1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "INCLUDE">
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-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
21 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
24 This file belongs into
25 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
27 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9 Exp $
29 Written by and Copyright (C) 2001 the SourceForge
30 Privoxy team. http://www.privoxy.org/
32 Based on the Internet Junkbuster originally written
33 by and Copyright (C) 1997 Anonymous Coders and
34 Junkbusters Corporation. http://www.junkbusters.com
37 ========================================================================
38 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
39 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
40 ========================================================================
46 <title>Privoxy User Manual</title>
48 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
53 <orgname>By: Privoxy Developers</orgname>
62 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
63 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
64 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
70 The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
72 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
75 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
77 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
80 You can find the latest version of the user manual at <ulink
81 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
82 Please see the <ulink url="contact.html">Contact section</ulink> on how to
83 contact the developers.
87 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
93 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
94 <sect1 id="intro" label=""><title></title>
95 <!-- dummy section to force TOC on page by itself -->
96 <!-- DO NOT REMOVE! please ;) -->
100 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
102 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
105 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
106 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
107 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
108 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
109 configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
110 completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over
111 earlier versions. The target release date for
112 stable v3.0 is <quote>soon</quote> ;-)]]>.
116 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
118 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
119 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
120 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
125 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
126 <sect2 id="newfeatures">
127 <title>New Features</title>
129 In addition to <application>Internet Junkbuster's</application> traditional
130 feature of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
131 <application>Privoxy</application> provides new features<![%p-not-stable;[,
132 some of them currently under development]]>:
133 <anchor id="testing"/>
136 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
138 <!-- end boilerplate -->
143 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
146 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
147 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
149 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
150 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
151 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
152 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project Page</ulink>.
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
163 <!-- Include supported.sgml boilerplate -->
165 <!-- end boilerplate -->
167 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
168 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
170 The packages can be downloaded from our <ulink
171 url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project Page</ulink>.
175 How to install them depends on your operating system:
178 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
179 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Redhat and SuSE RPMs</title>
182 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -i <name-of-rpm.rpm></literal>,
183 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for configuration files.
187 Note that if you have a Junkbuster RPM installed on your system, you
188 need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
192 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
193 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, HP-UX</title>
196 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
197 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
202 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
203 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
206 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
207 the installation process.
211 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
212 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
215 Just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will guide
216 you through the installation process. A shadow of the
217 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
218 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
222 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
223 into will contain all of the configuration files.
227 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
228 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
234 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
235 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
237 Unpack the <literal>.lha</literal> archive, then FIXME.
242 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
243 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
245 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
247 <!-- end boilerplate -->
250 For more detailed instructions, on how to build Redhat and SuSE RPMs,
251 Windows self-extracting installers etc, please consult the <ulink
252 url="../developer-manual/newrelease.html">developer manual</ulink>.
258 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
261 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
263 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
266 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
267 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
268 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
270 There are very significant changes from older versions of
271 <application>Junkbuster</application> to the current
272 <application>Privoxy</application>. Configuration is substantially
273 changed. <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> and earlier
274 configuration files will not migrate. The functionality of the old
275 <filename>blockfile</filename>, <filename>cookiefile</filename> and
276 <filename>imagelist</filename>, are now combined into the
277 <quote>actions file</quote> (<filename>default.action</filename>
278 for most installations).
281 A <quote>filter file</quote> (typically <filename>default.filter</filename>)
282 is new with <application>Privoxy 2.9.x</application>, and provides some
283 of the new sophisticaton (explained below). <filename>config</filename> is
284 much the same as before.
287 If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
288 files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
289 When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
290 to the new actions file, please note that even the pattern syntax has
292 If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still recommended
293 to use the new configuration files.
296 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
304 The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
310 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
311 important configuration files!
316 <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
317 at the special URL: <ulink
318 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
319 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
320 aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
321 <application>Privoxy</application>.
326 The primary configuration file for cookie management, ad and banner
327 blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
328 configuration is <filename>default.action</filename>. It is strongly
329 recommended to make oneself familiar with the new actions concept below
330 before modifying that file.
335 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
336 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
337 Some installers may not automatically start
338 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
347 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
349 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
351 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
352 will want to configure your browser(s) to use <application>Privoxy</application>
353 as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is localhost for the proxy address,
354 and port 8118 (earlier versions used port 8000). This is the one required
355 configuration that must be done!
359 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
360 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under <literal>Edit
361 -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy</literal>.
362 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>: <literal>Tools ->
363 Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting</literal>. Then,
364 check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info (Address:
365 localhost, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy support too.
369 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
370 re-reading of all pages and get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
371 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
372 <application>Privoxy</application>.
377 <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
378 main configuration file to be used on the command line. Example Unix startup
385 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
391 An init script is provided for SuSE and Redhat.
395 For for SuSE: <command>rcprivoxy start</command>
399 For RedHat: <command>/etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start</command>
404 If no configuration file is specified on the command line,
405 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
406 <filename>config</filename> in the current directory. Except on Win32 where
407 it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>. If no file is specified on the
408 command line and no default configuration file can be found,
409 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
414 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
415 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
416 <quote>actions</quote> files. These are where various cookie actions are
417 defined, ad and banner blocking, and other aspects of
418 <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several such
419 files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
423 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites that require persistent
424 cookies, and add these to <filename>default.action</filename> as needed. By
425 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
426 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), until you add them to the
427 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
428 to edit <filename>default.action</filename> and disable this feature. If you
429 use more than one browser, it would make more sense to let
430 <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which case, the
431 browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
435 Another feature where you will propably want to define exceptions for trusted
436 sites is the popup-killing (through the <literal>+popup</literal> and
437 <literal>+filter{popups}</literal> actions), because your favourite shopping,
438 banking, or leisure site may need popups.
442 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
443 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
444 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
445 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
446 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
447 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
448 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade</quote> config option in
449 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade you brower's HTTP
450 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
454 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
455 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
456 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
457 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote> (as specified in <filename>default.action</filename>)
458 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
459 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
460 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
461 and then follow the link to <quote>edit the actions list</quote>.
462 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
466 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
467 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
468 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
469 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
470 to a given URL. In addition to the <filename>default.action</filename> file
471 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
472 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
476 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
477 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
478 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
479 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. Watch out which rules apply and why, and
480 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
481 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
486 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <ulink
487 url="configuration.html#ACTIONSFILE">read more about the actions concept</ulink>
488 or even dive deep into the <ulink url="appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">Appendix
493 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
494 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
495 chapter "Contacting the Developers, .." below.
501 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
503 <title>Command Line Options</title>
505 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
506 command-line options:
514 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
517 Print version info and exit, Unix only.
522 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
525 Print a short usage info and exit, Unix only.
530 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
533 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
534 leader, don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
539 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
543 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
544 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failiure to create or delete the
545 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
546 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
551 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
555 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
556 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
557 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
562 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
565 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
566 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
567 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
568 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
569 full path to avoid confusion.
580 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
583 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
584 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
586 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
587 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
588 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
589 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
594 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
597 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
599 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
600 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
601 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
602 which is a built-in page and works without internet access.
603 You will see the following section:
610 Please choose from the following options:
613 * Show information about the current configuration
614 * Show the source code version numbers
615 * Show the request headers.
616 * Show which actions apply to a URL and why
617 * Toggle Privoxy on or off
618 * Edit the actions list
624 This should be self-explanatory. Note the last item is an editor for the
625 <quote>actions list</quote>, which is where much of the ad, banner, cookie,
626 and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
627 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
628 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
629 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
633 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
634 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
635 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
636 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
637 to run as a proxy in this case, but all filtering is disabled. There
638 is even a toggle Bookmarklet offered, so that you can toggle
639 <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from your browser.
645 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
650 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
653 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
655 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
656 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
657 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
658 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
659 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
660 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
664 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though possibly
665 aggressive by some standards. For the time being, there are only three
666 default configuration files (this may change in time):
674 The main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename>
675 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
682 <filename>default.action</filename> (the actions file) is used to define
683 which of a set of various <quote>actions</quote> relating to images, banners,
684 pop-ups, access restrictions, banners and cookies are to be applied where.
685 There is a web based editor for this file that can be accessed at <ulink
686 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions/">http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions/</ulink>
687 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/edit-actions/">http://p.p/edit-actions/</ulink>).
688 (Other actions files are included as well with differing levels of filtering
689 and blocking, e.g. <filename>basic.action</filename>.)
695 <filename>default.filter</filename> (the filter file) can be used to re-write the raw
696 page content, including viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript,
697 and whatever else lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only
698 pre-defined here; whether to apply them or not is up to the actions file.
706 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
707 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
708 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
709 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
710 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
711 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
716 <filename>default.action</filename> and <filename>default.filter</filename>
717 can use Perl style regular expressions for maximum flexibility.
721 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
722 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
723 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
724 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
725 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
726 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
727 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
732 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
733 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
734 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
735 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
741 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
744 <title>The Main Configuration File</title>
746 Again, the main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename> on
747 Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, and <filename>config.txt</filename> on Windows.
748 Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of
749 values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For
757 <emphasis>confdir /etc/privoxy</emphasis>
764 Assigns the value <literal>/etc/privoxy</literal> to the option
765 <literal>confdir</literal> and thus indicates that the configuration
766 directory is named <quote>/etc/privoxy/</quote>.
770 All options in the config file except for <literal>confdir</literal> and
771 <literal>logdir</literal> are optional. Watch out in the below description
772 for what happens if you leave them unset.
776 The main config file controls all aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>'s
777 operation that are not location dependent (i.e. that apply invariantly no matter
778 where in the web you are surfing).
782 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
785 <title>Configuration and Log File Locations</title>
788 <application>Privoxy</application> can (and normally does) use a number of
789 other files for addidtional configuration and logging.
790 This section of the configuration file tells <application>Privoxy</application>
791 where to find those other files.
795 <sect4><title>confdir</title>
799 <term>Specifies:</term>
801 <para>The directory where the other configuration files are located</para>
805 <term>Type of value:</term>
807 <para>Path name</para>
811 <term>Default value:</term>
813 <para>/etc/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
817 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
819 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
826 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
829 When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
830 per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of <quote>confdir</quote>.
831 For now, the configuration dir structure is flat, except for
832 <filename>confdir/templates</filename>, where the HTML templates for CGI
841 <sect4><title>logdir</title>
845 <term>Specifies:</term>
848 The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where <filename>logfile</filename> and
849 <filename>jarfile</filename> are located)
854 <term>Type of value:</term>
856 <para>Path name</para>
860 <term>Default value:</term>
862 <para>/var/log/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
866 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
868 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
875 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
882 <sect4><title>actionsfile</title>
886 <term>Specifies:</term>
889 The actions file to use
894 <term>Type of value:</term>
896 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
900 <term>Default value:</term>
902 <para>default.action (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.action.txt (Windows)</para>
906 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
909 No action is taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
917 There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without
925 <sect4><title>actionsfile</title>
929 <term>Specifies:</term>
932 The actions file to use
937 <term>Type of value:</term>
939 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
943 <term>Default value:</term>
945 <para>default.action (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.action.txt (Windows)</para>
949 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
952 No action is taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
960 There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without
961 an actions file. There are three diffrent actions files included in the
962 distribution, with varying degrees of aggressiveness:
963 <filename>default.action</filename>, <filename>intermediate.action</filename> and
964 <filename>advanced.action</filename>.
971 <sect4><title>filterfile</title>
975 <term>Specifies:</term>
978 The filter file to use
983 <term>Type of value:</term>
985 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
989 <term>Default value:</term>
991 <para>default.filter (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.filter.txt (Windows)</para>
995 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
998 No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
999 <literal>+filter{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
1000 actions in the actions file are turned off
1008 The <quote>default.filter</quote> file contains content modification rules
1009 that use <quote>regular expressions</quote>. These rules permit powerful
1010 changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable your favorite
1011 JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some
1012 fun replacing <quote>Microsoft</quote> with <quote>MicroSuck</quote> wherever
1013 it appears on a Web page.
1020 <sect4><title>logfile</title>
1024 <term>Specifies:</term>
1032 <term>Type of value:</term>
1034 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1038 <term>Default value:</term>
1040 <para>logfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.log (Windows)</para>
1044 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1047 No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (<literal>stderr</literal>).
1055 The windows version will additionally log to the console
1058 The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
1059 of detail and number of messages are set with the <literal>debug</literal>
1060 option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
1061 <application>Privoxy</application> (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you
1062 think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it.
1065 Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
1066 periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
1067 (see <quote>man cron</quote>). For Redhat, a <command>logrotate</command>
1068 script has been included.
1071 On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like <quote>/var/log/privoxy.*
1072 +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup</quote> in <filename>/etc/logfiles</filename>, with
1073 the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the
1074 log, when it exceeds 1M size.
1081 <sect4><title>jarfile</title>
1085 <term>Specifies:</term>
1088 The file to store intercepted cookies in
1093 <term>Type of value:</term>
1095 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1099 <term>Default value:</term>
1101 <para>jarfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.jar (Windows)</para>
1105 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1108 Intercepted cookies are not stored at all.
1116 The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
1123 <sect4><title>trustfile</title>
1127 <term>Specifies:</term>
1130 The trust file to use
1135 <term>Type of value:</term>
1137 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1141 <term>Default value:</term>
1143 <para><emphasis>Unset (commented out)</emphasis>. When activated: trust (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> trust.txt (Windows)</para>
1147 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1150 The whole trust mechansim is turned off.
1158 The trust mechansim is an experimental feature for building whitelists and should
1159 be used with care. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> recommended for the casual user.
1162 If you specify a trust file, <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow
1163 access to sites that are named in the trustfile.
1164 You can also mark sites as trusted referrers (with <literal>+</literal>), with
1165 the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a
1166 trusted referrer was used.
1167 The link target will then be added to the <quote>trustfile</quote>.
1168 Possible applications include limiting internet access for children.
1171 If you use <literal>+</literal> operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over time.
1180 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1184 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1187 <title>Local Setup Documentation</title>
1190 If you intend to operate <application>Privoxy</application> for more users
1191 that just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach
1192 you, what you block and why you do that, your policies etc.
1195 <sect4><title>trust-info-url</title>
1199 <term>Specifies:</term>
1202 A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied.
1207 <term>Type of value:</term>
1213 <term>Default value:</term>
1215 <para>Two example URL are provided</para>
1219 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1222 No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
1230 The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been
1231 activated. (See <literal>trustfile</literal> above.)
1234 If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some online
1235 documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here.
1236 Use multiple times for multiple URLs.
1239 The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up
1240 locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place!
1247 <sect4><title>admin-address</title>
1251 <term>Specifies:</term>
1254 An email address to reach the proxy administrator.
1259 <term>Type of value:</term>
1261 <para>Email address</para>
1265 <term>Default value:</term>
1267 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1271 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1274 No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1282 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1283 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1291 <sect4><title>proxy-info-url</title>
1295 <term>Specifies:</term>
1298 A URL to documentation about the local <application>Privoxy</application> setup,
1299 configuration or policies.
1304 <term>Type of value:</term>
1310 <term>Default value:</term>
1312 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1316 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1319 No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1327 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1328 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1332 This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
1340 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1342 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1345 <title>Debugging</title>
1348 These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem.
1349 Note that you might also want to invoke
1350 <application>Privoxy</application> with the <literal>--no-daemon</literal>
1351 command line option when debugging.
1354 <sect4><title>debug</title>
1358 <term>Specifies:</term>
1361 Keys that determine what information gets logged.
1366 <term>Type of value:</term>
1368 <para>Integer values</para>
1372 <term>Default value:</term>
1374 <para>12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)</para>
1378 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1381 Nothing gets logged.
1389 The available debug levels are:
1393 debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
1394 debug 2 # show each connection status
1395 debug 4 # show I/O status
1396 debug 8 # show header parsing
1397 debug 16 # log all data into the logfile
1398 debug 32 # debug force feature
1399 debug 64 # debug regular expression filter
1400 debug 128 # debug fast redirects
1401 debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
1402 debug 512 # Common Log Format
1403 debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
1404 debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
1405 debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
1409 To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use
1410 multiple <literal>debug</literal> lines.
1413 A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request
1414 as it happens. <emphasis>1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended</emphasis>
1415 so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are probably
1416 only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce
1417 a hell of output (especially 16).
1420 The reporting of <emphasis>fatal</emphasis> errors (i.e. ones which crash
1421 <application>Privoxy</application>) is always on and cannot be disabled.
1424 If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set <quote>debug
1425 512</quote> <emphasis>ONLY</emphasis> and not enable anything else.
1432 <sect4><title>single-threaded</title>
1436 <term>Specifies:</term>
1439 Whether to run only one server thread
1444 <term>Type of value:</term>
1446 <para><emphasis>None</emphasis></para>
1450 <term>Default value:</term>
1452 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1456 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1459 Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability to
1460 serve multiple requests simultaneously.
1468 This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never
1469 need to use it. <emphasis>It will drastically reduce performance.</emphasis>
1478 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1481 <title>Access Control and Security</title>
1484 This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
1485 of <application>Privoxy</application>'s configuration.
1488 <sect4><title>listen-address</title>
1492 <term>Specifies:</term>
1495 The IP address and TCP port on which <application>Privoxy</application> will
1496 listen for client requests.
1501 <term>Type of value:</term>
1503 <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">IP-Adddress</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
1507 <term>Default value:</term>
1509 <para>localhost:8118</para>
1513 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1516 Bind to localhost (127.0.0.1), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended for
1517 home users who run <application>Privoxy</application> on the same machine as
1526 You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
1529 If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
1530 serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
1531 will need to override the default.
1534 If you leave out the IP address, <application>Privoxy</application> will
1535 bind to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable
1536 from the Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (acl's)
1537 (see <quote>Acls</quote> below), or a firewall.
1542 <term>Example:</term>
1545 Suppose you are running <application>Privoxy</application> on
1546 a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network
1547 (192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address.
1548 You want it to serve requests from inside only:
1552 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
1560 <sect4><title>toggle</title>
1564 <term>Specifies:</term>
1567 Initial state of "toggle" status
1572 <term>Type of value:</term>
1578 <term>Default value:</term>
1584 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1587 Act as if toggled on
1595 If set to 0, <application>Privoxy</application> will start in
1596 <quote>toggled off</quote> mode, i.e. behave like a normal, content-neutral
1597 proxy. See <literal>enable-remote-toggle</literal>
1598 below. This is not really useful anymore, since toggling is much easier
1599 via <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">the web
1600 interface</ulink> then via editing the <filename>conf</filename> file.
1603 The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
1604 if this option is present.
1612 <sect4><title>enable-remote-toggle</title>
1615 <term>Specifies:</term>
1618 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">web-based toggle
1619 feature</ulink> may be used
1624 <term>Type of value:</term>
1630 <term>Default value:</term>
1636 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1639 The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
1647 When toggled off, <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal,
1648 content-neutral proxy, i.e. it acts as if none of the actions applied to
1652 For the time being, access to the toggle feature can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1653 controlled separately by <quote>Acls</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1654 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1655 <quote>Acls</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1656 toggle it for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>
1657 for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1660 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1661 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1669 <sect4><title>enable-edit-actions</title>
1672 <term>Specifies:</term>
1675 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions">web-based actions
1676 file editor</ulink> may be used
1681 <term>Type of value:</term>
1687 <term>Default value:</term>
1693 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1696 The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
1704 For the time being, access to the editor can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1705 controlled separately by <quote>Acls</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1706 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1707 <quote>Acls</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1708 modify its configuration for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not
1709 recommended</emphasis> for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1712 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1713 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1720 <sect4><title>Acls: permit-access and deny-access</title>
1723 <term>Specifies:</term>
1726 Who can access what.
1731 <term>Type of value:</term>
1734 <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable>]
1735 [<replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable>]]
1738 Where <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable> and
1739 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
1740 DNS names, and <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> and
1741 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable> are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
1742 values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
1743 destination part are optional.
1748 <term>Default value:</term>
1750 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1754 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1757 Don't restrict access further than implied by <literal>listen-address</literal>
1765 Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
1766 administrators, and <emphasis>are not usually needed by individual users</emphasis>.
1767 For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
1768 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens on the localhost or internal (home)
1769 network address by means of the <literal>listen-address</literal> option.
1772 Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute
1773 for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security
1777 Multiple acl lines are OK.
1778 If any acls are specified, then the <application>Privoxy</application>
1779 talks only to IP addresses that match at least one <literal>permit-access</literal> line
1780 and don't match any subsequent <literal>deny-access</literal> line. In other words, the
1781 last match wins, with the default being <literal>deny-access</literal>.
1784 If <application>Privoxy</application> is using a forwarder (see <literal>forward</literal> below)
1785 for a particular destination URL, the <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>
1786 that is examined is the address of the forwarder and <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the address
1787 of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
1788 <application>Privoxy</application> to determine the IP address of the
1789 ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
1792 You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
1793 time. All DNS names must resolve! You can <emphasis>not</emphasis> use domain patterns
1794 like <quote>*.org</quote> or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
1795 IP addresses, only the first one is used.
1798 Denying access to particular sites by acl may have undesired side effects
1799 if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
1804 <term>Examples:</term>
1807 Explicitly define the defauklt behaviour if no acl and
1808 <literal>listen-address</literal> are set: <quote>localhost</quote>
1809 is OK. The absence of a <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> implies that
1810 <emphasis>all</emphasis> destination addresses are OK:
1814 permit-access localhost
1818 Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
1819 nothing but www.example.com:
1823 permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
1827 Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
1828 with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
1832 permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
1833 deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
1841 <sect4><title>buffer-limit</title>
1845 <term>Specifies:</term>
1848 Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
1853 <term>Type of value:</term>
1855 <para>Size in Kbytes</para>
1859 <term>Default value:</term>
1865 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1868 Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
1876 For content filtering, i.e. the <literal>+filter</literal> and
1877 <literal>+deanimate-gif</literal> actions, it is necessary that
1878 <application>Privoxy</application> buffers the entire document body.
1879 This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
1880 data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
1884 When a document buffer size reaches the <literal>buffer-limit</literal>, it is
1885 flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
1886 filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
1887 running, which might require up to <literal>buffer-limit</literal> Kbytes
1888 <emphasis>each</emphasis>, unless you have enabled <quote>single-threaded</quote>
1898 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1901 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1903 <sect3 id="forwarding">
1904 <title>Forwarding</title>
1907 This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
1909 It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
1910 accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains
1911 through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. <ulink
1912 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm</ulink>)
1913 Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
1914 proxy may be necessary because the mackine that <application>Privoxy</application>
1915 runs on has no direct internet access.
1919 Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. <application>Privoxy</application>
1920 supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols.
1923 <sect4><title>forward</title>
1926 <term>Specifies:</term>
1929 To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
1934 <term>Type of value:</term>
1937 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1938 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
1941 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
1942 chapter on domain matching in the actions file),
1943 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is the address of the parent HTTP proxy
1944 as an IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or as a valid DNS name (or <quote>.</quote> to denote
1945 <quote>no forwarding</quote>, and the optional
1946 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer
1947 values from 1 to 64535
1952 <term>Default value:</term>
1954 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1958 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1961 Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
1969 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
1970 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
1973 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
1978 <term>Examples:</term>
1981 Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
1985 forward .* anon-proxy.example.org:8080
1990 Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
1991 to that ISP's sites:
1995 forward .*. caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
1996 forward .example-isp.net .
2004 <sect4><title>forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a</title>
2007 <term>Specifies:</term>
2010 Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
2015 <term>Type of value:</term>
2018 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2019 <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2020 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2023 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
2024 chapter on domain matching in the actions file),
2025 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> and <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>
2026 are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (<replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>
2027 may be <quote>.</quote> to denote <quote>no HTTP forwarding</quote>), and the optional
2028 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
2033 <term>Default value:</term>
2035 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2039 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2042 Don't use SOCKS proxies.
2050 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2053 The difference between <literal>forward-socks4</literal> and <literal>forward-socks4a</literal>
2054 is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
2055 server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
2058 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2059 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
2065 <term>Examples:</term>
2068 From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all <quote>internal</quote>
2069 domains, but everything outbound goes through their ISP's proxy by way example.com's
2070 corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to the Internet.
2074 forward-socks4a .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
2075 forward .example.com .
2079 A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
2083 forward-socks4 .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
2091 <sect4><title>Advanced Forwarding Examples</title>
2094 If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
2095 only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple <application>Privoxies</application>
2096 which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
2097 <emphasis>your</emphasis> users can see the internal content of all ISPs.
2101 Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
2102 isp-b.net. Both run <application>Privoxy</application>. Their forwarding
2103 configuration can look like this:
2113 forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
2124 forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
2129 Now, you users can set their browser's proxy to use either
2130 host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
2131 on both isp-a or isp-b.
2135 If you intend to chain <application>Privoxy</application> and
2136 <application>squid</application> locally, then chain as
2137 <literal>browser -> squid -> privoxy</literal> is the recommended way.
2141 Assuming that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>squid</application>
2142 run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this:
2147 # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
2148 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
2150 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
2153 # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
2154 always_direct allow ftp
2156 # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
2157 never_direct allow all
2162 You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to <application>squid</application>'s address and port.
2163 Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult <literal>http_port</literal> in <filename>squid.conf</filename>.
2170 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2173 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2176 <title>Windows GUI Options</title>
2178 Removed references to Win32. HB 09/23/01
2181 <application>Privoxy</application> has a number of options specific to the
2182 Windows GUI interface:
2186 If <quote>activity-animation</quote> is set to 1, the
2187 <application>Privoxy</application> icon will animate when
2188 <quote>Privoxy</quote> is active. To turn off, set to 0.
2195 <emphasis>activity-animation 1</emphasis>
2202 If <quote>log-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2203 <application>Privoxy</application> will log messages to the console
2211 <emphasis>log-messages 1</emphasis>
2218 If <quote>log-buffer-size</quote> is set to 1, the size of the log buffer,
2219 i.e. the amount of memory used for the log messages displayed in the
2220 console window, will be limited to <quote>log-max-lines</quote> (see below).
2224 Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and
2225 eat up all your memory!
2232 <emphasis>log-buffer-size 1</emphasis>
2239 <application>log-max-lines</application> is the maximum number of lines held
2240 in the log buffer. See above.
2247 <emphasis>log-max-lines 200</emphasis>
2254 If <quote>log-highlight-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2255 <application>Privoxy</application> will highlight portions of the log
2256 messages with a bold-faced font:
2263 <emphasis>log-highlight-messages 1</emphasis>
2270 The font used in the console window:
2277 <emphasis>log-font-name Comic Sans MS</emphasis>
2284 Font size used in the console window:
2291 <emphasis>log-font-size 8</emphasis>
2298 <quote>show-on-task-bar</quote> controls whether or not
2299 <application>Privoxy</application> will appear as a button on the Task bar
2307 <emphasis>show-on-task-bar 0</emphasis>
2314 If <quote>close-button-minimizes</quote> is set to 1, the Windows close
2315 button will minimize <application>Privoxy</application> instead of closing
2316 the program (close with the exit option on the File menu).
2323 <emphasis>close-button-minimizes 1</emphasis>
2330 The <quote>hide-console</quote> option is specific to the MS-Win console
2331 version of <application>Privoxy</application>. If this option is used,
2332 <application>Privoxy</application> will disconnect from and hide the
2349 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2352 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2353 <sect2 id="actionsfile">
2354 <title>The Actions File</title>
2357 The <quote>default.action</quote> file (formerly
2358 <filename>actionsfile</filename> or <filename>ijb.action</filename>) is used
2359 to define what actions <application>Privoxy</application> takes, and thus
2360 determines how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content
2361 and transactions are handled. These can be accepted or rejected for all
2362 sites, or just those sites you choose. See below for a complete list of
2366 Anything you want can blocked, including ads, banners, or just some obnoxious
2367 URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted or rejected, or
2368 accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not written to disk).
2369 Changes to <filename>default.action</filename> should be immediately visible
2370 to <application>Privoxy</application> without the need to restart.
2374 Note that some sites may misbehave, or possibly not work at all with some
2375 actions. This may require some tinkering with the rules to get the most
2376 mileage of <application>Privoxy's</application> features, and still be
2377 able to see and enjoy just what you want to. There is no general rule of
2378 thumb on these things. There just are too many variables, and sites are
2384 The easiest way to edit the <quote>actions</quote> file is with a browser by
2385 loading <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
2386 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>), and then select
2387 <quote>Edit Actions List</quote>. A text editor can also be used.
2391 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2392 compared to all patterns in this file. Every time it matches, the list of
2393 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated. You can trace
2394 this process by visiting <ulink
2395 url="http://p.p/show-url-info">http://p.p/show-url-info</ulink>.
2400 There are four types of lines in this file: comments (begin with a
2401 <quote>#</quote> character), actions, aliases and patterns, all of which are
2402 explained below, as well as the configuration file syntax that
2403 <application>Privoxy</application> understands.
2408 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2410 <title>URL Domain and Path Syntax</title>
2412 Generally, a pattern has the form <domain>/<path>, where both the
2413 <domain> and <path> part are optional. If you only specify a
2414 domain part, the <quote>/</quote> can be left out:
2418 <emphasis>www.example.com</emphasis> - is a domain only pattern and will match any request to
2419 <quote>www.example.com</quote>.
2423 <emphasis>www.example.com/</emphasis> - means exactly the same.
2427 <emphasis>www.example.com/index.html</emphasis> - matches only the single
2428 document <quote>/index.html</quote> on <quote>www.example.com</quote>.
2432 <emphasis>/index.html</emphasis> - matches the document <quote>/index.html</quote>,
2433 regardless of the domain. So would match any page named <quote>index.html</quote>
2438 <emphasis>index.html</emphasis> - matches nothing, since it would be
2439 interpreted as a domain name and there is no top-level domain called
2440 <quote>.html</quote>.
2444 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2445 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2450 <emphasis>.example.com</emphasis> - matches any domain or sub-domain that
2451 <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in <quote>.example.com</quote>.
2455 <emphasis>www.</emphasis> - matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2460 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2461 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
2462 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
2463 any single character. And you can define character classes in square
2464 brackets and they can be freely mixed:
2468 <emphasis>ad*.example.com</emphasis> - matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2469 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>.
2473 <emphasis>*ad*.example.com</emphasis> - matches all of the above, and then some.
2477 <emphasis>.?pix.com</emphasis> - matches <quote>www.ipix.com</quote>,
2478 <quote>pictures.epix.com</quote>, <quote>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</quote>, etc.
2482 <emphasis>www[1-9a-ez].example.com</emphasis> - matches <quote>www1.example.com</quote>,
2483 <quote>www4.example.com</quote>, <quote>wwwd.example.com</quote>,
2484 <quote>wwwz.example.com</quote>, etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2485 <quote>wwww.example.com</quote>.
2489 If <application>Privoxy</application> was compiled with
2490 <quote>pcre</quote> support (the default), Perl compatible regular expressions
2491 can be used. These are more flexible and powerful than other types
2492 of <quote>regular expressions</quote>. See the <filename>pcre/docs/</filename> directory or <quote>man
2493 perlre</quote> (also available on <ulink
2494 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>)
2495 for details. A brief discussion of regular expressions is in the
2496 <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link>. For instance:
2500 <emphasis>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpe?g</emphasis> - would match a URL from any
2501 domain, with any path that includes <quote>advert</quote> followed
2502 immediately by one or more digits, then a <quote>.</quote> and ending in
2503 either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>. So we match
2504 <quote>example.com/ads/advert2.jpg</quote>, and
2505 <quote>www.example.com/ads/banners/advert39.jpeg</quote>, but not
2506 <quote>www.example.com/ads/banners/advert39.gif</quote> (no gifs in the
2511 Please note that matching in the path is case
2512 <emphasis>INSENSITIVE</emphasis> by default, but you can switch to case
2513 sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2514 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch:
2518 <emphasis>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</emphasis> - will match only
2519 documents whose path starts with <quote>PaTtErN</quote> in
2520 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2525 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2529 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2532 <title>Actions</title>
2534 Actions are enabled if preceded with a <quote>+</quote>, and disabled if
2535 preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. Actions are invoked by enclosing the
2536 action name in curly braces (e.g. {+some_action}), followed by a list of
2537 URLs to which the action applies. There are three classes of actions:
2545 Boolean (e.g. <quote>+/-block</quote>):
2551 <emphasis>{+name}</emphasis> # enable this action
2552 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable this action
2562 parameterized (e.g. <quote>+/-hide-user-agent</quote>):
2568 <emphasis>{+name{param}}</emphasis> # enable action and set parameter to <quote>param</quote>
2569 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable action
2578 Multi-value (e.g. <quote>{+/-add-header{Name: value}}</quote>, <quote>{+/-wafer{name=value}}</quote>):
2584 <emphasis>{+name{param}}</emphasis> # enable action and add parameter <quote>param</quote>
2585 <emphasis>{-name{param}}</emphasis> # remove the parameter <quote>param</quote>
2586 <emphasis>{-name}</emphasis> # disable this action totally
2597 If nothing is specified in this file, no <quote>actions</quote> are taken.
2598 So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2599 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically
2600 enable the privacy and blocking features you need (although the
2601 provided default <filename>default.action</filename> file will
2602 give a good starting point).
2606 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
2607 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file. For
2608 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are
2613 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> <quote>actions</quote> are:
2621 Add the specified HTTP header, which is not checked for validity.
2622 You may specify this many times to specify many different headers:
2628 <emphasis>+add-header{Name: value}</emphasis>
2638 Block this URL totally. In a default installation, a <quote>blocked</quote>
2639 URL will result in bright red banner that says <quote>BLOCKED</quote>,
2640 with a reason why it is being blocked, and an option to see it anyway.
2641 The page displayed for this is the <quote>blocked</quote> template
2648 <emphasis>+block</emphasis>
2658 De-animate all animated GIF images, i.e. reduce them to their last frame.
2659 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
2660 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
2661 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last frame
2662 of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for most
2663 banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire last
2664 frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
2670 <emphasis>+deanimate-gifs{last}</emphasis>
2671 <emphasis>+deanimate-gifs{first}</emphasis>
2680 <quote>+downgrade</quote> will downgrade HTTP/1.1 client requests to
2681 HTTP/1.0 and downgrade the responses as well. Use this action for servers
2682 that use HTTP/1.1 protocol features that
2683 <application>Privoxy</application> doesn't handle well yet. HTTP/1.1
2684 is only partially implemented. Default is not to downgrade requests.
2690 <emphasis>+downgrade</emphasis>
2699 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
2700 will link to some script on their own server, giving the destination as a
2701 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs resulting
2702 from this scheme typically look like:
2703 <emphasis>http://some.place/some_script?http://some.where-else</emphasis>.
2706 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
2707 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
2708 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go to.
2709 Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your browser
2710 ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds the
2714 The <quote>+fast-redirects</quote> option enables interception of these
2715 types of requests by <application>Privoxy</application>, who will cut off
2716 all but the last valid URL in the request and send a local redirect back to
2717 your browser without contacting the intermediate site(s).
2723 <emphasis>+fast-redirects</emphasis>
2732 Apply the filters in the <literal>section_header</literal>
2733 section of the <filename>default.filter</filename> file to the site(s).
2734 <filename>default.filter</filename> sections are grouped according to like
2735 functionality. <application>Filters</application> can be used to
2736 re-write any of the raw page content. This is a potentially a
2737 very powerful feature!
2744 <emphasis>+filter{section_header}</emphasis>
2751 Filter sections that are pre-defined in the supplied
2752 <filename>default.filter</filename> include:
2758 <emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis>: Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.
2763 <emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis>: Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
2768 <emphasis>no-poups</emphasis>: Kill all popups in JS and HTML
2773 <emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis>: Give frames a border
2778 <emphasis>webbugs</emphasis>: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
2783 <emphasis>no-refresh</emphasis>: Automatic refresh sucks on auto-dialup lines
2788 <emphasis>fun</emphasis>: Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!
2793 <emphasis>nimda</emphasis>: Remove (virus) Nimda code.
2798 <emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis>: Kill banners by size
2803 <emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis>: Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"
2809 Note: Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to slow down
2810 page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has passed
2811 the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way since
2812 the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more noticeable
2813 on slower connections.
2820 Block any existing X-Forwarded-for header, and do not add a new one:
2826 <emphasis>+hide-forwarded</emphasis>
2835 If the browser sends a <quote>From:</quote> header containing your e-mail
2836 address, this either completely removes the header (<quote>block</quote>), or
2837 changes it to the specified e-mail address.
2843 <emphasis>+hide-from{block}</emphasis>
2844 <emphasis>+hide-from{spam@sittingduck.xqq}</emphasis>
2853 Don't send the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) header to the web site. You
2854 can block it, forge a URL to the same server as the request (which is
2855 preferred because some sites will not send images otherwise) or set it to a
2856 constant, user defined string of your choice.
2862 <emphasis>+hide-referer{block}</emphasis>
2863 <emphasis>+hide-referer{forge}</emphasis>
2864 <emphasis>+hide-referer{http://nowhere.com}</emphasis>
2873 Alternative spelling of <quote>+hide-referer</quote>. It has the same
2874 parameters, and can be freely mixed with, <quote>+hide-referer</quote>.
2875 (<quote>referrer</quote> is the correct English spelling, however the HTTP
2876 specification has a bug - it requires it to be spelled <quote>referer</quote>.)
2882 <emphasis>+hide-referrer{...}</emphasis>
2891 Change the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> header so web servers can't tell your
2892 browser type. Warning! This breaks many web sites. Specify the
2893 user-agent value you want. Example, pretend to be using Netscape on
2900 <emphasis>+hide-user-agent{Mozilla (X11; I; Linux 2.0.32 i586)}</emphasis>
2907 Or to identify yourself explicitly as a <application>Privoxy</application> user:
2913 <emphasis>+hide-user-agent{Privoxy/1.0}</emphasis>
2918 (Don't change the version number from 1.0 - after all, why tell them?)
2925 <emphasis>+hide-user-agent{browser-type}</emphasis>
2935 Treat this URL as an image. This only matters if it's also <quote>+block</quote>ed,
2936 in which case a <quote>blocked</quote> image can be sent rather than a HTML page.
2937 See <quote>+image-blocker{}</quote> below for the control over what is actually sent.
2938 If you want <emphasis>invisible</emphasis> ads, they should be defined as
2939 <emphasis>images</emphasis> and <emphasis>blocked</emphasis>. And also,
2940 <quote>image-blocker</quote> should be set to <quote>blank</quote>. Note you
2941 cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, frames
2942 require an HTML page to display. So a frame that is an ad, cannot be
2943 treated as an image. Forcing an <quote>image</quote> in this
2944 situation just will not work.
2950 <emphasis>+image</emphasis>
2958 <para> Decides what to do with URLs that end up tagged with <quote>{+block
2959 +image}</quote>, e.g an advertizement. There are five options.
2960 <quote>-image-blocker</quote> will send a HTML <quote>blocked</quote> page,
2961 usually resulting in a <quote>broken image</quote> icon.
2962 <!-- <quote>+image-blocker{logo}</quote> will send a -->
2963 <!-- <application>Privoxy</application> logo -->
2965 <quote>+image-blocker{blank}</quote> will send a 1x1 transparent GIF
2966 image. And finally, <quote>+image-blocker{http://xyz.com}</quote> will send a
2967 HTTP temporary redirect to the specified image. This has the advantage of the
2968 icon being being cached by the browser, which will speed up the display.
2969 <quote>+image-blocker{pattern}</quote> will send a checkboard type pattern
2971 <!-- which scales better than the logo (which can get blocky if the browser -->
2972 <!-- enlarges it too much). -->
2978 <!-- <emphasis>+image-blocker{logo}</emphasis> -->
2979 <emphasis>+image-blocker{blank}</emphasis>
2980 <emphasis>+image-blocker{pattern}</emphasis>
2981 <emphasis>+image-blocker{http://p.p/send-banner}</emphasis>
2990 By default (i.e. in the absence of a <quote>+limit-connect</quote>
2991 action), <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow CONNECT
2992 requests to port 443, which is the standard port for https as a
2997 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
2998 (https:// URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: the proxy
2999 connects to the server on the specified port, and then short-circuits
3000 its connections to the client <emphasis>and</emphasis> to the remote proxy.
3001 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can
3002 be abused as TCP relays very easily.
3006 If you want to allow CONNECT for more ports than this, or want to forbid
3007 CONNECT altogether, you can specify a comma separated list of ports and
3008 port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum defaulting to 0 and
3016 <emphasis>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need no be specified.</emphasis>
3017 <emphasis>+limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.</emphasis>
3018 <emphasis>+limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Port less than 3, 7, 20 to 100</emphasis>
3019 <emphasis> #and above 500 are OK.</emphasis>
3029 <quote>+no-compression</quote> prevents the website from compressing the
3030 data. Some websites do this, which can be a problem for
3031 <application>Privoxy</application>, since <quote>+filter</quote>,
3032 <quote>+no-popup</quote> and <quote>+gif-deanimate</quote> will not work on
3033 compressed data. This will slow down connections to those websites,
3034 though. Default is <quote>no-compression</quote> is turned on.
3041 <emphasis>+nocompression</emphasis>
3050 If the website sets cookies, <quote>no-cookies-keep</quote> will make sure
3051 they are erased when you exit and restart your web browser. This makes
3052 profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
3053 that you can log in for transactions. Default: on.
3059 <emphasis>+no-cookies-keep</emphasis>
3068 Prevent the website from reading cookies:
3074 <emphasis>+no-cookies-read</emphasis>
3083 Prevent the website from setting cookies:
3089 <emphasis>+no-cookies-set</emphasis>
3098 Filter the website through a built-in filter to disable those obnoxious
3099 JavaScript pop-up windows via window.open(), etc. The two alternative
3100 spellings are equivalent.
3106 <emphasis>+no-popup</emphasis>
3107 <emphasis>+no-popups</emphasis>
3116 This action only applies if you are using a <filename>jarfile</filename>
3117 for saving cookies. It sends a cookie to every site stating that you do not
3118 accept any copyright on cookies sent to you, and asking them not to track
3119 you. Of course, this is a (relatively) unique header they could use to
3126 <emphasis>+vanilla-wafer</emphasis>
3135 This allows you to add an arbitrary cookie. It can be specified multiple
3136 times in order to add as many cookies as you like.
3142 <emphasis>+wafer{name=value}</emphasis>
3153 The meaning of any of the above is reversed by preceding the action with a
3154 <quote>-</quote>, in place of the <quote>+</quote>.
3162 Turn off cookies by default, then allow a few through for specified sites:
3169 # Turn off all persistent cookies
3170 { +no-cookies-read }
3172 # Allow cookies for this browser session ONLY
3173 { +no-cookies-keep }
3175 # Exceptions to the above, sites that benefit from persistent cookies
3176 { -no-cookies-read }
3178 { -no-cookies-keep }
3185 # Alternative way of saying the same thing
3186 {-no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-keep}
3195 Now turn off <quote>fast redirects</quote>, and then we allow two exceptions:
3205 # Reverse it for these two sites, which don't work right without it.
3207 www.ukc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wac\.cgi\?
3215 Turn on page filtering according to rules in the defined sections
3216 of <filename>refilterfile</filename>, and make one exception for
3224 # Run everything through the filter file, using only the
3225 # specified sections:
3226 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}\
3227 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
3229 # Then disable filtering of code from sourceforge!
3231 .cvs.sourceforge.net
3238 Now some URLs that we want <quote>blocked</quote> (normally generates
3239 the <quote>blocked</quote> banner). Many of these use regular expressions
3240 that will expand to match multiple URLs:
3249 /.*/(.*[-_.])?ads?[0-9]?(/|[-_.].*|\.(gif|jpe?g))
3250 /.*/(.*[-_.])?count(er)?(\.cgi|\.dll|\.exe|[?/])
3251 /.*/(ng)?adclient\.cgi
3252 /.*/(plain|live|rotate)[-_.]?ads?/
3253 /.*/(sponsor)s?[0-9]?/
3254 /.*/_?(plain|live)?ads?(-banners)?/
3256 /.*/ad(sdna_image|gifs?)/
3257 /.*/ad(server|stream|juggler)\.(cgi|pl|dll|exe)
3261 /.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/
3265 /.*/cgi-bin/centralad/getimage
3266 /.*/images/addver\.gif
3267 /.*/images/marketing/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
3271 /.*/sponsors?[0-9]?/
3272 /.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpg
3279 /graphics/defaultAd/
3281 /image\.ng/transactionID
3282 /images/.*/.*_anim\.gif # alvin brattli
3283 /ip_img/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
3287 /cgi-bin/nph-adclick.exe/
3288 /.*/Image/BannerAdvertising/
3290 /.*/adlib/server\.cgi
3298 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
3299 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
3300 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
3301 content he may depend on. There is no way to have hard and fast rules
3302 for all sites. See the <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link>
3303 for a brief example on troubleshooting actions.
3308 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3311 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3313 <title>Aliases</title>
3315 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
3316 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other <quote>actions</quote>.
3317 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in <quote>actions</quote>.
3318 Currently, an alias can contain any character except space, tab, <quote>=</quote>,
3319 <quote>{</quote> or <quote>}</quote>. But please use only <quote>a</quote>-
3320 <quote>z</quote>, <quote>0</quote>-<quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and
3321 <quote>-</quote>. Alias names are not case sensitive, and
3322 <emphasis>must be defined before anything</emphasis> else in the
3323 <filename>default.action</filename>file! And there can only be one set of
3324 <quote>aliases</quote> defined.
3328 Now let's define a few aliases:
3335 # Useful custom aliases we can use later. These must come first!
3337 +no-cookies = +no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
3338 -no-cookies = -no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
3339 fragile = -block -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -no-popups
3340 shop = -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects
3341 +imageblock = +block +image
3343 #For people who don't like to type too much: ;-)
3346 c2 = -no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
3347 c3 = +no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
3348 #... etc. Customize to your heart's content.
3355 Some examples using our <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote>
3363 # These sites are very complex and require
3364 # minimal interference.
3366 .office.microsoft.com
3367 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
3370 # Shopping sites - still want to block ads.
3373 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
3377 # These shops require pop-ups
3387 The <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> aliases are often used for
3388 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require most actions to be disabled
3389 in order to function properly.
3396 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3399 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3400 <sect2 id="filterfile">
3401 <title>The Filter File</title>
3403 Any web page can be dynamically modified with the filter file. This
3404 modification can be removal, or re-writing, of any web page content,
3405 including tags and non-visible content. The default filter file is
3406 <filename>default.filter</filename>, located in the config directory.
3410 This is potentially a very powerful feature, and requires knowledge of both
3411 <quote>regular expression</quote> and HTML in order create custom
3412 filters. But, there are a number of useful filters included with
3413 <application>Privoxy</application> for many common situations.
3417 The included example file is divided into sections. Each section begins
3418 with the <literal>FILTER</literal> keyword, followed by the identifier
3419 for that section, e.g. <quote>FILTER: webbugs</quote>. Each section performs
3420 a similar type of filtering, such as <quote>html-annoyances</quote>.
3424 This file uses regular expressions to alter or remove any string in the
3425 target page. The expressions can only operate on one line at a time. Some
3426 examples from the included default <filename>default.filter</filename>:
3430 Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by
3431 deleting such references:
3438 FILTER: html-annoyances
3440 # New browser windows should be resizeable and have a location and status
3443 s/resizable="?(no|0)"?/resizable=1/ig s/noresize/yesresize/ig
3444 s/location="?(no|0)"?/location=1/ig s/status="?(no|0)"?/status=1/ig
3445 s/scrolling="?(no|0|Auto)"?/scrolling=1/ig
3446 s/menubar="?(no|0)"?/menubar=1/ig
3448 # The <BLINK> tag was a crime!
3450 s*<blink>|</blink>**ig
3454 #s/framespacing="?(no|0)"?//ig
3455 #s/margin(height|width)=[0-9]*//gi
3462 Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of <quote>Microsoft</quote> with
3463 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>, and have a little fun with topical buzzwords:
3472 s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig
3476 s/industry-leading|cutting-edge|award-winning/<font color=red><b>BINGO!</b></font>/ig
3483 Kill those pesky little web-bugs:
3490 # webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
3493 s/<img\s+[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1\D[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1(\D[^>]*?)?>/<!-- Squished WebBug -->/sig
3501 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3505 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3508 <title>Templates</title>
3510 When <application>Privoxy</application> displays one of its internal
3511 pages, such as a 404 Not Found error page, it uses the appropriate template.
3512 On Linux, BSD, and Unix, these are located in
3513 <filename>/etc/privoxy/templates</filename> by default. These may be
3514 customized, if desired. <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> is
3515 used to control the HTML attributes (fonts, etc).
3518 The default <quote>Blocked</quote> banner page with the bright red top
3519 banner, is called just <quote><filename>blocked</filename></quote>. This
3520 may be customized or replaced with something else if desired.
3527 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3531 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3533 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
3536 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
3538 <!-- end boilerplate -->
3541 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3542 <sect2 id="submitactions">
3543 <title>Submitting Ads and <quote>Action</quote> Problems</title>
3545 Ads and banners that are not stopped by <application>Privoxy</application>
3546 can be submitted to the developers by accessing a special page and filling
3547 out the brief, required form. Conversely, you can also report pages, images,
3548 etc. that <application>Privoxy</application> is blocking, but should not.
3549 The form itself does require Internet access.
3552 To do this, point your browser to <application>Privoxy</application>
3553 at <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
3554 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>), and then select
3555 <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());">Actions file feedback system</ulink>,
3556 near the bottom of the page. Paste in the URL that is the cause of the
3557 unwanted behavior, and follow the prompts. The developers will
3558 try to incorporate a fix for the problem you reported into future versions.
3562 New <filename>default.actions</filename> files will occasionally be made
3563 available based on your feedback. These
3564 will be announced on the
3566 url="http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/ijbswa-announce">ijbswa-announce</ulink>
3574 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3575 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Copyright and History</title>
3577 <sect2><title>Copyright</title>
3578 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
3580 <!-- end copyright -->
3583 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3586 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3588 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
3589 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
3591 <!-- end history -->
3595 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3596 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
3597 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
3599 <!-- end seealso -->
3604 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3605 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
3608 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3610 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
3612 <application>Privoxy</application> can use <quote>regular expressions</quote>
3613 in various config files. Assuming support for <quote>pcre</quote> (Perl
3614 Compatible Regular Expressions) is compiled in, which is the default. Such
3615 configuration directives do not require regular expressions, but they can be
3616 used to increase flexibility by matching a pattern with wild-cards against
3621 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
3622 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
3623 introduction only. A full explanation would require a book ;-)
3627 <quote>Regular expressions</quote> is a way of matching one character
3628 expression against another to see if it matches or not. One of the
3629 <quote>expressions</quote> is a literal string of readable characters
3630 (letter, numbers, etc), and the other is a complex string of literal
3631 characters combined with wild-cards, and other special characters, called
3632 meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have special meanings and
3633 are used to build the complex pattern to be matched against. Perl Compatible
3634 Regular Expressions is an enhanced form of the regular expression language
3635 with backward compatibility.
3639 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
3640 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
3641 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
3642 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
3643 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
3644 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
3645 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
3646 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
3650 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
3651 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
3652 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
3653 and then some examples:
3658 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
3659 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
3661 </simplelist></para>
3665 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
3668 </simplelist></para>
3672 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
3675 </simplelist></para>
3679 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
3682 </simplelist></para>
3686 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
3687 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
3688 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
3689 not as a special meta-character.
3691 </simplelist></para>
3695 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
3696 any of the enclosed characters are encountered.
3698 </simplelist></para>
3702 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
3703 or multiple sub-expressions.
3705 </simplelist></para>
3709 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
3710 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
3711 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches.
3713 </simplelist></para>
3717 <emphasis>s/string1/string2/g</emphasis> - This is used to rewrite strings of text.
3718 <quote>string1</quote> is replaced by <quote>string2</quote> in this
3721 </simplelist></para>
3724 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
3725 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
3726 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
3727 be more illuminating:
3731 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
3732 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
3733 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
3734 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
3735 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
3736 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
3737 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
3738 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
3739 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
3740 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
3741 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
3742 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
3743 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
3744 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
3749 A now something a little more complex:
3753 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
3754 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
3755 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
3756 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
3757 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
3758 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
3759 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
3764 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
3765 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
3766 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
3767 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
3768 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
3769 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
3770 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
3771 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
3772 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
3773 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
3774 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
3775 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
3776 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
3777 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
3778 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
3779 changing our regular expression to:
3780 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
3785 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
3786 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
3787 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
3788 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
3789 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
3790 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
3791 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
3792 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
3793 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
3794 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
3795 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
3796 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
3797 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
3798 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
3799 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
3800 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
3801 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
3802 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
3803 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
3804 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
3805 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
3806 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
3807 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
3808 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
3809 in the expression anywhere).
3813 <emphasis><literal>s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i</literal></emphasis> - This is
3814 a substitution. <quote>MicroSuck</quote> will replace any occurrence of
3815 <quote>microsoft</quote>. The <quote>i</quote> at the end of the expression
3816 means ignore case. The <quote>(?!.com)</quote> means
3817 the match should fail if <quote>microsoft</quote> is followed by
3818 <quote>.com</quote>. In other words, this acts like a <quote>NOT</quote>
3819 modifier. In case this is a hyperlink, we don't want to break it ;-).
3823 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
3824 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
3825 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
3826 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
3827 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
3832 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
3833 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
3838 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3841 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3843 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
3846 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
3847 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
3848 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
3849 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
3850 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
3851 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
3852 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
3858 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
3859 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
3860 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
3861 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
3874 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
3878 Alternately, this may be reached at <ulink
3879 url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>, but this
3880 variation may not work as reliably as the above in some configurations.
3886 Show information about the current configuration:
3890 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
3897 Show the source code version numbers:
3901 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
3908 Show the client's request headers:
3912 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
3919 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
3923 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
3930 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
3931 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
3935 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
3939 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
3943 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
3948 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
3955 Edit the actions list file:
3959 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions">http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions</ulink>
3968 These may be bookmarked for quick reference.
3972 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
3973 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
3975 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
3976 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
3977 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
3978 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
3979 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
3980 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
3983 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
3984 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
3985 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
3986 Bookmarklet directly from your favourites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
3987 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
3988 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
3996 <ulink 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());">Enable Privoxy</ulink>
4002 <ulink 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());">Disable Privoxy</ulink>
4008 <ulink 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());">Toggle Privoxy</ulink> (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
4014 <ulink 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());">View Privoxy Status</ulink>
4020 <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());">Actions file feedback system</ulink>
4030 Credit: The site which gave me the general idea for these bookmarklets is
4031 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
4032 have more information about bookmarklets.
4041 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4042 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
4043 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
4046 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies <quote>actions</quote>
4047 and <quote>filters</quote> to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
4048 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
4049 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
4050 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
4051 is causing us a problem inadvertantly. It can be a little daunting to look at
4052 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
4053 <quote>regular expressions</quote> whose consequences are not always
4054 so obvious. <application>Privoxy</application> provides the
4055 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
4056 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
4057 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
4061 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
4062 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
4063 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
4064 help with filtering effects from the <filename>default.filter</filename> file! It
4065 also will not tell you about any other URLs that may be embedded within the
4066 URL you are testing. For instance, images such as ads are expressed as URLs
4067 within the raw page source of HTML pages. So you will only get info for the
4068 actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area -- not any sub-URLs. If you
4069 want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you will have to dig those out of
4070 the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View Page Source</quote> option
4071 for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the URL.
4075 Let's look at an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
4076 one section at a time:
4081 System default actions:
4083 { -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects -filter
4084 -hide-forwarded -hide-from -hide-referer -hide-user-agent -image
4085 -image-blocker -limit-connect -no-compression -no-cookies-keep
4086 -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set -no-popups -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
4092 This is the top section, and only tells us of the compiled in defaults. This
4093 is basically what <application>Privoxy</application> would do if there
4094 were not any <quote>actions</quote> defined, i.e. it does nothing. Every action
4095 is disabled. This is not particularly informative for our purposes here. OK,
4102 Matches for http://google.com:
4104 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects
4105 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
4106 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
4107 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
4108 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression
4109 +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups
4110 -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
4113 { -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set }
4123 This is much more informative, and tells us how we have defined our
4124 <quote>actions</quote>, and which ones match for our example,
4125 <quote>google.com</quote>. The first grouping shows our default
4126 settings, which would apply to all URLs. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote>
4127 file, this would be the section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section
4128 near the top. This applies to all URLs as signified by the single forward
4129 slash -- <quote>/</quote>.
4134 These are the default actions we have enabled. But we can define additional
4135 actions that would be exceptions to these general rules, and then list
4136 specific URLs that these exceptions would apply to. Last match wins.
4137 Just below this then are two explict matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>.
4138 The first is negating our various cookie blocking actions (i.e. we will allow
4139 cookies here). The second is allowing <quote>fast-redirects</quote>. Note
4140 that there is a leading dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will
4141 match any hosts and sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
4142 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these actions defined
4143 somewhere in the lower part of our actions file, and
4144 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced in these sections.
4149 And now we pull it altogether in the bottom section and summarize how
4150 <application>Privoxy</application> is appying all its <quote>actions</quote>
4151 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
4160 -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects
4161 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
4162 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
4163 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
4164 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} -limit-connect +no-compression
4165 -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups -vanilla-wafer
4172 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
4191 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
4192 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +image</quote>,
4193 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
4194 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<quote>Aliases</quote> are defined in the
4195 first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
4200 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
4201 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
4202 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
4203 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
4204 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
4205 is done here -- as both a <quote>+block</quote> <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
4206 <quote>+image</quote>. The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> does this
4211 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
4212 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm...
4218 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
4220 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects
4221 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
4222 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
4223 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
4224 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression
4225 +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups
4226 -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
4236 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
4237 we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
4238 now add a new action below this that explictly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
4239 block (-block) pages with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are various ways to
4240 handle such exceptions. Example:
4253 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
4254 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
4258 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
4272 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
4273 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
4274 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
4275 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
4276 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. Try
4277 adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
4285 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
4294 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
4295 <quote>{ -filter -no-cookies -no-cookies-keep }</quote>. Or you could do
4296 your own exception to negate filtering:
4310 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
4311 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
4312 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
4313 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
4322 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
4323 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
4324 Public License as published by the Free Software
4325 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
4326 your option) any later version.
4328 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
4329 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
4330 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
4331 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
4332 License for more details.
4334 The GNU General Public License should be included with
4335 this file. If not, you can view it at
4336 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
4337 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
4338 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
4340 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
4341 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
4342 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
4343 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
4345 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
4346 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
4348 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
4349 Add small section on submitting actions.
4351 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
4354 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
4355 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
4357 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
4358 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
4360 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
4363 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
4364 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
4365 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
4366 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
4367 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
4369 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
4370 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
4372 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
4373 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
4375 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
4376 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
4377 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
4378 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
4379 eventually be set by Makefile.
4380 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
4382 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
4383 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
4385 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
4386 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
4388 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
4389 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
4391 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
4392 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
4393 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
4394 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
4396 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
4399 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
4400 Added more to Anatomy section.
4402 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
4403 Touch up intro for new name.
4405 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
4406 we have a new homepage!
4408 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
4409 A few minor catch ups with name change.
4411 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
4412 configure needs to be generated.
4414 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
4415 we are too lazy to make a block-built
4416 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
4418 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
4419 name change related issue.
4421 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
4422 name change. changed filenames.
4424 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
4427 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
4428 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
4429 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
4430 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
4431 comments and remarks to history untouched.
4433 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
4436 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
4437 New section in Appendix.
4439 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
4440 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
4442 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
4443 correct feedback channels
4445 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
4446 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
4448 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
4451 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
4452 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
4454 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
4455 Added imageblock{pattern}.
4457 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
4460 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
4461 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
4463 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
4464 provide correct feedback channels
4466 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
4467 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
4469 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
4470 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
4472 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
4473 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
4475 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
4476 Add new - - user option.
4478 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
4479 Added section on command line options.
4481 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
4482 Changed default port to 8118
4484 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
4485 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
4487 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
4488 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
4489 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
4492 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
4495 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
4496 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
4498 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
4499 Update OS/2 build section
4501 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
4502 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
4503 will work - no other changes are needed.
4505 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
4506 Added a very short section on Templates
4508 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
4509 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
4511 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
4512 Touch ups for *.action files.
4514 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
4517 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
4518 Updates for recent changes.
4520 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
4521 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
4523 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
4524 Correct 2 minor errors
4526 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
4527 *** empty log message ***
4529 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
4530 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
4532 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
4533 wrong url in documentation
4535 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
4536 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
4538 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
4541 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
4544 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
4547 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
4548 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
4550 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
4551 Some additions, and re-arranging.
4553 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
4556 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
4557 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
4559 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
4562 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
4563 source files for junkbuster documentation
4565 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
4566 first proposal of a structure.
4568 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
4569 docs should have an author.
4571 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
4572 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.
projects / privoxy.git / blob