5 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.57 2002/03/24 20:33:30 hal9 Exp $
7 The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
8 Privoxy. Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for
9 protecting privacy, filtering web page content, managing cookies, controlling
10 access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet Junk.
11 Privoxy has a very flexible configuration and can be customized to suit
12 individual needs and tastes. Privoxy has application for both stand-alone
13 systems and multi-user networks.
15 You can find the latest version of the user manual at http://
16 ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/.
18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
34 3. Privoxy Configuration
36 3.1. Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser
37 3.2. Configuration Files Overview
38 3.3. The Main Configuration File
40 3.3.1. Defining Other Configuration Files
41 3.3.2. Other Configuration Options
42 3.3.3. Access Control List (ACL)
44 3.3.5. Windows GUI Options
48 3.4.1. URL Domain and Path Syntax
55 4. Quickstart to Using Privoxy
57 4.1. Command Line Options
59 5. Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
60 6. Copyright and History
68 8.1. Regular Expressions
69 8.2. Privoxy's Internal Pages
70 8.3. Anatomy of an Action
74 Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting
75 privacy, filtering and modifying web page content, managing cookies,
76 controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious
77 Internet Junk. Privoxy has a very flexible configuration and can be customized
78 to suit individual needs and tastes. Privoxy has application for both
79 stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.
81 Privoxy is derived from Internet Junkbuster by Junkbusters Corporation, which
82 is no longer under development. Many enhancements and new features have been
85 This documentation is included with the current BETA version of Privoxy and is
86 mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the time being
87 is still the comments in the source files and in the individual configuration
88 files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing completion, and includes
89 many significant changes and enhancements over earlier versions. The target
90 release date for stable v3.0 is "soon" ;-)
92 Since this is a BETA version, not all new features are well tested. This
93 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with CVS
94 sources). And there may be bugs, though hopefully not many!
96 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
100 In addition to Internet Junkbuster's traditional feature of ad and banner
101 blocking and cookie management, Privoxy provides new features, some of them
102 currently under development:
104 * Integrated browser based configuration and control utility (http://p.p).
105 Browser-based tracing of rule and filter effects.
107 * Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
109 * HTTP/1.1 compliant (most, but not all 1.1 features are supported).
111 * Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files,
112 and generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
117 * Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size, invisible
118 "web-bugs", JavaScript, pop-ups, status bar abuse, etc.)
120 * Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
122 * Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
124 * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
126 * User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page).
128 * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
130 * Builds from source on most UNIX-like systems. Packages available for: Linux
131 (RedHat, SuSE, or Debian), Windows, Sun Solaris, Mac OSX, OS/2, HP-UX 11
134 * In addition, the configuration is much more powerful and versatile
137 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
141 Privoxy is available as raw source code, or pre-compiled binaries. See the
142 Privoxy Home Page for binaries and current release info. Privoxy is also
143 available via CVS. This is the recommended approach at this time. But please be
144 aware that CVS is constantly changing, and it may break in mysterious ways.
146 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
150 For gzipped tar archives, unpack the source:
152 tar xzvf privoxy-2.9.13-beta-src* [.tgz or .tar.gz]
153 cd privoxy-2.9.13-beta
156 For retrieving the current CVS sources, you'll need the CVS package installed
157 first. To download CVS source:
159 cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa login
160 cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa co current
164 This will create a directory named current/, which will contain the source
167 Then, in either case, to build from tarball/CVS source:
169 ./configure (--help to see options)
170 make (the make from gnu, gmake for *BSD)
172 make -n install (to see where all the files will go)
173 make install (to really install)
176 For Redhat and SuSE Linux RPM packages, see below.
178 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
182 To build Redhat RPM packages, install source as above. Then:
190 This will create both binary and src RPMs in the usual places. Example:
192 /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686/privoxy-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
194 /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS/privoxy-2.9.11-1.src.rpm
196 To install, of course:
198 rpm -Uvv /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686/privoxy-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
201 This will place the Privoxy configuration files in /etc/privoxy/, and log files
202 in /var/log/privoxy/.
204 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
208 To build SuSE RPM packages, install source as above. Then:
216 This will create both binary and src RPMs in the usual places. Example:
218 /usr/src/packages/RPMS/i686/privoxy-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
220 /usr/src/packages/SRPMS/privoxy-2.9.11-1.src.rpm
222 To install, of course:
224 rpm -Uvv /usr/src/packages/RPMS/i686/privoxy-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
227 This will place the Privoxy configuration files in /etc/privoxy/, and log files
228 in /var/log/privoxy/.
230 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
234 Privoxy is packaged in a WarpIN self- installing archive. The self-installing
235 program will be named depending on the release version, something like:
236 ijbos2_setup_1.2.3.exe. In order to install it, simply run this executable or
237 double-click on its icon and follow the WarpIN installation panels. A shadow of
238 the Privoxy executable will be placed in your startup folder so it will start
239 automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
241 The directory you choose to install Privoxy into will contain all of the
244 If you would like to build binary images on OS/2 yourself, you will need a few
245 Unix-like tools: autoconf, autoheader and sh. These tools will be used to
246 create the required config.h file, which is not part of the source distribution
247 because it differs based on platform. You will also need a compiler. The
248 distribution has been created using IBM VisualAge compilers, but you can use
249 any compiler you like. GCC/EMX has the disadvantage of needing to be
250 single-threaded due to a limitation of EMX's implementation of the select()
253 In addition to needing the source code distribution as outlined earlier, you
254 will want to extract the os2seutp directory from CVS:
256 cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa login
257 cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa co os2setup
260 This will create a directory named os2setup/, which will contain the
261 Makefile.vac makefile and os2build.cmd which is used to completely create the
262 binary distribution. The sequence of events for building the executable for
263 yourself goes something like this:
270 nmake -f Makefile.vac
273 You will see this sequence laid out in os2build.cmd.
275 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
279 Click-click. (I need help on this. Not a clue here. Also for configuration
282 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
286 Some quick notes on other Operating Systems.
288 For FreeBSD (and other *BSDs?), the build will require gmake instead of the
289 included make. gmake is available from http://www.gnu.org. The rest should be
290 the same as above for Linux/Unix.
292 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
294 3. Privoxy Configuration
296 All Privoxy configuration is kept in text files. These files can be edited with
297 a text editor. Many important aspects of Privoxy can also be controlled easily
300 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
302 3.1. Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser
304 Privoxy can be reached by the special URL http://p.p/ (or alternately http://
305 ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/), which is an internal page. You will see the
308 Please choose from the following options:
310 * Show information about the current configuration
311 * Show the source code version numbers
312 * Show the client's request headers.
313 * Show which actions apply to a URL and why
314 * Toggle Privoxy on or off
315 * Edit the actions list
319 This should be self-explanatory. Note the last item is an editor for the
320 "actions list", which is where much of the ad, banner, cookie, and URL blocking
321 magic is configured as well as other advanced features of Privoxy. This is an
322 easy way to adjust various aspects of Privoxy configuration. The actions file,
323 and other configuration files, are explained in detail below. Privoxy will
324 automatically detect any changes to these files.
326 "Toggle Privoxy On or Off" is handy for sites that might have problems with
327 your current actions and filters, or just to test if a site misbehaves, whether
328 it is Privoxy causing the problem or not. Privoxy continues to run as a proxy
329 in this case, but all filtering is disabled.
331 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
333 3.2. Configuration Files Overview
335 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in /etc/privoxy/
336 by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and AmigaOS these are all in the same
337 directory as the Privoxy executable. The name and number of configuration files
338 has changed from previous versions, and is subject to change as development
341 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though possibly
342 aggressive by some standards. For the time being, there are only three default
343 configuration files (this will change in time):
345 * The main configuration file is named config on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and
346 AmigaOS and config.txt on Windows.
348 * The default.action file is used to define various "actions" relating to
349 images, banners, pop-ups, access restrictions, banners and cookies. There
350 is a CGI based editor for this file that can be accessed via http://p.p.
351 (Other actions files are included as well with differing levels of
352 filtering and blocking, e.g. ijb-basic.action.)
354 * The default.filter file can be used to re-write the raw page content,
355 including viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and
356 whatever else lurks on any given web page.
358 default.action and default.filter can use Perl style regular expressions for
359 maximum flexibility. All files use the "#" character to denote a comment. Such
360 lines are not processed by Privoxy. After making any changes, there is no need
361 to restart Privoxy in order for the changes to take effect. Privoxy should
362 detect such changes automatically.
364 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change. The
365 below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this. Also, what
366 constitutes a "default" setting, may change, so please check all your
367 configuration files on important issues.
369 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
371 3.3. The Main Configuration File
373 Again, the main configuration file is named config on Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2,
374 and config.txt on Windows. Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword
375 followed by a list of values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces
376 or tabs). For example:
378 blockfile blocklist.ini
381 Indicates that the blockfile is named "blocklist.ini". (A default installation
384 A "#" indicates a comment. Any part of a line following a "#" is ignored,
385 except if the "#" is preceded by a "\".
387 Thus, by placing a "#" at the start of an existing configuration line, you can
388 make it a comment and it will be treated as if it weren't there. This is called
389 "commenting out" an option and can be useful to turn off features: If you
390 comment out the "logfile" line, Privoxy will not log to a file at all. Watch
391 for the "default:" section in each explanation to see what happens if the
392 option is left unset (or commented out).
394 Long lines can be continued on the next line by using a "\" as the very last
397 There are various aspects of Privoxy behavior that can be tuned.
399 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
401 3.3.1. Defining Other Configuration Files
403 Privoxy can use a number of other files to tell it what ads to block, what
404 cookies to accept, etc. This section of the configuration file tells Privoxy
405 where to find all those other files.
407 On Windows and AmigaOS, Privoxy looks for these files in the same directory as
408 the executable. On Unix and OS/2, Privoxy looks for these files in the current
409 working directory. In either case, an absolute path name can be used to avoid
412 When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and per-user
413 config will be stored in subdirectories of "confdir". For now, only confdir/
414 templates is used for storing HTML templates for CGI results.
416 The location of the configuration files:
418 confdir /etc/privoxy # No trailing /, please.
421 The directory where all logging (i.e. logfile and jarfile) takes place. No
422 trailing "/", please:
424 logdir /var/log/privoxy
427 Note that all file specifications below are relative to the above two
430 The "default.action" file contains patterns to specify the actions to apply to
431 requests for each site. Default: Cookies to and from all destinations are kept
432 only during the current browser session (i.e. they are not saved to disk).
433 Pop-ups are disabled for all sites. All sites are filtered through selected
434 sections of "default.filter". No sites are blocked. Privoxy displays a
435 checkboard type pattern for filtered ads and other images. The syntax of this
436 file is explained in detail below. Other "actions" files are included, and you
437 are free to use any of them. They have varying degrees of aggressiveness.
439 actionsfile default.action
442 The "default.filter" file contains content modification rules that use "regular
443 expressions". These rules permit powerful changes on the content of Web pages,
444 e.g., you could disable your favorite JavaScript annoyances, re-write the
445 actual displayed text, or just have some fun replacing "Microsoft" with
446 "MicroSuck" wherever it appears on a Web page. Default: whatever the developers
449 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to slow down
450 page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has passed the
451 filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way since the page is
452 not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more noticeable on slower
455 filterfile default.filter
458 The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The logfile
459 can be useful for tracking down a problem with Privoxy (e.g., it's not blocking
460 an ad you think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look
463 Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to periodically
464 remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job (see "man cron").
465 For Redhat, a logrotate script has been included.
467 On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like "/var/log/privoxy.* +1024k 644
468 nobody.nogroup" in /etc/logfiles, with the effect that cron.daily will
469 automatically archive, gzip, and empty the log, when it exceeds 1M size.
471 Default: Log to the a file named logfile. Comment out to disable logging.
476 The "jarfile" defines where Privoxy stores the cookies it intercepts. Note that
477 if you use a "jarfile", it may grow quite large. Default: Don't store
483 If you specify a "trustfile", Privoxy will only allow access to sites that are
484 named in the trustfile. You can also mark sites as trusted referrers, with the
485 effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a trusted
486 referrer was used. The link target will then be added to the "trustfile". This
487 is a very restrictive feature that typical users most probably want to leave
488 disabled. Default: Disabled, don't use the trust mechanism.
493 If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
494 documentation about your blocking policy and to specify the URL(s) here. They
495 will appear on the page that your users receive when they try to access
496 untrusted content. Use multiple times for multiple URLs. Default: Don't display
497 links on the "untrusted" info page.
499 trust-info-url http://www.your-site.com/why_we_block.html
500 trust-info-url http://www.your-site.com/what_we_allow.html
503 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
505 3.3.2. Other Configuration Options
507 This part of the configuration file contains options that control how Privoxy
510 "Admin-address" should be set to the email address of the proxy administrator.
511 It is used in many of the proxy-generated pages. Default: fill@me.in.please.
513 #admin-address fill@me.in.please
516 "Proxy-info-url" can be set to a URL that contains more info about this Privoxy
517 installation, it's configuration and policies. It is used in many of the
518 proxy-generated pages and its use is highly recommended in multi-user
519 installations, since your users will want to know why certain content is
520 blocked or modified. Default: Don't show a link to on-line documentation.
522 proxy-info-url http://www.your-site.com/proxy.html
525 "Listen-address" specifies the address and port where Privoxy will listen for
526 connections from your Web browser. The default is to listen on the localhost
527 port 8118, and this is suitable for most users. (In your web browser, under
528 proxy configuration, list the proxy server as "localhost" and the port as
531 If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
532 serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
533 will need to override the default. The syntax is "listen-address
534 [<ip-address>]:<port>". If you leave out the IP address, Privoxy will bind to
535 all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable from the
536 Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (acl's) (see
537 "aclfile" above), or a firewall.
539 For example, suppose you are running Privoxy on a machine which has the address
540 192.168.0.1 on your local private network (192.168.0.0) and has another outside
541 connection with a different address. You want it to serve requests from inside
544 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
547 If you want it to listen on all addresses (including the outside connection):
552 If you do this, consider using ACLs (see "aclfile" above). Note: you will need
553 to point your browser(s) to the address and port that you have configured here.
554 Default: localhost:8118 (127.0.0.1:8118).
556 The debug option sets the level of debugging information to log in the logfile
557 (and to the console in the Windows version). A debug level of 1 is informative
558 because it will show you each request as it happens. Higher levels of debug are
559 probably only of interest to developers.
561 debug 1 # GPC = show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
562 debug 2 # CONN = show each connection status
563 debug 4 # IO = show I/O status
564 debug 8 # HDR = show header parsing
565 debug 16 # LOG = log all data into the logfile
566 debug 32 # FRC = debug force feature
567 debug 64 # REF = debug regular expression filter
568 debug 128 # = debug fast redirects
569 debug 256 # = debug GIF de-animation
570 debug 512 # CLF = Common Log Format
571 debug 1024 # = debug kill pop-ups
572 debug 4096 # INFO = Startup banner and warnings.
573 debug 8192 # ERROR = Non-fatal errors
576 It is highly recommended that you enable ERROR reporting (debug 8192), at least
577 until v3.0 is released.
579 The reporting of FATAL errors (i.e. ones which crash Privoxy) is always on and
582 If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set "debug 512" ONLY, do
583 not enable anything else.
585 Multiple "debug" directives, are OK - they're logical-OR'd together.
587 debug 15 # same as setting the first 4 listed above
594 debug 8192 # Errors - *we highly recommended enabling this*
597 Privoxy normally uses "multi-threading", a software technique that permits it
598 to handle many different requests simultaneously. In some cases you may wish to
599 disable this -- particularly if you're trying to debug a problem. The
600 "single-threaded" option forces Privoxy to handle requests sequentially.
601 Default: Multi-threaded mode.
606 "toggle" allows you to temporarily disable all Privoxy's filtering. Just set
609 The Windows version of Privoxy puts an icon in the system tray, which also
610 allows you to change this option. If you right-click on that icon (or select
611 the "Options" menu), one choice is "Enable". Clicking on enable toggles Privoxy
612 on and off. This is useful if you want to temporarily disable Privoxy, e.g., to
613 access a site that requires cookies which you would otherwise have blocked.
614 This can also be toggled via a web browser at the Privoxy internal address of
615 http://p.p on any platform.
617 "toggle 1" means Privoxy runs normally, "toggle 0" means that Privoxy becomes a
618 non-anonymizing non-blocking proxy. Default: 1 (on).
623 For content filtering, i.e. the "+filter" and "+deanimate-gif" actions, it is
624 necessary that Privoxy buffers the entire document body. This can be
625 potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending data indefinitely
626 and wait for your RAM to exhaust. With nasty consequences.
628 The buffer-limit option lets you set the maximum size in Kbytes that each
629 buffer may use. When the documents buffer exceeds this size, it is flushed to
630 the client unfiltered and no further attempt to filter the rest of it is made.
631 Remember that there may multiple threads running, which might require
632 increasing the "buffer-limit" Kbytes each, unless you have enabled
633 "single-threaded" above.
638 To enable the web-based default.action file editor set enable-edit-actions to
639 1, or 0 to disable. Note that you must have compiled Privoxy with support for
640 this feature, otherwise this option has no effect. This internal page can be
641 reached at http://p.p.
643 Security note: If this is enabled, anyone who can use the proxy can edit the
644 actions file, and their changes will affect all users. For shared proxies, you
645 probably want to disable this. Default: enabled.
647 enable-edit-actions 1
650 Allow Privoxy to be toggled on and off remotely, using your web browser. Set
651 "enable-remote-toggle"to 1 to enable, and 0 to disable. Note that you must have
652 compiled Privoxy with support for this feature, otherwise this option has no
655 Security note: If this is enabled, anyone who can use the proxy can toggle it
656 on or off (see http://p.p), and their changes will affect all users. For shared
657 proxies, you probably want to disable this. Default: enabled.
659 enable-remote-toggle 1
662 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
664 3.3.3. Access Control List (ACL)
666 Access controls are included at the request of some ISPs and systems
667 administrators, and are not usually needed by individual users. Please note the
668 warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute for a
669 firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security weaknesses.
671 If no access settings are specified, the proxy talks to anyone that connects.
672 If any access settings file are specified, then the proxy talks only to IP
673 addresses permitted somewhere in this file and not denied later in this file.
675 Summary -- if using an ACL:
677 Client must have permission to receive service.
679 LAST match in ACL wins.
681 Default behavior is to deny service.
683 The syntax for an entry in the Access Control List is:
685 ACTION SRC_ADDR[/SRC_MASKLEN] [ DST_ADDR[/DST_MASKLEN] ]
688 Where the individual fields are:
690 ACTION = "permit-access" or "deny-access"
692 SRC_ADDR = client hostname or dotted IP address
693 SRC_MASKLEN = number of bits in the subnet mask for the source
695 DST_ADDR = server or forwarder hostname or dotted IP address
696 DST_MASKLEN = number of bits in the subnet mask for the target
699 The field separator (FS) is whitespace (space or tab).
701 IMPORTANT NOTE: If Privoxy is using a forwarder (see below) or a gateway for a
702 particular destination URL, the DST_ADDR that is examined is the address of the
703 forwarder or the gateway and NOT the address of the ultimate target. This is
704 necessary because it may be impossible for the local Privoxy to determine the
705 address of the ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
707 Here are a few examples to show how the ACL features work:
709 "localhost" is OK -- no DST_ADDR implies that ALL destination addresses are OK:
711 permit-access localhost
714 A silly example to illustrate permitting any host on the class-C subnet with
715 Privoxy to go anywhere:
717 permit-access www.privoxy.com/24
720 Except deny one particular IP address from using it at all:
722 deny-access ident.privoxy.com
725 You can also specify an explicit network address and subnet mask. Explicit
726 addresses do not have to be resolved to be used.
728 permit-access 207.153.200.0/24
731 A subnet mask of 0 matches anything, so the next line permits everyone.
733 permit-access 0.0.0.0/0
736 Note, you cannot say:
741 to allow all *.org domains. Every IP address listed must resolve fully.
743 An ISP may want to provide a Privoxy that is accessible by "the world" and yet
744 restrict use of some of their private content to hosts on its internal network
745 (i.e. its own subscribers). Say, for instance the ISP owns the Class-B IP
746 address block 123.124.0.0 (a 16 bit netmask). This is how they could do it:
748 permit-access 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 # other clients can go anywhere
749 # with the following exceptions:
751 deny-access 0.0.0.0/0 123.124.0.0/16 # block all external requests for
752 # sites on the ISP's network
754 permit 0.0.0.0/0 www.my_isp.com # except for the ISP's main
757 permit 123.124.0.0/16 0.0.0.0/0 # the ISP's clients can go
761 Note that if some hostnames are listed with multiple IP addresses, the primary
762 value returned by DNS (via gethostbyname()) is used. Default: Anyone can access
765 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
769 This feature allows chaining of HTTP requests via multiple proxies. It can be
770 used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when accessing specific
771 domains by routing requests to those domains to a special purpose filtering
772 proxy such as lpwa.com. Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing.
774 It can also be used in an environment with multiple networks to route requests
775 via multiple gateways allowing transparent access to multiple networks without
776 having to modify browser configurations.
778 Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. Privoxy SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A. The
779 difference is that SOCKS 4A will resolve the target hostname using DNS on the
780 SOCKS server, not our local DNS client.
782 The syntax of each line is:
784 forward target_domain[:port] http_proxy_host[:port]
785 forward-socks4 target_domain[:port] socks_proxy_host[:port] http_proxy_host[:
787 forward-socks4a target_domain[:port] socks_proxy_host[:port] http_proxy_host[:
791 If http_proxy_host is ".", then requests are not forwarded to a HTTP proxy but
792 are made directly to the web servers.
794 Lines are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
796 There is an implicit line equivalent to the following, which specifies that
797 anything not finding a match on the list is to go out without forwarding or
798 gateway protocol, like so:
800 forward .* . # implicit
803 In the following common configuration, everything goes to Lucent's LPWA, except
804 SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
806 forward .* lpwa.com:8000
810 Some users have reported difficulties related to LPWA's use of "." as the last
811 element of the domain, and have said that this can be fixed with this:
813 forward lpwa. lpwa.com:8000
816 (NOTE: the syntax for specifying target_domain has changed since the previous
817 paragraph was written -- it will not work now. More information is welcome.)
819 In this fictitious example, everything goes via an ISP's caching proxy, except
820 requests to that ISP:
822 forward .* caching.myisp.net:8000
826 For the @home network, we're told the forwarding configuration is this:
828 forward .* proxy:8080
831 Also, we're told they insist on getting cookies and JavaScript, so you should
832 allow cookies from home.com. We consider JavaScript a potential security risk.
833 Java need not be enabled.
835 In this example direct connections are made to all "internal" domains, but
836 everything else goes through Lucent's LPWA by way of the company's SOCKS
837 gateway to the Internet.
839 forward-socks4 .* lpwa.com:8000 firewall.my_company.com:1080
840 forward my_company.com .
843 This is how you could set up a site that always uses SOCKS but no forwarders:
845 forward-socks4a .* . firewall.my_company.com:1080
848 An advanced example for network administrators:
850 If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content to
851 their subscribers, you can configure forwarding to pass requests to the
852 specific host that's connected to that ISP so that everybody can see all of the
853 content on all of the ISPs.
855 This is a bit tricky, but here's an example:
857 host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.com. And host-b has a PPP connection to
858 isp-b.com. host-a can run a Privoxy proxy with forwarding like this:
861 forward isp-b.com host-b:8118
864 host-b can run a Privoxy proxy with forwarding like this:
867 forward isp-a.com host-a:8118
870 Now, anyone on the Internet (including users on host-a and host-b) can set
871 their browser's proxy to either host-a or host-b and be able to browse the
872 content on isp-a or isp-b.
874 Here's another practical example, for University of Kent at Canterbury students
875 with a network connection in their room, who need to use the University's Squid
878 forward *. ssbcache.ukc.ac.uk:3128 # Use the proxy, except for:
879 forward .ukc.ac.uk . # Anything on the same domain as us
880 forward * . # Host with no domain specified
881 forward 129.12.*.* . # A dotted IP on our /16 network.
882 forward 127.*.*.* . # Loopback address
883 forward localhost.localdomain . # Loopback address
884 forward www.ukc.mirror.ac.uk . # Specific host
887 If you intend to chain Privoxy and squid locally, then chain as browser ->
888 squid -> privoxy is the recommended way.
890 Your squid configuration could then look like this:
892 # Define Privoxy as parent cache
894 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 0 no-query
896 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
899 # Do not forward ACL FTP to privoxy
900 always_direct allow FTP
902 # Do not forward ACL CONNECT (https) to privoxy
903 always_direct allow CONNECT
905 # Forward the rest to privoxy
906 never_direct allow all
909 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
911 3.3.5. Windows GUI Options
913 Privoxy has a number of options specific to the Windows GUI interface:
915 If "activity-animation" is set to 1, the Privoxy icon will animate when
916 "Privoxy" is active. To turn off, set to 0.
921 If "log-messages" is set to 1, Privoxy will log messages to the console window:
926 If "log-buffer-size" is set to 1, the size of the log buffer, i.e. the amount
927 of memory used for the log messages displayed in the console window, will be
928 limited to "log-max-lines" (see below).
930 Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and eat
936 log-max-lines is the maximum number of lines held in the log buffer. See above.
941 If "log-highlight-messages" is set to 1, Privoxy will highlight portions of the
942 log messages with a bold-faced font:
944 log-highlight-messages 1
947 The font used in the console window:
949 log-font-name Comic Sans MS
952 Font size used in the console window:
957 "show-on-task-bar" controls whether or not Privoxy will appear as a button on
958 the Task bar when minimized:
963 If "close-button-minimizes" is set to 1, the Windows close button will minimize
964 Privoxy instead of closing the program (close with the exit option on the File
967 close-button-minimizes 1
970 The "hide-console" option is specific to the MS-Win console version of Privoxy.
971 If this option is used, Privoxy will disconnect from and hide the command
977 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
979 3.4. The Actions File
981 The "default.action" file (formerly actionsfile or ijb.action) is used to
982 define what actions Privoxy takes, and thus determines how images, cookies and
983 various other aspects of HTTP content and transactions are handled. Images can
984 be anything you want, including ads, banners, or just some obnoxious URL that
985 you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted or rejected, or accepted only
986 during the current browser session (i.e. not written to disk). Changes to
987 default.action should be immediately visible to Privoxy without the need to
990 The easiest way to edit "actions" file is with a browser by loading http://p.p/
991 , and then select "Edit Actions List". A text editor can also be used.
993 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
994 compared to all patterns in this file. Every time it matches, the list of
995 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated. You can trace this
996 process by visiting http://p.p/show-url-info.
998 There are four types of lines in this file: comments (begin with a "#"
999 character), actions, aliases and patterns, all of which are explained below, as
1000 well as the configuration file syntax that Privoxy understands.
1002 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1004 3.4.1. URL Domain and Path Syntax
1006 Generally, a pattern has the form <domain>/<path>, where both the <domain> and
1007 <path> part are optional. If you only specify a domain part, the "/" can be
1010 www.example.com - is a domain only pattern and will match any request to
1013 www.example.com/ - means exactly the same.
1015 www.example.com/index.html - matches only the single document "/index.html" on
1018 /index.html - matches the document "/index.html", regardless of the domain.
1020 index.html - matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name
1021 and there is no top-level domain called ".html".
1023 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the domain
1024 starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end. For example:
1026 .example.com - matches any domain that ENDS in ".example.com".
1028 www. - matches any domain that STARTS with "www".
1030 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
1031 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: "*" stands for zero
1032 or more arbitrary characters, "?" stands for any single character. And you can
1033 define character classes in square brackets and they can be freely mixed:
1035 ad*.example.com - matches "adserver.example.com", "ads.example.com", etc but
1036 not "sfads.example.com".
1038 *ad*.example.com - matches all of the above, and then some.
1040 .?pix.com - matches "www.ipix.com", "pictures.epix.com", "a.b.c.d.e.upix.com",
1043 www[1-9a-ez].example.com - matches "www1.example.com", "www4.example.com",
1044 "wwwd.example.com", "wwwz.example.com", etc., but not "wwww.example.com".
1046 If Privoxy was compiled with "pcre" support (default), Perl compatible regular
1047 expressions can be used. See the pcre/docs/ directory or "man perlre" (also
1048 available on http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html) for details. A
1049 brief discussion of regular expressions is in the Appendix. For instance:
1051 /.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpe?g - would match a URL from any domain, with any path that
1052 includes "advert" followed immediately by one or more digits, then a "." and
1053 ending in either "jpeg" or "jpg". So we match "example.com/ads/advert2.jpg",
1054 and "www.example.com/ads/banners/advert39.jpeg", but not "www.example.com/ads/
1055 banners/advert39.gif" (no gifs in the example pattern).
1057 Please note that matching in the path is case INSENSITIVE by default, but you
1058 can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the "(?-i)"
1061 www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.* - will match only documents whose path starts
1062 with "PaTtErN" in exactly this capitalization.
1064 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1068 Actions are enabled if preceded with a "+", and disabled if preceded with a
1069 "-". Actions are invoked by enclosing the action name in curly braces (e.g.
1070 {+some_action}), followed by a list of URLs to which the action applies. There
1071 are three classes of actions:
1073 * Boolean (e.g. "+/-block"):
1075 {+name} # enable this action
1076 {-name} # disable this action
1079 * parameterized (e.g. "+/-hide-user-agent"):
1081 {+name{param}} # enable action and set parameter to "param"
1082 {-name} # disable action
1085 * Multi-value (e.g. "{+/-add-header{Name: value}}", "{+/-wafer{name=value}}
1088 {+name{param}} # enable action and add parameter "param"
1089 {-name{param}} # remove the parameter "param"
1090 {-name} # disable this action totally
1093 If nothing is specified in this file, no "actions" are taken. So in this case
1094 Privoxy would just be a normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must
1095 specifically enable the privacy and blocking features you need (although the
1096 provided default default.action file will give a good starting point).
1098 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. For multi-valued actions,
1099 the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
1101 The list of valid Privoxy "actions" are:
1103 * Add the specified HTTP header, which is not checked for validity. You may
1104 specify this many times to specify many different headers:
1106 +add-header{Name: value}
1109 * Block this URL totally. In a default installation, a "blocked" URL will
1110 result in bright red banner that says "BLOCKED", with a reason why it is
1116 * De-animate all animated GIF images, i.e. reduce them to their last frame.
1117 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
1118 the option "first" is given, the first frame of the animation is used as
1119 the replacement. If "last" is given, the last frame of the animation is
1120 used instead, which probably makes more sense for most banner animations,
1121 but also has the risk of not showing the entire last frame (if it is only a
1122 delta to an earlier frame).
1124 +deanimate-gifs{last}
1125 +deanimate-gifs{first}
1128 * "+downgrade" will downgrade HTTP/1.1 client requests to HTTP/1.0 and
1129 downgrade the responses as well. Use this action for servers that use HTTP/
1130 1.1 protocol features that Privoxy doesn't handle well yet. HTTP/1.1 is
1131 only partially implemented. Default is not to downgrade requests.
1136 * Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
1137 will link to some script on their own server, giving the destination as a
1138 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs resulting
1139 from this scheme typically look like: http://some.place/some_script?http://
1142 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
1143 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
1144 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go to.
1145 Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your browser
1146 ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds the
1149 The "+fast-redirects" option enables interception of these requests by
1150 Privoxy, who will cut off all but the last valid URL in the request and
1151 send a local redirect back to your browser without contacting the remote
1157 * Apply the filters in the section_header section of the default.filter file
1158 to the site(s). default.filter sections are grouped according to like
1161 +filter{section_header}
1164 Filter sections that are pre-defined in the supplied default.filter
1167 html-annoyances: Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.
1169 js-annoyances: Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
1171 no-poups: Kill all popups in JS and HTML
1173 frameset-borders: Give frames a border
1175 webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
1177 no-refresh: Automatic refresh sucks on auto-dialup lines
1179 fun: Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!
1181 nimda: Remove (virus) Nimda code.
1183 banners-by-size: Kill banners by size
1185 crude-parental: Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or
1188 * Block any existing X-Forwarded-for header, and do not add a new one:
1193 * If the browser sends a "From:" header containing your e-mail address, this
1194 either completely removes the header ("block"), or changes it to the
1195 specified e-mail address.
1198 +hide-from{spam@sittingduck.xqq}
1201 * Don't send the "Referer:" (sic) header to the web site. You can block it,
1202 forge a URL to the same server as the request (which is preferred because
1203 some sites will not send images otherwise) or set it to a constant string
1206 +hide-referer{block}
1207 +hide-referer{forge}
1208 +hide-referer{http://nowhere.com}
1211 * Alternative spelling of "+hide-referer". It has the same parameters, and
1212 can be freely mixed with, "+hide-referer". ("referrer" is the correct
1213 English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it requires it
1214 to be spelled "referer".)
1219 * Change the "User-Agent:" header so web servers can't tell your browser
1220 type. Warning! This breaks many web sites. Specify the user-agent value you
1221 want. Example, pretend to be using Netscape on Linux:
1223 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla (X11; I; Linux 2.0.32 i586)}
1226 * Treat this URL as an image. This only matters if it's also "+block"ed, in
1227 which case a "blocked" image can be sent rather than a HTML page. See
1228 "+image-blocker{}" below for the control over what is actually sent. If you
1229 want invisible ads, they should be defined as images and blocked. And also,
1230 "image-blocker" should be set to "blank".
1235 * Decides what to do with URLs that end up tagged with "{+block +image}", e.g
1236 an advertizement. There are five options. "-image-blocker" will send a HTML
1237 "blocked" page, usually resulting in a "broken image" icon. "+image-blocker
1238 {blank}" will send a 1x1 transparent GIF image. And finally,
1239 "+image-blocker{http://xyz.com}" will send a HTTP temporary redirect to the
1240 specified image. This has the advantage of the icon being being cached by
1241 the browser, which will speed up the display. "+image-blocker{pattern}"
1242 will send a checkboard type pattern
1244 +image-blocker{blank}
1245 +image-blocker{pattern}
1246 +image-blocker{http://p.p/send-banner}
1249 * By default (i.e. in the absence of a "+limit-connect" action), Privoxy will
1250 only allow CONNECT requests to port 443, which is the standard port for
1251 https as a precaution.
1253 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
1254 (https:// URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: the proxy connects
1255 to the server on the specified port, and then short-circuits its
1256 connections to the client and to the remote proxy. This can be a big
1257 security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be abused as TCP relays
1260 If you want to allow CONNECT for more ports than this, or want to forbid
1261 CONNECT altogether, you can specify a comma separated list of ports and
1262 port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum defaulting to 0 and
1265 +limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need no be specified.
1266 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
1267 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Port less than 3, 7, 20 to 100
1268 #and above 500 are OK.
1271 * "+no-compression" prevents the website from compressing the data. Some
1272 websites do this, which can be a problem for Privoxy, since "+filter",
1273 "+no-popup" and "+gif-deanimate" will not work on compressed data. This
1274 will slow down connections to those websites, though. Default is
1275 "nocompression" is turned on.
1280 * If the website sets cookies, "no-cookies-keep" will make sure they are
1281 erased when you exit and restart your web browser. This makes profiling
1282 cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so that you
1283 can log in for transactions. Default: on.
1288 * Prevent the website from reading cookies:
1293 * Prevent the website from setting cookies:
1298 * Filter the website through a built-in filter to disable those obnoxious
1299 JavaScript pop-up windows via window.open(), etc. The two alternative
1300 spellings are equivalent.
1306 * This action only applies if you are using a jarfile for saving cookies. It
1307 sends a cookie to every site stating that you do not accept any copyright
1308 on cookies sent to you, and asking them not to track you. Of course, this
1309 is a (relatively) unique header they could use to track you.
1314 * This allows you to add an arbitrary cookie. It can be specified multiple
1315 times in order to add as many cookies as you like.
1320 The meaning of any of the above is reversed by preceding the action with a "-",
1321 in place of the "+".
1325 Turn off cookies by default, then allow a few through for specified sites:
1327 # Turn off all persistent cookies
1328 { +no-cookies-read }
1330 # Allow cookies for this browser session ONLY
1331 { +no-cookies-keep }
1333 # Exceptions to the above, sites that benefit from persistent cookies
1334 { -no-cookies-read }
1336 { -no-cookies-keep }
1343 # Alternative way of saying the same thing
1344 {-no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-keep}
1349 Now turn off "fast redirects", and then we allow two exceptions:
1354 # Reverse it for these two sites, which don't work right without it.
1356 www.ukc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wac\.cgi\?
1360 Turn on page filtering according to rules in the defined sections of
1361 refilterfile, and make one exception for sourceforge:
1363 # Run everything through the filter file, using only the
1364 # specified sections:
1365 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}\
1366 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
1368 # Then disable filtering of code from sourceforge!
1370 .cvs.sourceforge.net
1373 Now some URLs that we want "blocked", ie we won't see them. Many of these use
1374 regular expressions that will expand to match multiple URLs:
1378 /.*/(.*[-_.])?ads?[0-9]?(/|[-_.].*|\.(gif|jpe?g))
1379 /.*/(.*[-_.])?count(er)?(\.cgi|\.dll|\.exe|[?/])
1380 /.*/(ng)?adclient\.cgi
1381 /.*/(plain|live|rotate)[-_.]?ads?/
1382 /.*/(sponsor)s?[0-9]?/
1383 /.*/_?(plain|live)?ads?(-banners)?/
1385 /.*/ad(sdna_image|gifs?)/
1386 /.*/ad(server|stream|juggler)\.(cgi|pl|dll|exe)
1390 /.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/
1394 /.*/cgi-bin/centralad/getimage
1395 /.*/images/addver\.gif
1396 /.*/images/marketing/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
1400 /.*/sponsors?[0-9]?/
1401 /.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpg
1408 /graphics/defaultAd/
1410 /image\.ng/transactionID
1411 /images/.*/.*_anim\.gif # alvin brattli
1412 /ip_img/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
1416 /cgi-bin/nph-adclick.exe/
1417 /.*/Image/BannerAdvertising/
1419 /.*/adlib/server\.cgi
1423 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
1424 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways a site
1425 designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header content he may
1426 depend on. There is no way to have hard and fast rules for all sites. See the
1427 Appendix for a brief example on troubleshooting actions.
1429 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1433 Custom "actions", known to Privoxy as "aliases", can be defined by combining
1434 other "actions". These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in "actions".
1435 Currently, an alias can contain any character except space, tab, "=", "{" or "}
1436 ". But please use only "a"- "z", "0"-"9", "+", and "-". Alias names are not
1437 case sensitive, and must be defined before anything else in the
1438 default.actionfile ! And there can only be one set of "aliases" defined.
1440 Now let's define a few aliases:
1442 # Useful customer aliases we can use later. These must come first!
1444 +no-cookies = +no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
1445 -no-cookies = -no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
1447 -block -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -no-popups
1448 shop = -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects
1449 +imageblock = +block +image
1451 #For people who don't like to type too much: ;-)
1454 c2 = -no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
1455 c3 = +no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
1456 #... etc. Customize to your heart's content.
1459 Some examples using our "shop" and "fragile" aliases from above:
1461 # These sites are very complex and require
1462 # minimal interference.
1464 .office.microsoft.com
1465 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
1468 # Shopping sites - still want to block ads.
1471 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
1475 # These shops require pop-ups
1481 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1483 3.5. The Filter File
1485 Any web page can be dynamically modified with the filter file. This
1486 modification can be removal, or re-writing, of any web page content, including
1487 tags and non-visible content. The default filter file is default.filter,
1488 located in the config directory.
1490 The included example file is divided into sections. Each section begins with
1491 the FILTER keyword, followed by the identifier for that section, e.g. "FILTER:
1492 webbugs". Each section performs a similar type of filtering, such as
1495 This file uses regular expressions to alter or remove any string in the target
1496 page. The expressions can only operate on one line at a time. Some examples
1497 from the included default default.filter:
1499 Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by deleting
1502 FILTER: html-annoyances
1504 # New browser windows should be resizeable and have a location and status
1507 s/resizable="?(no|0)"?/resizable=1/ig s/noresize/yesresize/ig
1508 s/location="?(no|0)"?/location=1/ig s/status="?(no|0)"?/status=1/ig
1509 s/scrolling="?(no|0|Auto)"?/scrolling=1/ig
1510 s/menubar="?(no|0)"?/menubar=1/ig
1512 # The <BLINK> tag was a crime!
1514 s*<blink>|</blink>**ig
1518 #s/framespacing="?(no|0)"?//ig
1519 #s/margin(height|width)=[0-9]*//gi
1522 Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of "Microsoft" with "MicroSuck", and
1523 have a little fun with topical buzzwords:
1527 s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig
1531 s/industry-leading|cutting-edge|award-winning/<font color=red><b>BINGO!</b></
1535 Kill those pesky little web-bugs:
1537 # webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
1540 s/<img\s+[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1\D[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1
1541 (\D[^>]*?)?>/<!-- Squished WebBug -->/sig
1544 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1548 When Privoxy displays one of its internal pages, such as a 404 Not Found error
1549 page, it uses the appropriate template. On Linux, BSD, and Unix, these are
1550 located in /etc/privoxy/templates by default. These may be customized, if
1553 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1555 4. Quickstart to Using Privoxy
1557 Install package, then run and enjoy! Privoxy is typically started by specifying
1558 the main configuration file to be used on the command line. Example Unix
1562 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1566 An init script is provided for SuSE and Redhat.
1568 For for SuSE: /etc/rc.d/privoxy start
1570 For RedHat: /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
1572 If no configuration file is specified on the command line, Privoxy will look
1573 for a file named config in the current directory. Except on Win32 where it will
1574 try config.txt. If no file is specified on the command line and no default
1575 configuration file can be found, Privoxy will fail to start.
1577 Be sure your browser is set to use the proxy which is by default at localhost,
1578 port 8118. With Netscape (and Mozilla), this can be set under Edit ->
1579 Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy. For Internet Explorer: Tools
1580 > Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting. Then, check "Use Proxy"
1581 and fill in the appropriate info (Address: localhost, Port: 8118). Include if
1582 HTTPS proxy support too.
1584 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1585 point, though may be somewhat aggressive in blocking junk. You will probably
1586 want to keep an eye out for sites that require persistent cookies, and add
1587 these to default.action as needed. By default, most of these will be accepted
1588 only during the current browser session, until you add them to the
1589 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need to
1590 edit default.action and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser,
1591 it would make more sense to let Privoxy handle this. In which case, the browser
1592 (s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1594 If a particular site shows problems loading properly, try adding it to the
1595 {fragile} section of default.action. This will turn off most actions for this
1598 Privoxy is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all 1.1 features are as yet implemented.
1599 If browsers that support HTTP/1.1 (like Mozilla or recent versions of I.E.)
1600 experience problems, you might try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For
1601 Mozilla, look under Edit -> Preferences -> Debug -> Networking. Or set the
1602 "+downgrade" config option in default.action.
1604 After running Privoxy for a while, you can start to fine tune the configuration
1605 to suit your personal, or site, preferences and requirements. There are many,
1606 many aspects that can be customized. "Actions" (as specified in default.action)
1607 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to http://p.p/, and then follow the
1608 link to "edit the actions list". (This is an internal page and does not require
1611 In fact, various aspects of Privoxy configuration can be viewed from this page,
1612 including current configuration parameters, source code version numbers, the
1613 browser's request headers, and "actions" that apply to a given URL. In addition
1614 to the default.action file editor mentioned above, Privoxy can also be turned
1615 "on" and "off" from this page.
1617 If you encounter problems, please verify it is a Privoxy bug, by disabling
1618 Privoxy, and then trying the same page. Also, try another browser if possible
1619 to eliminate browser or site problems. Before reporting it as a bug, see if
1620 there is not a configuration option that is enabled that is causing the page
1621 not to load. You can then add an exception for that page or site. If a bug,
1622 please report it to the developers (see below).
1624 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1626 4.1. Command Line Options
1628 Privoxy may be invoked with the following command-line options:
1632 Print version info and exit, Unix only.
1636 Print a short usage info and exit, Unix only.
1640 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group leader,
1641 don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1645 On startup, write the process ID to FILE. Delete the FILE on exit. Failiure
1646 to create or delete the FILE is non-fatal. If no FILE option is given, no
1647 PID file will be used. Unix only.
1649 * --user USER[.GROUP]
1651 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of USER, and if
1652 included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the privileges are not sufficient to do
1657 If no configfile is included on the command line, Privoxy will look for a
1658 file named "config" in the current directory (except on Win32 where it will
1659 look for "config.txt" instead). Specify full path to avoid confusion.
1661 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1663 5. Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
1665 We value your feedback. However, to provide you with the best support, please
1668 * Use the Sourceforge support forum to get help.
1670 * Submit bugs only thru our Sourceforge bug forum. Make sure that the bug has
1671 not already been submitted. Please try to verify that it is a Privoxy bug,
1672 and not a browser or site bug first. If you are using your own custom
1673 configuration, please try the stock configs to see if the problem is a
1674 configuration related bug. And if not using the latest development
1675 snapshot, please try the latest one. Or even better, CVS sources.
1677 * Submit feature requests only thru our Sourceforge feature request forum.
1681 For any other issues, feel free to use the mailing lists.
1683 Anyone interested in actively participating in development and related
1684 discussions can join the appropriate mailing list here. Archives are available
1687 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1689 6. Copyright and History
1693 Privoxy is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
1694 terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
1695 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1698 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
1699 WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
1700 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details, which
1701 is available from the Free Software Foundation, Inc, 59 Temple Place - Suite
1702 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
1704 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1708 Privoxy is derived from the Internet Junkbuster, with many improvments and
1709 enhancements over the original.
1711 Junkbuster was originally written by Anonymous Coders and Junkbuster's
1712 Corporation, and was released as free open-source software under the GNU GPL.
1713 Stefan Waldherr made many improvements, and started the SourceForge project
1714 Privoxy to rekindle development. There are now several active developers
1715 contributing. The last stable release of Junkbuster was v2.0.2, which has now
1718 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1722 http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa
1724 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/
1728 http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html
1730 http://www.waldherr.org/junkbuster/
1732 http://privacy.net/analyze/
1734 http://www.squid-cache.org/
1738 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1742 8.1. Regular Expressions
1744 Privoxy can use "regular expressions" in various config files. Assuming support
1745 for "pcre" (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) is compiled in, which is the
1746 default. Such configuration directives do not require regular expressions, but
1747 they can be used to increase flexibility by matching a pattern with wild-cards
1750 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what "regular
1751 expressions" are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
1752 introduction only. A full explanation would require a book ;-)
1754 "Regular expressions" is a way of matching one character expression against
1755 another to see if it matches or not. One of the "expressions" is a literal
1756 string of readable characters (letter, numbers, etc), and the other is a
1757 complex string of literal characters combined with wild-cards, and other
1758 special characters, called meta-characters. The "meta-characters" have special
1759 meanings and are used to build the complex pattern to be matched against. Perl
1760 Compatible Regular Expressions is an enhanced form of the regular expression
1761 language with backward compatibility.
1763 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
1764 characters when listing files with the dir command in DOS. *.* matches all
1765 filenames. The "special" character here is the asterisk which matches any and
1766 all characters. We can be more specific and use ? to match just individual
1767 characters. So "dir file?.text" would match "file1.txt", "file2.txt", etc. We
1768 are pattern matching, using a similar technique to "regular expressions"!
1770 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
1771 powerful. There are many more "special characters" and ways of building complex
1772 patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones, and then some
1775 . - Matches any single character, e.g. "a", "A", "4", ":", or "@".
1777 ? - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE times. Either/
1780 + - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE times.
1782 * - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE times.
1784 \ - The "escape" character denotes that the following character should be taken
1785 literally. This is used where one of the special characters (e.g. ".") needs to
1786 be taken literally and not as a special meta-character.
1788 [] - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if any of the enclosed
1789 characters are encountered.
1791 () - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression, or multiple
1794 | - The "bar" character works like an "or" conditional statement. A match is
1795 successful if the sub-expression on either side of "|" matches.
1797 s/string1/string2/g - This is used to rewrite strings of text. "string1" is
1798 replaced by "string2" in this example.
1800 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
1801 Privoxy, and is a long way from a definitive list. This is enough to get us
1802 started with a few simple examples which may be more illuminating:
1804 /.*/banners/.* - A simple example that uses the common combination of "." and "
1805 *" to denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at
1806 all. So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression
1807 pattern (".*") another literal forward slash, the string "banners", another
1808 forward slash, and lastly another ".*". We are building a directory path here.
1809 This will match any file with the path that has a directory named "banners" in
1810 it. The ".*" matches any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward
1811 slashes, so it might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this
1812 could match: "/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif", or just "/
1813 banners/annoying.html", or almost an infinite number of other possible
1814 combinations, just so it has "banners" in the path somewhere.
1816 A now something a little more complex:
1818 /.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/ - We have several literal forward
1819 slashes again ("/"), so we are building another expression that is a file path
1820 statement. We have another ".*", so we are matching against any conceivable
1821 sub-path, just so it matches our expression. The only true literal that must
1822 match our pattern is adv, together with the forward slashes. What comes after
1823 the "adv" string is the interesting part.
1825 Remember the "?" means the preceding expression (either a literal character or
1826 anything grouped with "(...)" in this case) can exist or not, since this means
1827 either zero or one match. So "((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))" is optional, as
1828 are the individual sub-expressions: "(er)", "(ing|ements?)", and the "s". The "
1829 |" means "or". We have two of those. For instance, "(ing|ements?)", can expand
1830 to match either "ing" OR "ements?". What is being done here, is an attempt at
1831 matching as many variations of "advertisement", and similar, as possible. So
1832 this would expand to match just "adv", or "advert", or "adverts", or
1833 "advertising", or "advertisement", or "advertisements". You get the idea. But
1834 it would not match "advertizements" (with a "z"). We could fix that by changing
1835 our regular expression to: "/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/", which
1836 would then match either spelling.
1838 /.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g) - Again another path statement with forward
1839 slashes. Anything in the square brackets "[]" can be matched. This is using
1840 "0-9" as a shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the
1841 same as saying "0123456789". So any digit matches. The "+" means one or more of
1842 the preceding expression must be included. The preceding expression here is
1843 what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit one through nine.
1844 Then, at the end, we have a grouping: "(gif|jpe?g)". This includes a "|", so
1845 this needs to match the expression on either side of that bar character also. A
1846 simple "gif" on one side, and the other side will in turn match either "jpeg"
1847 or "jpg", since the "?" means the letter "e" is optional and can be matched
1848 once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to match image GIF or
1849 JPEG type image file. It must include the literal string "advert", then one or
1850 more digits, and a "." (which is now a literal, and not a special character,
1851 since it is escaped with "\"), and lastly either "gif", or "jpeg", or "jpg".
1852 Some possible matches would include: "//advert1.jpg", "/nasty/ads/
1853 advert1234.gif", "/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg". It would not match
1854 "advert1.gif" (no leading slash), or "/adverts232.jpg" (the expression does not
1855 include an "s"), or "/advert1.jsp" ("jsp" is not in the expression anywhere).
1857 s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i - This is a substitution. "MicroSuck" will
1858 replace any occurrence of "microsoft". The "i" at the end of the expression
1859 means ignore case. The "(?!.com)" means the match should fail if "microsoft" is
1860 followed by ".com". In other words, this acts like a "NOT" modifier. In case
1861 this is a hyperlink, we don't want to break it ;-).
1863 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
1864 can understand the default Privoxy configuration files, and maybe use this
1865 knowledge to customize your own installation. There is much, much more that can
1866 be done with regular expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you
1867 can learn more on your own :/
1869 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions: http://www.perldoc.com/
1870 perl5.6/pod/perlre.html
1872 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1874 8.2. Privoxy's Internal Pages
1876 Since Privoxy proxies each requested web page, it is easy for Privoxy to trap
1877 certain URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to Privoxy, and see how it is
1878 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these rules and other
1879 configuration options, and even turn Privoxy's filtering off, all with a web
1882 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access to Privoxy.
1883 Of course, Privoxy must be running to access these. If not, you will get a
1884 friendly error message. Internet access is not necessary either.
1886 * Privoxy main page:
1888 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/
1890 Alternately, this may be reached at http://p.p/, but this variation may not
1891 work as reliably as the above in some configurations.
1893 * Show information about the current configuration:
1895 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-status
1897 * Show the source code version numbers:
1899 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-version
1901 * Show the client's request headers:
1903 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-request
1905 * Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
1907 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-url-info
1909 * Toggle Privoxy on or off:
1911 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/toggle
1913 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
1915 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/toggle?set=disable
1917 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/toggle?set=enable
1919 * Edit the actions list file:
1921 http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/edit-actions
1923 These may be bookmarked for quick reference.
1925 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1927 8.3. Anatomy of an Action
1929 The way Privoxy applies "actions" to any given URL can be complex, and not
1930 always so easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be
1931 able to see just what Privoxy is doing. Especially, if something Privoxy is
1932 doing is causing us a problem inadvertantly. It can be a little daunting to
1933 look at the actions files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
1934 "regular expressions" whose consequences are not always so obvious. Privoxy
1935 provides the http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/config/show-url-info page that can
1936 show us very specifically how actions are being applied to any given URL. This
1937 is a big help for troubleshooting.
1939 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then Privoxy will tell
1940 us how the current configuration will handle it. This will not help with
1941 filtering effects from the default.filter file! It also will not tell you about
1942 any other URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For
1943 instance, images such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source
1944 of HTML pages. So you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into
1945 the prompt area -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs
1946 like ads, you will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's
1947 "View Page Source" option for this.
1949 Let's look at an example, google.com, one section at a time:
1951 System default actions:
1953 { -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects -filter
1954 -hide-forwarded -hide-from -hide-referer -hide-user-agent -image
1955 -image-blocker -limit-connect -no-compression -no-cookies-keep
1956 -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set -no-popups -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
1960 This is the top section, and only tells us of the compiled in defaults. This is
1961 basically what Privoxy would do if there were not any "actions" defined, i.e.
1962 it does nothing. Every action is disabled. This is not particularly informative
1963 for our purposes here. OK, next section:
1965 Matches for http://google.com:
1967 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects
1968 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
1969 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
1970 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
1971 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression
1972 +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups
1973 -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
1976 { -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set }
1984 This is much more informative, and tells us how we have defined our "actions",
1985 and which ones match for our example, "google.com". The first grouping shows
1986 our default settings, which would apply to all URLs. If you look at your
1987 "actions" file, this would be the section just below the "aliases" section near
1988 the top. This applies to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash -- "
1991 These are the default actions we have enabled. But we can define additional
1992 actions that would be exceptions to these general rules, and then list specific
1993 URLs that these exceptions would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this
1994 then are two explict matches for ".google.com". The first is negating our
1995 various cookie blocking actions (i.e. we will allow cookies here). The second
1996 is allowing "fast-redirects". Note that there is a leading dot here --
1997 ".google.com". This will match any hosts and sub-domains, in the google.com
1998 domain also, such as "www.google.com". So, apparently, we have these actions
1999 defined somewhere in the lower part of our actions file, and "google.com" is
2000 referenced in these sections.
2002 And now we pull it altogether in the bottom section and summarize how Privoxy
2003 is appying all its "actions" to "google.com":
2007 -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects
2008 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
2009 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
2010 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
2011 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} -limit-connect +no-compression
2012 -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups -vanilla-wafer
2017 Now another example, "ad.doubleclick.net":
2030 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is matched
2031 three different times. Each as an "+block +image", which is the expanded form
2032 of one of our aliases that had been defined as: "+imageblock". ("Aliases" are
2033 defined in the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine
2034 more than one action.)
2036 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
2037 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively would
2038 also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys though ;-)
2039 Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious URL to be invisible, it should be
2040 defined as "ad.doubleclick.net" is done here -- as both a "+block" and an
2041 "+image". The custom alias "+imageblock" does this for us.
2043 One last example. Let's try "http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/". This one is
2044 giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm...
2046 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
2048 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects
2049 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
2050 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
2051 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
2052 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression
2053 +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups
2054 -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
2062 Ooops, the "/adsl/" is matching "/ads"! But we did not want this at all! Now we
2063 see why we get the blank page. We could now add a new action below this that
2064 explictly does not block (-block) pages with "adsl". There are various ways to
2065 handle such exceptions. Example:
2072 Now the page displays ;-)
projects / privoxy.git / blob