingredient of how
3645 <term>Possible values:</term>
3654 <term>Example usage:</term>
3657 <emphasis>{+handle-as-image}</emphasis>
3658 <emphasis>/.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)</emphasis>
3667 This only has meaning if the URL (or pattern) also is
3668 <quote>+block</quote>ed, in which case a user definable image can
3669 be sent rather than a HTML page. This is integral to the whole concept of
3670 ad blocking: the URL must match <emphasis>both</emphasis> a <ulink
3671 url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> rule,
3672 <emphasis>and</emphasis> <quote>+handle-as-image</quote>.
3674 url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></ulink>
3675 below for control over what will actually be displayed by the browser.)
3678 There is little reason to change the default definition for this action.
3687 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3688 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
3689 <title><emphasis>+set-image-blocker</emphasis></title>
3694 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3696 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3701 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3704 Decide what to do with URLs that end up tagged with <emphasis>both</emphasis>
3705 <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink>
3707 url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>,
3708 e.g an advertisement.
3714 <term>Possible values:</term>
3717 There are four available options: <quote>-set-image-blocker</quote> will send a HTML
3718 <quote>blocked</quote> page, usually resulting in a <quote>broken
3720 <quote>+set-image-blocker{<emphasis>blank</emphasis>}</quote> will send a
3721 1x1 transparent GIF image.
3722 <quote>+set-image-blocker{<emphasis>pattern</emphasis>}</quote> will send a
3723 checkerboard type pattern (the default). And finally,
3724 <quote>+set-image-blocker{<emphasis>http://xyz.com</emphasis>}</quote> will
3725 send a HTTP temporary redirect to the specified image. This has the
3726 advantage of the icon being being cached by the browser, which will speed
3733 <term>Example usage:</term>
3736 <emphasis>{+set-image-blocker{blank}}</emphasis>
3737 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3746 If you want <emphasis>invisible</emphasis> ads, they need to meet
3747 criteria as matching both <emphasis>images</emphasis> and <emphasis>blocked</emphasis>
3748 actions. And then, <quote>image-blocker</quote> should be set to
3749 <quote>blank</quote> for invisibility. Note you cannot treat HTML pages as
3750 images in most cases. For instance, frames require an HTML page to
3751 display. So a frame that is an ad, typically cannot be treated as an image.
3752 Forcing an <quote>image</quote> in this situation just will not work
3761 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3762 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
3763 <title><emphasis>+limit-connect</emphasis></title>
3768 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3770 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3775 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3778 By default, <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
3779 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
3780 <quote>+limit-connect</quote> to disable this altogether, or to allow
3787 <term>Possible values:</term>
3790 Any valid port number, or port number range.
3796 <term>Example usages:</term>
3798 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
3799 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
3800 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
3802 <emphasis>+limit-connect{443}</emphasis> # This is the default and need not be specified.
3803 <emphasis>+limit-connect{80,443}</emphasis> # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
3804 <emphasis>+limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-}</emphasis> # Port less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
3813 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
3814 (https:// URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: the proxy connects
3815 to the server on the specified port, and then short-circuits its
3816 connections to the client <emphasis>and</emphasis> to the remote proxy.
3817 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
3818 abused as TCP relays very easily.
3821 If you want to allow CONNECT for more ports than this, or want to forbid
3822 CONNECT altogether, you can specify a comma separated list of ports and
3823 port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum defaulting to 0 and
3827 If you don't know what any of this means, there probably is no reason to
3836 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3837 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
3838 <title><emphasis>+prevent-compression</emphasis></title>
3843 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3845 <para>Boolean.</para>
3850 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3853 Prevent the specified websites from compressing HTTP data.
3859 <term>Possible values:</term>
3868 <term>Example usage:</term>
3871 <emphasis>{+prevent-compression}</emphasis>
3872 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3881 Some websites do this, which can be a problem for
3882 <application>Privoxy</application>, since
3883 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink>,
3884 <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink>
3886 url="actions-file.html#GIF-DEANIMATE"><quote>+gif-deanimate</quote></ulink>
3887 will not work on compressed data. This will slow down connections to those
3888 websites, though. Default typically is to turn
3889 <quote>prevent-compression</quote> on.
3897 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3898 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
3899 <title><emphasis>+session-cookies-only</emphasis></title>
3904 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3906 <para>Boolean.</para>
3911 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3914 Allow cookies for the current browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>.
3920 <term>Possible values:</term>
3929 <term>Example usage (disabling):</term>
3932 <emphasis>{-session-cookies-only}</emphasis>
3933 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
3942 If websites set cookies, <quote>+session-cookies-only</quote> will make sure
3943 they are erased when you exit and restart your web browser. This makes
3944 profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
3945 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
3946 sites, and is the recommended setting.
3949 <quote>+prevent-*-cookies</quote> actions should be turned off as well (see
3950 below), for <quote>+session-cookies-only</quote> to work. Or, else no cookies
3951 will get through at all. For, <quote>persistent</quote> cookies that survive
3952 across browser sessions, see below as well.
3961 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3962 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-reading-cookies">
3963 <title><emphasis>+prevent-reading-cookies</emphasis></title>
3968 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3970 <para>Boolean.</para>
3975 <term>Typical uses:</term>
3978 Explicitly prevent the web server from reading any cookies on your
3985 <term>Possible values:</term>
3994 <term>Example usage:</term>
3997 <emphasis>{+prevent-reading-cookies}</emphasis>
3998 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
4007 Often used in conjunction with <quote>+prevent-setting-cookies</quote> to
4008 disable cookies completely. Note that
4009 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></ulink>
4010 requires these to both be disabled (or else it never gets any cookies to cache).
4013 For <quote>persistent</quote> cookies to work (i.e. they survive across browser
4014 sessions and reboots), all three cookie settings should be <quote>off</quote>
4015 for the specified sites.
4024 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4025 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-setting-cookies">
4026 <title><emphasis>+prevent-setting-cookies</emphasis></title>
4031 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4033 <para>Boolean.</para>
4038 <term>Typical uses:</term>
4041 Explicitly block the web server from storing cookies on your
4048 <term>Possible values:</term>
4057 <term>Example usage:</term>
4060 <emphasis>{+prevent-setting-cookies}</emphasis>
4061 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
4070 Often used in conjunction with <quote>+prevent-reading-cookies</quote> to
4071 disable cookies completely (see above).
4080 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4081 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popup">
4082 <title><emphasis>+kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popups"></emphasis></title>
4086 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4088 <para>Boolean.</para>
4093 <term>Typical uses:</term>
4096 Stop those annoying JavaScript pop-up windows!
4102 <term>Possible values:</term>
4111 <term>Example usage:</term>
4114 <emphasis>{+kill-popups}</emphasis>
4115 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
4124 <quote>+kill-popups</quote> uses a built in filter to disable pop-ups
4125 that use the <literal>window.open()</literal> function, etc. This is
4126 one of the first actions processed by <application>Privoxy</application>
4127 as it contacts the remote web server. This action is not always 100% reliable,
4128 and is supplemented by <quote>+filter{<emphasis>popups</emphasis>}</quote>.
4132 An alternate spelling is <quote>+kill-popup</quote>, which is
4143 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4144 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
4145 <title><emphasis>+send-vanilla-wafer</emphasis></title>
4150 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4152 <para>Boolean.</para>
4157 <term>Typical uses:</term>
4160 Sends a cookie for every site stating that you do not accept any copyright
4161 on cookies sent to you, and asking them not to track you.
4167 <term>Possible values:</term>
4176 <term>Example usage:</term>
4179 <emphasis>{+send-vanilla-wafer}</emphasis>
4180 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
4189 This action only applies if you are using a <filename>jarfile</filename>
4190 for saving cookies. Of course, this is a (relatively) unique header and
4191 could conceivably be used to track you.
4200 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4201 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
4202 <title><emphasis>+send-wafer</emphasis></title>
4207 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4209 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4214 <term>Typical uses:</term>
4217 This allows you to send an arbitrary, user definable cookie.
4223 <term>Possible values:</term>
4226 User specified cookie name and corresponding value.
4232 <term>Example usage:</term>
4235 <emphasis>{+send-wafer{name=value}}</emphasis>
4236 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis>
4245 This can be specified multiple times in order to add as many cookies as you
4255 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4257 <title>Summary</title>
4259 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
4260 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
4261 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
4262 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
4263 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
4264 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
4270 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4271 <sect3 renderas="sect2" id="act-examples">
4272 <title>Sample Actions Files</title>
4274 Remember that the meaning of any of the above references is reversed by preceding
4275 the action with a <quote>-</quote>, in place of the <quote>+</quote>. Also,
4276 that some actions are turned on in the default section of the actions file,
4277 and require little to no additional configuration. These are just <quote>on</quote>.
4281 But, other actions that are turned on in the default section <emphasis>do
4282 typically require</emphasis> exceptions to be listed in the latter sections of
4283 one of our actions file. For instance, by default no URLs are
4284 <quote>blocked</quote> (i.e. in the default definitions of
4285 <filename>default.action</filename>). We need exceptions to this in order to
4286 <emphasis>enable</emphasis> ad blocking in the lower sections. But we need to
4287 be very selective about what we do block. Thus, the default is <quote>off</quote>
4292 Below is a liberally commented sample <filename>default.action</filename> file
4293 to demonstrate how all the pieces come together. And to show how exceptions
4294 to the default policies can be handled. This is followed by a brief
4295 <filename>user.action</filename> with similar examples.
4302 # Sample default.action file <developers@privoxy.org>
4304 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
4306 for-privoxy-version=3.0
4309 ##########################################################################
4310 # <ulink url="actions-file.html#ALIASES">Aliases</ulink> must be defined *before* they are used. These are
4311 # easier to remember, and can combine several actions into one. Once
4312 # defined they can be used just like any built-in action -- but within
4313 # this file only! Aliases do not require a + or - sign.
4314 ##########################################################################
4316 # Some useful aliases.
4317 # Alias to turn off cookie handling, ie allow all cookies unmolested.
4318 -prevent-cookies = -prevent-setting-cookies -prevent-reading-cookies \
4319 -session-cookies-only
4321 # Alias to both block and treat as if an image for ad blocking
4323 +imageblock = +block +handle-as-image
4325 # Fragile sites should have the minimum changes:
4326 fragile = -block -deanimate-gifs -fast-redirects -filter -hide-referer \
4327 -prevent-cookies -kill-popups
4329 # Shops should be allowed to set persistent cookies
4330 shop = -filter -prevent-cookies -session-cookies-only
4333 ##########################################################################
4334 # Begin default action settings. Anything in this section will match
4335 # all URLs -- UNLESS we have exceptions that also match, defined below this
4336 # section. We will show all potential actions here whether they are on
4337 # or off. We could omit any disabled action if we wanted, since all
4338 # actions are 'off' by default anyway. Shown for completeness only.
4339 # Actions are enabled if preceded by a '+', otherwise they are disabled
4340 # (unless an alias has been defined without this).
4341 ##########################################################################
4343 <ulink url="actions-file.html#ADD-HEADER">-add-header</ulink> \
4344 <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> \
4345 <ulink url="actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">-deanimate-gifs</ulink> \
4346 <ulink url="actions-file.html#DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">-downgrade-http-version</ulink> \
4347 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS">+fast-redirects</ulink> \
4348 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">+filter{html-annoyances}</ulink> \
4349 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">+filter{js-annoyances}</ulink> \
4350 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">-filter{content-cookies}</ulink> \
4351 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS">-filter{popups}</ulink> \
4352 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-WEBBUGS">+filter{webbugs}</ulink> \
4353 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">-filter{refresh-tags}</ulink> \
4354 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-FUN">-filter{fun}</ulink> \
4355 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-NIMDA">+filter{nimda}</ulink> \
4356 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">+filter{banners-by-size}</ulink> \
4357 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">-filter{shockwave-flash}</ulink> \
4358 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">-filter{crude-prental}</ulink> \
4359 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">+hide-forwarded-for-headers</ulink> \
4360 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-FROM-HEADER">+hide-from-header{block}</ulink> \
4361 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-REFERER">-hide-referrer</ulink> \
4362 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-USER-AGENT">-hide-user-agent</ulink> \
4363 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">-handle-as-image</ulink> \
4364 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">+set-image-blocker{pattern}</ulink> \
4365 <ulink url="actions-file.html#LIMIT-CONNECT">-limit-connect</ulink> \
4366 <ulink url="actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">+prevent-compression</ulink> \
4367 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">-session-cookies-only</ulink> \
4368 <ulink url="actions-file.html#PREVENT-READING-COOKIES">-prevent-reading-cookies</ulink> \
4369 <ulink url="actions-file.html#PREVENT-SETTING-COOKIES">-prevent-setting-cookies</ulink> \
4370 <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS">-kill-popups</ulink> \
4371 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">-send-vanilla-wafer</ulink> \
4372 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SEND-WAFER">-send-wafer</ulink> \
4374 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.
4376 ##########################################################################
4377 # Default behavior is now set. Now we will define some exceptions to our
4378 # default action policies.
4379 ##########################################################################
4381 # These sites are very complex and require very minimal interference.
4382 # We'll disable most actions with our 'fragile' alias:
4384 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
4385 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
4388 # Shopping sites - not as fragile but require some special
4389 # handling. We still want to block ads, and we will allow
4390 # persistant cookies via the 'shop' alias:
4393 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
4398 # These sites require pop-ups too :( We'll combine our 'shop'
4399 # alias with two other actions into one rule to allow all popups.
4400 { shop <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS">-kill-popups</ulink> <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS">-filter{popups}</ulink> }
4405 # The 'Fast-redirects' action breaks some sites. Disable this action
4406 # for these known sensitive sites:
4407 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS">-fast-redirects</ulink> }
4409 edit.europe.yahoo.com
4411 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
4412 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
4416 # Define which file types will be treated as images. Important
4418 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">+handle-as-image</ulink> }
4419 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)
4422 # Now lets list some domains that are known ad generators. And
4423 # our alias that we use here will block these as well as force
4424 # them to be treated as images. This combination of actions is
4425 # important for ad blocking. What the browser will show instead is
4426 # determined by the setting of <ulink url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></ulink>
4430 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
4431 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
4435 ad.*.doubleclick.net
4438 # These will just simply be blocked. They will generate the BLOCKED
4439 # banner page, if matched. Heavy use of wildcards and regular
4440 # expressions in this example. Enable block action:
4441 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
4446 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
4447 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
4451 # The above block section will probably inadvertantly catch some
4452 # sites we DO NOT want blocked via the wildcards and regular expressions.
4453 # Now let's set exceptions to the exceptions so the good guys get better
4454 # treatment. Disable block action:
4455 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
4460 # Let's just trust all .edu top level domains.
4462 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv
4463 # We'll need to access to path names containing 'download'
4466 # 'adv' is for globalintersec and means advanced, not advertisement
4467 www.globalintersec.com/adv
4470 # Don't filter *anything* from our friends at sourceforge.
4471 # Notice we don't have to name the individual filter
4472 # identifiers -- we just turn them all off in one fell swoop.
4473 # Disable all filters for this one site:
4474 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER">-filter</ulink> }
4482 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies.
4483 The above would be a reasonable starting point for many situations. Now,
4484 we want to be more specific and have customized rules that are more suitable
4485 to our personal habits and preferences. These would be for narrowly defined
4486 situations like your ISP or your bank, and should be placed in
4487 <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
4488 actions files and should not be clobbered by upgrades. So any settings here,
4489 will have the last word and over-ride any previously defined actions.
4493 Now a few examples of some things that one might do with a
4494 <filename>user.action</filename> file.
4497 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
4503 # Sample user.action file.
4505 # Any aliases you want to use need to be re-defined here.
4506 # Alias to turn off cookie handling, ie allow all cookies unmolested.
4507 -prevent-cookies = -prevent-setting-cookies -prevent-reading-cookies \
4508 -session-cookies-only
4510 # Fragile sites should have the minimum changes:
4511 fragile = -block -deanimate-gifs -fast-redirects -filter -hide-referer \
4512 -prevent-cookies -kill-popups
4514 # Allow persistent cookies for a few regular sites that we
4515 # trust via our above alias. These will be saved from one browser session
4516 # to the next. We are explicity turning off any and all cookie handling,
4517 # even though the prevent-*-cookie settings were disabled in our above
4518 # default.action anyway. So cookies from these domains will come through
4520 { -prevent-cookies }
4527 # My ISP uses obnoxious self promoting images on many pages.
4528 # Nuke them :) Note that <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink> need not be specified,
4529 # since all URLs ending in .gif will be tagged as images by the
4530 # general rules in default.action anyway.
4531 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
4532 www.my-isp-example.com/logo[0-9].gif
4534 # Say the site where you do your homebanking needs to open
4535 # popup windows, but you have chosen to kill popups by
4536 # default. This will allow it for your-example-bank.com:
4538 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS">-filter{popups}</ulink> <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS">-kill-popups</ulink> }
4539 .my-example-bank.com
4541 # This site is delicate, and requires kid-glove
4553 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4556 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4557 <sect2 id="aliases">
4558 <title>Aliases</title>
4560 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
4561 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other <quote>actions</quote>.
4562 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in <quote>actions</quote>.
4563 Currently, an alias can contain any character except space, tab, <quote>=</quote>,
4564 <quote>{</quote> or <quote>}</quote>. But please use only <quote>a</quote>-
4565 <quote>z</quote>, <quote>0</quote>-<quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and
4566 <quote>-</quote>. Alias names are not case sensitive, and
4567 <emphasis>must be defined before other actions</emphasis> in the
4568 actions file! And there can only be one set of <quote>aliases</quote>
4569 defined per file. Each actions file may have its own aliases, but they are
4570 only visible within that file. Aliases do not requir a <quote>+</quote> or
4571 <quote>-</quote> sign in front, since they are merely expanded.
4575 Now let's define a few aliases:
4582 # Useful custom aliases we can use later. These must come first!
4584 +prevent-cookies = +prevent-setting-cookies +prevent-reading-cookies
4585 -prevent-cookies = -prevent-setting-cookies -prevent-reading-cookies
4586 fragile = -block -prevent-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
4587 shop = -prevent-cookies -filter -fast-redirects
4588 +imageblock = +block +handle-as-image
4590 # Aliases defined from other aliases, for people who don't like to type
4592 c0 = +prevent-cookies
4593 c1 = -prevent-cookies
4594 #... etc. Customize to your heart's content.
4601 Some examples using our <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote>
4602 aliases from above. These would appear in the lower sections of an
4603 actions file as exceptions to the default actions (as defined in the
4611 # These sites are very complex and require
4612 # minimal interference.
4614 .office.microsoft.com
4615 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
4618 # Shopping sites - but we still want to block ads.
4621 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
4624 # These shops require pop-ups also
4634 The <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> aliases are often used for
4635 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require most actions to be disabled
4636 in order to function properly.
4643 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4647 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
4649 <sect1 id="filter-file">
4650 <title>The Filter File</title>
4652 Any web page can be dynamically modified with the filter file. This
4653 modification can be removal, or re-writing, of any web page content,
4654 including tags and non-visible content. The default filter file is
4655 oddly enough <filename>default.filter</filename>, located in the config
4660 This is potentially a very powerful feature, and requires knowledge of both
4661 <quote>regular expression</quote> and HTML in order create custom
4662 filters. But, there are a number of useful filters included with
4663 <application>Privoxy</application> for many common situations.
4667 The included example file is divided into sections. Each section begins
4668 with the <literal>FILTER</literal> keyword, followed by the identifier
4669 for that section, e.g. <quote>FILTER: webbugs</quote>. Each section performs
4670 a similar type of filtering, such as <quote>html-annoyances</quote>.
4674 This file uses regular expressions to alter or remove any string in the
4675 target page. The expressions can only operate on one line at a time. Some
4676 examples from the included default <filename>default.filter</filename>:
4680 Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by
4681 deleting such references:
4688 FILTER: html-annoyances
4690 # New browser windows should be resizeable and have a location and status
4693 s/resizable="?(no|0)"?/resizable=1/ig s/noresize/yesresize/ig
4694 s/location="?(no|0)"?/location=1/ig s/status="?(no|0)"?/status=1/ig
4695 s/scrolling="?(no|0|Auto)"?/scrolling=1/ig
4696 s/menubar="?(no|0)"?/menubar=1/ig
4698 # The <BLINK> tag was a crime!
4700 s*<blink>|</blink>**ig
4704 #s/framespacing="?(no|0)"?//ig
4705 #s/margin(height|width)=[0-9]*//gi
4712 Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of <quote>Microsoft</quote> with
4713 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>, and have a little fun with topical buzzwords:
4722 s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig
4726 s/industry-leading|cutting-edge|award-winning/<font color=red><b>BINGO!</b></font>/ig
4733 Kill those pesky little web-bugs:
4740 # webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
4743 s/<img\s+[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1\D[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1(\D[^>]*?)?>/<!-- Squished WebBug -->/sig
4750 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4752 <title>The <emphasis>+filter</emphasis> Action</title>
4754 Filters are enabled with the <ulink
4755 url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink> action from within
4756 one of the actions files. <quote>+filter</quote> requires one parameter, which
4757 should match one of the section identifiers in the filter file itself. Example:
4761 +filter{html-annoyances}
4765 This would activate that particular filter. Similarly, <quote>+filter</quote>
4766 can be turned off for selected sites as:
4767 <quote>-filter{html-annoyances}</quote>. Remember too, all actions are off by
4768 default, unless they are explicity enabled in one of the actions files.
4775 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4779 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4781 <sect1 id="templates">
4782 <title>Templates</title>
4784 When <application>Privoxy</application> displays one of its internal
4785 pages, such as a <ulink url="http://bogus_404_page.com">404 Not Found error page</ulink>
4786 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for link to work as
4787 intended), it uses the appropriate template. On Linux, BSD, and Unix, these
4788 are located in <filename>/etc/privoxy/templates</filename> by default. These
4789 may be customized, if desired. <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> is used to
4790 control the HTML attributes (fonts, etc).
4794 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html">Blocked
4795 (<application>Privoxy</application> needs to be running for page to display)</ulink>
4796 banner page with the bright red top
4797 banner, is called just <quote><filename>blocked</filename></quote>. This
4798 may be customized or replaced with something else if desired.
4803 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4807 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4809 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
4812 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
4814 <!-- end boilerplate -->
4819 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4820 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Copyright and History</title>
4822 <sect2><title>Copyright</title>
4823 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
4825 <!-- end copyright -->
4828 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
4831 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4833 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
4834 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
4836 <!-- end history -->
4840 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4841 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
4842 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
4844 <!-- end seealso -->
4849 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4850 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
4853 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4855 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
4857 <application>Privoxy</application> can use <quote>regular expressions</quote>
4858 in various config files. Assuming support for <quote>pcre</quote> (Perl
4859 Compatible Regular Expressions) is compiled in, which is the default. Such
4860 configuration directives do not require regular expressions, but they can be
4861 used to increase flexibility by matching a pattern with wild-cards against
4866 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
4867 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
4868 introduction only. A full explanation would require a book ;-)
4872 <quote>Regular expressions</quote> is a way of matching one character
4873 expression against another to see if it matches or not. One of the
4874 <quote>expressions</quote> is a literal string of readable characters
4875 (letter, numbers, etc), and the other is a complex string of literal
4876 characters combined with wild-cards, and other special characters, called
4877 meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have special meanings and
4878 are used to build the complex pattern to be matched against. Perl Compatible
4879 Regular Expressions is an enhanced form of the regular expression language
4880 with backward compatibility.
4884 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
4885 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
4886 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
4887 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
4888 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
4889 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
4890 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
4891 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
4895 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
4896 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
4897 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
4898 and then some examples:
4903 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
4904 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
4906 </simplelist></para>
4910 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
4913 </simplelist></para>
4917 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
4920 </simplelist></para>
4924 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
4927 </simplelist></para>
4931 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
4932 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
4933 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
4934 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
4935 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
4936 meta-character meaning of any single character).
4938 </simplelist></para>
4942 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
4943 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
4944 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
4945 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
4947 </simplelist></para>
4951 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
4952 or multiple sub-expressions.
4954 </simplelist></para>
4958 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
4959 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
4960 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
4961 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
4962 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
4963 example</quote>, and nothing else.
4965 </simplelist></para>
4969 <emphasis>s/string1/string2/g</emphasis> - This is used to rewrite strings of text.
4970 <quote>string1</quote> is replaced by <quote>string2</quote> in this
4971 example. There must of course be a match on <quote>string1</quote> first.
4973 </simplelist></para>
4976 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
4977 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
4978 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
4979 be more illuminating:
4983 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
4984 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
4985 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
4986 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
4987 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
4988 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
4989 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
4990 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
4991 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
4992 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
4993 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
4994 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
4995 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
4996 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
5001 A now something a little more complex:
5005 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
5006 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
5007 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
5008 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
5009 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
5010 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
5011 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
5016 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
5017 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
5018 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
5019 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
5020 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
5021 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
5022 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
5023 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
5024 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
5025 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
5026 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
5027 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
5028 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
5029 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
5030 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
5031 changing our regular expression to:
5032 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
5037 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
5038 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
5039 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
5040 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
5041 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
5042 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
5043 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
5044 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
5045 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
5046 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
5047 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
5048 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
5049 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
5050 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
5051 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
5052 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
5053 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
5054 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
5055 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
5056 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
5057 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
5058 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
5059 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
5060 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
5061 in the expression anywhere).
5065 <emphasis><literal>s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i</literal></emphasis> - This is
5066 a substitution. <quote>MicroSuck</quote> will replace any occurrence of
5067 <quote>microsoft</quote>. The <quote>i</quote> at the end of the expression
5068 means ignore case. The <quote>(?!.com)</quote> means
5069 the match should fail if <quote>microsoft</quote> is followed by
5070 <quote>.com</quote>. In other words, this acts like a <quote>NOT</quote>
5071 modifier. In case this is a hyperlink, we don't want to break it ;-).
5075 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
5076 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
5077 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
5078 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
5079 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
5084 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
5085 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
5090 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5093 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5095 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
5098 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
5099 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
5100 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
5101 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
5102 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
5103 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
5104 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
5110 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
5111 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
5112 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
5113 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
5126 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
5130 Alternately, this may be reached at <ulink
5131 url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>, but this
5132 variation may not work as reliably as the above in some configurations.
5138 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
5139 editing of actions files:
5143 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
5150 Show the source code version numbers:
5154 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
5161 Show the browser's request headers:
5165 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
5172 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
5176 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5183 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
5184 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
5188 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
5192 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
5196 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
5201 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
5210 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
5214 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
5215 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
5217 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
5218 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
5219 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
5220 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
5221 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
5222 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
5225 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
5226 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
5227 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
5228 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
5229 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
5230 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
5239 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>
5246 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>
5253 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)
5260 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>
5266 <ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions','Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Submit Filter Feedback</ulink>
5276 Credit: The site which gave me the general idea for these bookmarklets is
5277 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
5278 have more information about bookmarklets.
5287 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5289 <title>Chain of Events</title>
5291 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
5292 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
5299 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
5300 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
5301 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
5307 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
5308 pages (e.g http://p.p/) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
5313 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
5315 url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> patterns. If
5316 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
5317 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>
5318 is then checked and if it does not match, an
5319 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
5320 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <ulink
5321 url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></ulink>
5322 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
5327 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
5328 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
5333 If the URL pattern matches the <ulink
5334 url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></ulink> action,
5335 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
5340 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
5341 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <ulink
5342 url="actions-file.html#HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></ulink>,
5343 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
5349 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
5355 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
5356 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
5357 filtered as deterimed by the
5358 <ulink url="actions-file.html#PREVENT-SETTING-COOKIES"><quote>+prevent-setting-cookies</quote></ulink>,
5359 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></ulink>,
5360 and <ulink url="actions-file.html#DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></ulink>
5366 If the <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink>
5367 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
5368 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
5373 If a <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink>
5375 url="actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></ulink>
5376 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
5377 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
5378 <filename>default.filter</filename>) are processed against the buffered
5379 content. Filters are applied in the order they are specified in the
5380 <filename>default.filter</filename> file. Animated GIFs, if present, are
5381 reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
5382 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
5383 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
5386 If neither <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink>
5388 url="actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></ulink>
5389 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
5390 to the client browser as it becomes available.
5395 As the browser receives the now (probably filtered) page content, it
5396 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
5397 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
5398 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
5399 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
5400 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
5410 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5411 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
5412 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
5415 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
5416 <ulink url="actions-file.html#ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></ulink>
5417 and <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>filters</quote></ulink>
5418 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
5419 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
5420 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
5421 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
5422 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
5423 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
5424 <quote>regular expressions</quote> whose consequences are not always
5429 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
5430 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
5431 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
5432 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!).
5436 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
5437 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5438 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
5439 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
5443 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
5444 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
5445 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
5446 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <ulink
5447 url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink> action) from
5448 the <filename>default.filter</filename> file since this is handled very
5449 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
5450 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
5451 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
5452 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
5453 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
5454 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
5455 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
5460 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
5461 and look at it one section at a time:
5466 Matches for http://google.com:
5468 --- File standard ---
5469 (no matches in this file)
5471 --- File default ---
5473 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs{last} -downgrade-http-version +fast-redirects
5474 -filter{popups} -filter{fun} -filter{shockwave-flash} -filter{crude-parental}
5475 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{content-cookies}
5476 +filter{webbugs} +filter{refresh-tags} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
5477 +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block} +hide-referer{forge}
5478 -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{pattern} -limit-connect
5479 +prevent-compression +session-cookies-only -prevent-reading-cookies
5480 -prevent-setting-cookies -kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-wafer }
5483 { -session-cookies-only }
5490 (no matches in this file)
5495 This tells us how we have defined our
5496 <ulink url="actions-file.html#ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></ulink>, and
5497 which ones match for our example, <quote>google.com</quote>. The first listing
5498 is any matches for the <filename>standard.action</filename> file. No hits at
5499 all here on <quote>standard</quote>. Then next is <quote>default</quote>, or
5500 our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line listing,
5501 is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default settings.
5502 If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the section
5503 just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This will apply to
5504 all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
5505 -- <quote>/</quote>.
5509 But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
5510 rules, and then list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions would
5511 apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
5512 <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous cookie setting,
5513 which was for <ulink
5514 url="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></ulink>
5515 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google. The
5516 second turns <emphasis>off</emphasis> any
5518 url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></ulink>
5519 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
5520 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
5521 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
5522 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these two actions
5523 defined somewhere in the lower part of our <filename>default.action</filename>
5524 file, and <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter
5529 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
5533 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
5534 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
5535 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
5543 -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs{last} -downgrade-http-version -fast-redirects
5544 -filter{popups} -filter{fun} -filter{shockwave-flash} -filter{crude-parental}
5545 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{content-cookies}
5546 +filter{webbugs} +filter{refresh-tags} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
5547 +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block} +hide-referer{forge}
5548 -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{pattern} -limit-connect
5549 +prevent-compression -session-cookies-only -prevent-reading-cookies
5550 -prevent-setting-cookies -kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-wafer
5555 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
5556 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>.
5560 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
5566 { +block +handle-as-image }
5569 { +block +handle-as-image }
5572 { +block +handle-as-image }
5578 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
5579 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
5580 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
5581 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<ulink
5582 url="actions-file.html#ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></ulink> are defined in
5583 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
5588 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
5589 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
5590 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
5591 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
5592 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
5593 is done here -- as both a <ulink
5594 url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink>
5595 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
5597 url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>.
5598 The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> just simplifies the process and make
5603 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
5604 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm...
5610 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
5612 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade-http-version +fast-redirects
5613 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{kill-popups}
5614 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
5615 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block}
5616 +hide-referer{forge} -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{blank}
5617 +prevent-compression +session-cookies-only -prevent-setting-cookies
5618 -prevent-reading-cookies +kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-wafer }
5621 { +block +handle-as-image }
5627 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
5628 we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
5629 now add a new action below this that explicitly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
5630 block (<quote>{-block}</quote>) paths with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are
5631 various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
5643 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
5644 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
5648 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
5655 { +block +handle-as-image }
5661 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
5662 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
5663 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
5664 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
5665 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. Try
5666 adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
5674 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
5682 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
5683 <quote>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</quote>.
5684 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
5697 This would probably be most appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>,
5698 for local site exceptions.
5702 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
5703 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
5704 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
5705 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
5714 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
5715 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
5716 Public License as published by the Free Software
5717 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
5718 your option) any later version.
5720 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
5721 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
5722 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
5723 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
5724 License for more details.
5726 The GNU General Public License should be included with
5727 this file. If not, you can view it at
5728 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
5729 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
5730 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
5732 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
5733 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
5734 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
5735 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
5737 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
5738 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
5739 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
5741 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
5742 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
5744 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
5745 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
5746 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
5748 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
5749 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
5750 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
5752 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
5753 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
5755 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
5756 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
5758 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
5759 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
5761 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
5762 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
5764 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
5765 Updated OSX installation section
5766 Added a few English tweaks here an there
5768 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
5769 Re-write actions section.
5771 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
5772 Fix ugly typo (mine).
5774 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
5775 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
5777 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
5778 Added RPM install detail
5780 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
5783 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
5784 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
5786 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
5787 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
5789 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
5790 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
5792 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
5795 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
5796 Proofreading, part one
5798 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
5799 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
5800 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
5802 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
5803 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
5805 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
5806 Add small section on submitting actions.
5808 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
5811 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
5812 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
5814 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
5815 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
5817 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
5820 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
5821 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
5822 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
5823 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
5824 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
5826 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
5827 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
5829 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
5830 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
5832 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
5833 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
5834 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
5835 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
5836 eventually be set by Makefile.
5837 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
5839 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
5840 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
5842 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
5843 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
5845 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
5846 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
5848 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
5849 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
5850 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
5851 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
5853 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
5856 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
5857 Added more to Anatomy section.
5859 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
5860 Touch up intro for new name.
5862 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
5863 we have a new homepage!
5865 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
5866 A few minor catch ups with name change.
5868 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
5869 configure needs to be generated.
5871 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
5872 we are too lazy to make a block-built
5873 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
5875 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
5876 name change related issue.
5878 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
5879 name change. changed filenames.
5881 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
5884 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
5885 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
5886 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
5887 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
5888 comments and remarks to history untouched.
5890 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
5893 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
5894 New section in Appendix.
5896 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
5897 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
5899 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
5900 correct feedback channels
5902 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
5903 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
5905 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
5908 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
5909 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
5911 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
5912 Added imageblock{pattern}.
5914 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
5917 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
5918 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
5920 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
5921 provide correct feedback channels
5923 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
5924 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
5926 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
5927 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
5929 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
5930 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
5932 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
5933 Add new - - user option.
5935 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
5936 Added section on command line options.
5938 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
5939 Changed default port to 8118
5941 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
5942 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
5944 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
5945 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
5946 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
5949 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
5952 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
5953 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
5955 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
5956 Update OS/2 build section
5958 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
5959 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
5960 will work - no other changes are needed.
5962 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
5963 Added a very short section on Templates
5965 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
5966 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
5968 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
5969 Touch ups for *.action files.
5971 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
5974 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
5975 Updates for recent changes.
5977 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
5978 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
5980 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
5981 Correct 2 minor errors
5983 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
5984 *** empty log message ***
5986 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
5987 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
5989 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
5990 wrong url in documentation
5992 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
5993 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
5995 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
5998 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
6001 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
6004 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
6005 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
6007 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
6008 Some additions, and re-arranging.
6010 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
6013 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
6014 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
6016 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
6019 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
6020 source files for junkbuster documentation
6022 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
6023 first proposal of a structure.
6025 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
6026 docs should have an author.
6028 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
6029 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.
projects / privoxy.git / blob