1 <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
2 <!entity % dummy "IGNORE">
3 <!entity supported SYSTEM "supported.sgml">
4 <!entity newfeatures SYSTEM "newfeatures.sgml">
5 <!entity p-intro SYSTEM "privoxy.sgml">
6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
7 <!entity buildsource SYSTEM "buildsource.sgml">
8 <!entity contacting SYSTEM "contacting.sgml">
9 <!entity history SYSTEM "history.sgml">
10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
11 <!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
12 <!entity p-version "2.9.15">
13 <!entity p-status "beta">
14 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
15 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
16 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
17 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
18 <!entity % p-readme "IGNORE">
19 <!entity % p-config "IGNORE">
20 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
21 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
24 File : $Source: /cvsroot/ijbswa/current/doc/source/user-manual.sgml,v $
27 This file belongs into
28 ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
30 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes Exp $
32 Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
35 ========================================================================
36 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
37 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
38 ========================================================================
45 <title>Privoxy User Manual</title>
49 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
50 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
51 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
52 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
56 <pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes Exp $</pubdate>
60 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
61 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
62 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
63 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
70 <holder>Privoxy Developers</holder>
73 <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
75 text goes here ........
87 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
88 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
89 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
95 The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
97 url="http://www.privoxy.org/"><application>Privoxy</application></ulink>.
100 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
102 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
105 You can find the latest version of the user manual at <ulink
106 url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
107 Please see the <ulink url="contact.html">Contact section</ulink> on how to
108 contact the developers.
112 <!-- Feel free to send a note to the developers at <email>ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net</email>. -->
118 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
119 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
121 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
122 <application>Privoxy</application>, v.&p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
123 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
124 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
125 configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
126 completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over
127 earlier versions. The target release date for
128 stable v3.0 is <quote>soon</quote> ;-)]]>.
131 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
134 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
135 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
136 CVS sources). And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
141 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
142 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
144 In addition to <application>Internet Junkbuster's</application> traditional
145 features of ad and banner blocking and cookie management,
146 <application>Privoxy</application> provides new features<![%p-not-stable;[,
147 some of them currently under development]]>:
149 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
151 <!-- end boilerplate -->
156 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
159 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
160 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
163 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
164 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
165 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
166 <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
171 Note: If you have a previous <application>Junkbuster</application> or
172 <application>Privoxy</application> installation on your system, you
173 will need to remove it. Some platforms do this for you as part
174 of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform).
175 In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup your old configuration
176 if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the
177 <link linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section
181 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
182 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
184 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
187 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
188 <sect3 id="installation-pack-rpm"><title>Red Hat and SuSE RPMs</title>
191 RPMs can be installed with <literal>rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm</literal>,
192 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location
193 of configuration files.
197 Note that on Red Hat, <application>Privoxy</application> will
198 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be automatically started on system boot. You will
199 need to enable that using <command>chkconfig</command>,
200 <command>ntsysv</command>, or similar methods. Note that SuSE will
201 automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
205 If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
206 <literal>rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm;</literal>. This
207 will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
211 Also note that if you have a <application>Junkbuster</application> RPM installed
212 on your system, you need to remove it first, because the packages conflict.
213 Otherwise, RPM will try to remove <application>Junkbuster</application>
214 automatically, before installing <application>Privoxy</application>.
218 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
219 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
225 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
226 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
229 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
230 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
231 in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in. We do not
232 use the registry of Windows.
236 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
237 <sect3 id="installation-pack-bintgz"><title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX</title>
240 Create a new directory, <literal>cd</literal> to it, then unzip and
241 untar the archive. For the most part, you'll have to figure out where
246 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
247 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
250 First, make sure that no previous installations of
251 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
252 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
253 system. You can do this by
257 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
258 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
259 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
260 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
264 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
265 into will contain all of the configuration files.
269 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
270 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Max OSX</title>
272 Unzip the downloaded package (you can either double-click on the file
273 in the finder, or on the desktop if you downloaded it there). Then,
274 double-click on the package installer icon and follow the installation
276 <application>Privoxy</application> will be installed in the subdirectory
277 <literal>/Applications/Privoxy.app</literal>.
278 <application>Privoxy</application> will set itself up to start
279 automatically on system bring-up via
280 <literal>/System/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal>.
284 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
285 <sect3 id="installation-amiga"><title>AmigaOS</title>
287 Copy and then unpack the <filename>lha</filename> archive to a suitable location.
288 All necessary files will be installed into <application>Privoxy</application>
289 directory, including all configuration and log files. To uninstall, just
290 remove this directory.
293 Start <application>Privoxy</application> (with RUN <>NIL:) in your
294 <filename>startnet</filename> script (AmiTCP), in
295 <filename>s:user-startup</filename> (RoadShow), as startup program in your
296 startup script (Genesis), or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx).
297 <application>Privoxy</application> will automatically quit when you quit your
298 TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack may display that
299 <application>Privoxy</application> is still running).
304 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
305 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
308 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> sources
309 is to download the source tarball from our <ulink url="http://sf.net/projects/ijbswa/">project
314 If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
315 possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
316 version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
317 CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
318 url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
322 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
324 <!-- end boilerplate -->
330 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
332 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
333 <sect1 id="upgradersnote">
334 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
336 There are very significant changes from earlier
337 <application>Junkbuster</application> versions to the current
338 <application>Privoxy</application>. The number, names, syntax, and
339 purposes of configuration files have substantially changed.
340 <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> configuration
341 files will not migrate, <application>Junkbuster 2.9.x</application>
342 and <application>Privoxy</application> configurations will need to be
343 ported. The functionalities of the old <filename>blockfile</filename>,
344 <filename>cookiefile</filename> and <filename>imagelist</filename>
345 are now combined into the <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions
346 files</quote></ulink>.
347 <filename>default.action</filename>, is the main actions file. Local
348 exceptions should best be put into <filename>user.action</filename>.
351 A <ulink url="filter-file.html"><quote>filter file</quote></ulink> (typically
352 <filename>default.filter</filename>) is new as of <application>Privoxy
353 2.9.x</application>, and provides some of the new sophistication (explained
354 below). <filename>config</filename> is much the same as before.
357 If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
358 files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
359 When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
360 to the new actions files, please note that even the pattern syntax has
361 changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
362 recommended to use the new configuration files.
365 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
373 The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
379 Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
380 important configuration files!
385 <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
386 at the special URL: <ulink
387 url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
388 (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
389 aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
390 <application>Privoxy</application>.
395 The primary configuration file for cookie management, ad and banner
396 blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
397 configuration is in the <ulink url="actions-file.html">actions
398 files</ulink>. It is strongly recommended to become familiar with the new
399 actions concept below, before modifying these files. Locally defined rules
400 should go into <filename>user.action</filename>.
405 <!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
406 <!-- the situation changes under our feet. -->
407 Some installers may not automatically start
408 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
416 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
417 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application></title>
423 If upgrading, please back up any configuration files. See
424 the <link linkend="upgradersnote">Note to Upgraders</link> Section.
429 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
430 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> for platform specific
437 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
438 not done this already. See the section <link linkend="startup">Starting
439 <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
445 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and HTTPS
446 proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
447 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
448 (<application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions of
449 <application>Privoxy</application> used port 8000.) See the section <link
450 linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
456 Flush your browser's caches, to remove any cached ad images.
462 Enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy. You may want to customize the
463 <link linkend="actions-file"><filename>user.action</filename></link> file to
464 personalize your new browsing experience. See the <link
465 linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more configuration
466 options, and how to further customize your installation.
472 If you experience problems with sites that <quote>misbehave</quote>, see
473 the <link linkend="actionsanat">Anatomy of an Action</link> section in the
480 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
481 Developers</link> on how to report bugs or problems with websites or to get
491 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
493 <title>Starting <application>Privoxy</application></title>
495 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
496 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
497 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is
498 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
499 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
503 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
504 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under <literal>Edit
505 -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy</literal>.
506 For <application>Internet Explorer</application>: <literal>Tools ->
507 Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting</literal>. Then,
508 check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info (Address:
509 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy support too.
513 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
514 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
515 are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
516 <application>Privoxy</application>!
520 <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
521 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
522 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
523 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
524 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
527 <sect2 id="start-redhatdebian">
528 <title>RedHat and Debian</title>
530 We use a script. Note that RedHat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
531 default. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its
532 main configuration file. FIXME: Debian??
536 # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
541 <sect2 id="start-suse">
544 We use a script. It will use the file <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename>
545 as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
555 <sect2 id="start-windows">
556 <title>Windows</title>
558 Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy. If no configuration file is
559 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
560 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
561 automatically start Privoxy upon booting you PC.
565 <sect2 id="start-unices">
566 <title>Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others</title>
568 Example Unix startup command:
572 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
577 <sect2 id="start-os2">
584 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
585 <title>MAX OSX</title>
592 <sect2 id="start-amigaos">
593 <title>AmigaOS</title>
602 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
606 must find a better place for this paragraph
609 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
610 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
611 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
612 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
613 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
614 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
618 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
619 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
620 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
621 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
622 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
623 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
624 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
625 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
626 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
630 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
631 sites is the popup-killing (through the <ulink
632 url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink> and
634 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>
635 actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
636 popups (explained below).
640 <application>Privoxy</application> is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
641 the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
642 you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
643 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
644 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
645 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
646 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
647 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
648 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
652 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
653 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
654 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
655 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
656 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
657 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
658 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
659 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
660 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
664 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
665 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
666 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
667 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
668 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
669 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
670 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
674 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
675 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
676 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
677 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
678 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
679 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
684 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <ulink
685 url="actions-file.html#ACTIONSFILE">read more about the actions concept</ulink>
686 or even dive deep into the <ulink url="appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT">Appendix
691 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
692 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
693 section <ulink url="contact.html"><quote>Contacting the
694 Developers</quote></ulink> below.
699 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
700 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
701 <title>Command Line Options</title>
703 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
704 command-line options:
712 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
715 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
720 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
723 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
728 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
731 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
732 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
737 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
741 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
742 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
743 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
744 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
749 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
753 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
754 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
755 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
760 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
763 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
764 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
765 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
766 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
767 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
768 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
779 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
782 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
783 <sect1 id="configuration"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Configuration</title>
785 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
786 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
787 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
788 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
792 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
795 <title>Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser</title>
797 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
798 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
799 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
800 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
801 You will see the following section:
805 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
808 <bridgehead renderas="sect2">Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
812 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
815 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">View the source code version numbers</ulink>
818 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
821 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
824 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
832 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
833 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
834 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
835 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
836 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
837 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
841 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
842 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
843 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
844 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
845 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
846 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy. There
847 is even a toggle <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklet</link> offered, so
848 that you can toggle <application>Privoxy</application> with one click from
854 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
859 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
861 <sect2 id="confoverview">
862 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
864 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
865 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and
866 AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the
867 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
868 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
869 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
873 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
874 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
875 principle configuration files are:
883 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
884 on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and <filename>config.txt</filename>
885 on Windows. This is a required file.
891 <filename>default.action</filename> (the main <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>)
892 is used to define which <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
893 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many
894 exceptions (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
895 <application>Privoxy</application> to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on
896 as many websites as possible.
899 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
900 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
901 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
902 <filename>default.action</filename> (which you will most propably want
903 to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
904 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can preserve them across
905 upgrades. <filename>standard.action</filename> is for
906 <application>Privoxy's</application> internal use.
909 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
911 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
913 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
914 various actions files.
920 <filename>default.filter</filename> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
921 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
922 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
923 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
924 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
932 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
933 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
934 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
935 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
936 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
937 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
942 The actions files and <filename>default.filter</filename>
943 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
948 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
949 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
950 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
951 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
952 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
953 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
954 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
959 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
960 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
961 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
962 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
968 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
971 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
974 <title>The Main Configuration File</title>
977 Again, the main configuration file is named <filename>config</filename> on
978 Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, and <filename>config.txt</filename> on Windows.
979 Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of
980 values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For
988 <emphasis>confdir /etc/privoxy</emphasis></literallayout>
994 Assigns the value <literal>/etc/privoxy</literal> to the option
995 <literal>confdir</literal> and thus indicates that the configuration
996 directory is named <quote>/etc/privoxy/</quote>.
1000 All options in the config file except for <literal>confdir</literal> and
1001 <literal>logdir</literal> are optional. Watch out in the below description
1002 for what happens if you leave them unset.
1006 The main config file controls all aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>'s
1007 operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter
1008 where you may be surfing).
1012 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1014 <sect2 id="conf-log-loc">
1015 <title>Configuration and Log File Locations</title>
1018 <application>Privoxy</application> can (and normally does) use a number of
1019 other files for additional configuration, help and logging.
1020 This section of the configuration file tells <application>Privoxy</application>
1021 where to find those other files.
1025 The user running Privoxy, must have read permission for all
1026 configuration files, and write permission to any files that would
1027 be modified, such as log files.
1030 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="confdir"><title>confdir</title>
1034 <term>Specifies:</term>
1036 <para>The directory where the other configuration files are located</para>
1040 <term>Type of value:</term>
1042 <para>Path name</para>
1046 <term>Default value:</term>
1048 <para>/etc/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
1052 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1054 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
1061 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
1064 When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
1065 per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of <quote>confdir</quote>.
1066 For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
1067 <filename>confdir/templates</filename>, where the HTML templates for CGI
1068 output reside (e.g. <application>Privoxy's</application> 404 error page).
1076 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logdir"><title>logdir</title>
1080 <term>Specifies:</term>
1083 The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where <filename>logfile</filename> and
1084 <filename>jarfile</filename> are located)
1089 <term>Type of value:</term>
1091 <para>Path name</para>
1095 <term>Default value:</term>
1097 <para>/var/log/privoxy (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> <application>Privoxy</application> installation dir (Windows) </para>
1101 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1103 <para><emphasis>Mandatory</emphasis></para>
1110 No trailing <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, please
1117 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="actionsfile"><title>
1120 <anchor id="default.action">
1121 <anchor id="standard.action">
1122 <anchor id="user.action">
1123 <!-- Note: slightly modified this section 04/28/02, hal. See NOTE. -->
1126 <term>Specifies:</term>
1129 The <link linkend="actions-file">actions file(s)</link> to use
1134 <term>Type of value:</term>
1136 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal>, without the <literal>.action</literal> suffix</para>
1140 <term>Default value:</term>
1144 <msgtext><literallayout> standard # Internal purposes, no editing recommended</literallayout></msgtext>
1147 <msgtext><literallayout> default # Main actions file</literallayout></msgtext>
1150 <msgtext><literallayout> user # User customizations</literallayout></msgtext>
1156 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1159 No actions are taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
1167 Multiple <literal>actionsfile</literal> lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended!
1170 The default values include standard.action, which is used for internal
1171 purposes and should be loaded, default.action, which is the
1172 <quote>main</quote> actions file maintained by the developers, and
1173 <filename>user.action</filename>, where you can make your personal additions.
1176 Actions files are where all the per site and per URL configuration is done for
1177 ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc.
1178 There is no point in using <application>Privoxy</application> without at
1179 least one actions file.
1186 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filterfile"><title>filterfile</title>
1187 <anchor id="default.filter">
1190 <term>Specifies:</term>
1193 The <link linkend="filter">filter</link> file to use
1198 <term>Type of value:</term>
1200 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1204 <term>Default value:</term>
1206 <para>default.filter (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> default.filter.txt (Windows)</para>
1210 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1213 No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
1214 <literal>+filter{<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>}</literal>
1215 actions in the actions files are turned neutral.
1223 The <quote>default.filter</quote> file contains content modification rules
1224 that use <quote>regular expressions</quote>. These rules permit powerful
1225 changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable your favorite
1226 JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some
1227 fun replacing <quote>Microsoft</quote> with <quote>MicroSuck</quote> wherever
1228 it appears on a Web page.
1235 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="logfile"><title>logfile</title>
1239 <term>Specifies:</term>
1247 <term>Type of value:</term>
1249 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1253 <term>Default value:</term>
1255 <para>logfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.log (Windows)</para>
1259 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1262 No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (<literal>stderr</literal>).
1270 The windows version will additionally log to the console.
1273 The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
1274 of detail and number of messages are set with the <literal>debug</literal>
1275 option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
1276 <application>Privoxy</application> (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you
1277 think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it.
1280 Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
1281 periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
1282 (see <quote>man cron</quote>). For Red Hat, a <command>logrotate</command>
1283 script has been included.
1286 On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like <quote>/var/log/privoxy.*
1287 +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup</quote> in <filename>/etc/logfiles</filename>, with
1288 the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the
1289 log, when it exceeds 1M size.
1292 Any log files must be writable by whatever user <application>Privoxy</application>
1293 is being run as (default on UNIX, user id is <quote>privoxy</quote>).
1300 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="jarfile"><title>jarfile</title>
1304 <term>Specifies:</term>
1307 The file to store intercepted cookies in
1312 <term>Type of value:</term>
1314 <para>File name, relative to <literal>logdir</literal></para>
1318 <term>Default value:</term>
1320 <para>jarfile (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> privoxy.jar (Windows)</para>
1324 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1327 Intercepted cookies are not stored at all.
1335 The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
1342 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trustfile"><title>trustfile</title>
1345 <term>Specifies:</term>
1348 The trust file to use
1353 <term>Type of value:</term>
1355 <para>File name, relative to <literal>confdir</literal></para>
1359 <term>Default value:</term>
1361 <para><emphasis>Unset (commented out)</emphasis>. When activated: trust (Unix) <emphasis>or</emphasis> trust.txt (Windows)</para>
1365 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1368 The whole trust mechanism is turned off.
1376 The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should
1377 be used with care. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> recommended for the casual user.
1380 If you specify a trust file, <application>Privoxy</application> will only allow
1381 access to sites that are named in the trustfile.
1382 You can also mark sites as trusted referrers (with <literal>+</literal>), with
1383 the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a
1384 trusted referrer was used.
1385 The link target will then be added to the <quote>trustfile</quote>.
1386 Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
1389 If you use <literal>+</literal> operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over time.
1397 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1401 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1403 <sect2 id="local-set-up">
1404 <title>Local Set-up Documentation</title>
1407 If you intend to operate <application>Privoxy</application> for more users
1408 that just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach
1409 you, what you block and why you do that, your policies etc.
1412 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="user-manual"><title>user-manual</title>
1415 <term>Specifies:</term>
1418 Location of the <application>Privoxy</application> User Manual.
1423 <term>Type of value:</term>
1425 <para>A fully qualified URI</para>
1429 <term>Default value:</term>
1431 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1435 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1438 <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">http://www.privoxy.org/<replaceable class="parameter">version</replaceable>/user-manual/</ulink>
1439 will be used, where <replaceable class="parameter">version</replaceable> is the <application>Privoxy</application> version.
1447 The User Manual URI is used for help links from some of the internal CGI pages.
1448 The manual itself is normally packaged with the binary distributions, so you propably want
1449 to set this to a locally installed copy. For multi-user setups, you could provide a copy on
1450 a local webserver for all your users and use the corresponding URL here.
1456 Unix, in local filesystem:
1459 <screen>user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;/user-manual/</screen>
1462 Any platform, on local webserver (called <quote>local-webserver</quote>):
1465 <screen>user-manual http://local-webserver/privoxy-user-manual/</screen>
1469 If set, this option should be <emphasis>the first option in the config file</emphasis>, because
1470 it is used while the config file is being read.
1478 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="trust-info-url"><title>trust-info-url</title>
1482 <term>Specifies:</term>
1485 A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied.
1490 <term>Type of value:</term>
1496 <term>Default value:</term>
1498 <para>Two example URL are provided</para>
1502 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1505 No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
1513 The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been
1514 activated. (See <literal>trustfile</literal> above.)
1517 If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
1518 documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here.
1519 Use multiple times for multiple URLs.
1522 The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up
1523 locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place!
1530 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="admin-address"><title>admin-address</title>
1534 <term>Specifies:</term>
1537 An email address to reach the proxy administrator.
1542 <term>Type of value:</term>
1544 <para>Email address</para>
1548 <term>Default value:</term>
1550 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1554 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1557 No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1565 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1566 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1574 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="proxy-info-url"><title>proxy-info-url</title>
1578 <term>Specifies:</term>
1581 A URL to documentation about the local <application>Privoxy</application> setup,
1582 configuration or policies.
1587 <term>Type of value:</term>
1593 <term>Default value:</term>
1595 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1599 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1602 No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
1610 If both <literal>admin-address</literal> and <literal>proxy-info-url</literal>
1611 are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
1615 This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
1623 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1625 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1627 <sect2 id="debugging">
1628 <title>Debugging</title>
1631 These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem.
1632 Note that you might also want to invoke
1633 <application>Privoxy</application> with the <literal>--no-daemon</literal>
1634 command line option when debugging.
1637 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="debug"><title>debug</title>
1641 <term>Specifies:</term>
1644 Key values that determine what information gets logged.
1649 <term>Type of value:</term>
1651 <para>Integer values</para>
1655 <term>Default value:</term>
1657 <para>12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)</para>
1661 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1664 Nothing gets logged.
1672 The available debug levels are:
1676 debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
1677 debug 2 # show each connection status
1678 debug 4 # show I/O status
1679 debug 8 # show header parsing
1680 debug 16 # log all data into the logfile
1681 debug 32 # debug force feature
1682 debug 64 # debug regular expression filter
1683 debug 128 # debug fast redirects
1684 debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
1685 debug 512 # Common Log Format
1686 debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
1687 debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
1688 debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
1692 To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use
1693 multiple <literal>debug</literal> lines.
1696 A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request
1697 as it happens. <emphasis>1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended</emphasis>
1698 so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are probably
1699 only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce
1700 a hell of an output (especially 16).
1704 The reporting of <emphasis>fatal</emphasis> errors (i.e. ones which crash
1705 <application>Privoxy</application>) is always on and cannot be disabled.
1708 If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set <quote>debug
1709 512</quote> <emphasis>ONLY</emphasis> and not enable anything else.
1716 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="single-threaded"><title>single-threaded</title>
1720 <term>Specifies:</term>
1723 Whether to run only one server thread
1728 <term>Type of value:</term>
1730 <para><emphasis>None</emphasis></para>
1734 <term>Default value:</term>
1736 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
1740 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1743 Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability to
1744 serve multiple requests simultaneously.
1752 This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never
1753 need to use it. <emphasis>It will drastically reduce performance.</emphasis>
1762 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1764 <sect2 id="access-control">
1765 <title>Access Control and Security</title>
1768 This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
1769 of <application>Privoxy</application>'s configuration.
1772 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="listen-address"><title>listen-address</title>
1776 <term>Specifies:</term>
1779 The IP address and TCP port on which <application>Privoxy</application> will
1780 listen for client requests.
1785 <term>Type of value:</term>
1787 <para>[<replaceable class="parameter">IP-Address</replaceable>]:<replaceable class="parameter">Port</replaceable></para>
1792 <term>Default value:</term>
1794 <para>127.0.0.1:8118</para>
1798 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1801 Bind to 127.0.0.1 (localhost), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended for
1802 home users who run <application>Privoxy</application> on the same machine as
1811 You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
1814 If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
1815 serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
1816 will need to override the default.
1819 If you leave out the IP address, <application>Privoxy</application> will
1820 bind to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable
1821 from the Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (ACL's)
1822 (see <quote>ACLs</quote> below), or a firewall.
1827 <term>Example:</term>
1830 Suppose you are running <application>Privoxy</application> on
1831 a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network
1832 (192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address.
1833 You want it to serve requests from inside only:
1837 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
1845 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="toggle"><title>toggle</title>
1849 <term>Specifies:</term>
1852 Initial state of "toggle" status
1857 <term>Type of value:</term>
1863 <term>Default value:</term>
1869 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1872 Act as if toggled on
1880 If set to 0, <application>Privoxy</application> will start in
1881 <quote>toggled off</quote> mode, i.e. behave like a normal, content-neutral
1882 proxy. See <literal>enable-remote-toggle</literal>
1883 below. This is not really useful anymore, since toggling is much easier
1884 via <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">the web
1885 interface</ulink> than via editing the <filename>conf</filename> file.
1888 The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
1889 if this option is present.
1897 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-remote-toggle"><title>enable-remote-toggle</title>
1900 <term>Specifies:</term>
1903 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">web-based toggle
1904 feature</ulink> may be used
1909 <term>Type of value:</term>
1915 <term>Default value:</term>
1921 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1924 The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
1932 When toggled off, <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal,
1933 content-neutral proxy, i.e. it acts as if none of the actions applied to
1937 For the time being, access to the toggle feature can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1938 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1939 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1940 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1941 toggle it for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>
1942 for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1945 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1946 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
1954 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="enable-edit-actions"><title>enable-edit-actions</title>
1957 <term>Specifies:</term>
1960 Whether or not the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">web-based actions
1961 file editor</ulink> may be used
1966 <term>Type of value:</term>
1972 <term>Default value:</term>
1978 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
1981 The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
1989 For the time being, access to the editor can <emphasis>not</emphasis> be
1990 controlled separately by <quote>ACLs</quote> or HTTP authentication,
1991 so that everybody who can access <application>Privoxy</application> (see
1992 <quote>ACLs</quote> and <literal>listen-address</literal> above) can
1993 modify its configuration for all users. So this option is <emphasis>not
1994 recommended</emphasis> for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
1997 Note that you must have compiled <application>Privoxy</application> with
1998 support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
2005 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="acls"><title>
2006 ACLs: permit-access and deny-access</title>
2007 <anchor id="permit-acces">
2008 <anchor id="deny-acces">
2012 <term>Specifies:</term>
2015 Who can access what.
2020 <term>Type of value:</term>
2023 <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable>]
2024 [<replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable>]]
2027 Where <replaceable class="parameter">src_addr</replaceable> and
2028 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
2029 DNS names, and <replaceable class="parameter">src_masklen</replaceable> and
2030 <replaceable class="parameter">dst_masklen</replaceable> are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
2031 values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
2032 destination part are optional.
2037 <term>Default value:</term>
2039 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2043 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2046 Don't restrict access further than implied by <literal>listen-address</literal>
2054 Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
2055 administrators, and <emphasis>are not usually needed by individual users</emphasis>.
2056 For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
2057 <application>Privoxy</application> only listens on the localhost
2058 (127.0.0.1) or internal (home) network address by means of the
2059 <literal>listen-address</literal> option.
2062 Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute
2063 for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security
2067 Multiple ACL lines are OK.
2068 If any ACLs are specified, then the <application>Privoxy</application>
2069 talks only to IP addresses that match at least one <literal>permit-access</literal> line
2070 and don't match any subsequent <literal>deny-access</literal> line. In other words, the
2071 last match wins, with the default being <literal>deny-access</literal>.
2074 If <application>Privoxy</application> is using a forwarder (see <literal>forward</literal> below)
2075 for a particular destination URL, the <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable>
2076 that is examined is the address of the forwarder and <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the address
2077 of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
2078 <application>Privoxy</application> to determine the IP address of the
2079 ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
2082 You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
2083 time. All DNS names must resolve! You can <emphasis>not</emphasis> use domain patterns
2084 like <quote>*.org</quote> or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
2085 IP addresses, only the first one is used.
2088 Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
2089 if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
2094 <term>Examples:</term>
2097 Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
2098 <literal>listen-address</literal> are set: <quote>localhost</quote>
2099 is OK. The absence of a <replaceable class="parameter">dst_addr</replaceable> implies that
2100 <emphasis>all</emphasis> destination addresses are OK:
2104 permit-access localhost
2108 Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
2109 nothing but www.example.com:
2113 permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
2117 Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
2118 with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
2122 permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
2123 deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
2131 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="buffer-limit"><title>buffer-limit</title>
2135 <term>Specifies:</term>
2138 Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
2143 <term>Type of value:</term>
2145 <para>Size in Kbytes</para>
2149 <term>Default value:</term>
2155 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2158 Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
2166 For content filtering, i.e. the <literal>+filter</literal> and
2167 <literal>+deanimate-gif</literal> actions, it is necessary that
2168 <application>Privoxy</application> buffers the entire document body.
2169 This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
2170 data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
2174 When a document buffer size reaches the <literal>buffer-limit</literal>, it is
2175 flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
2176 filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
2177 running, which might require up to <literal>buffer-limit</literal> Kbytes
2178 <emphasis>each</emphasis>, unless you have enabled <quote>single-threaded</quote>
2188 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2191 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2193 <sect2 id="forwarding">
2194 <title>Forwarding</title>
2197 This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
2199 It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
2200 accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains
2201 through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. <ulink
2202 url="http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm">http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm</ulink>)
2203 Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
2204 proxy may be necessary because the machine that <application>Privoxy</application>
2205 runs on has no direct Internet access.
2209 Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. <application>Privoxy</application>
2210 supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols.
2213 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward"><title>forward</title>
2216 <term>Specifies:</term>
2219 To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
2224 <term>Type of value:</term>
2227 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2228 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2231 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
2232 chapter on domain matching in the <filename>default.action</filename> file),
2233 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is the address of the parent HTTP proxy
2234 as an IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or as a valid DNS name (or <quote>.</quote> to denote
2235 <quote>no forwarding</quote>, and the optional
2236 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer
2237 values from 1 to 64535
2242 <term>Default value:</term>
2244 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2248 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2251 Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
2259 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2260 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
2263 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2268 <term>Examples:</term>
2271 Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
2275 forward .* anon-proxy.example.org:8080
2280 Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
2281 to that ISP's sites:
2285 forward .*. caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
2286 forward .example-isp.net .
2294 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="socks"><title>
2295 forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a</title>
2296 <anchor id="forward-socks4">
2297 <anchor id="forward-socks4a">
2301 <term>Specifies:</term>
2304 Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
2309 <term>Type of value:</term>
2312 <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2313 <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2314 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>[/<replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable>]
2317 Where <replaceable class="parameter">target_domain</replaceable> is a domain name pattern (see the
2318 chapter on domain matching in the <filename>default.action</filename> file),
2319 <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> and <replaceable class="parameter">socks_proxy</replaceable>
2320 are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (<replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable>
2321 may be <quote>.</quote> to denote <quote>no HTTP forwarding</quote>), and the optional
2322 <replaceable class="parameter">port</replaceable> parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
2327 <term>Default value:</term>
2329 <para><emphasis>Unset</emphasis></para>
2333 <term>Effect if unset:</term>
2336 Don't use SOCKS proxies.
2344 Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
2347 The difference between <literal>forward-socks4</literal> and <literal>forward-socks4a</literal>
2348 is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
2349 server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
2352 If <replaceable class="parameter">http_parent</replaceable> is <quote>.</quote>, then requests are not
2353 forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
2359 <term>Examples:</term>
2362 From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
2363 <quote>internal</quote> domains, but everything outbound goes through
2364 their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
2369 forward-socks4a .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
2370 forward .example.com .
2374 A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
2378 forward-socks4 .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
2386 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="advanced-forwarding-examples"><title>Advanced Forwarding Examples</title>
2389 If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
2390 only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple <application>Privoxies</application>
2391 which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
2392 <emphasis>your</emphasis> users can see the internal content of all ISPs.
2396 Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
2397 isp-b.net. Both run <application>Privoxy</application>. Their forwarding
2398 configuration can look like this:
2408 forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
2419 forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
2424 Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
2425 host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
2426 of both isp-a and isp-b.
2430 If you intend to chain <application>Privoxy</application> and
2431 <application>squid</application> locally, then chain as
2432 <literal>browser -> squid -> privoxy</literal> is the recommended way.
2436 Assuming that <application>Privoxy</application> and <application>squid</application>
2437 run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this:
2442 # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
2443 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
2445 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
2448 # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
2449 always_direct allow ftp
2451 # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
2452 never_direct allow all</screen>
2456 You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to <application>squid</application>'s address and port.
2457 Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult <literal>http_port</literal> in <filename>squid.conf</filename>.
2464 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2467 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2469 <sect2 id="windows-gui">
2470 <title>Windows GUI Options</title>
2472 <application>Privoxy</application> has a number of options specific to the
2473 Windows GUI interface:
2476 <anchor id="activity-animation">
2478 If <quote>activity-animation</quote> is set to 1, the
2479 <application>Privoxy</application> icon will animate when
2480 <quote>Privoxy</quote> is active. To turn off, set to 0.
2487 <emphasis>activity-animation 1</emphasis>
2493 <anchor id="log-messages">
2495 If <quote>log-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2496 <application>Privoxy</application> will log messages to the console
2504 <emphasis>log-messages 1</emphasis>
2510 <anchor id="log-buffer-size">
2512 If <quote>log-buffer-size</quote> is set to 1, the size of the log buffer,
2513 i.e. the amount of memory used for the log messages displayed in the
2514 console window, will be limited to <quote>log-max-lines</quote> (see below).
2518 Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and
2519 eat up all your memory!
2526 <emphasis>log-buffer-size 1</emphasis>
2532 <anchor id="log-max-lines">
2534 <application>log-max-lines</application> is the maximum number of lines held
2535 in the log buffer. See above.
2542 <emphasis>log-max-lines 200</emphasis>
2548 <anchor id="log-highlight-messages">
2550 If <quote>log-highlight-messages</quote> is set to 1,
2551 <application>Privoxy</application> will highlight portions of the log
2552 messages with a bold-faced font:
2559 <emphasis>log-highlight-messages 1</emphasis>
2565 <anchor id="log-font-name">
2567 The font used in the console window:
2574 <emphasis>log-font-name Comic Sans MS</emphasis>
2580 <anchor id="log-font-size">
2582 Font size used in the console window:
2589 <emphasis>log-font-size 8</emphasis>
2595 <anchor id="show-on-task-bar">
2597 <quote>show-on-task-bar</quote> controls whether or not
2598 <application>Privoxy</application> will appear as a button on the Task bar
2606 <emphasis>show-on-task-bar 0</emphasis>
2612 <anchor id="close-button-minimizes">
2614 If <quote>close-button-minimizes</quote> is set to 1, the Windows close
2615 button will minimize <application>Privoxy</application> instead of closing
2616 the program (close with the exit option on the File menu).
2623 <emphasis>close-button-minimizes 1</emphasis>
2629 <anchor id="hide-console">
2631 The <quote>hide-console</quote> option is specific to the MS-Win console
2632 version of <application>Privoxy</application>. If this option is used,
2633 <application>Privoxy</application> will disconnect from and hide the
2641 #<emphasis>hide-console</emphasis>
2650 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2654 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
2656 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
2659 The actions files are used to define what actions
2660 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determine
2661 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
2662 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
2663 are three such files included with <application>Privoxy</application> (as of
2664 version 2.9.15), with differing purposes:
2671 <filename>standard.action</filename> - is used by the web based editor,
2672 to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
2673 in <filename>default.action</filename>. These have increasing levels of
2674 aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no influence on your browsing unless
2675 you select them explicitly in the editor</emphasis>. It is not recommend
2681 <filename>default.action</filename> - is the primary action file
2682 that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
2683 provide a base level of functionality for
2684 <application>Privoxy's</application> array of features. So it is
2685 a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well for users everywhere.
2686 This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and making
2692 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
2693 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
2694 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
2695 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
2702 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
2703 file, and are processed in the order they are defined. The content of these
2704 can all be viewed and edited from <ulink
2705 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2709 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
2710 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
2711 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
2712 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
2713 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
2714 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
2715 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
2716 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
2717 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
2718 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
2719 with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
2720 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
2724 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
2725 just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
2726 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
2727 written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
2728 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
2732 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2734 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
2736 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
2737 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
2738 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
2739 certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
2740 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
2741 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
2742 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per
2743 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
2744 regularly use and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe
2745 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
2749 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
2750 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
2751 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
2752 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
2756 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2758 <title>How to Edit</title>
2760 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
2761 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
2762 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
2763 The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
2764 per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
2765 <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Advanced</quote>.
2769 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2770 the actions files. Look at <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly
2777 <title>How Actions are Applied to URLs</title>
2779 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2780 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will be discussed later. For now
2781 let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a heading line (often split
2782 up to multiple lines for readability) which consist of a list of actions,
2783 separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces. Below that, there
2784 is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
2788 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2789 compared to all patterns in each action file file. Every time it matches, the list of
2790 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
2791 of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
2792 the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
2793 the effects are aggregated (e.g. a URL might match both the
2794 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>
2795 and <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> actions).
2800 You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting <ulink
2801 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2805 More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2806 Anatomy of an Action</link>.
2810 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2811 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2812 <title>Patterns</title>
2814 Generally, a pattern has the form <literal><domain>/<path></literal>,
2815 where both the <literal><domain></literal> and <literal><path></literal>
2816 are optional. (This is why the pattern <literal>/</literal> matches all URLs).
2821 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2824 is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2825 regardless of which document on that server is requested.
2830 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2833 means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2839 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2842 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2843 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2848 <term><literal>/index.html</literal></term>
2851 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2852 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server.
2857 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2860 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2861 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>.
2868 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2869 <sect3><title>The Domain Pattern</title>
2872 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
2873 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2879 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2882 matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
2883 <literal>.example.com</literal>
2888 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2891 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2892 <literal>www.</literal>
2897 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2900 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>
2901 (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as a domain.)
2908 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2909 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: <quote>*</quote>
2910 stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, <quote>?</quote> stands for
2911 any single character, you can define character classes in square
2912 brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
2917 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2920 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2921 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2926 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2929 matches all of the above, and then some.
2934 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2937 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2938 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2943 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2946 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2947 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2948 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2949 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2957 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2960 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2961 <sect3><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2964 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl compatible regular expressions
2965 (through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> library) for
2970 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2971 expressions, and full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
2972 at <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/man.txt">http://www.pcre.org/man.txt</ulink>.
2973 You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (<literal>man perlre</literal>)
2974 useful, which is available on-line at <ulink
2975 url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>.
2979 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2980 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2981 for the beginning of a line).
2985 Please also note that matching in the path is case
2986 <emphasis>INSENSITIVE</emphasis> by default, but you can switch to case
2987 sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2988 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch:
2989 <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match only
2990 documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2991 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2997 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
3000 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3002 <sect2 id="actions">
3003 <title>Actions</title>
3005 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
3006 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
3007 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
3008 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
3009 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
3010 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
3011 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
3012 previously applied.</quote>
3017 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
3018 separated by whitespace, like in
3019 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
3020 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
3021 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
3022 of the actions file.
3026 There are three classes of actions:
3033 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
3034 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
3038 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
3039 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
3042 Example: <literal>+block</literal>
3049 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
3054 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
3055 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
3056 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
3059 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
3060 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
3063 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }</literal>
3069 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
3070 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
3071 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
3072 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
3073 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
3074 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
3078 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
3079 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
3080 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
3081 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
3084 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
3085 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
3093 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
3094 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
3095 normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
3096 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
3097 files will give a good starting point).
3101 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
3102 to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
3103 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files). For
3104 multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
3105 Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in
3106 <filename>config</filename> (the default installation has three actions
3107 files). It also quite possible for any given URL pattern to match more than
3108 one pattern and thus more than one set of actions!
3111 <!-- start actions listing -->
3113 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
3117 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3118 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
3119 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
3121 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
3124 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3126 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
3127 <title><emphasis>add-header</emphasis></title>
3131 <term>Typical use:</term>
3133 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
3138 <term>Effect:</term>
3141 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
3148 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3150 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3155 <term>Parameter:</term>
3158 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
3159 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
3169 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
3170 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
3171 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
3178 <term>Example usage:</term>
3181 <screen>+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</screen>
3189 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3190 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
3191 <title><emphasis>block</emphasis></title>
3195 <term>Typical use:</term>
3197 <para>Block ads or other obnoxious content</para>
3202 <term>Effect:</term>
3205 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the requests are not
3206 forwarded to the remote server, but answered locally with a substitute page or image,
3207 as determined by the <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>
3208 and <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> actions.
3215 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3217 <para>Boolean.</para>
3222 <term>Parameter:</term>
3232 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
3233 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains links to find out why the request
3234 was blocked, and a click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
3235 force feature enabled). The <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page adapts to the available
3236 screen space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or minaturized and text-only
3237 if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using <application>Privoxy</application>
3238 right now, you can take a look at the
3239 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
3243 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
3244 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
3245 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
3246 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
3247 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
3248 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
3251 It is important to understand this process, in order
3252 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
3253 ads and other unwanted content.
3256 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
3257 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
3258 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
3259 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
3260 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
3266 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3269 <screen>{+block} # Block and replace with "blocked" page
3270 .nasty-stuff.example.com
3272 {+block +handle-as-image} # Block and replace with image
3283 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3284 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3285 <title><emphasis>crunch-incoming-cookies</emphasis></title>
3289 <term>Typical use:</term>
3292 Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
3298 <term>Effect:</term>
3301 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3308 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3310 <para>Boolean.</para>
3315 <term>Parameter:</term>
3327 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
3328 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
3329 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3330 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
3333 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3334 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3335 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set.
3341 <term>Example usage:</term>
3344 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3352 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3353 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3354 <title><emphasis>crunch-outgoing-cookies</emphasis></title>
3358 <term>Typical use:</term>
3361 Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
3367 <term>Effect:</term>
3370 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3377 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3379 <para>Boolean.</para>
3384 <term>Parameter:</term>
3396 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
3397 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
3398 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3399 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
3402 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3403 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3404 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3410 <term>Example usage:</term>
3413 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3422 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3423 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3424 <title><emphasis>deanimate-gifs</emphasis></title>
3428 <term>Typical use:</term>
3430 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3435 <term>Effect:</term>
3438 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3445 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3447 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3452 <term>Parameter:</term>
3455 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3464 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3465 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3466 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3467 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3468 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3469 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3472 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3473 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3480 <term>Example usage:</term>
3483 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3490 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3491 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3492 <title><emphasis>downgrade-http-version</emphasis></title>
3496 <term>Typical use:</term>
3498 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3503 <term>Effect:</term>
3506 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3513 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3515 <para>Boolean.</para>
3520 <term>Parameter:</term>
3532 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3533 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3534 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3535 out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
3536 is a chance you might need this action.
3542 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3545 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3546 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3554 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3555 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3556 <title><emphasis>fast-redirects</emphasis></title>
3560 <term>Typical use:</term>
3562 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links</para>
3567 <term>Effect:</term>
3570 Cut off all but the last valid URL from requests.
3577 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3579 <para>Boolean.</para>
3584 <term>Parameter:</term>
3596 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3597 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3598 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3599 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3600 <emphasis>http://some.place/click-tracker.cgi?target=http://some.where.else</emphasis>.
3603 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3604 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3605 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3606 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3607 browser ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3611 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3612 It is likely to break some sites. There is a bunch of exceptions to this action in
3613 <filename>default.action</filename>, should you decide to turn it on by default.
3619 <term>Example usage:</term>
3622 <screen>{+fast-redirects}</screen>
3631 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3632 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
3633 <title><emphasis>filter</emphasis></title>
3637 <term>Typical use:</term>
3639 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), do fun text replacements, etc.</para>
3644 <term>Effect:</term>
3647 Text documents, including HTML and JavaScript, to which this action applies, are filterd on-the-fly
3648 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
3655 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3657 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3662 <term>Parameter:</term>
3665 The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>
3666 (typically <filename>default.filter</filename>, set by the
3667 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3668 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>)
3677 For your convenience, there are a bunch of pre-defined filters available
3678 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the example below for
3682 This is potentially a very powerful feature! But <quote>rolling your own</quote>
3683 filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
3686 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3687 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3688 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3689 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3690 noticeable on slower connections.
3693 At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
3694 documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
3695 would normally be sent compressed, use the
3696 <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
3697 action in conjuction with <literal>filter</literal>.
3700 Filtering can achieve some of the effects as the
3701 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3702 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners.
3705 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or improved filters is particularly
3712 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file):</term>
3715 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
3716 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
3719 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
3720 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
3723 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
3724 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)</screen>
3727 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
3728 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come sneaking in the HTML or JS content</screen>
3731 <anchor id="filter-popups">
3732 <screen>+filter{popups} # Kill all popups in JS and HTML</screen>
3735 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
3736 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
3739 <anchor id="filter-fun">
3740 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
3743 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
3744 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable</screen>
3747 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
3748 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
3751 <anchor id="filter-nimda">
3752 <screen>+filter{nimda} # Remove Nimda (virus) code.</screen>
3755 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
3756 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
3759 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
3760 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"</screen>
3768 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3769 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
3770 <title><emphasis>handle-as-image</emphasis></title>
3774 <term>Typical use:</term>
3776 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis>)</para>
3781 <term>Effect:</term>
3784 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
3785 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
3786 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
3787 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
3788 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
3789 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
3796 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3798 <para>Boolean.</para>
3803 <term>Parameter:</term>
3815 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
3816 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
3820 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
3821 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
3822 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
3825 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (inline) ad
3826 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
3827 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
3828 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
3834 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3837 <screen># Generic image extensions:
3840 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
3842 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
3843 # blocked as images:
3845 {+block +handle-as-image}
3846 some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
3848 # Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
3858 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3859 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
3860 <title><emphasis>hide-forwarded-for-headers</emphasis></title>
3864 <term>Typical use:</term>
3866 <para>Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request</para>
3871 <term>Effect:</term>
3874 Deletes any existing <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> HTTP header from client requests,
3875 and prevents adding a new one.
3882 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3884 <para>Boolean.</para>
3889 <term>Parameter:</term>
3901 It is fairly safe to leave this on.
3904 This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate forged
3905 <quote>X-Forwarded-for:</quote> headers using random IP addresses from a specified network,
3906 to make successive requests from the same client look like requests from a pool of different
3907 users sharing the same proxy.
3913 <term>Example usage:</term>
3916 <screen>+hide-forwarded-for-headers</screen>
3924 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3925 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
3926 <title><emphasis>hide-from-header</emphasis></title>
3930 <term>Typical use:</term>
3932 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
3937 <term>Effect:</term>
3940 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
3948 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3950 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3955 <term>Parameter:</term>
3958 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
3967 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
3968 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
3972 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
3973 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
3974 is actually used by a real person.
3977 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
3978 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
3984 <term>Example usage:</term>
3987 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen> or
3988 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
3996 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3997 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
3998 <title><emphasis>hide-referrer</emphasis></title>
3999 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4002 <term>Typical use:</term>
4004 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4009 <term>Effect:</term>
4012 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4013 or replaces it with a forged one.
4020 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4022 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4027 <term>Parameter:</term>
4031 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header completely.</para>
4034 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
4037 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
4047 <quote>forge</quote> is the preferred option here, since some servers will
4048 not send images back otherwise, in an attempt to prevent their valuable
4049 content from being embedded elsewhere (and hence, without being surrounded
4050 by <emphasis>their</emphasis> banners.
4053 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
4054 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
4055 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
4056 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
4057 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
4063 <term>Example usage:</term>
4066 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen> or
4067 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
4075 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4076 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
4077 <title><emphasis>hide-user-agent</emphasis></title>
4081 <term>Typical use:</term>
4083 <para>Conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
4088 <term>Effect:</term>
4091 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
4092 in client requests with the specified value.
4099 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4101 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4106 <term>Parameter:</term>
4109 Any user-defined string.
4118 Warning! This breaks many web sites that in order to customize their
4119 content for the different browser types depend on looking
4120 at this header (which, btw, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> a <ulink
4121 url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to
4125 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever diffrerent types of
4126 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
4127 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
4128 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
4129 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
4133 This action is scheduled for improvement.
4139 <term>Example usage:</term>
4142 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
4150 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4151 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
4152 <title><emphasis>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></emphasis></title>
4156 <term>Typical use:</term>
4158 <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows</para>
4163 <term>Effect:</term>
4166 While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens
4167 pop-up windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
4174 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4176 <para>Boolean.</para>
4181 <term>Parameter:</term>
4193 This action is easily confused with a built-in harwired <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
4194 action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
4195 the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
4196 downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
4197 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{popups}</literal> does.
4200 Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
4201 can use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make
4202 sense to combine it with any <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action,
4203 since as soon as one <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> applies,
4204 the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the advantage of
4205 the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over it's filter equivalent.
4208 Killing all pop-ups is a dangerous business. Many shops and banks rely on
4209 pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and killing only the unwanted pop-ups
4210 would require artificial intelligance in <application>Privoxy</application>.
4211 If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
4212 <emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
4213 one), you might want to use
4214 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{js-annoyances}</literal> instead.
4219 An alternate spelling is <literal>+kill-popup</literal>, which is
4227 <term>Example usage:</term>
4229 <para><screen>+kill-popups</screen></para>
4236 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4237 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
4238 <title><emphasis>limit-connect</emphasis></title>
4242 <term>Typical use:</term>
4244 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP relay</para>
4249 <term>Effect:</term>
4252 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
4259 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4261 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4266 <term>Parameter:</term>
4269 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
4270 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
4279 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
4280 <application>Privoxy</application> only allows HTTP CONNECT
4281 requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
4282 <literal>limit-connect</literal> if more fine-grained control is desired
4283 for some or all destinations.
4286 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
4287 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
4288 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
4289 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
4290 This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be
4291 abused as TCP relays very easily.
4294 If you don't know what any of this means, there probably is no reason to
4295 change this one, since the default is already very restrictive.
4301 <term>Example usages:</term>
4303 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
4304 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
4305 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
4307 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
4308 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
4309 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
4310 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK (gaping security hole!)</screen>
4317 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4318 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
4319 <title><emphasis>prevent-compression</emphasis></title>
4323 <term>Typical use:</term>
4326 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
4327 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s
4333 <term>Effect:</term>
4336 Adds a header to the request that asks for uncompressed transfer.
4343 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4345 <para>Boolean.</para>
4350 <term>Parameter:</term>
4362 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
4363 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the <literal><link
4364 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>, <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
4365 and <literal><link linkend="kill-popups">kill-popups</link></literal> actions to work,
4366 <application>Privoxy</application> needs access to the uncompressed data.
4367 Unfortunately, <application>Privoxy</application> can't yet(!) uncompress, filter, and
4368 re-compress the content on the fly. So if you want to ensure that all websites, including
4369 those that normally compress, can be filtered, you need to use this action.
4372 This will slow down transfers from those websites, though. If you use any of the above-mentioned
4373 actions, you will typically want to use <literal>prevent-compression</literal> in conjunction
4377 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
4378 documents correctly (they send an empty document body). If you use <literal>prevent-compression</literal>
4379 per default, you'll have to add exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
4385 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4388 <screen># Set default:
4390 {+prevent-compression}
4393 # Make exceptions for ill sites:
4395 {-prevent-compression}
4397 www.pclinuxonline.com</screen>
4406 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4407 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
4408 <title><emphasis>send-vanilla-wafer</emphasis></title>
4412 <term>Typical use:</term>
4415 Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
4421 <term>Effect:</term>
4424 Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any copyright
4425 on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track you.
4432 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4434 <para>Boolean.</para>
4439 <term>Parameter:</term>
4451 The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be used to track you.
4454 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
4460 <term>Example usage:</term>
4463 <screen>+send-vanilla-wafer</screen>
4472 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4473 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-wafer">
4474 <title><emphasis>send-wafer</emphasis></title>
4478 <term>Typical use:</term>
4481 Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless data.
4487 <term>Effect:</term>
4490 Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
4497 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4499 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4504 <term>Parameter:</term>
4507 A string of the form <quote><replaceable class="option">name</replaceable>=<replaceable
4508 class="parameter">value</replaceable></quote>.
4517 Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same request,
4518 resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
4521 This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
4526 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4529 <screen>{+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
4530 my-internal-testing-server.void</screen>
4538 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4539 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
4540 <title><emphasis>session-cookies-only</emphasis></title>
4544 <term>Typical use:</term>
4547 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
4553 <term>Effect:</term>
4556 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> server headers.
4557 Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and forget them in between sessions.
4564 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4566 <para>Boolean.</para>
4571 <term>Parameter:</term>
4583 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
4584 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
4585 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
4588 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
4589 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
4590 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
4591 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
4592 sites, and is the recommended setting.
4595 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
4596 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
4597 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
4598 will be plainly killed.
4601 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
4602 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
4608 <term>Example usage:</term>
4611 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
4619 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4620 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
4621 <title><emphasis>set-image-blocker</emphasis></title>
4625 <term>Typical use:</term>
4627 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
4632 <term>Effect:</term>
4635 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
4636 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
4637 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
4638 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
4639 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
4640 sent as a replacement.
4647 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4649 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4654 <term>Parameter:</term>
4659 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
4660 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
4665 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
4666 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
4667 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
4668 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
4673 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
4674 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
4675 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem (via <quote>file:///</quote> URL).
4678 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
4679 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
4680 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
4681 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
4682 it over and over again.
4693 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
4694 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
4695 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
4698 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
4699 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
4700 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
4706 <term>Example usage:</term>
4712 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
4715 Redirect to the BSD devil:
4718 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
4721 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
4724 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
4732 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4734 <title>Summary</title>
4736 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
4737 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
4738 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
4739 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
4740 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
4741 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
4747 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4748 <sect2 id="aliases">
4749 <title>Aliases</title>
4751 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
4752 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
4753 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
4754 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
4756 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
4757 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
4758 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
4759 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
4760 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
4764 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
4765 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
4766 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
4767 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
4771 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
4772 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
4773 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
4774 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
4775 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
4776 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
4777 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
4780 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
4781 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
4782 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
4783 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
4784 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
4786 This is likely to change in future versions of <application>Privoxy</application>.
4790 Now let's define some aliases...
4795 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
4797 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
4798 # must be at the top of the actions file!
4802 # These aliases just save typing later:
4804 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
4805 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
4806 +imageblock = +block +handle-as-image
4808 # These aliases define combinations of actions
4809 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
4811 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
4812 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -fast-redirects
4814 # Aliases defined from other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
4816 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
4817 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
4821 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
4822 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
4823 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
4828 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
4829 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
4832 .office.microsoft.com
4833 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
4837 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
4841 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
4844 # These shops require pop-ups:
4846 {shop -kill-popups -filter{popups}}
4848 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
4852 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are often used for
4853 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require some actions to be disabled
4854 in order to function properly.
4858 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4859 <sect2 id="act-examples">
4860 <title>Sample Actions Files</title>
4862 Remember that the meaning of each action is reversed by preceding
4863 the action with a <quote>-</quote>, in place of the <quote>+</quote>. Also,
4864 that some actions are turned on in the default section of the actions file,
4865 and require little to no additional configuration. These are just <quote>on</quote>.
4869 But, other actions that are turned on in the default section <emphasis>do
4870 typically require</emphasis> exceptions to be listed in the latter sections of
4871 one of our actions file. For instance, by default no URLs are
4872 <quote>blocked</quote> (i.e. in the default definitions of
4873 <filename>default.action</filename>). We need exceptions to this in order to
4874 <emphasis>enable</emphasis> ad blocking in the lower sections. But we need to
4875 be very selective about what we do block. Thus, the default is <quote>off</quote>
4880 Below is a liberally commented sample <filename>default.action</filename> file
4881 to demonstrate how all the pieces come together. And to show how exceptions
4882 to the default policies can be handled. This is followed by a brief
4883 <filename>user.action</filename> with similar examples.
4890 # Sample default.action file <developers@privoxy.org>
4892 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
4894 for-privoxy-version=3.0
4897 ##########################################################################
4898 # <ulink url="actions-file.html#ALIASES">Aliases</ulink> must be defined *before* they are used. These are
4899 # easier to remember, and can combine several actions into one. Once
4900 # defined they can be used just like any built-in action -- but within
4901 # this file only! Aliases do not require a + or - sign.
4902 ##########################################################################
4905 # Some useful aliases.
4906 # Alias to turn off cookie handling, ie allow all cookies unmolested.
4908 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies \
4909 -session-cookies-only
4911 # Alias to both block and treat as if an image for ad blocking
4914 +block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
4916 # Shops should be allowed to set persistent cookies
4918 shop = -filter mercy-for-cookies
4920 # Fragile sites should receive minimum interference:
4922 fragile = -block -deanimate-gifs -fast-redirects -filter -hide-referer \
4923 mercy-for-cookies -kill-popups
4925 ##########################################################################
4926 # Matching starts here. Remember that at this time, all actions are
4927 # disabled, so we need to explicitly enable the ones we want.
4929 # We begin with "default" action settings, i.e. we define a set of actions
4930 # for a pattern ("/") <link linkend="af-patterns">that matches all URLs</link>. This default set will be
4931 # applied to all requests as a start, and can be partly or wholly overridden
4932 # by later matches further down this file, or in user.action.
4934 # We will show all potential actions here whether they are enabled
4935 # or not. We could omit any disabled action if we wanted, since all
4936 # actions are 'off' by default anyway. Shown for completeness only.
4937 # Actions are enabled if preceded by a '+', otherwise they are disabled
4938 # (unless an alias has been defined without this).
4939 ##########################################################################
4941 <ulink url="actions-file.html#ADD-HEADER">-add-header</ulink> \
4942 <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> \
4943 <ulink url="actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS">-deanimate-gifs</ulink> \
4944 <ulink url="actions-file.html#DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">-downgrade-http-version</ulink> \
4945 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS">+fast-redirects</ulink> \
4946 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">+filter{html-annoyances}</ulink> \
4947 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">+filter{js-annoyances}</ulink> \
4948 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">-filter{content-cookies}</ulink> \
4949 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS">-filter{popups}</ulink> \
4950 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-WEBBUGS">+filter{webbugs}</ulink> \
4951 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">-filter{refresh-tags}</ulink> \
4952 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-FUN">-filter{fun}</ulink> \
4953 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-NIMDA">+filter{nimda}</ulink> \
4954 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">+filter{banners-by-size}</ulink> \
4955 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">-filter{shockwave-flash}</ulink> \
4956 <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">-filter{crude-prental}</ulink> \
4957 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">+hide-forwarded-for-headers</ulink> \
4958 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-FROM-HEADER">+hide-from-header{block}</ulink> \
4959 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-REFERER">-hide-referrer</ulink> \
4960 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HIDE-USER-AGENT">-hide-user-agent</ulink> \
4961 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">-handle-as-image</ulink> \
4962 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">+set-image-blocker{pattern}</ulink> \
4963 <ulink url="actions-file.html#LIMIT-CONNECT">-limit-connect</ulink> \
4964 <ulink url="actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION">+prevent-compression</ulink> \
4965 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">-session-cookies-only</ulink> \
4966 <ulink url="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">-crunch-outgoing-cookies</ulink> \
4967 <ulink url="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">-crunch-incoming-cookies</ulink> \
4968 <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS">-kill-popups</ulink> \
4969 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SEND-VANILLA-WAFER">-send-vanilla-wafer</ulink> \
4970 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SEND-WAFER">-send-wafer</ulink> \
4972 / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.
4974 ##########################################################################
4975 # Default behavior is now set. Now we will define some exceptions to our
4976 # default action policies.
4977 ##########################################################################
4979 # These sites are very complex and require very minimal interference.
4980 # We'll disable most actions with our 'fragile' alias:
4982 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
4983 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
4986 # Shopping sites - not as fragile but require some special
4987 # handling. We still want to block ads, and we will allow
4988 # persistant cookies via the 'shop' alias:
4991 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
4996 # These sites require pop-ups too :( We'll combine our 'shop'
4997 # alias with two other actions into one rule to allow all popups.
4998 { shop <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS">-kill-popups</ulink> <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS">-filter{popups}</ulink> }
5003 # The 'Fast-redirects' action breaks some sites. Disable this action
5004 # for these known sensitive sites:
5005 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS">-fast-redirects</ulink> }
5007 edit.europe.yahoo.com
5009 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
5010 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
5014 # Define which file types will be treated as images. Important
5016 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">+handle-as-image</ulink> }
5017 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)
5020 # Now lets list some domains that are known ad generators. And
5021 # our alias that we use here will block these as well as force
5022 # them to be treated as images. This combination of actions is
5023 # important for ad blocking. What the browser will show instead is
5024 # determined by the setting of <ulink url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></ulink>
5028 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
5029 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
5033 ad.*.doubleclick.net
5036 # These will just simply be blocked. They will generate the BLOCKED
5037 # banner page, if matched. Heavy use of wildcards and regular
5038 # expressions in this example. Enable block action:
5039 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
5044 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
5045 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
5049 # The above block section will probably inadvertantly catch some
5050 # sites we DO NOT want blocked via the wildcards and regular expressions.
5051 # Now let's set exceptions to the exceptions so the good guys get better
5052 # treatment. Disable block action:
5053 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">-block</ulink> }
5058 # Let's just trust all .edu top level domains.
5060 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv
5061 # We'll need to access to path names containing 'download'
5064 # 'adv' is for globalintersec and means advanced, not advertisement
5065 www.globalintersec.com/adv
5068 # Don't filter *anything* from our friends at sourceforge.
5069 # Notice we don't have to name the individual filter
5070 # identifiers -- we just turn them all off in one fell swoop.
5071 # Disable all filters for this one site:
5072 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER">-filter</ulink> }
5080 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies.
5081 The above would be a reasonable starting point for many situations. Now,
5082 we want to be more specific and have customized rules that are more suitable
5083 to our personal habits and preferences. These would be for narrowly defined
5084 situations like your ISP or your bank, and should be placed in
5085 <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
5086 actions files and should not be clobbered by upgrades. So any settings here,
5087 will have the last word and over-ride any previously defined actions.
5091 Now a few examples of some things that one might do with a
5092 <filename>user.action</filename> file.
5095 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
5101 # Sample user.action file.
5103 # Any aliases you want to use need to be re-defined here.
5104 # Alias to turn off cookie handling, ie allow all cookies unmolested.
5105 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies \
5106 -session-cookies-only
5108 # Fragile sites should have the minimum changes:
5109 fragile = -block -deanimate-gifs -fast-redirects -filter -hide-referer \
5110 -crunch-all-cookies -kill-popups
5112 # Allow persistent cookies for a few regular sites that we
5113 # trust via our above alias. These will be saved from one browser session
5114 # to the next. We are explicity turning off any and all cookie handling,
5115 # even though the crunch-*-cookies settings were disabled in our above
5116 # default.action anyway. So cookies from these domains will come through
5118 { -crunch-all-cookies }
5125 # My ISP uses obnoxious self promoting images on many pages.
5126 # Nuke them :) Note that <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink> need not be specified,
5127 # since all URLs ending in .gif will be tagged as images by the
5128 # general rules in default.action anyway.
5129 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#BLOCK">+block</ulink> }
5130 www.my-isp-example.com/logo[0-9].gif
5133 # Say the site where you do your homebanking needs to open
5134 # popup windows, but you have chosen to kill popups by
5135 # default. This will allow it for your-example-bank.com:
5137 { <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS">-filter{popups}</ulink> <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS">-kill-popups</ulink> }
5138 .my-example-bank.com
5141 # This site is delicate, and requires kid-glove
5151 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5157 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5161 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
5163 <sect1 id="filter-file">
5164 <title>The Filter File</title>
5166 Any web page can be dynamically modified with the filter file. This
5167 modification can be removal, or re-writing, of any web page content,
5168 including tags and non-visible content. The default filter file is
5169 oddly enough <filename>default.filter</filename>, located in the config
5174 This is potentially a very powerful feature, and requires knowledge of both
5175 <quote>regular expression</quote> and HTML in order create custom
5176 filters. But, there are a number of useful filters included with
5177 <application>Privoxy</application> for many common situations.
5181 The included example file is divided into sections. Each section begins
5182 with the <literal>FILTER</literal> keyword, followed by the identifier
5183 for that section, e.g. <quote>FILTER: webbugs</quote>. Each section performs
5184 a similar type of filtering, such as <quote>html-annoyances</quote>.
5188 This file uses regular expressions to alter or remove any string in the
5189 target page. The expressions can only operate on one line at a time. Some
5190 examples from the included default <filename>default.filter</filename>:
5194 Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by
5195 deleting such references:
5202 FILTER: html-annoyances
5204 # New browser windows should be resizeable and have a location and status
5207 s/resizable="?(no|0)"?/resizable=1/ig s/noresize/yesresize/ig
5208 s/location="?(no|0)"?/location=1/ig s/status="?(no|0)"?/status=1/ig
5209 s/scrolling="?(no|0|Auto)"?/scrolling=1/ig
5210 s/menubar="?(no|0)"?/menubar=1/ig
5212 # The <BLINK> tag was a crime!
5214 s*<blink>|</blink>**ig
5218 #s/framespacing="?(no|0)"?//ig
5219 #s/margin(height|width)=[0-9]*//gi
5226 Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of <quote>Microsoft</quote> with
5227 <quote>MicroSuck</quote>, and have a little fun with topical buzzwords:
5236 s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig
5240 s/industry-leading|cutting-edge|award-winning/<font color=red><b>BINGO!</b></font>/ig
5247 Kill those pesky little web-bugs:
5254 # webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
5257 s/<img\s+[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1\D[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1(\D[^>]*?)?>/<!-- Squished WebBug -->/sig
5264 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5266 <title>The <emphasis>+filter</emphasis> Action</title>
5268 Filters are enabled with the <ulink
5269 url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink> action from within
5270 one of the actions files. <quote>+filter</quote> requires one parameter, which
5271 should match one of the section identifiers in the filter file itself. Example:
5275 +filter{html-annoyances}
5279 This would activate that particular filter. Similarly, <quote>+filter</quote>
5280 can be turned off for selected sites as:
5281 <quote>-filter{html-annoyances}</quote>. Remember too, all actions are off by
5282 default, unless they are explicity enabled in one of the actions files.
5289 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5293 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5295 <sect1 id="templates">
5296 <title>Templates</title>
5298 When <application>Privoxy</application> displays one of its internal
5299 pages, such as a <ulink url="http://bogus_404_page.com">404 Not Found error page</ulink>
5300 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for link to work as
5301 intended), it uses the appropriate template. On Linux, BSD, and Unix, these
5302 are located in <filename>/etc/privoxy/templates</filename> by default. These
5303 may be customized, if desired. <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> is used to
5304 control the HTML attributes (fonts, etc).
5308 <ulink url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html">Blocked
5309 (<application>Privoxy</application> needs to be running for page to display)</ulink>
5310 banner page with the bright red top
5311 banner, is called just <quote><filename>blocked</filename></quote>. This
5312 may be customized or replaced with something else if desired.
5317 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5321 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5323 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
5326 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
5328 <!-- end boilerplate -->
5332 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5335 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5336 <sect1 id="copyright"><title><application>Privoxy</application> Copyright, License and History</title>
5338 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
5340 <!-- end copyright -->
5342 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5343 <sect2><title>License</title>
5344 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
5346 <!-- end copyright -->
5348 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5351 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5353 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
5354 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
5356 <!-- end history -->
5360 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5363 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5364 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
5365 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
5367 <!-- end seealso -->
5372 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5373 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
5376 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5378 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
5380 <application>Privoxy</application> can use <quote>regular expressions</quote>
5381 in various config files. Assuming support for <quote>pcre</quote> (Perl
5382 Compatible Regular Expressions) is compiled in, which is the default. Such
5383 configuration directives do not require regular expressions, but they can be
5384 used to increase flexibility by matching a pattern with wild-cards against
5389 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
5390 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
5391 introduction only. A full explanation would require a book ;-)
5395 <quote>Regular expressions</quote> is a way of matching one character
5396 expression against another to see if it matches or not. One of the
5397 <quote>expressions</quote> is a literal string of readable characters
5398 (letter, numbers, etc), and the other is a complex string of literal
5399 characters combined with wild-cards, and other special characters, called
5400 meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have special meanings and
5401 are used to build the complex pattern to be matched against. Perl Compatible
5402 Regular Expressions is an enhanced form of the regular expression language
5403 with backward compatibility.
5407 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
5408 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
5409 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
5410 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
5411 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
5412 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
5413 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
5414 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
5418 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
5419 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
5420 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
5421 and then some examples:
5426 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
5427 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
5429 </simplelist></para>
5433 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
5436 </simplelist></para>
5440 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
5443 </simplelist></para>
5447 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
5450 </simplelist></para>
5454 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
5455 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
5456 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
5457 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
5458 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
5459 meta-character meaning of any single character).
5461 </simplelist></para>
5465 <emphasis>[]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
5466 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
5467 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
5468 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
5470 </simplelist></para>
5474 <emphasis>()</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
5475 or multiple sub-expressions.
5477 </simplelist></para>
5481 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
5482 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
5483 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
5484 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
5485 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
5486 example</quote>, and nothing else.
5488 </simplelist></para>
5492 <emphasis>s/string1/string2/g</emphasis> - This is used to rewrite strings of text.
5493 <quote>string1</quote> is replaced by <quote>string2</quote> in this
5494 example. There must of course be a match on <quote>string1</quote> first.
5496 </simplelist></para>
5499 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
5500 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
5501 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
5502 be more illuminating:
5506 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
5507 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
5508 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
5509 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
5510 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
5511 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
5512 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
5513 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
5514 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
5515 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
5516 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
5517 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
5518 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
5519 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
5524 A now something a little more complex:
5528 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
5529 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
5530 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
5531 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
5532 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
5533 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
5534 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
5539 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
5540 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
5541 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
5542 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
5543 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
5544 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
5545 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
5546 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
5547 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
5548 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
5549 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
5550 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
5551 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
5552 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
5553 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
5554 changing our regular expression to:
5555 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
5560 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
5561 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
5562 <quote>[]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
5563 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
5564 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
5565 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
5566 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
5567 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
5568 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
5569 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
5570 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
5571 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
5572 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
5573 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
5574 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
5575 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
5576 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
5577 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
5578 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
5579 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
5580 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
5581 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
5582 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
5583 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
5584 in the expression anywhere).
5588 <emphasis><literal>s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i</literal></emphasis> - This is
5589 a substitution. <quote>MicroSuck</quote> will replace any occurrence of
5590 <quote>microsoft</quote>. The <quote>i</quote> at the end of the expression
5591 means ignore case. The <quote>(?!.com)</quote> means
5592 the match should fail if <quote>microsoft</quote> is followed by
5593 <quote>.com</quote>. In other words, this acts like a <quote>NOT</quote>
5594 modifier. In case this is a hyperlink, we don't want to break it ;-).
5598 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
5599 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
5600 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
5601 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
5602 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
5607 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
5608 <ulink url="http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html">http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html</ulink>
5613 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
5616 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5618 <title><application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages</title>
5621 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
5622 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
5623 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
5624 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
5625 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
5626 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
5627 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
5633 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
5634 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
5635 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
5636 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
5649 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
5653 Alternately, this may be reached at <ulink
5654 url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>, but this
5655 variation may not work as reliably as the above in some configurations.
5661 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
5662 editing of actions files:
5666 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
5673 Show the source code version numbers:
5677 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</ulink>
5684 Show the browser's request headers:
5688 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
5695 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
5699 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5706 Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, <quote>Privoxy</quote> continues
5707 to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
5711 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
5715 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
5719 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
5724 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
5733 These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
5737 <sect3 id="bookmarklets">
5738 <title>Bookmarklets</title>
5740 Below are some <quote>bookmarklets</quote> to allow you to easily access a
5741 <quote>mini</quote> version of some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
5742 special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work
5743 equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
5744 JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by
5745 clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
5748 To save them, right-click the link and choose <quote>Add to Favorites</quote>
5749 (IE) or <quote>Add Bookmark</quote> (Netscape). You will get a warning that
5750 the bookmark <quote>may not be safe</quote> - just click OK. Then you can run the
5751 Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access,
5752 you can put them on the <quote>Links</quote> bar (IE) or the <quote>Personal
5753 Toolbar</quote> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.
5762 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=enabled','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Enable</ulink>
5769 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=disabled','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Disable</ulink>
5776 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&set=toggle','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Toggle Privoxy</ulink> (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
5783 url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y','ijbstatus','width=250,height=2,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy- View Status</ulink>
5789 <ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions','Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Submit Filter Feedback</ulink>
5799 Credit: The site which gave me the general idea for these bookmarklets is
5800 <ulink url="http://www.bookmarklets.com">www.bookmarklets.com</ulink>. They
5801 have more information about bookmarklets.
5810 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5812 <title>Chain of Events</title>
5814 Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
5815 requested by your browser and <application>Privoxy</application> is on duty:
5822 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
5823 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
5824 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
5830 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
5831 pages (e.g http://p.p/) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
5836 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
5838 url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink> patterns. If
5839 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
5840 <ulink url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>
5841 is then checked and if it does not match, an
5842 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
5843 an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of <ulink
5844 url="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></ulink>
5845 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
5850 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
5851 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
5856 If the URL pattern matches the <ulink
5857 url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></ulink> action,
5858 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
5863 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
5864 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <ulink
5865 url="actions-file.html#HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></ulink>,
5866 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
5872 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
5878 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
5879 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
5880 filtered as deterimed by the
5881 <ulink url="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></ulink>,
5882 <ulink url="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></ulink>,
5883 and <ulink url="actions-file.html#DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></ulink>
5889 If the <ulink url="actions-file.html#KILL-POPUPS"><quote>+kill-popups</quote></ulink>
5890 action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
5891 response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
5896 If a <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink>
5898 url="actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></ulink>
5899 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
5900 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
5901 <filename>default.filter</filename>) are processed against the buffered
5902 content. Filters are applied in the order they are specified in the
5903 <filename>default.filter</filename> file. Animated GIFs, if present, are
5904 reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
5905 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
5906 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
5909 If neither <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink>
5911 url="actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></ulink>
5912 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
5913 to the client browser as it becomes available.
5918 As the browser receives the now (probably filtered) page content, it
5919 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
5920 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
5921 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
5922 request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
5923 complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
5933 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5934 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
5935 <title>Anatomy of an Action</title>
5938 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
5939 <ulink url="actions-file.html#ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></ulink>
5940 and <ulink url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>filters</quote></ulink>
5941 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
5942 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
5943 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
5944 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
5945 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
5946 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
5947 <quote>regular expressions</quote> whose consequences are not always
5952 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
5953 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
5954 step. See <link linkend="bookmarklets">the Bookmarklets</link> section on a quick
5955 and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!).
5959 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
5960 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
5961 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
5962 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
5966 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
5967 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
5968 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
5969 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <ulink
5970 url="actions-file.html#FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></ulink> action) from
5971 the <filename>default.filter</filename> file since this is handled very
5972 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
5973 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
5974 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
5975 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
5976 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
5977 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
5978 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
5983 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
5984 and look at it one section at a time:
5989 Matches for http://google.com:
5991 --- File standard ---
5992 (no matches in this file)
5994 --- File default ---
5996 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs{last} -downgrade-http-version +fast-redirects
5997 -filter{popups} -filter{fun} -filter{shockwave-flash} -filter{crude-parental}
5998 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{content-cookies}
5999 +filter{webbugs} +filter{refresh-tags} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
6000 +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block} +hide-referer{forge}
6001 -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{pattern} -limit-connect
6002 +prevent-compression +session-cookies-only -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6003 -crunch-incoming-cookies -kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-wafer }
6006 { -session-cookies-only }
6013 (no matches in this file)
6018 This tells us how we have defined our
6019 <ulink url="actions-file.html#ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></ulink>, and
6020 which ones match for our example, <quote>google.com</quote>. The first listing
6021 is any matches for the <filename>standard.action</filename> file. No hits at
6022 all here on <quote>standard</quote>. Then next is <quote>default</quote>, or
6023 our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line listing,
6024 is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default settings.
6025 If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the section
6026 just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This will apply to
6027 all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
6028 -- <quote>/</quote>.
6032 But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
6033 rules, and then list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions would
6034 apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit matches for
6035 <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous cookie setting,
6036 which was for <ulink
6037 url="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></ulink>
6038 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google. The
6039 second turns <emphasis>off</emphasis> any
6041 url="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></ulink>
6042 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
6043 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
6044 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
6045 <quote>www.google.com</quote>. So, apparently, we have these two actions
6046 defined somewhere in the lower part of our <filename>default.action</filename>
6047 file, and <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter
6052 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
6056 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
6057 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
6058 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
6066 -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs{last} -downgrade-http-version -fast-redirects
6067 -filter{popups} -filter{fun} -filter{shockwave-flash} -filter{crude-parental}
6068 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{content-cookies}
6069 +filter{webbugs} +filter{refresh-tags} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
6070 +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block} +hide-referer{forge}
6071 -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{pattern} -limit-connect
6072 +prevent-compression -session-cookies-only -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6073 -crunch-incoming-cookies -kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-wafer
6078 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
6079 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>.
6083 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
6089 { +block +handle-as-image }
6092 { +block +handle-as-image }
6095 { +block +handle-as-image }
6101 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is
6102 matched three different times. Each as an <quote>+block +handle-as-image</quote>,
6103 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
6104 <quote>+imageblock</quote>. (<ulink
6105 url="actions-file.html#ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></ulink> are defined in
6106 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
6111 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
6112 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
6113 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
6114 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
6115 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
6116 is done here -- as both a <ulink
6117 url="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></ulink>
6118 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
6120 url="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></ulink>.
6121 The custom alias <quote>+imageblock</quote> just simplifies the process and make
6126 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
6127 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm...
6133 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
6135 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade-http-version +fast-redirects
6136 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{kill-popups}
6137 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
6138 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block}
6139 +hide-referer{forge} -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{blank}
6140 +prevent-compression +session-cookies-only -crunch-incoming-cookies
6141 -crunch-outgoing-cookies +kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-wafer }
6144 { +block +handle-as-image }
6150 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote>! But
6151 we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could
6152 now add a new action below this that explicitly does <emphasis>not</emphasis>
6153 block (<quote>{-block}</quote>) paths with <quote>adsl</quote>. There are
6154 various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
6166 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when
6167 making such changes. Or, try using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
6171 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
6178 { +block +handle-as-image }
6184 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem
6185 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
6186 rules in the first section is causing the problem. This would require some
6187 guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule.
6188 One likely cause would be one of the <quote>{+filter}</quote> actions. Try
6189 adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off <quote>+filter</quote>:
6197 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6205 <quote>{shop}</quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
6206 <quote>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</quote>.
6207 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
6220 This would probably be most appropriately put in <filename>user.action</filename>,
6221 for local site exceptions.
6225 <quote>{fragile}</quote> is an alias that disables most actions. This can be
6226 used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this
6227 still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by
6228 one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
6237 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
6238 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
6239 Public License as published by the Free Software
6240 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
6241 your option) any later version.
6243 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
6244 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
6245 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
6246 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
6247 License for more details.
6249 The GNU General Public License should be included with
6250 this file. If not, you can view it at
6251 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
6252 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
6253 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
6255 $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
6256 Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes
6257 Restored alphabetical order of actions
6259 Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes
6260 Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs
6262 Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes
6263 Completed proofreading the actions chapter
6265 Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9
6266 Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this
6267 apparently an important distinction for some OS's.
6269 Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9
6270 This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs
6271 are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright
6272 changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ).
6274 Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9
6275 Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs.
6277 Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa
6280 Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9
6281 -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in.
6282 -Some minor additions to Quickstart.
6284 Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes
6285 Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions
6287 Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9
6288 Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about
6289 Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs.
6291 Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9
6292 Add clarification on differences of new actions files.
6294 Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa
6295 more structure in starting section
6297 Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9
6298 This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This
6299 will probably break links elsewhere :(
6301 Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9
6302 -Rewrite of Actions File example.
6303 -Add section for user-manual directive in config.
6305 Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9
6306 -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action.
6307 -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished).
6309 Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa
6310 bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot
6312 Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9
6313 -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section.
6314 -A few other minor corrections and touch up.
6316 Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9
6317 More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names.
6318 Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications.
6320 Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9
6321 Add 'Chain of Events' section.
6323 Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9
6324 Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig.
6326 Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes
6327 Added hint for startup on Red Hat
6329 Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9
6330 Add AmigaOS install stuff.
6332 Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt
6333 Updated OSX installation section
6334 Added a few English tweaks here an there
6336 Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9
6337 Re-write actions section.
6339 Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9
6340 Fix ugly typo (mine).
6342 Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9
6343 Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections.
6345 Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes
6346 Added RPM install detail
6348 Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes
6351 Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes
6352 Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers
6354 Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes
6355 Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details
6357 Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9
6358 Spellcheck, and minor touchups.
6360 Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes
6363 Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes
6364 Proofreading, part one
6366 Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9
6367 -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section.
6368 -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files.
6370 Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt
6371 Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual
6373 Revision 1.74 2002/04/11 00:54:38 hal9
6374 Add small section on submitting actions.
6376 Revision 1.73 2002/04/10 18:45:15 swa
6379 Revision 1.72 2002/04/10 04:06:19 hal9
6380 Added actions feedback to Bookmarklets section
6382 Revision 1.71 2002/04/08 22:59:26 hal9
6383 Version update. Spell chkconfig correctly :)
6385 Revision 1.70 2002/04/08 20:53:56 swa
6388 Revision 1.69 2002/04/06 05:07:29 hal9
6389 -Add privoxy-man-page.sgml, for man page.
6390 -Add authors.sgml for AUTHORS (and p-authors.sgml)
6391 -Reworked various aspects of various docs.
6392 -Added additional comments to sub-docs.
6394 Revision 1.68 2002/04/04 18:46:47 swa
6395 consistent look. reuse of copyright, history et. al.
6397 Revision 1.67 2002/04/04 17:27:57 swa
6398 more single file to be included at multiple points. make maintaining easier
6400 Revision 1.66 2002/04/04 06:48:37 hal9
6401 Structural changes to allow for conditional inclusion/exclusion of content
6402 based on entity toggles, e.g. 'entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE"'. And
6403 definition of internal entities, e.g. 'entity p-version "2.9.13"' that will
6404 eventually be set by Makefile.
6405 More boilerplate text for use across multiple docs.
6407 Revision 1.65 2002/04/03 19:52:07 swa
6408 enhance squid section due to user suggestion
6410 Revision 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 hal9
6411 A few minor bug fixes, and touch ups. Ready for review.
6413 Revision 1.63 2002/04/01 16:24:49 hal9
6414 Define entities to include boilerplate text. See doc/source/*.
6416 Revision 1.62 2002/03/30 04:15:53 hal9
6417 - Fix privoxy.org/config links.
6418 - Paste in Bookmarklets from Toggle page.
6419 - Move Quickstart nearer top, and minor rework.
6421 Revision 1.61 2002/03/29 01:31:08 hal9
6424 Revision 1.60 2002/03/27 01:57:34 hal9
6425 Added more to Anatomy section.
6427 Revision 1.59 2002/03/27 00:54:33 hal9
6428 Touch up intro for new name.
6430 Revision 1.58 2002/03/26 22:29:55 swa
6431 we have a new homepage!
6433 Revision 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9
6434 A few minor catch ups with name change.
6436 Revision 1.56 2002/03/24 16:17:06 swa
6437 configure needs to be generated.
6439 Revision 1.55 2002/03/24 16:08:08 swa
6440 we are too lazy to make a block-built
6441 privoxy logo. hence removed the option.
6443 Revision 1.54 2002/03/24 15:46:20 swa
6444 name change related issue.
6446 Revision 1.53 2002/03/24 11:51:00 swa
6447 name change. changed filenames.
6449 Revision 1.52 2002/03/24 11:01:06 swa
6452 Revision 1.51 2002/03/23 15:13:11 swa
6453 renamed every reference to the old name with foobar.
6454 fixed "application foobar application" tag, fixed
6455 "the foobar" with "foobar". left junkbustser in cvs
6456 comments and remarks to history untouched.
6458 Revision 1.50 2002/03/23 05:06:21 hal9
6461 Revision 1.49 2002/03/21 17:01:05 hal9
6462 New section in Appendix.
6464 Revision 1.48 2002/03/12 06:33:01 hal9
6465 Catching up to Andreas and re_filterfile changes.
6467 Revision 1.47 2002/03/11 13:13:27 swa
6468 correct feedback channels
6470 Revision 1.46 2002/03/10 00:51:08 hal9
6471 Added section on JB internal pages in Appendix.
6473 Revision 1.45 2002/03/09 17:43:53 swa
6476 Revision 1.44 2002/03/09 17:08:48 hal9
6477 New section on Jon's actions file editor, and move some stuff around.
6479 Revision 1.43 2002/03/08 00:47:32 hal9
6480 Added imageblock{pattern}.
6482 Revision 1.42 2002/03/07 18:16:55 swa
6485 Revision 1.41 2002/03/07 16:46:43 hal9
6486 Fix a few markup problems for jade.
6488 Revision 1.40 2002/03/07 16:28:39 swa
6489 provide correct feedback channels
6491 Revision 1.39 2002/03/06 16:19:28 hal9
6492 Note on perceived filtering slowdown per FR.
6494 Revision 1.38 2002/03/05 23:55:14 hal9
6495 Stupid I did it again. Double hyphen in comment breaks jade.
6497 Revision 1.37 2002/03/05 23:53:49 hal9
6498 jade barfs on '- -' embedded in comments. - -user option broke it.
6500 Revision 1.36 2002/03/05 22:53:28 hal9
6501 Add new - - user option.
6503 Revision 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9
6504 Added section on command line options.
6506 Revision 1.34 2002/03/04 19:32:07 oes
6507 Changed default port to 8118
6509 Revision 1.33 2002/03/03 19:46:13 hal9
6510 Emphasis on where/how to report bugs, etc
6512 Revision 1.32 2002/03/03 09:26:06 joergs
6513 AmigaOS changes, config is now loaded from PROGDIR: instead of
6514 AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/ if no configuration file is specified on the
6517 Revision 1.31 2002/03/02 22:45:52 david__schmidt
6520 Revision 1.30 2002/03/02 22:00:14 hal9
6521 Updated 'New Features' list. Ran through spell-checker.
6523 Revision 1.29 2002/03/02 20:34:07 david__schmidt
6524 Update OS/2 build section
6526 Revision 1.28 2002/02/24 14:34:24 jongfoster
6527 Formatting changes. Now changing the doctype to DocBook XML 4.1
6528 will work - no other changes are needed.
6530 Revision 1.27 2002/01/11 14:14:32 hal9
6531 Added a very short section on Templates
6533 Revision 1.26 2002/01/09 20:02:50 hal9
6534 Fix bug re: auto-detect config file changes.
6536 Revision 1.25 2002/01/09 18:20:30 hal9
6537 Touch ups for *.action files.
6539 Revision 1.24 2001/12/02 01:13:42 hal9
6542 Revision 1.23 2001/12/02 00:20:41 hal9
6543 Updates for recent changes.
6545 Revision 1.22 2001/11/05 23:57:51 hal9
6546 Minor update for startup now daemon mode.
6548 Revision 1.21 2001/10/31 21:11:03 hal9
6549 Correct 2 minor errors
6551 Revision 1.18 2001/10/24 18:45:26 hal9
6552 *** empty log message ***
6554 Revision 1.17 2001/10/24 17:10:55 hal9
6555 Catching up with Jon's recent work, and a few other things.
6557 Revision 1.16 2001/10/21 17:19:21 swa
6558 wrong url in documentation
6560 Revision 1.15 2001/10/14 23:46:24 hal9
6561 Various minor changes. Fleshed out SEE ALSO section.
6563 Revision 1.13 2001/10/10 17:28:33 hal9
6566 Revision 1.12 2001/09/28 02:57:04 hal9
6569 Revision 1.11 2001/09/28 02:25:20 hal9
6572 Revision 1.9 2001/09/27 23:50:29 hal9
6573 A few changes. A short section on regular expression in appendix.
6575 Revision 1.8 2001/09/25 00:34:59 hal9
6576 Some additions, and re-arranging.
6578 Revision 1.7 2001/09/24 14:31:36 hal9
6581 Revision 1.6 2001/09/24 14:10:32 hal9
6582 Including David's OS/2 installation instructions.
6584 Revision 1.2 2001/09/13 15:27:40 swa
6587 Revision 1.1 2001/09/12 15:36:41 swa
6588 source files for junkbuster documentation
6590 Revision 1.3 2001/09/10 17:43:59 swa
6591 first proposal of a structure.
6593 Revision 1.2 2001/06/13 14:28:31 swa
6594 docs should have an author.
6596 Revision 1.1 2001/06/13 14:20:37 swa
6597 first import of project's documentation for the webserver.
projects / privoxy.git / blob