5 $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.64 2002/04/03 03:53:43 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://www.privoxy.org/
18 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
34 3. Quickstart to Using Privoxy
36 3.1. Command Line Options
38 4. Privoxy Configuration
40 4.1. Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser
41 4.2. Configuration Files Overview
42 4.3. The Main Configuration File
44 4.3.1. Defining Other Configuration Files
45 4.3.2. Other Configuration Options
46 4.3.3. Access Control List (ACL)
48 4.3.5. Windows GUI Options
52 4.4.1. URL Domain and Path Syntax
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
73 8.3. Anatomy of an Action
77 Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting
78 privacy, filtering web page content, managing cookies, controlling access, and
79 removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a
80 very flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and
81 tastes. Privoxy has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user
84 Privoxy is based on the code of the Internet Junkbuster. Junkbuster was
85 originally written by JunkBusters Corporation, and was released as free
86 open-source software under the GNU GPL. Stefan Waldherr made many improvements,
87 and started the SourceForge project to continue development.
89 Privoxy continues the Junkbuster tradition, but adds many refinements and
92 This documentation is included with the current BETA version of Privoxy and is
93 mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the time being
94 is still the comments in the source files and in the individual configuration
95 files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing completion, and includes
96 many significant changes and enhancements over earlier versions. The target
97 release date for stable v3.0 is "soon" ;-)
99 Since this is a BETA version, not all new features are well tested. This
100 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with CVS
101 sources). And there may be bugs, though hopefully not many!
103 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
107 In addition to Internet Junkbuster's traditional feature of ad and banner
108 blocking and cookie management, Privoxy provides new features, some of them
109 currently under development:
111 * Integrated browser based configuration and control utility (http://p.p).
112 Browser-based tracing of rule and filter effects.
114 * Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
116 * HTTP/1.1 compliant (most, but not all 1.1 features are supported).
118 * Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files,
119 and generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
124 * Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size, invisible
125 "web-bugs", JavaScript, pop-ups, status bar abuse, etc.)
127 * Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
129 * Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
131 * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
133 * User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page).
135 * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
137 * Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix).
139 * Builds from source on most UNIX-like systems. Packages available for: Linux
140 (RedHat, SuSE, or Debian), Windows, Sun Solaris, Mac OSX, OS/2, HP-UX 11
143 * In addition, the configuration is much more powerful and versatile
146 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
150 Privoxy is available as raw source code, or pre-compiled binaries. See the
151 Privoxy Home Page for binaries and current release info. Privoxy is also
152 available via CVS. This is the recommended approach at this time. But please be
153 aware that CVS is constantly changing, and it may break in mysterious ways.
155 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
159 For gzipped tar archives, unpack the source:
161 tar xzvf privoxy-2.9.13-beta-src* [.tgz or .tar.gz]
162 cd privoxy-2.9.13-beta
165 For retrieving the current CVS sources, you'll need the CVS package installed
166 first. To download CVS source:
168 cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa login
169 cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa co current
173 This will create a directory named current/, which will contain the source
176 Then, in either case, to build from tarball/CVS source:
178 ./configure (--help to see options)
179 make (the make from gnu, gmake for *BSD)
181 make -n install (to see where all the files will go)
182 make install (to really install)
185 For Redhat and SuSE Linux RPM packages, see below.
187 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
191 To build Redhat RPM packages, install source as above. Then:
199 This will create both binary and src RPMs in the usual places. Example:
201 /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686/privoxy-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
203 /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS/privoxy-2.9.11-1.src.rpm
205 To install, of course:
207 rpm -Uvv /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686/privoxy-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
210 This will place the Privoxy configuration files in /etc/privoxy/, and log files
211 in /var/log/privoxy/.
213 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
217 To build SuSE RPM packages, install source as above. Then:
225 This will create both binary and src RPMs in the usual places. Example:
227 /usr/src/packages/RPMS/i686/privoxy-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
229 /usr/src/packages/SRPMS/privoxy-2.9.11-1.src.rpm
231 To install, of course:
233 rpm -Uvv /usr/src/packages/RPMS/i686/privoxy-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
236 This will place the Privoxy configuration files in /etc/privoxy/, and log files
237 in /var/log/privoxy/.
239 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
243 Privoxy is packaged in a WarpIN self- installing archive. The self-installing
244 program will be named depending on the release version, something like:
245 privoxyos2_setup_1.2.3.exe. In order to install it, simply run this executable
246 or double-click on its icon and follow the WarpIN installation panels. A shadow
247 of the Privoxy executable will be placed in your startup folder so it will
248 start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
250 The directory you choose to install Privoxy into will contain all of the
253 If you would like to build binary images on OS/2 yourself, you will need a few
254 Unix-like tools: autoconf, autoheader and sh. These tools will be used to
255 create the required config.h file, which is not part of the source distribution
256 because it differs based on platform. You will also need a compiler. The
257 distribution has been created using IBM VisualAge compilers, but you can use
258 any compiler you like. GCC/EMX has the disadvantage of needing to be
259 single-threaded due to a limitation of EMX's implementation of the select()
262 In addition to needing the source code distribution as outlined earlier, you
263 will want to extract the os2seutp directory from CVS:
265 cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa login
266 cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa co os2setup
269 This will create a directory named os2setup/, which will contain the
270 Makefile.vac makefile and os2build.cmd which is used to completely create the
271 binary distribution. The sequence of events for building the executable for
272 yourself goes something like this:
279 nmake -f Makefile.vac
282 You will see this sequence laid out in os2build.cmd.
284 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
288 Click-click. (I need help on this. Not a clue here. Also for configuration
291 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
295 Some quick notes on other Operating Systems.
297 For FreeBSD (and other *BSDs?), the build will require gmake instead of the
298 included make. gmake is available from http://www.gnu.org. The rest should be
299 the same as above for Linux/Unix.
301 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
303 3. Quickstart to Using Privoxy
305 Before launching Privoxy for the first time, you will want to configure your
306 browser(s) to use Privoxy as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is localhost
307 for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions used port 800). This is
308 the one required configuration that must be done!
310 With Netscape (and Mozilla), this can be set under Edit -> Preferences ->
311 Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy. For Internet Explorer: Tools -> Internet
312 Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting. Then, check "Use Proxy" and fill in
313 the appropriate info (Address: localhost, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy
316 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
317 re-reading of all pages and get rid of any ads that may be cached. You are now
318 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using Privoxy.
320 Privoxy is typically started by specifying the main configuration file to be
321 used on the command line. Example Unix startup command:
324 # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
328 An init script is provided for SuSE and Redhat.
330 For for SuSE: /etc/rc.d/privoxy start
332 For RedHat: /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
334 If no configuration file is specified on the command line, Privoxy will look
335 for a file named config in the current directory. Except on Win32 where it will
336 try config.txt. If no file is specified on the command line and no default
337 configuration file can be found, Privoxy will fail to start.
339 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
340 point, though may be somewhat aggressive in blocking junk. Most of the per site
341 configuration is done in the "actions" files. These are where various cookie
342 actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other aspects of Privoxy
343 configuration. There are several such files included, with varying levels of
346 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites that require persistent
347 cookies, and add these to default.action as needed. By default, most of these
348 will be accepted only during the current browser session, until you add them to
349 the configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will
350 need to edit default.action and disable this feature. If you use more than one
351 browser, it would make more sense to let Privoxy handle this. In which case,
352 the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
354 Privoxy is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all 1.1 features are as yet implemented.
355 If browsers that support HTTP/1.1 (like Mozilla or recent versions of I.E.)
356 experience problems, you might try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For
357 Mozilla, look under Edit -> Preferences -> Debug -> Networking. Or set the
358 "+downgrade" config option in default.action.
360 After running Privoxy for a while, you can start to fine tune the configuration
361 to suit your personal, or site, preferences and requirements. There are many,
362 many aspects that can be customized. "Actions" (as specified in default.action)
363 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to http://p.p/, and then follow the
364 link to "edit the actions list". (This is an internal page and does not require
367 In fact, various aspects of Privoxy configuration can be viewed from this page,
368 including current configuration parameters, source code version numbers, the
369 browser's request headers, and "actions" that apply to a given URL. In addition
370 to the default.action file editor mentioned above, Privoxy can also be turned
371 "on" and "off" from this page.
373 If you encounter problems, please verify it is a Privoxy bug, by disabling
374 Privoxy, and then trying the same page. Also, try another browser if possible
375 to eliminate browser or site problems. Before reporting it as a bug, see if
376 there is not a configuration option that is enabled that is causing the page
377 not to load. You can then add an exception for that page or site. For instance,
378 try adding it to the {fragile} section of default.action. This will turn off
379 most actions for this site. For more on troubleshooting problem sites, see the
380 Appendix. If a bug, please report it to the developers (see below).
382 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
384 3.1. Command Line Options
386 Privoxy may be invoked with the following command-line options:
390 Print version info and exit, Unix only.
394 Print a short usage info and exit, Unix only.
398 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group leader,
399 don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
403 On startup, write the process ID to FILE. Delete the FILE on exit. Failiure
404 to create or delete the FILE is non-fatal. If no FILE option is given, no
405 PID file will be used. Unix only.
407 * --user USER[.GROUP]
409 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of USER, and if
410 included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the privileges are not sufficient to do
415 If no configfile is included on the command line, Privoxy will look for a
416 file named "config" in the current directory (except on Win32 where it will
417 look for "config.txt" instead). Specify full path to avoid confusion.
419 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
421 4. Privoxy Configuration
423 All Privoxy configuration is stored in text files. These files can be edited
424 with a text editor. Many important aspects of Privoxy can also be controlled
425 easily with a web browser.
427 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
429 4.1. Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser
431 Privoxy can be reached by the special URL http://p.p/ (or alternately http://
432 config.privoxy.org/), which is an internal page. You will see the following
435 Please choose from the following options:
437 * Show information about the current configuration
438 * Show the source code version numbers
439 * Show the client's request headers.
440 * Show which actions apply to a URL and why
441 * Toggle Privoxy on or off
442 * Edit the actions list
446 This should be self-explanatory. Note the last item is an editor for the
447 "actions list", which is where much of the ad, banner, cookie, and URL blocking
448 magic is configured as well as other advanced features of Privoxy. This is an
449 easy way to adjust various aspects of Privoxy configuration. The actions file,
450 and other configuration files, are explained in detail below. Privoxy will
451 automatically detect any changes to these files.
453 "Toggle Privoxy On or Off" is handy for sites that might have problems with
454 your current actions and filters, or just to test if a site misbehaves, whether
455 it is Privoxy causing the problem or not. Privoxy continues to run as a proxy
456 in this case, but all filtering is disabled.
458 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
460 4.2. Configuration Files Overview
462 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in /etc/privoxy/
463 by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and AmigaOS these are all in the same
464 directory as the Privoxy executable. The name and number of configuration files
465 has changed from previous versions, and is subject to change as development
468 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though possibly
469 aggressive by some standards. For the time being, there are only three default
470 configuration files (this will change in time):
472 * The main configuration file is named config on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and
473 AmigaOS and config.txt on Windows.
475 * The default.action file is used to define various "actions" relating to
476 images, banners, pop-ups, access restrictions, banners and cookies. There
477 is a CGI based editor for this file that can be accessed via http://p.p.
478 (Other actions files are included as well with differing levels of
479 filtering and blocking, e.g. basic.action.)
481 * The default.filter file can be used to re-write the raw page content,
482 including viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and
483 whatever else lurks on any given web page.
485 default.action and default.filter can use Perl style regular expressions for
486 maximum flexibility. All files use the "#" character to denote a comment. Such
487 lines are not processed by Privoxy. After making any changes, there is no need
488 to restart Privoxy in order for the changes to take effect. Privoxy should
489 detect such changes automatically.
491 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change. The
492 below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this. Also, what
493 constitutes a "default" setting, may change, so please check all your
494 configuration files on important issues.
496 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
498 4.3. The Main Configuration File
500 Again, the main configuration file is named config on Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2,
501 and config.txt on Windows. Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword
502 followed by a list of values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces
503 or tabs). For example:
505 blockfile blocklist.ini
508 Indicates that the blockfile is named "blocklist.ini". (A default installation
511 A "#" indicates a comment. Any part of a line following a "#" is ignored,
512 except if the "#" is preceded by a "\".
514 Thus, by placing a "#" at the start of an existing configuration line, you can
515 make it a comment and it will be treated as if it weren't there. This is called
516 "commenting out" an option and can be useful to turn off features: If you
517 comment out the "logfile" line, Privoxy will not log to a file at all. Watch
518 for the "default:" section in each explanation to see what happens if the
519 option is left unset (or commented out).
521 Long lines can be continued on the next line by using a "\" as the very last
524 There are various aspects of Privoxy behavior that can be tuned.
526 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
528 4.3.1. Defining Other Configuration Files
530 Privoxy can use a number of other files to tell it what ads to block, what
531 cookies to accept, and perform other functions. This section of the
532 configuration file tells Privoxy where to find all those other files.
534 On Windows and AmigaOS, Privoxy looks for these files in the same directory as
535 the executable. On Unix and OS/2, Privoxy looks for these files in the current
536 working directory. In either case, an absolute path name can be used to avoid
539 When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and per-user
540 config will be stored in subdirectories of "confdir". For now, only confdir/
541 templates is used for storing HTML templates for CGI results.
543 The location of the configuration files:
545 confdir /etc/privoxy # No trailing /, please.
548 The directory where all logging (i.e. logfile and jarfile) takes place. No
549 trailing "/", please:
551 logdir /var/log/privoxy
554 Note that all file specifications below are relative to the above two
557 The "default.action" file contains patterns to specify the actions to apply to
558 requests for each site. Default: Cookies to and from all destinations are kept
559 only during the current browser session (i.e. they are not saved to disk).
560 Pop-ups are disabled for all sites. All sites are filtered through selected
561 sections of "default.filter". No sites are blocked. Privoxy displays a
562 checkboard type pattern for filtered ads and other images. The syntax of this
563 file is explained in detail below. Other "actions" files are included, and you
564 are free to use any of them. They have varying degrees of aggressiveness.
566 actionsfile default.action
569 The "default.filter" file contains content modification rules that use "regular
570 expressions". These rules permit powerful changes on the content of Web pages,
571 e.g., you could disable your favorite JavaScript annoyances, re-write the
572 actual displayed text, or just have some fun replacing "Microsoft" with
573 "MicroSuck" wherever it appears on a Web page. Default: whatever the developers
576 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to slow down
577 page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has passed the
578 filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way since the page is
579 not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more noticeable on slower
582 filterfile default.filter
585 The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The logfile
586 can be useful for tracking down a problem with Privoxy (e.g., it's not blocking
587 an ad you think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look
590 Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to periodically
591 remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job (see "man cron").
592 For Redhat, a logrotate script has been included.
594 On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like "/var/log/privoxy.* +1024k 644
595 nobody.nogroup" in /etc/logfiles, with the effect that cron.daily will
596 automatically archive, gzip, and empty the log, when it exceeds 1M size.
598 Default: Log to the a file named logfile. Comment out to disable logging.
603 The "jarfile" defines where Privoxy stores the cookies it intercepts. Note that
604 if you use a "jarfile", it may grow quite large. Default: Don't store
610 If you specify a "trustfile", Privoxy will only allow access to sites that are
611 named in the trustfile. You can also mark sites as trusted referrers, with the
612 effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a trusted
613 referrer was used. The link target will then be added to the "trustfile". This
614 is a very restrictive feature that typical users most probably want to leave
615 disabled. Default: Disabled, don't use the trust mechanism.
620 If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
621 documentation about your blocking policy and to specify the URL(s) here. They
622 will appear on the page that your users receive when they try to access
623 untrusted content. Use multiple times for multiple URLs. Default: Don't display
624 links on the "untrusted" info page.
626 trust-info-url http://www.example.com/why_we_block.html
627 trust-info-url http://www.example.com/what_we_allow.html
630 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
632 4.3.2. Other Configuration Options
634 This part of the configuration file contains options that control how Privoxy
637 "Admin-address" should be set to the email address of the proxy administrator.
638 It is used in many of the proxy-generated pages. Default: fill@me.in.please.
640 #admin-address fill@me.in.please
643 "Proxy-info-url" can be set to a URL that contains more info about this Privoxy
644 installation, it's configuration and policies. It is used in many of the
645 proxy-generated pages and its use is highly recommended in multi-user
646 installations, since your users will want to know why certain content is
647 blocked or modified. Default: Don't show a link to on-line documentation.
649 proxy-info-url http://www.example.com/proxy.html
652 "Listen-address" specifies the address and port where Privoxy will listen for
653 connections from your Web browser. The default is to listen on the localhost
654 port 8118, and this is suitable for most users. (In your web browser, under
655 proxy configuration, list the proxy server as "localhost" and the port as
658 If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
659 serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
660 will need to override the default. The syntax is "listen-address
661 [<ip-address>]:<port>". If you leave out the IP address, Privoxy will bind to
662 all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable from the
663 Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (acl's) (see
664 "aclfile" above), or a firewall.
666 For example, suppose you are running Privoxy on a machine which has the address
667 192.168.0.1 on your local private network (192.168.0.0) and has another outside
668 connection with a different address. You want it to serve requests from inside
671 listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
674 If you want it to listen on all addresses (including the outside connection):
679 If you do this, consider using ACLs (see "aclfile" above). Note: you will need
680 to point your browser(s) to the address and port that you have configured here.
681 Default: localhost:8118 (127.0.0.1:8118).
683 The debug option sets the level of debugging information to log in the logfile
684 (and to the console in the Windows version). A debug level of 1 is informative
685 because it will show you each request as it happens. Higher levels of debug are
686 probably only of interest to developers.
688 debug 1 # GPC = show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
689 debug 2 # CONN = show each connection status
690 debug 4 # IO = show I/O status
691 debug 8 # HDR = show header parsing
692 debug 16 # LOG = log all data into the logfile
693 debug 32 # FRC = debug force feature
694 debug 64 # REF = debug regular expression filter
695 debug 128 # = debug fast redirects
696 debug 256 # = debug GIF de-animation
697 debug 512 # CLF = Common Log Format
698 debug 1024 # = debug kill pop-ups
699 debug 4096 # INFO = Startup banner and warnings.
700 debug 8192 # ERROR = Non-fatal errors
703 It is highly recommended that you enable ERROR reporting (debug 8192), at least
704 until v3.0 is released.
706 The reporting of FATAL errors (i.e. ones which crash Privoxy) is always on and
709 If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set "debug 512" ONLY, do
710 not enable anything else.
712 Multiple "debug" directives, are OK - they're logical-OR'd together.
714 debug 15 # same as setting the first 4 listed above
721 debug 8192 # Errors - *we highly recommended enabling this*
724 Privoxy normally uses "multi-threading", a software technique that permits it
725 to handle many different requests simultaneously. In some cases you may wish to
726 disable this -- particularly if you're trying to debug a problem. The
727 "single-threaded" option forces Privoxy to handle requests sequentially.
728 Default: Multi-threaded mode.
733 "toggle" allows you to temporarily disable all Privoxy's filtering. Just set
736 The Windows version of Privoxy puts an icon in the system tray, which also
737 allows you to change this option. If you right-click on that icon (or select
738 the "Options" menu), one choice is "Enable". Clicking on enable toggles Privoxy
739 on and off. This is useful if you want to temporarily disable Privoxy, e.g., to
740 access a site that requires cookies which you would otherwise have blocked.
741 This can also be toggled via a web browser at the Privoxy internal address of
742 http://p.p on any platform.
744 "toggle 1" means Privoxy runs normally, "toggle 0" means that Privoxy becomes a
745 non-anonymizing non-blocking proxy. Default: 1 (on).
750 For content filtering, i.e. the "+filter" and "+deanimate-gif" actions, it is
751 necessary that Privoxy buffers the entire document body. This can be
752 potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending data indefinitely
753 and wait for your RAM to exhaust. With nasty consequences.
755 The buffer-limit option lets you set the maximum size in Kbytes that each
756 buffer may use. When the documents buffer exceeds this size, it is flushed to
757 the client unfiltered and no further attempt to filter the rest of it is made.
758 Remember that there may multiple threads running, which might require
759 increasing the "buffer-limit" Kbytes each, unless you have enabled
760 "single-threaded" above.
765 To enable the web-based default.action file editor set enable-edit-actions to
766 1, or 0 to disable. Note that you must have compiled Privoxy with support for
767 this feature, otherwise this option has no effect. This internal page can be
768 reached at http://p.p.
770 Security note: If this is enabled, anyone who can use the proxy can edit the
771 actions file, and their changes will affect all users. For shared proxies, you
772 probably want to disable this. Default: enabled.
774 enable-edit-actions 1
777 Allow Privoxy to be toggled on and off remotely, using your web browser. Set
778 "enable-remote-toggle"to 1 to enable, and 0 to disable. Note that you must have
779 compiled Privoxy with support for this feature, otherwise this option has no
782 Security note: If this is enabled, anyone who can use the proxy can toggle it
783 on or off (see http://p.p), and their changes will affect all users. For shared
784 proxies, you probably want to disable this. Default: enabled.
786 enable-remote-toggle 1
789 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
791 4.3.3. Access Control List (ACL)
793 Access controls are included at the request of some ISPs and systems
794 administrators, and are not usually needed by individual users. Please note the
795 warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute for a
796 firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security weaknesses.
798 If no access settings are specified, the proxy talks to anyone that connects.
799 If any access settings file are specified, then the proxy talks only to IP
800 addresses permitted somewhere in this file and not denied later in this file.
802 Summary -- if using an ACL:
804 Client must have permission to receive service.
806 LAST match in ACL wins.
808 Default behavior is to deny service.
810 The syntax for an entry in the Access Control List is:
812 ACTION SRC_ADDR[/SRC_MASKLEN] [ DST_ADDR[/DST_MASKLEN] ]
815 Where the individual fields are:
817 ACTION = "permit-access" or "deny-access"
819 SRC_ADDR = client hostname or dotted IP address
820 SRC_MASKLEN = number of bits in the subnet mask for the source
822 DST_ADDR = server or forwarder hostname or dotted IP address
823 DST_MASKLEN = number of bits in the subnet mask for the target
826 The field separator (FS) is whitespace (space or tab).
828 IMPORTANT NOTE: If Privoxy is using a forwarder (see below) or a gateway for a
829 particular destination URL, the DST_ADDR that is examined is the address of the
830 forwarder or the gateway and NOT the address of the ultimate target. This is
831 necessary because it may be impossible for the local Privoxy to determine the
832 address of the ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
834 Here are a few examples to show how the ACL features work:
836 "localhost" is OK -- no DST_ADDR implies that ALL destination addresses are OK:
838 permit-access localhost
841 A silly example to illustrate permitting any host on the class-C subnet with
842 Privoxy to go anywhere:
844 permit-access www.privoxy.com/24
847 Except deny one particular IP address from using it at all:
849 deny-access ident.privoxy.com
852 You can also specify an explicit network address and subnet mask. Explicit
853 addresses do not have to be resolved to be used.
855 permit-access 207.153.200.0/24
858 A subnet mask of 0 matches anything, so the next line permits everyone.
860 permit-access 0.0.0.0/0
863 Note, you cannot say:
868 to allow all *.org domains. Every IP address listed must resolve fully.
870 An ISP may want to provide a Privoxy that is accessible by "the world" and yet
871 restrict use of some of their private content to hosts on its internal network
872 (i.e. its own subscribers). Say, for instance the ISP owns the Class-B IP
873 address block 123.124.0.0 (a 16 bit netmask). This is how they could do it:
875 permit-access 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 # other clients can go anywhere
876 # with the following exceptions:
878 deny-access 0.0.0.0/0 123.124.0.0/16 # block all external requests for
879 # sites on the ISP's network
881 permit 0.0.0.0/0 www.my_isp.com # except for the ISP's main
884 permit 123.124.0.0/16 0.0.0.0/0 # the ISP's clients can go
888 Note that if some hostnames are listed with multiple IP addresses, the primary
889 value returned by DNS (via gethostbyname()) is used. Default: Anyone can access
892 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
896 This feature allows chaining of HTTP requests via multiple proxies. It can be
897 used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when accessing specific
898 domains by routing requests to those domains to a special purpose filtering
899 proxy such as lpwa.com. Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing.
901 It can also be used in an environment with multiple networks to route requests
902 via multiple gateways allowing transparent access to multiple networks without
903 having to modify browser configurations.
905 Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. Privoxy SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A. The
906 difference is that SOCKS 4A will resolve the target hostname using DNS on the
907 SOCKS server, not our local DNS client.
909 The syntax of each line is:
911 forward target_domain[:port] http_proxy_host[:port]
912 forward-socks4 target_domain[:port] socks_proxy_host[:port] http_proxy_host[:
914 forward-socks4a target_domain[:port] socks_proxy_host[:port] http_proxy_host[:
918 If http_proxy_host is ".", then requests are not forwarded to a HTTP proxy but
919 are made directly to the web servers.
921 Lines are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
923 There is an implicit line equivalent to the following, which specifies that
924 anything not finding a match on the list is to go out without forwarding or
925 gateway protocol, like so:
927 forward .* . # implicit
930 In the following common configuration, everything goes to Lucent's LPWA, except
931 SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
933 forward .* lpwa.com:8000
937 Some users have reported difficulties related to LPWA's use of "." as the last
938 element of the domain, and have said that this can be fixed with this:
940 forward lpwa. lpwa.com:8000
943 (NOTE: the syntax for specifying target_domain has changed since the previous
944 paragraph was written -- it will not work now. More information is welcome.)
946 In this fictitious example, everything goes via an ISP's caching proxy, except
947 requests to that ISP:
949 forward .* caching.myisp.net:8000
953 For the @home network, we're told the forwarding configuration is this:
955 forward .* proxy:8080
958 Also, we're told they insist on getting cookies and JavaScript, so you should
959 allow cookies from home.com. We consider JavaScript a potential security risk.
960 Java need not be enabled.
962 In this example direct connections are made to all "internal" domains, but
963 everything else goes through Lucent's LPWA by way of the company's SOCKS
964 gateway to the Internet.
966 forward-socks4 .* lpwa.com:8000 firewall.my_company.com:1080
967 forward my_company.com .
970 This is how you could set up a site that always uses SOCKS but no forwarders:
972 forward-socks4a .* . firewall.my_company.com:1080
975 An advanced example for network administrators:
977 If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content to
978 their subscribers, you can configure forwarding to pass requests to the
979 specific host that's connected to that ISP so that everybody can see all of the
980 content on all of the ISPs.
982 This is a bit tricky, but here's an example:
984 host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.com. And host-b has a PPP connection to
985 isp-b.com. host-a can run a Privoxy proxy with forwarding like this:
988 forward isp-b.com host-b:8118
991 host-b can run a Privoxy proxy with forwarding like this:
994 forward isp-a.com host-a:8118
997 Now, anyone on the Internet (including users on host-a and host-b) can set
998 their browser's proxy to either host-a or host-b and be able to browse the
999 content on isp-a or isp-b.
1001 Here's another practical example, for University of Kent at Canterbury students
1002 with a network connection in their room, who need to use the University's Squid
1005 forward *. ssbcache.ukc.ac.uk:3128 # Use the proxy, except for:
1006 forward .ukc.ac.uk . # Anything on the same domain as us
1007 forward * . # Host with no domain specified
1008 forward 129.12.*.* . # A dotted IP on our /16 network.
1009 forward 127.*.*.* . # Loopback address
1010 forward localhost.localdomain . # Loopback address
1011 forward www.ukc.mirror.ac.uk . # Specific host
1014 If you intend to chain Privoxy and squid locally, then chain as browser ->
1015 squid -> privoxy is the recommended way.
1017 Your squid configuration could then look like this:
1019 # Define Privoxy as parent cache
1021 cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 0 no-query
1023 # Define ACL for protocol FTP
1026 # Do not forward ACL FTP to privoxy
1027 always_direct allow FTP
1029 # Do not forward ACL CONNECT (https) to privoxy
1030 always_direct allow CONNECT
1032 # Forward the rest to privoxy
1033 never_direct allow all
1036 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1038 4.3.5. Windows GUI Options
1040 Privoxy has a number of options specific to the Windows GUI interface:
1042 If "activity-animation" is set to 1, the Privoxy icon will animate when
1043 "Privoxy" is active. To turn off, set to 0.
1045 activity-animation 1
1048 If "log-messages" is set to 1, Privoxy will log messages to the console window:
1053 If "log-buffer-size" is set to 1, the size of the log buffer, i.e. the amount
1054 of memory used for the log messages displayed in the console window, will be
1055 limited to "log-max-lines" (see below).
1057 Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and eat
1063 log-max-lines is the maximum number of lines held in the log buffer. See above.
1068 If "log-highlight-messages" is set to 1, Privoxy will highlight portions of the
1069 log messages with a bold-faced font:
1071 log-highlight-messages 1
1074 The font used in the console window:
1076 log-font-name Comic Sans MS
1079 Font size used in the console window:
1084 "show-on-task-bar" controls whether or not Privoxy will appear as a button on
1085 the Task bar when minimized:
1090 If "close-button-minimizes" is set to 1, the Windows close button will minimize
1091 Privoxy instead of closing the program (close with the exit option on the File
1094 close-button-minimizes 1
1097 The "hide-console" option is specific to the MS-Win console version of Privoxy.
1098 If this option is used, Privoxy will disconnect from and hide the command
1104 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1106 4.4. The Actions File
1108 The "default.action" file (formerly actionsfile or ijb.action) is used to
1109 define what actions Privoxy takes, and thus determines how ad images, cookies
1110 and various other aspects of HTTP content and transactions are handled. These
1111 can be accepted or rejected for all sites, or just those sites you choose. See
1112 below for a complete list of actions.
1114 Anything you want can blocked, including ads, banners, or just some obnoxious
1115 URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted or rejected, or
1116 accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not written to disk).
1117 Changes to default.action should be immediately visible to Privoxy without the
1120 Note that some sites may misbehave, or possibly not work at all with some
1121 actions. This may require some tinkering with the rules to get the most mileage
1122 of Privoxy's features, and still be able to see and enjoy just what you want
1123 to. There is no general rule of thumb on these things. There just are too many
1124 variables, and sites are always changing.
1126 The easiest way to edit the "actions" file is with a browser by loading http://
1127 p.p/, and then select "Edit Actions List". A text editor can also be used.
1129 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
1130 compared to all patterns in this file. Every time it matches, the list of
1131 applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated. You can trace this
1132 process by visiting http://p.p/show-url-info.
1134 There are four types of lines in this file: comments (begin with a "#"
1135 character), actions, aliases and patterns, all of which are explained below, as
1136 well as the configuration file syntax that Privoxy understands.
1138 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1140 4.4.1. URL Domain and Path Syntax
1142 Generally, a pattern has the form <domain>/<path>, where both the <domain> and
1143 <path> part are optional. If you only specify a domain part, the "/" can be
1146 www.example.com - is a domain only pattern and will match any request to
1149 www.example.com/ - means exactly the same.
1151 www.example.com/index.html - matches only the single document "/index.html" on
1154 /index.html - matches the document "/index.html", regardless of the domain. So
1155 would match any page named "index.html" on any site.
1157 index.html - matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name
1158 and there is no top-level domain called ".html".
1160 The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the domain
1161 starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end. For example:
1163 .example.com - matches any domain or sub-domain that ENDS in ".example.com".
1165 www. - matches any domain that STARTS with "www".
1167 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
1168 themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: "*" stands for zero
1169 or more arbitrary characters, "?" stands for any single character. And you can
1170 define character classes in square brackets and they can be freely mixed:
1172 ad*.example.com - matches "adserver.example.com", "ads.example.com", etc but
1173 not "sfads.example.com".
1175 *ad*.example.com - matches all of the above, and then some.
1177 .?pix.com - matches "www.ipix.com", "pictures.epix.com", "a.b.c.d.e.upix.com",
1180 www[1-9a-ez].example.com - matches "www1.example.com", "www4.example.com",
1181 "wwwd.example.com", "wwwz.example.com", etc., but not "wwww.example.com".
1183 If Privoxy was compiled with "pcre" support (the default), Perl compatible
1184 regular expressions can be used. These are more flexible and powerful than
1185 other types of "regular expressions". See the pcre/docs/ directory or "man
1186 perlre" (also available on http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html) for
1187 details. A brief discussion of regular expressions is in the Appendix. For
1190 /.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpe?g - would match a URL from any domain, with any path that
1191 includes "advert" followed immediately by one or more digits, then a "." and
1192 ending in either "jpeg" or "jpg". So we match "example.com/ads/advert2.jpg",
1193 and "www.example.com/ads/banners/advert39.jpeg", but not "www.example.com/ads/
1194 banners/advert39.gif" (no gifs in the example pattern).
1196 Please note that matching in the path is case INSENSITIVE by default, but you
1197 can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the "(?-i)"
1200 www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.* - will match only documents whose path starts
1201 with "PaTtErN" in exactly this capitalization.
1203 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1207 Actions are enabled if preceded with a "+", and disabled if preceded with a
1208 "-". Actions are invoked by enclosing the action name in curly braces (e.g.
1209 {+some_action}), followed by a list of URLs to which the action applies. There
1210 are three classes of actions:
1212 * Boolean (e.g. "+/-block"):
1214 {+name} # enable this action
1215 {-name} # disable this action
1218 * parameterized (e.g. "+/-hide-user-agent"):
1220 {+name{param}} # enable action and set parameter to "param"
1221 {-name} # disable action
1224 * Multi-value (e.g. "{+/-add-header{Name: value}}", "{+/-wafer{name=value}}
1227 {+name{param}} # enable action and add parameter "param"
1228 {-name{param}} # remove the parameter "param"
1229 {-name} # disable this action totally
1232 If nothing is specified in this file, no "actions" are taken. So in this case
1233 Privoxy would just be a normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must
1234 specifically enable the privacy and blocking features you need (although the
1235 provided default default.action file will give a good starting point).
1237 Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions to any rules
1238 you make, should come in the latter part of the file. For multi-valued actions,
1239 the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
1241 The list of valid Privoxy "actions" are:
1243 * Add the specified HTTP header, which is not checked for validity. You may
1244 specify this many times to specify many different headers:
1246 +add-header{Name: value}
1249 * Block this URL totally. In a default installation, a "blocked" URL will
1250 result in bright red banner that says "BLOCKED", with a reason why it is
1251 being blocked, and an option to see it anyway. The page displayed for this
1252 is the "blocked" template file.
1257 * De-animate all animated GIF images, i.e. reduce them to their last frame.
1258 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
1259 the option "first" is given, the first frame of the animation is used as
1260 the replacement. If "last" is given, the last frame of the animation is
1261 used instead, which probably makes more sense for most banner animations,
1262 but also has the risk of not showing the entire last frame (if it is only a
1263 delta to an earlier frame).
1265 +deanimate-gifs{last}
1266 +deanimate-gifs{first}
1269 * "+downgrade" will downgrade HTTP/1.1 client requests to HTTP/1.0 and
1270 downgrade the responses as well. Use this action for servers that use HTTP/
1271 1.1 protocol features that Privoxy doesn't handle well yet. HTTP/1.1 is
1272 only partially implemented. Default is not to downgrade requests.
1277 * Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
1278 will link to some script on their own server, giving the destination as a
1279 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs resulting
1280 from this scheme typically look like: http://some.place/some_script?http://
1283 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
1284 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
1285 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go to.
1286 Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your browser
1287 ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds the
1290 The "+fast-redirects" option enables interception of these types of
1291 requests by Privoxy, who will cut off all but the last valid URL in the
1292 request and send a local redirect back to your browser without contacting
1293 the intermediate site(s).
1298 * Apply the filters in the section_header section of the default.filter file
1299 to the site(s). default.filter sections are grouped according to like
1300 functionality. Filters can be used to re-write any of the raw page content.
1301 This is a potentially a very powerful feature!
1303 +filter{section_header}
1306 Filter sections that are pre-defined in the supplied default.filter
1309 html-annoyances: Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.
1311 js-annoyances: Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
1313 no-poups: Kill all popups in JS and HTML
1315 frameset-borders: Give frames a border
1317 webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
1319 no-refresh: Automatic refresh sucks on auto-dialup lines
1321 fun: Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!
1323 nimda: Remove (virus) Nimda code.
1325 banners-by-size: Kill banners by size
1327 crude-parental: Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or
1330 * Block any existing X-Forwarded-for header, and do not add a new one:
1335 * If the browser sends a "From:" header containing your e-mail address, this
1336 either completely removes the header ("block"), or changes it to the
1337 specified e-mail address.
1340 +hide-from{spam@sittingduck.xqq}
1343 * Don't send the "Referer:" (sic) header to the web site. You can block it,
1344 forge a URL to the same server as the request (which is preferred because
1345 some sites will not send images otherwise) or set it to a constant, user
1346 defined string of your choice.
1348 +hide-referer{block}
1349 +hide-referer{forge}
1350 +hide-referer{http://nowhere.com}
1353 * Alternative spelling of "+hide-referer". It has the same parameters, and
1354 can be freely mixed with, "+hide-referer". ("referrer" is the correct
1355 English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it requires it
1356 to be spelled "referer".)
1361 * Change the "User-Agent:" header so web servers can't tell your browser
1362 type. Warning! This breaks many web sites. Specify the user-agent value you
1363 want. Example, pretend to be using Netscape on Linux:
1365 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla (X11; I; Linux 2.0.32 i586)}
1368 * Treat this URL as an image. This only matters if it's also "+block"ed, in
1369 which case a "blocked" image can be sent rather than a HTML page. See
1370 "+image-blocker{}" below for the control over what is actually sent. If you
1371 want invisible ads, they should be defined as images and blocked. And also,
1372 "image-blocker" should be set to "blank". Note you cannot treat HTML pages
1373 as images in most cases. For instance, frames require an HTML page to
1374 display. Forcing an "image" in this situation just will not work.
1379 * Decides what to do with URLs that end up tagged with "{+block +image}", e.g
1380 an advertizement. There are five options. "-image-blocker" will send a HTML
1381 "blocked" page, usually resulting in a "broken image" icon. "+image-blocker
1382 {blank}" will send a 1x1 transparent GIF image. And finally,
1383 "+image-blocker{http://xyz.com}" will send a HTTP temporary redirect to the
1384 specified image. This has the advantage of the icon being being cached by
1385 the browser, which will speed up the display. "+image-blocker{pattern}"
1386 will send a checkboard type pattern
1388 +image-blocker{blank}
1389 +image-blocker{pattern}
1390 +image-blocker{http://p.p/send-banner}
1393 * By default (i.e. in the absence of a "+limit-connect" action), Privoxy will
1394 only allow CONNECT requests to port 443, which is the standard port for
1395 https as a precaution.
1397 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
1398 (https:// URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: the proxy connects
1399 to the server on the specified port, and then short-circuits its
1400 connections to the client and to the remote proxy. This can be a big
1401 security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be abused as TCP relays
1404 If you want to allow CONNECT for more ports than this, or want to forbid
1405 CONNECT altogether, you can specify a comma separated list of ports and
1406 port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum defaulting to 0 and
1409 +limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need no be specified.
1410 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
1411 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Port less than 3, 7, 20 to 100
1412 #and above 500 are OK.
1415 * "+no-compression" prevents the website from compressing the data. Some
1416 websites do this, which can be a problem for Privoxy, since "+filter",
1417 "+no-popup" and "+gif-deanimate" will not work on compressed data. This
1418 will slow down connections to those websites, though. Default is
1419 "no-compression" is turned on.
1424 * If the website sets cookies, "no-cookies-keep" will make sure they are
1425 erased when you exit and restart your web browser. This makes profiling
1426 cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so that you
1427 can log in for transactions. Default: on.
1432 * Prevent the website from reading cookies:
1437 * Prevent the website from setting cookies:
1442 * Filter the website through a built-in filter to disable those obnoxious
1443 JavaScript pop-up windows via window.open(), etc. The two alternative
1444 spellings are equivalent.
1450 * This action only applies if you are using a jarfile for saving cookies. It
1451 sends a cookie to every site stating that you do not accept any copyright
1452 on cookies sent to you, and asking them not to track you. Of course, this
1453 is a (relatively) unique header they could use to track you.
1458 * This allows you to add an arbitrary cookie. It can be specified multiple
1459 times in order to add as many cookies as you like.
1464 The meaning of any of the above is reversed by preceding the action with a "-",
1465 in place of the "+".
1469 Turn off cookies by default, then allow a few through for specified sites:
1471 # Turn off all persistent cookies
1472 { +no-cookies-read }
1474 # Allow cookies for this browser session ONLY
1475 { +no-cookies-keep }
1477 # Exceptions to the above, sites that benefit from persistent cookies
1478 { -no-cookies-read }
1480 { -no-cookies-keep }
1487 # Alternative way of saying the same thing
1488 {-no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-keep}
1493 Now turn off "fast redirects", and then we allow two exceptions:
1498 # Reverse it for these two sites, which don't work right without it.
1500 www.ukc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wac\.cgi\?
1504 Turn on page filtering according to rules in the defined sections of
1505 refilterfile, and make one exception for sourceforge:
1507 # Run everything through the filter file, using only the
1508 # specified sections:
1509 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}\
1510 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
1512 # Then disable filtering of code from sourceforge!
1514 .cvs.sourceforge.net
1517 Now some URLs that we want "blocked" (normally generates the "blocked" banner).
1518 Many of these use regular expressions that will expand to match multiple URLs:
1522 /.*/(.*[-_.])?ads?[0-9]?(/|[-_.].*|\.(gif|jpe?g))
1523 /.*/(.*[-_.])?count(er)?(\.cgi|\.dll|\.exe|[?/])
1524 /.*/(ng)?adclient\.cgi
1525 /.*/(plain|live|rotate)[-_.]?ads?/
1526 /.*/(sponsor)s?[0-9]?/
1527 /.*/_?(plain|live)?ads?(-banners)?/
1529 /.*/ad(sdna_image|gifs?)/
1530 /.*/ad(server|stream|juggler)\.(cgi|pl|dll|exe)
1534 /.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/
1538 /.*/cgi-bin/centralad/getimage
1539 /.*/images/addver\.gif
1540 /.*/images/marketing/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
1544 /.*/sponsors?[0-9]?/
1545 /.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpg
1552 /graphics/defaultAd/
1554 /image\.ng/transactionID
1555 /images/.*/.*_anim\.gif # alvin brattli
1556 /ip_img/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
1560 /cgi-bin/nph-adclick.exe/
1561 /.*/Image/BannerAdvertising/
1563 /.*/adlib/server\.cgi
1567 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
1568 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways a site
1569 designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header content he may
1570 depend on. There is no way to have hard and fast rules for all sites. See the
1571 Appendix for a brief example on troubleshooting actions.
1573 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1577 Custom "actions", known to Privoxy as "aliases", can be defined by combining
1578 other "actions". These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in "actions".
1579 Currently, an alias can contain any character except space, tab, "=", "{" or "}
1580 ". But please use only "a"- "z", "0"-"9", "+", and "-". Alias names are not
1581 case sensitive, and must be defined before anything else in the
1582 default.actionfile! And there can only be one set of "aliases" defined.
1584 Now let's define a few aliases:
1586 # Useful customer aliases we can use later. These must come first!
1588 +no-cookies = +no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
1589 -no-cookies = -no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
1591 -block -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -no-popups
1592 shop = -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects
1593 +imageblock = +block +image
1595 #For people who don't like to type too much: ;-)
1598 c2 = -no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
1599 c3 = +no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
1600 #... etc. Customize to your heart's content.
1603 Some examples using our "shop" and "fragile" aliases from above:
1605 # These sites are very complex and require
1606 # minimal interference.
1608 .office.microsoft.com
1609 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
1612 # Shopping sites - still want to block ads.
1615 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
1619 # These shops require pop-ups
1625 The "shop" and "fragile" aliases are often used for "problem" sites that
1626 require most actions to be disabled in order to function properly.
1628 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1630 4.5. The Filter File
1632 Any web page can be dynamically modified with the filter file. This
1633 modification can be removal, or re-writing, of any web page content, including
1634 tags and non-visible content. The default filter file is default.filter,
1635 located in the config directory.
1637 This is potentially a very powerful feature, and requires knowledge of both
1638 "regular expression" and HTML in order create custom filters. But, there are a
1639 number of useful filters included with Privoxy for many common situations.
1641 The included example file is divided into sections. Each section begins with
1642 the FILTER keyword, followed by the identifier for that section, e.g. "FILTER:
1643 webbugs". Each section performs a similar type of filtering, such as
1646 This file uses regular expressions to alter or remove any string in the target
1647 page. The expressions can only operate on one line at a time. Some examples
1648 from the included default default.filter:
1650 Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by deleting
1653 FILTER: html-annoyances
1655 # New browser windows should be resizeable and have a location and status
1658 s/resizable="?(no|0)"?/resizable=1/ig s/noresize/yesresize/ig
1659 s/location="?(no|0)"?/location=1/ig s/status="?(no|0)"?/status=1/ig
1660 s/scrolling="?(no|0|Auto)"?/scrolling=1/ig
1661 s/menubar="?(no|0)"?/menubar=1/ig
1663 # The <BLINK> tag was a crime!
1665 s*<blink>|</blink>**ig
1669 #s/framespacing="?(no|0)"?//ig
1670 #s/margin(height|width)=[0-9]*//gi
1673 Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of "Microsoft" with "MicroSuck", and
1674 have a little fun with topical buzzwords:
1678 s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig
1682 s/industry-leading|cutting-edge|award-winning/<font color=red><b>BINGO!</b></
1686 Kill those pesky little web-bugs:
1688 # webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
1691 s/<img\s+[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1\D[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1
1692 (\D[^>]*?)?>/<!-- Squished WebBug -->/sig
1695 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1699 When Privoxy displays one of its internal pages, such as a 404 Not Found error
1700 page, it uses the appropriate template. On Linux, BSD, and Unix, these are
1701 located in /etc/privoxy/templates by default. These may be customized, if
1704 The default "Blocked" banner page with the bright red top banner, is called
1705 just "blocked". This may be customized or replaced with something else if
1708 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1710 5. Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
1712 We value your feedback. However, to provide you with the best support, please
1715 * Use the Sourceforge support forum to get help.
1717 * Submit bugs only thru our Sourceforge bug forum.
1719 Make sure that the bug has not already been submitted. Please try to verify
1720 that it is a Privoxy bug, and not a browser or site bug first. If you are
1721 using your own custom configuration, please try the stock configs to see if
1722 the problem is a configuration related bug. And if not using the latest
1723 development snapshot, please try the latest one. Or even better, CVS
1724 sources. Please be sure to include the Privoxy/Junkbuster version,
1725 platform, browser, any pertinent log data, any other relevant details
1726 (please be specific) and, if possible, some way to reproduce the bug.
1728 * Submit feature requests only thru our Sourceforge feature request forum.
1732 For any other issues, feel free to use the mailing lists.
1734 Anyone interested in actively participating in development and related
1735 discussions can join the appropriate mailing list here. Archives are available
1738 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1740 6. Copyright and History
1744 Privoxy is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
1745 terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
1746 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
1749 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
1750 WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
1751 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details, which
1752 is available from the Free Software Foundation, Inc, 59 Temple Place - Suite
1753 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
1755 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
1756 this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple
1757 Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.
1759 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1763 Privoxy is evolved, and derived from, the Internet Junkbuster, with many
1764 improvments and enhancements over the original.
1766 Junkbuster was originally written by Anonymous Coders and Junkbuster's
1767 Corporation, and was released as free open-source software under the GNU GPL.
1768 Stefan Waldherr made many improvements, and started the SourceForge project
1769 Privoxy to rekindle development. There are now several active developers
1770 contributing. The last stable release of Junkbuster was v2.0.2, which has now
1773 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1777 Other references and sites of interest to Privoxy users:
1779 http://www.privoxy.org/, The Privoxy Home page.
1781 http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa, the Project Page for Privoxy on
1784 http://p.p/, access Privoxy from your browser. Alternately, http://
1785 config.privoxy.org may work in some situations where the first does not.
1787 http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html
1789 http://www.waldherr.org/junkbuster/
1791 http://privacy.net/analyze/
1793 http://www.squid-cache.org/
1797 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1801 8.1. Regular Expressions
1803 Privoxy can use "regular expressions" in various config files. Assuming support
1804 for "pcre" (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) is compiled in, which is the
1805 default. Such configuration directives do not require regular expressions, but
1806 they can be used to increase flexibility by matching a pattern with wild-cards
1809 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what "regular
1810 expressions" are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
1811 introduction only. A full explanation would require a book ;-)
1813 "Regular expressions" is a way of matching one character expression against
1814 another to see if it matches or not. One of the "expressions" is a literal
1815 string of readable characters (letter, numbers, etc), and the other is a
1816 complex string of literal characters combined with wild-cards, and other
1817 special characters, called meta-characters. The "meta-characters" have special
1818 meanings and are used to build the complex pattern to be matched against. Perl
1819 Compatible Regular Expressions is an enhanced form of the regular expression
1820 language with backward compatibility.
1822 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
1823 characters when listing files with the dir command in DOS. *.* matches all
1824 filenames. The "special" character here is the asterisk which matches any and
1825 all characters. We can be more specific and use ? to match just individual
1826 characters. So "dir file?.text" would match "file1.txt", "file2.txt", etc. We
1827 are pattern matching, using a similar technique to "regular expressions"!
1829 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
1830 powerful. There are many more "special characters" and ways of building complex
1831 patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones, and then some
1834 . - Matches any single character, e.g. "a", "A", "4", ":", or "@".
1836 ? - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE times. Either/
1839 + - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE times.
1841 * - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE times.
1843 \ - The "escape" character denotes that the following character should be taken
1844 literally. This is used where one of the special characters (e.g. ".") needs to
1845 be taken literally and not as a special meta-character.
1847 [] - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if any of the enclosed
1848 characters are encountered.
1850 () - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression, or multiple
1853 | - The "bar" character works like an "or" conditional statement. A match is
1854 successful if the sub-expression on either side of "|" matches.
1856 s/string1/string2/g - This is used to rewrite strings of text. "string1" is
1857 replaced by "string2" in this example.
1859 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
1860 Privoxy, and is a long way from a definitive list. This is enough to get us
1861 started with a few simple examples which may be more illuminating:
1863 /.*/banners/.* - A simple example that uses the common combination of "." and "
1864 *" to denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at
1865 all. So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression
1866 pattern (".*") another literal forward slash, the string "banners", another
1867 forward slash, and lastly another ".*". We are building a directory path here.
1868 This will match any file with the path that has a directory named "banners" in
1869 it. The ".*" matches any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward
1870 slashes, so it might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this
1871 could match: "/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif", or just "/
1872 banners/annoying.html", or almost an infinite number of other possible
1873 combinations, just so it has "banners" in the path somewhere.
1875 A now something a little more complex:
1877 /.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/ - We have several literal forward
1878 slashes again ("/"), so we are building another expression that is a file path
1879 statement. We have another ".*", so we are matching against any conceivable
1880 sub-path, just so it matches our expression. The only true literal that must
1881 match our pattern is adv, together with the forward slashes. What comes after
1882 the "adv" string is the interesting part.
1884 Remember the "?" means the preceding expression (either a literal character or
1885 anything grouped with "(...)" in this case) can exist or not, since this means
1886 either zero or one match. So "((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))" is optional, as
1887 are the individual sub-expressions: "(er)", "(ing|ements?)", and the "s". The "
1888 |" means "or". We have two of those. For instance, "(ing|ements?)", can expand
1889 to match either "ing" OR "ements?". What is being done here, is an attempt at
1890 matching as many variations of "advertisement", and similar, as possible. So
1891 this would expand to match just "adv", or "advert", or "adverts", or
1892 "advertising", or "advertisement", or "advertisements". You get the idea. But
1893 it would not match "advertizements" (with a "z"). We could fix that by changing
1894 our regular expression to: "/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/", which
1895 would then match either spelling.
1897 /.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g) - Again another path statement with forward
1898 slashes. Anything in the square brackets "[]" can be matched. This is using
1899 "0-9" as a shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the
1900 same as saying "0123456789". So any digit matches. The "+" means one or more of
1901 the preceding expression must be included. The preceding expression here is
1902 what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit one through nine.
1903 Then, at the end, we have a grouping: "(gif|jpe?g)". This includes a "|", so
1904 this needs to match the expression on either side of that bar character also. A
1905 simple "gif" on one side, and the other side will in turn match either "jpeg"
1906 or "jpg", since the "?" means the letter "e" is optional and can be matched
1907 once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to match image GIF or
1908 JPEG type image file. It must include the literal string "advert", then one or
1909 more digits, and a "." (which is now a literal, and not a special character,
1910 since it is escaped with "\"), and lastly either "gif", or "jpeg", or "jpg".
1911 Some possible matches would include: "//advert1.jpg", "/nasty/ads/
1912 advert1234.gif", "/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg". It would not match
1913 "advert1.gif" (no leading slash), or "/adverts232.jpg" (the expression does not
1914 include an "s"), or "/advert1.jsp" ("jsp" is not in the expression anywhere).
1916 s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i - This is a substitution. "MicroSuck" will
1917 replace any occurrence of "microsoft". The "i" at the end of the expression
1918 means ignore case. The "(?!.com)" means the match should fail if "microsoft" is
1919 followed by ".com". In other words, this acts like a "NOT" modifier. In case
1920 this is a hyperlink, we don't want to break it ;-).
1922 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
1923 can understand the default Privoxy configuration files, and maybe use this
1924 knowledge to customize your own installation. There is much, much more that can
1925 be done with regular expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you
1926 can learn more on your own :/
1928 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions: http://www.perldoc.com/
1929 perl5.6/pod/perlre.html
1931 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1933 8.2. Privoxy's Internal Pages
1935 Since Privoxy proxies each requested web page, it is easy for Privoxy to trap
1936 certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to Privoxy, and see how
1937 it is configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these rules and
1938 other configuration options, and even turn Privoxy's filtering off, all with a
1941 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access to Privoxy.
1942 Of course, Privoxy must be running to access these. If not, you will get a
1943 friendly error message. Internet access is not necessary either.
1945 * Privoxy main page:
1947 http://config.privoxy.org/
1949 Alternately, this may be reached at http://p.p/, but this variation may not
1950 work as reliably as the above in some configurations.
1952 * Show information about the current configuration:
1954 http://config.privoxy.org/show-status
1956 * Show the source code version numbers:
1958 http://config.privoxy.org/show-version
1960 * Show the client's request headers:
1962 http://config.privoxy.org/show-request
1964 * Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
1966 http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info
1968 * Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, "Privoxy" continues to run, but
1969 only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
1971 http://config.privoxy.org/toggle
1973 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
1975 http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable
1977 http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable
1979 * Edit the actions list file:
1981 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions
1983 These may be bookmarked for quick reference.
1985 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1989 Here are some bookmarklets to allow you to easily access a "mini" version of
1990 this page. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work equally
1991 well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support JavaScript. They
1992 are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not by clicking the links
1993 below (although that will work for testing).
1995 To save them, right-click the link and choose "Add to Favorites" (IE) or "Add
1996 Bookmark" (Netscape). You will get a warning that the bookmark "may not be
1997 safe" - just click OK. Then you can run the Bookmarklet directly from your
1998 favourites/bookmarks. For even faster access, you can put them on the "Links"
1999 bar (IE) or the "Personal Toolbar" (Netscape), and run them with a single
2006 * Toggle Privoxy (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
2008 * View Privoxy Status
2010 Credit: The site which gave me the general idea for these bookmarklets is
2011 www.bookmarklets.com. They have more information about bookmarklets.
2013 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2015 8.3. Anatomy of an Action
2017 The way Privoxy applies "actions" and "filters" to any given URL can be
2018 complex, and not always so easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes
2019 we need to be able to see just what Privoxy is doing. Especially, if something
2020 Privoxy is doing is causing us a problem inadvertantly. It can be a little
2021 daunting to look at the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend
2022 to be filled with "regular expressions" whose consequences are not always so
2023 obvious. Privoxy provides the http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info page that
2024 can show us very specifically how actions are being applied to any given URL.
2025 This is a big help for troubleshooting.
2027 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then Privoxy will tell
2028 us how the current configuration will handle it. This will not help with
2029 filtering effects from the default.filter file! It also will not tell you about
2030 any other URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For
2031 instance, images such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source
2032 of HTML pages. So you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into
2033 the prompt area -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs
2034 like ads, you will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's
2035 "View Page Source" option for this.
2037 Let's look at an example, google.com, one section at a time:
2039 System default actions:
2041 { -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects -filter
2042 -hide-forwarded -hide-from -hide-referer -hide-user-agent -image
2043 -image-blocker -limit-connect -no-compression -no-cookies-keep
2044 -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set -no-popups -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
2048 This is the top section, and only tells us of the compiled in defaults. This is
2049 basically what Privoxy would do if there were not any "actions" defined, i.e.
2050 it does nothing. Every action is disabled. This is not particularly informative
2051 for our purposes here. OK, next section:
2053 Matches for http://google.com:
2055 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects
2056 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
2057 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
2058 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
2059 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression
2060 +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups
2061 -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
2064 { -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set }
2072 This is much more informative, and tells us how we have defined our "actions",
2073 and which ones match for our example, "google.com". The first grouping shows
2074 our default settings, which would apply to all URLs. If you look at your
2075 "actions" file, this would be the section just below the "aliases" section near
2076 the top. This applies to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash -- "
2079 These are the default actions we have enabled. But we can define additional
2080 actions that would be exceptions to these general rules, and then list specific
2081 URLs that these exceptions would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this
2082 then are two explict matches for ".google.com". The first is negating our
2083 various cookie blocking actions (i.e. we will allow cookies here). The second
2084 is allowing "fast-redirects". Note that there is a leading dot here --
2085 ".google.com". This will match any hosts and sub-domains, in the google.com
2086 domain also, such as "www.google.com". So, apparently, we have these actions
2087 defined somewhere in the lower part of our actions file, and "google.com" is
2088 referenced in these sections.
2090 And now we pull it altogether in the bottom section and summarize how Privoxy
2091 is appying all its "actions" to "google.com":
2095 -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects
2096 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
2097 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
2098 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
2099 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} -limit-connect +no-compression
2100 -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups -vanilla-wafer
2105 Now another example, "ad.doubleclick.net":
2118 We'll just show the interesting part here, the explicit matches. It is matched
2119 three different times. Each as an "+block +image", which is the expanded form
2120 of one of our aliases that had been defined as: "+imageblock". ("Aliases" are
2121 defined in the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine
2122 more than one action.)
2124 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
2125 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively would
2126 also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys though ;-)
2127 Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious URL to be invisible, it should be
2128 defined as "ad.doubleclick.net" is done here -- as both a "+block" and an
2129 "+image". The custom alias "+imageblock" does this for us.
2131 One last example. Let's try "http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/". This one is
2132 giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm...
2134 Matches for http://www.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
2136 { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects
2137 +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}
2138 +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
2139 +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge}
2140 -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression
2141 +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups
2142 -vanilla-wafer -wafer }
2150 Ooops, the "/adsl/" is matching "/ads"! But we did not want this at all! Now we
2151 see why we get the blank page. We could now add a new action below this that
2152 explictly does not block (-block) pages with "adsl". There are various ways to
2153 handle such exceptions. Example:
2160 Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when making
2161 such changes. Or, try using Shift+Reload.
2163 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like we did
2171 That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem was.
2172 If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default rules in
2173 the first section is causing the problem. This would require some guesswork,
2174 and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending rule. One likely
2175 cause would be one of the "{+filter}" actions. Try adding the URL for the site
2176 to one of aliases that turn off "+filter":
2180 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
2187 "{shop}" is an "alias" that expands to "{ -filter -no-cookies -no-cookies-keep
2188 }". Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
2195 "{fragile}" is an alias that disables most actions. This can be used as a last
2196 resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! If this still does not
2197 work, you will have to go through the remaining actions one by one to find
2198 which one(s) is causing the problem.
projects / privoxy.git / blob