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85 > The actions files are used to define what <SPAN
95 > takes for which URLs, and thus determines
96 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
97 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
98 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
99 Each action does something a little different.
100 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
101 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
102 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.</P
105 are three action files included with <SPAN
109 differing purposes:</P
118 >match-all.action</TT
119 > - is used to define which
123 > relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
124 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default.
125 It should be the first actions file loaded
133 > - defines many exceptions (both
134 positive and negative) from the default set of actions that's configured
137 >match-all.action</TT
138 >. It is a set of rules that should
139 work reasonably well as-is for most users. This file is only supposed to
140 be edited by the developers. It should be the second actions file loaded.
148 > - is intended to be for local site
149 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
150 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
151 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
161 >Set to Cautious</SPAN
167 >Set to Advanced</SPAN
171 > These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <SPAN
176 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
179 >. A default installation should be pre-set to
183 >. New users should try this for a while before
184 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
185 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
186 not working as they should.
192 > button allows you to turn each
193 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <SPAN
197 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
198 ad blocking and a minimal set of <SPAN
201 >'s features, and subsequently
202 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
206 > button sets the list to a medium level of
207 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
211 > button sets the list to a high level of
212 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
213 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
217 > button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
218 lower sections of this internal page.
221 > While the actions file editor allows to enable these settings in all
222 actions files, they are only supposed to be enabled in the first one
223 to make sure you don't unintentionally overrule earlier rules.
226 > The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
240 >Table 1. Default Configurations</B
270 >Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</TD
280 >Ad-filtering by size</TD
290 >Ad-filtering by link</TD
310 >Privacy Features</TD
340 >GIF de-animation</TD
370 >JavaScript taming</TD
390 >Image tag reordering</TD
407 > The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
408 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
412 > is typically processed before
416 >). The content of these can all be viewed and
418 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status"
420 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</A
422 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
423 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
428 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
432 >), which are then followed lastly by any
433 local preferences (typically in <SPAN
449 > An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
453 > in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
455 HREF="actions-file.html#ALIASES"
457 > at the top of that file.
458 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
459 sites and pages (be <SPAN
469 > or any other actions file after
473 >, because it will override the result
474 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
475 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
479 > as an appendix to <TT
483 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
484 personal settings across <SPAN
487 > upgrades easier.</P
490 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
491 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
492 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
493 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
494 fooled, and much more. See below for a <A
495 HREF="actions-file.html#ACTIONS"
505 >8.1. Finding the Right Mix</A
509 HREF="actions-file.html#ACTIONS"
511 >, like cookie suppression
512 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
513 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
514 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
515 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
519 > your default settings (in the top section of the
520 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <SPAN
524 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
525 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
526 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
527 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.</P
529 > We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
530 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
531 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
532 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).</P
543 > The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
544 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <A
545 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status"
547 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</A
549 Note: the config file option <A
550 HREF="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS"
551 >enable-edit-actions</A
552 > must be enabled for
553 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
554 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
565 >. Warning: the <SPAN
569 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
570 Experienced users only!
573 > If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
574 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
578 > which is richly commented with many
587 >8.3. How Actions are Applied to Requests</A
590 > Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
594 HREF="actions-file.html#ALIASES"
597 > sections which will
598 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
599 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
600 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
601 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.</P
603 > To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
604 compared to all URL patterns in each <SPAN
608 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
609 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
610 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.</P
612 > If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
613 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
614 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <TT
618 HREF="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"
622 then later another one with just <TT
626 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
636 > actions to apply. And there may well be
637 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
653 >block{Banner ads.}</TT
655 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
657 media.example.com/.*banners
658 .example.com/images/ads/</PRE
665 > You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <A
666 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info"
668 >http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</A
671 > Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <A
672 HREF="appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT"
673 > Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</A
693 to determine what <SPAN
699 > might apply to which sites and
700 pages your browser attempts to access. These <SPAN
710 > matching to achieve a high degree of
711 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
712 against many similar patterns.</P
714 > Generally, an URL pattern has the form
717 ><domain><port>/<path></TT
721 ><domain></TT
729 > are optional. (This is why the special
733 > pattern matches all URLs). Note that the protocol
734 portion of the URL pattern (e.g. <TT
744 > be included in the pattern. This is assumed already!</P
746 > The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of
747 the URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
748 while the path part uses more flexible
750 HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"
759 > The port part of a pattern is a decimal port number preceded by a colon
763 >). If the domain part contains a numerical IPv6 address,
764 it has to be put into angle brackets
780 >www.example.com/</TT
784 > is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to <TT
788 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
789 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
793 > is different and would NOT match.
803 > means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing <TT
813 >www.example.com/index.html</TT
817 > matches all the documents on <TT
821 whose name starts with <TT
830 >www.example.com/index.html$</TT
834 > matches only the single document <TT
851 > matches the document <TT
854 >, regardless of the domain,
861 > web server anywhere.
871 > Matches any URL pointing to TCP port 8000.
877 ><2001:db8::1>/</TT
881 > Matches any URL with the host address <TT
885 (Note that the real URL uses plain brackets, not angle brackets.)
895 > matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
896 there is no top-level domain called <TT
911 >8.4.1. The Domain Pattern</A
914 > The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
915 domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
929 > matches any domain with first-level domain <TT
933 and second-level domain <TT
946 >foo.bar.baz.example.com</TT
948 Note that it wouldn't match if the second-level domain was <TT
961 > matches any domain that <SPAN
971 > (It also matches the domain
975 > but most of the time that doesn't matter.)
985 > matches any domain that <SPAN
995 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
996 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
997 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <TT
1001 a domain.) This might be <TT
1003 >www.example.com</TT
1007 >news.example.de</TT
1011 >www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</TT
1012 > for instance. All these
1019 > Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
1020 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
1024 > represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
1027 HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"
1034 > based syntax of <SPAN
1041 > represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
1042 regular expression syntax of a simple <SPAN
1045 >), and you can define
1048 >"character classes"</SPAN
1049 > in square brackets which is similar to
1050 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:</P
1054 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
1059 >ad*.example.com</TT
1065 >"adserver.example.com"</SPAN
1069 >"ads.example.com"</SPAN
1070 >, etc but not <SPAN
1072 >"sfads.example.com"</SPAN
1079 >*ad*.example.com</TT
1083 > matches all of the above, and then some.
1099 >pictures.epix.com</TT
1102 >a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</TT
1109 >www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</TT
1115 >www1.example.com</TT
1119 >www4.example.cc</TT
1122 >wwwd.example.cy</TT
1126 >wwwz.example.com</TT
1136 >wwww.example.com</TT
1143 > While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.</P
1151 >8.4.2. The Path Pattern</A
1162 HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"
1169 > for matching the path portion (after the slash),
1170 and is thus more flexible.</P
1173 HREF="appendix.html#REGEX"
1175 > with a brief quick-start into regular
1176 expressions, you also might want to have a look at your operating system's documentation
1177 on regular expressions (try <TT
1182 > Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <SPAN
1186 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <SPAN
1189 > (regular expression speak
1190 for the beginning of a line).</P
1192 > Please also note that matching in the path is <SPAN
1196 >CASE INSENSITIVE</I
1199 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
1205 >www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</TT
1207 only documents whose path starts with <TT
1217 > this capitalization.</P
1221 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
1226 >.example.com/.*</TT
1230 > Is equivalent to just <SPAN
1232 >".example.com"</SPAN
1233 >, since any documents
1234 within that domain are matched with or without the <SPAN
1238 regular expression. This is redundant
1244 >.example.com/.*/index.html$</TT
1248 > Will match any page in the domain of <SPAN
1250 >"example.com"</SPAN
1255 >, and that is part of some path. For
1256 example, it matches <SPAN
1258 >"www.example.com/testing/index.html"</SPAN
1262 >"www.example.com/index.html"</SPAN
1263 > because the regular
1264 expression called for at least two <SPAN
1268 requirement. It also would match
1271 >"www.example.com/testing/index_html"</SPAN
1273 special meta-character <SPAN
1282 >.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</TT
1286 > This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
1290 > regardless of path which in this case can
1291 have one or more <SPAN
1294 >. And this one must contain exactly
1298 > (but does not have to end with that!).
1304 >.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</TT
1308 > This regular expression will match any path of <SPAN
1310 >"example.com"</SPAN
1312 that contains any of the words <SPAN
1322 > (because of the <SPAN
1329 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
1335 >.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</TT
1339 > This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
1353 one is limited to common image formats.
1359 > There are many, many good examples to be found in <TT
1363 and more tutorials below in <A
1364 HREF="appendix.html#REGEX"
1365 >Appendix on regular expressions</A
1374 >8.4.3. The Tag Pattern</A
1377 > Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
1378 request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
1380 HREF="actions-file.html#CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER"
1381 >client-header-tagger</A
1384 HREF="actions-file.html#SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER"
1385 >server-header-tagger</A
1388 > Tag patterns have to start with <SPAN
1395 can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
1396 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
1397 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
1398 automatically (<SPAN
1401 > doesn't silently add a <SPAN
1405 you have to do it yourself if you need it).</P
1407 > To match all requests that are tagged with <SPAN
1411 your pattern line should be <SPAN
1418 > would work as well, but it would also
1419 match requests whose tags contain <SPAN
1426 > wouldn't work as it requires white space.</P
1428 > Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
1429 but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
1430 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.</P
1432 > Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
1433 of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
1434 tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
1435 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.</P
1437 > For example you could tag client requests which use the
1442 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
1443 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
1444 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
1445 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
1446 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
1447 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
1448 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.</P
1450 > While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
1451 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
1452 make too much sense.</P
1464 > All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
1465 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
1469 >, and turned off if preceded with a <SPAN
1478 >"do that action"</SPAN
1485 >"please block URLs that match the
1486 following patterns"</SPAN
1493 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <TT
1497 previously applied."</SPAN
1501 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
1502 separated by whitespace, like in
1505 >{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</TT
1507 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
1508 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
1509 of the actions file. </P
1512 Actions fall into three categories:</P
1520 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <SPAN
1543 > # enable action <TT
1554 > # disable action <TT
1569 >+handle-as-image</TT
1576 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
1598 >} # enable action and set parameter to <TT
1604 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
1610 > # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</PRE
1617 > Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
1618 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
1624 >+hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070602 Firefox/2.0.0.4}</TT
1631 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
1632 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
1633 same URL, but with different parameters, <SPAN
1646 > matches are remembered. This is used for actions
1647 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
1648 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
1669 >} # enable action and add <TT
1674 > to the list of parameters
1685 >} # remove the parameter <TT
1690 > from the list of parameters
1691 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
1697 > # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</PRE
1707 >+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</TT
1711 >+filter{html-annoyances}</TT
1718 > If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <SPAN
1722 taken. So in this case <SPAN
1726 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
1727 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
1728 files will give a good starting point).</P
1730 > Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
1731 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
1732 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
1736 >). For multi-valued actions, the actions
1737 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
1738 the order they are defined in <TT
1742 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
1743 URL to match more than one <SPAN
1746 > (because of wildcards and
1747 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
1750 > The list of valid <SPAN
1760 >8.5.1. add-header</A
1765 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
1771 >Confuse log analysis, custom applications</P
1777 > Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
1790 > Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
1791 It is recommended that you use the <SPAN
1805 > This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
1806 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
1809 >"HTTP headers"</SPAN
1810 > are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
1814 > Headers added by this action are not modified by other actions.
1829 >+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}</PRE
1850 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
1856 >Block ads or other unwanted content</P
1862 > Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
1863 requests are trapped by <SPAN
1866 > and the requested URL is never retrieved,
1867 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
1871 HREF="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"
1878 HREF="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"
1879 >set-image-blocker</A
1885 HREF="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"
1886 >handle-as-empty-document</A
1902 >A block reason that should be given to the user.</P
1911 > sends a special <SPAN
1915 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains the block reason given as
1916 parameter, a link to find out why the block action applies, and a click-through
1917 to the blocked content (the latter only if the force feature is available and
1922 A very important exception occurs if <SPAN
1935 HREF="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"
1939 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
1943 HREF="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"
1944 >set-image-blocker</A
1947 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
1948 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
1951 > It is important to understand this process, in order
1952 to understand how <SPAN
1956 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
1957 upon which various other features depend.
1963 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER"
1967 action can perform a very similar task, by <SPAN
1971 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
1972 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
1973 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
1977 >Example usage (section):</DT
1988 >{+block{No nasty stuff for you.}}
1989 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
1990 .nasty-stuff.example.com
1992 {+block{Doubleclick banners.} +handle-as-image}
1993 # Block and replace with image
1997 {+block{Layered ads.} +handle-as-empty-document}
1998 # Block and then ignore
1999 adserver.example.net/.*\.js$</PRE
2014 NAME="CHANGE-X-FORWARDED-FOR"
2015 >8.5.3. change-x-forwarded-for</A
2020 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
2026 >Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</P
2034 >"X-Forwarded-For:"</SPAN
2035 > HTTP header from the client request,
2056 > to delete the header.</P
2063 > to create the header (or append
2064 the client's IP address to an already existing one).
2073 > It is safe and recommended to use <TT
2079 > Forwarding the source address of the request may make
2080 sense in some multi-user setups but is also a privacy risk.
2095 >+change-x-forwarded-for{block}</PRE
2110 NAME="CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER"
2111 >8.5.4. client-header-filter</A
2116 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
2122 > Rewrite or remove single client headers.
2129 > All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2130 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
2143 > The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
2145 HREF="filter-file.html"
2154 > Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
2155 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
2156 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
2157 You can do that by using tags though.
2160 > Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
2161 and use their output as input.
2164 > If the request URL gets changed, <SPAN
2167 > will detect that and use the new
2168 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
2169 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
2172 > Please refer to the <A
2173 HREF="filter-file.html"
2174 >filter file chapter</A
2176 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
2181 >Example usage (section):</DT
2192 ># Hide Tor exit notation in Host and Referer Headers
2193 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
2210 NAME="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER"
2211 >8.5.5. client-header-tagger</A
2216 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
2222 > Block requests based on their headers.
2229 > Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2230 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
2244 > The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
2246 HREF="filter-file.html"
2255 > Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
2256 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <SPAN
2263 > Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
2264 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
2268 >Example usage (section):</DT
2279 ># Tag every request with the User-Agent header
2280 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
2283 # Tagging itself doesn't change the action
2284 # settings, sections with TAG patterns do:
2286 # If it's a download agent, use a different forwarding proxy,
2287 # show the real User-Agent and make sure resume works.
2288 {+forward-override{forward-socks5 10.0.0.2:2222 .} \
2289 -hide-if-modified-since \
2290 -overwrite-last-modified \
2295 TAG:^User-Agent: NetBSD-ftp/
2296 TAG:^User-Agent: Novell ZYPP Installer
2297 TAG:^User-Agent: RPM APT-HTTP/
2298 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/
2299 TAG:^User-Agent: Ubuntu APT-HTTP/
2300 TAG:^User-Agent: MPlayer/
2316 NAME="CONTENT-TYPE-OVERWRITE"
2317 >8.5.6. content-type-overwrite</A
2322 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
2328 >Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</P
2334 > Replaces the <SPAN
2336 >"Content-Type:"</SPAN
2337 > HTTP server header.
2359 >"Content-Type:"</SPAN
2360 > HTTP server header is used by the
2361 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
2362 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
2363 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
2364 supported by the browser.
2367 > The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
2368 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <SPAN
2372 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
2373 If it is send as <SPAN
2375 >"application/xml"</SPAN
2377 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
2380 > If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
2383 >"Content-Type: text/html"</SPAN
2384 >, you can use <SPAN
2388 to overwrite it with <SPAN
2390 >"application/xml"</SPAN
2392 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
2393 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
2396 > You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
2397 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
2398 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
2402 > and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
2407 >content-type-overwrite</TT
2411 >"Content-Type:"</SPAN
2412 > headers that look like some kind of text.
2413 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
2417 HREF="actions-file.html#FORCE-TEXT-MODE"
2421 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
2424 > Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
2428 HREF="actions-file.html#SERVER-HEADER-FILTER"
2429 >server-header filter</A
2432 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
2433 only replace the content types you aimed at.
2436 > Of course you can apply <TT
2438 >content-type-overwrite</TT
2440 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
2441 more work to get the same precision.
2445 >Example usage (sections):</DT
2456 ># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
2457 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
2460 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
2461 {-content-type-overwrite}
2462 www.example.net/.*\.css$
2463 www.example.net/.*style</PRE
2478 NAME="CRUNCH-CLIENT-HEADER"
2479 >8.5.7. crunch-client-header</A
2484 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
2490 >Remove a client header <SPAN
2493 > has no dedicated action for.</P
2499 > Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
2519 > This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
2527 > will remove every client header that
2528 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
2531 > Regular expressions are <SPAN
2538 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
2539 they contain the same string.
2544 >crunch-client-header</TT
2545 > is only meant for quick tests.
2546 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
2547 parts of them, you should use a
2551 HREF="actions-file.html#CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER"
2552 >client-header filter</A
2575 > Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
2583 >Example usage (section):</DT
2594 ># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
2595 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
2612 NAME="CRUNCH-IF-NONE-MATCH"
2613 >8.5.8. crunch-if-none-match</A
2618 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
2624 >Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</P
2632 >"If-None-Match:"</SPAN
2633 > HTTP client header.
2653 > Removing the <SPAN
2655 >"If-None-Match:"</SPAN
2656 > HTTP client header
2657 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
2658 reload instead of getting status code <SPAN
2662 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
2665 > It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
2666 replacement (unlikely but possible).
2669 > Blocking the <SPAN
2671 >"If-None-Match:"</SPAN
2672 > header shouldn't cause any
2673 caching problems, as long as the <SPAN
2675 >"If-Modified-Since:"</SPAN
2677 isn't blocked or missing as well.
2680 > It is recommended to use this action together with
2684 HREF="actions-file.html#HIDE-IF-MODIFIED-SINCE"
2685 >hide-if-modified-since</A
2692 HREF="actions-file.html#OVERWRITE-LAST-MODIFIED"
2693 >overwrite-last-modified</A
2699 >Example usage (section):</DT
2710 ># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
2711 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
2712 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
2713 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
2714 +crunch-if-none-match}
2730 NAME="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"
2731 >8.5.9. crunch-incoming-cookies</A
2736 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
2742 > Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
2751 >"Set-Cookie:"</SPAN
2752 > HTTP headers from server replies.
2772 > This action is only concerned with <SPAN
2789 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES"
2790 >crunch-outgoing-cookies</A
2799 > to disable HTTP cookies completely.
2808 > to use this action in conjunction
2812 HREF="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"
2813 >session-cookies-only</A
2816 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
2820 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES"
2821 >filter-content-cookies</A
2838 >+crunch-incoming-cookies</PRE
2853 NAME="CRUNCH-SERVER-HEADER"
2854 >8.5.10. crunch-server-header</A
2859 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
2865 >Remove a server header <SPAN
2868 > has no dedicated action for.</P
2874 > Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
2894 > This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
2898 > action exists. <SPAN
2902 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
2905 > Regular expressions are <SPAN
2912 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
2913 they contain the same string.
2918 >crunch-server-header</TT
2919 > is only meant for quick tests.
2920 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
2921 parts of them, you should use a custom
2925 HREF="actions-file.html#SERVER-HEADER-FILTER"
2926 >server-header filter</A
2949 > Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
2957 >Example usage (section):</DT
2968 ># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
2969 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
2985 NAME="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES"
2986 >8.5.11. crunch-outgoing-cookies</A
2991 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
2997 > Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
3007 > HTTP headers from client requests.
3027 > This action is only concerned with <SPAN
3044 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"
3045 >crunch-incoming-cookies</A
3054 > to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3063 > to use this action in conjunction
3067 HREF="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"
3068 >session-cookies-only</A
3071 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3086 >+crunch-outgoing-cookies</PRE
3101 NAME="DEANIMATE-GIFS"
3102 >8.5.12. deanimate-gifs</A
3107 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
3113 >Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</P
3119 > De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3145 > This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3149 > is given, the first frame of the animation
3150 is used as the replacement. If <SPAN
3153 > is given, the last
3154 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3155 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3156 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3159 > You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3160 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3176 >+deanimate-gifs{last}</PRE
3191 NAME="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"
3192 >8.5.13. downgrade-http-version</A
3197 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
3203 >Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</P
3209 > Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3229 > This is a left-over from the time when <SPAN
3233 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3234 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
3235 out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
3236 so there is a chance you might need this action.
3240 >Example usage (section):</DT
3251 >{+downgrade-http-version}
3252 problem-host.example.com</PRE
3267 NAME="FAST-REDIRECTS"
3268 >8.5.14. fast-redirects</A
3273 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
3279 >Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</P
3285 > Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3286 the redirection server first.
3305 >"simple-check"</SPAN
3306 > to just search for the string <SPAN
3310 to detect redirection URLs.
3317 >"check-decoded-url"</SPAN
3318 > to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3319 for redirection URLs.
3329 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3330 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3331 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3332 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3335 >"http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/"</SPAN
3339 > Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3340 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3341 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3342 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3343 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3347 > This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3348 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3349 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3352 > Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3353 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3354 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3358 > assumes that every URL parameter that
3359 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3360 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3361 the user gets redirected anyway.
3364 > Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3368 >"http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar"</SPAN
3370 contains the redirection URL <SPAN
3372 >"http://www.example.net/"</SPAN
3374 followed by another parameter. <TT
3378 and will cause a redirect to <SPAN
3380 >"http://www.example.net/&foo=bar"</SPAN
3382 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3385 >"page not found"</SPAN
3386 > error. You can prevent this problem by
3390 HREF="actions-file.html#REDIRECT"
3394 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
3397 > To detect a redirection URL, <TT
3401 looks for the string <SPAN
3404 >, either in plain text
3405 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <SPAN
3409 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3410 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
3414 > is fooled and the request reaches the
3415 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3430 > { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
3433 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
3434 another.example.com/testing</PRE
3455 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
3461 >Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
3462 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</P
3468 > All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
3469 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
3470 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
3471 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
3475 > MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
3488 > The name of a content filter, as defined in the <A
3489 HREF="filter-file.html"
3492 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3496 HREF="config.html#FILTERFILE"
3507 > is the collection of filters
3508 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
3509 in their own file, such as <TT
3515 > When used in its negative form,
3516 and without parameters, <SPAN
3522 > filtering is completely disabled.
3529 > For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
3530 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
3534 > Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
3535 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
3536 passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
3537 since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
3538 noticeable on slower connections.
3543 >"Rolling your own"</SPAN
3545 filters requires a knowledge of
3547 HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"
3556 HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"
3563 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
3564 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
3571 > The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
3575 HREF="config.html#BUFFER-LIMIT"
3579 option in the main <A
3583 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
3584 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
3587 > Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
3588 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
3589 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
3590 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
3591 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
3592 by defining appropriate <TT
3598 > Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless <SPAN
3602 is compiled with zlib support (requires at least <SPAN
3609 > will decompress the content before filtering
3613 > If you use a <SPAN
3616 > version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
3617 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
3618 you must use the <TT
3621 HREF="actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION"
3622 >prevent-compression</A
3625 action in conjunction with <TT
3631 > Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
3635 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
3639 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
3640 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
3641 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
3648 > with suggestions for new or
3649 improved filters is particularly welcome!
3652 > The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
3653 predefined filter. There are <A
3654 HREF="filter-file.html#PREDEFINED-FILTERS"
3656 verbose explanations</A
3657 > of what these filters do in the <A
3658 HREF="filter-file.html"
3659 >filter file chapter</A
3664 >Example usage (with filters from the distribution <TT
3669 HREF="filter-file.html#PREDEFINED-FILTERS"
3670 >the Predefined Filters section</A
3672 more explanation on each:</DT
3676 NAME="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES"
3687 >+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.</PRE
3695 NAME="FILTER-JS-EVENTS"
3706 >+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings and timers (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites).</PRE
3714 NAME="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES"
3725 >+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</PRE
3733 NAME="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES"
3744 >+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content.</PRE
3752 NAME="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS"
3763 >+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups).</PRE
3771 NAME="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS"
3782 >+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</PRE
3790 NAME="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS"
3801 >+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability.</PRE
3809 NAME="FILTER-IMG-REORDER"
3820 >+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective.</PRE
3828 NAME="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"
3839 >+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size.</PRE
3847 NAME="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK"
3858 >+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers.</PRE
3866 NAME="FILTER-WEBBUGS"
3877 >+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking).</PRE
3885 NAME="FILTER-TINY-TEXTFORMS"
3896 >+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap.</PRE
3904 NAME="FILTER-JUMPING-WINDOWS"
3915 >+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves.</PRE
3923 NAME="FILTER-FRAMESET-BORDERS"
3934 >+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable.</PRE
3942 NAME="FILTER-DEMORONIZER"
3953 >+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets.</PRE
3961 NAME="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH"
3972 >+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects.</PRE
3980 NAME="FILTER-QUICKTIME-KIOSKMODE"
3991 >+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable.</PRE
4010 >+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</PRE
4018 NAME="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL"
4029 >+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering. Note that this filter doesn't work reliably.</PRE
4037 NAME="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS"
4048 >+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits.</PRE
4056 NAME="FILTER-SITE-SPECIFICS"
4067 >+filter{site-specifics} # Cure for site-specific problems. Don't apply generally!</PRE
4075 NAME="FILTER-NO-PING"
4086 >+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes in <a> and <area> tags.</PRE
4094 NAME="FILTER-GOOGLE"
4105 >+filter{google} # CSS-based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation and the toolbar advertisement.</PRE
4124 >+filter{yahoo} # CSS-based block for Yahoo text ads. Also removes a width limitation.</PRE
4143 >+filter{msn} # CSS-based block for MSN text ads. Also removes tracking URLs and a width limitation.</PRE
4151 NAME="FILTER-BLOGSPOT"
4162 >+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this.</PRE
4177 NAME="FORCE-TEXT-MODE"
4178 >8.5.16. force-text-mode</A
4183 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
4192 > to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <SPAN
4204 > Declares a document as text, even if the <SPAN
4206 >"Content-Type:"</SPAN
4207 > isn't detected as such.
4230 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER"
4237 > tries to only filter files that are
4238 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4242 HREF="actions-file.html#CONTENT-TYPE-OVERWRITE"
4243 >content-type-overwrite</A
4248 >force-text-mode</TT
4249 > declares a document as text,
4250 without looking at the <SPAN
4252 >"Content-Type:"</SPAN
4274 > Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4275 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4310 NAME="FORWARD-OVERRIDE"
4311 >8.5.17. forward-override</A
4316 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
4322 >Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</P
4328 > Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
4348 > to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</P
4354 >"forward 127.0.0.1:8123"</SPAN
4355 > to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4362 >"forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 ."</SPAN
4363 > to use the socks4a proxy listening at
4364 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <SPAN
4366 >"forward-socks4a"</SPAN
4369 >"forward-socks4"</SPAN
4371 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <SPAN
4373 >"forward-socks5"</SPAN
4375 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4382 >"forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000"</SPAN
4383 > to use the socks4a proxy
4384 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4387 >"forward-socks4a"</SPAN
4390 >"forward-socks4"</SPAN
4391 > to use a socks4 connection
4392 (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <SPAN
4394 >"forward-socks5"</SPAN
4396 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4405 > This action takes parameters similar to the
4407 HREF="config.html#FORWARDING"
4409 > directives in the configuration
4410 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4411 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4432 > Please read the description for the <A
4433 HREF="config.html#FORWARDING"
4436 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4437 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4440 > If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4441 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4446 HREF="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info"
4448 >show-url-info CGI page</A
4450 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4469 ># Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
4472 >"User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0"</SPAN
4474 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4475 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4476 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4477 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4478 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
4479 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
4480 {+forward-override{forward .} \
4481 -hide-if-modified-since \
4482 -overwrite-last-modified \
4484 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
4500 NAME="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"
4501 >8.5.18. handle-as-empty-document</A
4506 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
4512 >Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <SPAN
4516 >if they get blocked</I
4524 > This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4528 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
4538 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <SPAN
4542 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4549 > document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4569 > Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4570 are blocked with <SPAN
4574 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4575 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the <SPAN
4579 BLOCKED message in frames.
4582 > The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4586 HREF="actions-file.html#CONTENT-TYPE-OVERWRITE"
4587 >content-type-overwrite{}</A
4590 but usually this isn't necessary.
4605 ># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4606 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4607 {+block{Blocked JavaScript} +handle-as-empty-document}
4624 NAME="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"
4625 >8.5.19. handle-as-image</A
4630 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
4636 >Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <SPAN
4640 >if they do get blocked</I
4642 >, rather than HTML pages)</P
4648 > This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4652 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
4662 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <SPAN
4666 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <TT
4669 HREF="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"
4670 >set-image-blocker</A
4672 > action) will be sent to the
4673 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4693 > The below generic example section is actually part of <TT
4697 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4701 > Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4705 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
4708 >, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4709 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4712 > Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4713 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4716 >handle-as-image</TT
4717 > in this situation will not replace the
4718 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4722 >Example usage (sections):</DT
4733 ># Generic image extensions:
4736 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4738 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4739 # blocked as images:
4741 {+block{Nasty banners.} +handle-as-image}
4742 nasty-banner-server.example.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash</PRE
4757 NAME="HIDE-ACCEPT-LANGUAGE"
4758 >8.5.20. hide-accept-language</A
4763 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
4769 >Pretend to use different language settings.</P
4775 > Deletes or replaces the <SPAN
4777 >"Accept-Language:"</SPAN
4778 > HTTP header in client requests.
4794 >, or any user defined value.
4801 > Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4802 foreign User-Agent set with
4806 HREF="actions-file.html#HIDE-USER-AGENT"
4813 > However some sites with content in different languages check the
4816 >"Accept-Language:"</SPAN
4817 > to decide which one to take by default.
4818 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4821 >"Accept-Language:"</SPAN
4825 > Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4828 >"Accept-Language:"</SPAN
4829 > header to languages you understand,
4830 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4833 > Before setting the <SPAN
4835 >"Accept-Language:"</SPAN
4837 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4838 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4839 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4840 you should stick to a common language.
4844 >Example usage (section):</DT
4855 ># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4856 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4857 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4874 NAME="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION"
4875 >8.5.21. hide-content-disposition</A
4880 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
4886 >Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</P
4892 > Deletes or replaces the <SPAN
4894 >"Content-Disposition:"</SPAN
4895 > HTTP header set by some servers.
4911 >, or any user defined value.
4918 > Some servers set the <SPAN
4920 >"Content-Disposition:"</SPAN
4922 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4925 >"Content-Disposition:"</SPAN
4926 > header contains the file name
4927 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4930 > In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4937 > the document, without downloading it first,
4938 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4941 > Removing the <SPAN
4943 >"Content-Disposition:"</SPAN
4945 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4948 >"Content-Type:"</SPAN
4949 > header, before they decide if they can
4950 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4951 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4955 > It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4956 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4960 > This action will probably be removed in the future,
4961 use server-header filters instead.
4976 ># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4978 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
4979 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
4980 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</PRE
4995 NAME="HIDE-IF-MODIFIED-SINCE"
4996 >8.5.22. hide-if-modified-since</A
5001 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
5007 >Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</P
5015 >"If-Modified-Since:"</SPAN
5016 > HTTP client header or modifies its value.
5032 >, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
5039 > Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
5040 reload instead of getting status code <SPAN
5043 >, which would cause the
5044 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
5047 > Instead of removing the header, <TT
5049 >hide-if-modified-since</TT
5051 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
5052 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
5056 > does the rest. A negative value means
5057 subtracting, a positive value adding.
5060 > Randomizing the value of the <SPAN
5062 >"If-Modified-Since:"</SPAN
5064 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
5065 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
5068 > It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
5072 HREF="actions-file.html#OVERWRITE-LAST-MODIFIED"
5073 >overwrite-last-modified</A
5076 handle the greater changes.
5079 > It is also recommended to use this action together with
5083 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-IF-NONE-MATCH"
5084 >crunch-if-none-match</A
5087 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
5091 >Example usage (section):</DT
5102 ># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
5103 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5104 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5105 +crunch-if-none-match}
5121 NAME="HIDE-FROM-HEADER"
5122 >8.5.23. hide-from-header</A
5127 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
5133 >Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</P
5139 > Deletes any existing <SPAN
5142 > HTTP header, or replaces it with the
5159 >, or any user defined value.
5169 > will completely remove the header
5170 (not to be confused with the <TT
5173 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
5180 > Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
5181 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
5182 is actually used by a real person.
5185 > This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
5204 >+hide-from-header{block}</PRE
5217 >+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</PRE
5232 NAME="HIDE-REFERRER"
5233 >8.5.24. hide-referrer</A
5241 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
5247 >Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</P
5256 > (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
5257 or replaces it with a forged one.
5276 >"conditional-block"</SPAN
5277 > to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</P
5283 >"conditional-forge"</SPAN
5284 > to forge the header if the host has changed.</P
5291 > to delete the header unconditionally.</P
5298 > to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</P
5302 >Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</P
5312 >conditional-block</TT
5313 > is the only parameter,
5314 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
5315 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
5316 typed in the address directly.
5319 > Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
5320 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <SPAN
5324 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
5325 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
5326 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
5330 > Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
5331 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
5332 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
5333 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
5338 >conditional-block</TT
5343 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
5344 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
5351 > is an alternate spelling of
5355 > and the two can be can be freely
5356 substituted with each other. (<SPAN
5360 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
5361 requires it to be spelled as <SPAN
5379 >+hide-referrer{forge}</PRE
5392 >+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</PRE
5407 NAME="HIDE-USER-AGENT"
5408 >8.5.25. hide-user-agent</A
5413 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
5419 >Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</P
5425 > Replaces the value of the <SPAN
5427 >"User-Agent:"</SPAN
5429 in client requests with the specified value.
5442 > Any user-defined string.
5467 > This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
5468 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
5475 > the right thing to do: good web sites
5476 work browser-independently).
5483 > Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
5484 browsers will access the same <SPAN
5494 >. In single-user, single-browser
5495 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
5496 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
5497 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
5498 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
5499 reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not
5503 > enter, yet forging to a
5507 > user-agent works just fine.
5508 (Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
5511 > More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
5513 HREF="http://www.user-agents.org/"
5515 >http://www.user-agents.org/</A
5519 HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent"
5521 >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</A
5537 >+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</PRE
5552 NAME="LIMIT-CONNECT"
5553 >8.5.26. limit-connect</A
5558 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
5564 >Prevent abuse of <SPAN
5567 > as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</P
5573 > Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
5586 > A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
5587 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
5594 > By default, i.e. if no <TT
5601 > allows HTTP CONNECT requests to all
5605 > if fine-grained control
5606 is desired for some or all destinations.
5609 > The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
5613 > URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
5614 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
5615 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
5616 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
5622 > relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
5623 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent <SPAN
5627 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
5631 >Example usages:</DT
5642 >+limit-connect{443} # Port 443 is OK.
5643 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
5644 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
5645 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
5646 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</PRE
5661 NAME="PREVENT-COMPRESSION"
5662 >8.5.27. prevent-compression</A
5667 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
5673 > Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
5677 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER"
5687 > Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
5707 > More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5708 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <TT
5711 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER"
5718 HREF="actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS"
5722 actions need access to the uncompressed data.
5725 > When compiled with zlib support (available since <SPAN
5728 > 3.0.7), content that should be
5729 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5730 If you are using an older <SPAN
5733 > version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5734 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5737 > Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5738 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5742 > Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5743 enable this action if you really need it. As of <SPAN
5746 > 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5747 predefined action settings.
5750 > Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5751 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5752 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable
5755 >prevent-compression</TT
5756 > per default, you might want to add
5757 exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5761 >Example usage (sections):</DT
5772 ># Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5774 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5775 # Match only these sites
5780 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5782 { +prevent-compression }
5785 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5787 { -prevent-compression }
5803 NAME="OVERWRITE-LAST-MODIFIED"
5804 >8.5.28. overwrite-last-modified</A
5809 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
5815 >Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</P
5823 >"Last-Modified:"</SPAN
5824 > HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5837 > One of the keywords: <SPAN
5842 >"reset-to-request-time"</SPAN
5854 > Removing the <SPAN
5856 >"Last-Modified:"</SPAN
5857 > header is useful for filter
5858 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5862 >, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5863 version of the page.
5869 > option overwrites the value of the
5872 >"Last-Modified:"</SPAN
5873 > header with a randomly chosen time
5874 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5875 could send each document with a different <SPAN
5877 >"Last-Modified:"</SPAN
5879 header to track visits without using cookies. <SPAN
5883 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5888 >"reset-to-request-time"</SPAN
5889 > overwrites the value of the
5892 >"Last-Modified:"</SPAN
5893 > header with the current time. You could use
5894 this option together with
5898 HREF="actions-file.html#HIDE-IF-MODIFIED-SINCE"
5899 >hide-if-modified-since</A
5902 to further customize your random range.
5905 > The preferred parameter here is <SPAN
5909 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5910 If the server sets the <SPAN
5912 >"Last-Modified:"</SPAN
5913 > header to the time
5914 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5915 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5919 HREF="actions-file.html#HIDE-IF-MODIFIED-SINCE"
5920 >hided-if-modified-since</A
5926 > It is also recommended to use this action together with
5930 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-IF-NONE-MATCH"
5931 >crunch-if-none-match</A
5948 ># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5949 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5950 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5951 +crunch-if-none-match}
5968 >8.5.29. redirect</A
5973 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
5979 > Redirect requests to other sites.
5986 > Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5987 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
6000 > An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
6007 > Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
6008 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
6009 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
6010 single pcrs command to the original URL.
6013 > This action will be ignored if you use it together with
6017 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
6021 It can be combined with
6025 HREF="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"
6026 >fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</A
6029 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
6032 > Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
6033 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
6034 possible to fingerprint your requests.
6037 > In case of problems with your redirects, or simply to watch
6038 them working, enable <A
6039 HREF="config.html#DEBUG"
6045 >Example usages:</DT
6056 ># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
6057 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
6058 example.com/stylesheet\.css
6060 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
6061 # (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to <SPAN
6065 { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
6068 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
6069 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
6070 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
6071 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
6072 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$
6074 # Redirect Google search requests to MSN
6075 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/search\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=$1@}}
6078 # Redirect MSN search requests to Yahoo
6079 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/results\.aspx\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=$1@}}
6080 search.msn.com//results\.aspx\?q=
6082 # Redirect remote requests for this manual
6083 # to the local version delivered by Privoxy
6084 {+redirect{s@^http://www@http://config@}}
6085 www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</PRE
6100 NAME="SERVER-HEADER-FILTER"
6101 >8.5.30. server-header-filter</A
6106 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
6112 > Rewrite or remove single server headers.
6119 > All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
6120 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
6133 > The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
6135 HREF="filter-file.html"
6144 > Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
6145 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
6146 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
6147 You can do that by using tags though.
6150 > Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
6151 and use their output as input.
6154 > Please refer to the <A
6155 HREF="filter-file.html"
6156 >filter file chapter</A
6158 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
6163 >Example usage (section):</DT
6174 >{+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
6175 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
6177 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
6178 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
6194 NAME="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER"
6195 >8.5.31. server-header-tagger</A
6200 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
6206 > Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
6213 > Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
6214 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
6228 > The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
6230 HREF="filter-file.html"
6239 > Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
6240 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <SPAN
6247 > Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
6248 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
6249 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
6250 and the crunch actions (<A
6251 HREF="actions-file.html#REDIRECT"
6255 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
6260 > Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
6261 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
6265 >Example usage (section):</DT
6276 ># Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
6277 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
6294 NAME="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"
6295 >8.5.32. session-cookies-only</A
6300 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
6306 > Allow only temporary <SPAN
6309 > cookies (for the current
6310 browser session <SPAN
6328 >"Set-Cookie:"</SPAN
6330 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
6331 forget them in between sessions.
6351 > This is less strict than <TT
6354 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"
6355 >crunch-incoming-cookies</A
6361 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES"
6362 >crunch-outgoing-cookies</A
6364 > and allows you to browse
6365 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
6368 > Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
6371 >session-cookies-only</TT
6372 > and will forget about them between sessions.
6373 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
6374 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
6375 sites, and is the recommended setting.
6386 >session-cookies-only</TT
6391 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"
6392 >crunch-incoming-cookies</A
6398 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES"
6399 >crunch-outgoing-cookies</A
6401 >. If you do, cookies
6402 will be plainly killed.
6405 > Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <SPAN
6409 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
6412 > This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
6413 previously by the browser before starting <SPAN
6417 These would have to be removed manually.
6425 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES"
6426 >content-cookies filter</A
6428 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
6431 >session-cookies-only</TT
6447 >+session-cookies-only</PRE
6462 NAME="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"
6463 >8.5.33. set-image-blocker</A
6468 CLASS="VARIABLELIST"
6474 >Choose the replacement for blocked images</P
6480 > This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <SPAN
6490 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
6502 HREF="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"
6512 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
6519 > the parameter of this action decides what will be
6520 sent as a replacement.
6540 > to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
6541 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
6549 > to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
6550 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <SPAN
6554 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <SPAN
6558 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
6572 send a redirect to <TT
6578 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <SPAN
6582 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
6585 > A good application of redirects is to use special <SPAN
6589 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <TT
6595 This has the same visual effect as specifying <SPAN
6602 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
6603 it over and over again.
6612 > The URLs for the built-in images are <SPAN
6614 >"http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<TT
6635 > There is a third (advanced) type, called <SPAN
6647 >set-image-blocker</TT
6648 >, but meant for use from <A
6649 HREF="filter-file.html"
6652 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
6670 >+set-image-blocker{pattern}</PRE
6677 > Redirect to the BSD daemon:
6688 >+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</PRE
6695 > Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
6706 >+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</PRE
6725 > Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
6726 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
6727 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
6728 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
6729 and fast rules for all sites. See the <A
6730 HREF="appendix.html#ACTIONSANAT"
6732 > for a brief example on troubleshooting
6755 >, can be defined by combining other actions.
6756 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
6757 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
6775 > that you only use <SPAN
6795 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
6802 > sign, since they are merely textually
6805 > Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <SPAN
6810 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</I
6813 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
6814 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
6815 within that file.</P
6817 > There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
6818 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
6819 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
6823 >, you can later change your policy on shops in
6830 > place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
6831 in the actions file where the <SPAN
6834 > alias is used. Calling aliases
6835 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.</P
6837 > Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
6841 >'s built-in web-based action file
6842 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
6843 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
6844 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
6847 > Now let's define some aliases...</P
6857 > # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
6859 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
6860 # must be at the top of the actions file!
6864 # These aliases just save typing later:
6865 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6867 +crunch-all-cookies = +<A
6868 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"
6869 >crunch-incoming-cookies</A
6871 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES"
6872 >crunch-outgoing-cookies</A
6874 -crunch-all-cookies = -<A
6875 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"
6876 >crunch-incoming-cookies</A
6878 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES"
6879 >crunch-outgoing-cookies</A
6881 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
6882 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<A
6883 HREF="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"
6884 >session-cookies-only</A
6886 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES"
6887 >filter{content-cookies}</A
6890 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6891 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6894 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
6897 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER"
6899 > -crunch-all-cookies -<A
6900 HREF="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"
6903 HREF="actions-file.html#HIDE-REFERER"
6906 HREF="actions-file.html#PREVENT-COMPRESSION"
6907 >prevent-compression</A
6910 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<A
6911 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER-ALL-POPUPS"
6912 >filter{all-popups}</A
6915 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
6917 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
6918 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</PRE
6924 > ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
6925 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
6939 > # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
6940 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
6943 .office.microsoft.com
6944 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6945 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
6949 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
6953 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6956 # These shops require pop-ups:
6958 {-filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
6960 .overclockers.co.uk</PRE
6966 > Aliases like <SPAN
6972 > are typically used for
6976 > sites that require more than one action to be disabled
6977 in order to function properly.</P
6985 >8.7. Actions Files Tutorial</A
6988 > The above chapters have shown <A
6989 HREF="actions-file.html"
6990 >which actions files
6991 there are and how they are organized</A
6992 >, how actions are <A
6993 HREF="actions-file.html#ACTIONS"
6996 HREF="actions-file.html#ACTIONS-APPLY"
7000 HREF="actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS"
7004 HREF="actions-file.html#ALIASES"
7006 >. Now, let's look at an
7009 >match-all.action</TT
7017 > file and see how all these pieces come together:</P
7024 >8.7.1. match-all.action</A
7031 >all actions are disabled when matching starts</I
7034 so we have to explicitly enable the ones we want.</P
7038 >match-all.action</TT
7039 > file only contains a
7040 single section, it is probably the most important one. It has only one
7049 HREF="actions-file.html#AF-PATTERNS"
7050 >matches all URLs</A
7051 >. Therefore, the set of
7052 actions used in this <SPAN
7060 be applied to all requests as a start</I
7062 >. It can be partly or
7063 wholly overridden by other actions files like <TT
7070 >, but it will still be largely responsible
7071 for your overall browsing experience.</P
7073 > Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
7074 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <SPAN
7078 preceding the action name enables the action, a <SPAN
7082 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
7083 multiple lines with line continuation.</P
7095 HREF="actions-file.html#CHANGE-X-FORWARDED-FOR"
7096 >change-x-forwarded-for{block}</A
7099 HREF="actions-file.html#HIDE-FROM-HEADER"
7100 >hide-from-header{block}</A
7103 HREF="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"
7104 >set-image-blocker{pattern}</A
7114 > The default behavior is now set.</P
7122 >8.7.2. default.action</A
7125 > If you aren't a developer, there's no need for you to edit the
7129 > file. It is maintained by
7133 > developers and if you disagree with some of the
7134 sections, you should overrule them in your <TT
7139 > Understanding the <TT
7143 help you with your <TT
7148 > The first section in this file is a special section for internal use
7149 that prevents older <SPAN
7152 > versions from reading the file:</P
7162 >##########################################################################
7163 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
7164 ##########################################################################
7166 for-privoxy-version=3.0.11</PRE
7172 > After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
7173 section from the above <A
7174 HREF="actions-file.html#ALIASES"
7175 >chapter on aliases</A
7177 that also explains why and how aliases are used:</P
7187 >##########################################################################
7189 ##########################################################################
7192 # These aliases just save typing later:
7193 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
7195 +crunch-all-cookies = +<A
7196 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"
7197 >crunch-incoming-cookies</A
7199 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES"
7200 >crunch-outgoing-cookies</A
7202 -crunch-all-cookies = -<A
7203 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"
7204 >crunch-incoming-cookies</A
7206 HREF="actions-file.html#CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES"
7207 >crunch-outgoing-cookies</A
7209 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
7210 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<A
7211 HREF="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"
7212 >session-cookies-only</A
7214 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES"
7215 >filter{content-cookies}</A
7218 # These aliases define combinations of actions
7219 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
7222 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
7225 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER"
7227 > -crunch-all-cookies -<A
7228 HREF="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"
7231 HREF="actions-file.html#HIDE-REFERER"
7234 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<A
7235 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER-ALL-POPUPS"
7236 >filter{all-popups}</A
7243 > The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <SPAN
7247 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
7248 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
7249 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
7253 > alias instead of stating the list
7254 of actions explicitly:</P
7264 >##########################################################################
7265 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
7266 ##########################################################################
7268 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
7271 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
7272 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
7273 mail.google.com</PRE
7279 > Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
7280 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
7281 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:</P
7295 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
7306 HREF="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"
7310 action, which may have been enabled in <TT
7312 >match-all.action</TT
7314 breaks some sites. So disable it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:</P
7325 HREF="actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"
7331 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
7332 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
7339 > It is important that <SPAN
7343 URLs belong to images, so that <SPAN
7350 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
7351 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
7352 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
7353 would feed the advertisers information about you. We can mark any
7354 URL as an image with the <TT
7357 HREF="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"
7361 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
7372 >##########################################################################
7374 ##########################################################################
7376 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
7377 # blocked further down this file:
7380 HREF="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"
7383 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</PRE
7389 > And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
7390 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
7391 request is for an image. Hence we block them <SPAN
7398 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
7401 >+block-as-image</TT
7402 > alias defined above. (We could of
7403 course just as well use <TT
7406 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
7410 HREF="actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"
7414 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
7418 HREF="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"
7419 >set-image-blocker</A
7422 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
7426 HREF="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"
7427 >set-image-blocker</A
7430 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:</P
7440 ># Known ad generators:
7445 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
7446 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
7447 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
7455 > One of the most important jobs of <SPAN
7459 is to block banners. Many of these can be <SPAN
7466 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER"
7468 >{banners-by-size}</TT
7470 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
7471 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
7472 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
7473 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
7474 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
7478 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
7481 > action to them.</P
7483 > First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
7484 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
7485 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
7486 to keep the example short:</P
7496 >##########################################################################
7497 # Block these fine banners:
7498 ##########################################################################
7500 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
7501 >+block{Banner ads.}</A
7510 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
7511 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
7513 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
7521 > It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
7527 >.com, or call the directory
7528 in which the banners are stored simply <SPAN
7532 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.</P
7534 > But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
7535 to block. The pattern <TT
7547 >.nasty-corp.com"</SPAN
7557 >.sourcefroge.net"</SPAN
7567 >l.some-provider.net."</SPAN
7569 well-known exceptions to the <TT
7572 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
7578 > Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
7581 >"downloads.sourcefroge.net"</SPAN
7582 >: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
7583 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
7584 URL, but just deactivates the <TT
7587 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
7591 action once again. Then it matches <TT
7594 >, an exception to the
7595 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
7599 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
7602 > applies. And now, it'll match
7609 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
7613 applies, so (unless it matches <SPAN
7619 > further down) it ends up
7623 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
7626 > action applying.</P
7636 >##########################################################################
7637 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
7638 ##########################################################################
7643 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
7646 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
7647 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
7648 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
7649 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
7650 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
7651 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
7659 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
7660 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</PRE
7666 > Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
7667 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
7668 and all paths with <SPAN
7671 > in them. Note that
7675 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER"
7685 > filters in one fell swoop!</P
7695 ># Don't filter code!
7698 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER"
7705 .sourceforge.net</PRE
7714 > is of course much more
7715 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.</P
7723 >8.7.3. user.action</A
7726 > So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
7727 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
7728 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
7729 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
7730 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
7734 >, which is parsed after all other
7735 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
7736 defined actions. <TT
7746 > place for your personal settings, since
7750 > is actively maintained by the
7754 > developers and you'll probably want
7755 to install updated versions from time to time.</P
7757 > So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
7771 ># My user.action file. <fred@example.com></PRE
7778 HREF="actions-file.html#ALIASES"
7780 > are local to the actions
7781 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
7785 >, unless you repeat them here:</P
7795 ># Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
7796 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
7800 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
7801 # be self explanatory.
7803 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
7804 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
7805 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
7806 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups}
7807 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked as image.} +handle-as-image
7808 -block-as-image = -block
7810 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
7811 # certain types of sites:
7813 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer
7814 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
7816 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
7818 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
7820 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
7821 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
7822 handle-as-text = -<A
7823 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER"
7826 HREF="actions-file.html#CONTENT-TYPE-OVERWRITE"
7827 >content-type-overwrite{text/plain}</A
7829 HREF="actions-file.html#FORCE-TEXT-MODE"
7832 HREF="actions-file.html#HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION"
7833 >hide-content-disposition</A
7840 > Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
7841 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
7842 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
7845 >allow-all-cookies</TT
7846 > alias defined above does exactly
7847 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
7848 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.</P
7858 >{ allow-all-cookies }
7868 > Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:</P
7879 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER"
7882 .your-home-banking-site.com</PRE
7888 > Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:</P
7898 ># Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
7899 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
7904 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
7905 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
7907 stupid-server.example.com/</PRE
7913 > Example of a simple <A
7914 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
7916 > action. Say you've
7917 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
7918 You have right-clicked the image, selected <SPAN
7920 >"copy image location"</SPAN
7922 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
7926 > section. Note that <TT
7930 > need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
7934 > will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
7935 in default.action anyway:</P
7946 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
7949 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
7950 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</PRE
7956 > The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
7957 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
7958 makes it impossible for <SPAN
7962 the file type just by looking at the URL.
7965 >+block-as-image</TT
7966 > alias defined above for
7968 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
7969 image are typically rendered as a <SPAN
7971 >"broken image"</SPAN
7973 browser. Use cautiously.</P
7983 >{ +block-as-image }
7993 > Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
7994 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
7995 were again too lazy to give <A
7999 you just used the <TT
8002 > alias on the site, and
8009 > -- it worked. The <TT
8013 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
8014 good for testing purposes to see if it is <SPAN
8018 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
8019 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:</P
8038 > You like the <SPAN
8041 > text replacements in <TT
8045 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
8046 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
8047 update-safe config, once and for all:</P
8058 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER-FUN"
8061 / # For ALL sites!</PRE
8067 > Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
8068 to the filters in <TT
8072 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
8076 > has the last word, these exceptions
8077 won't be valid for the <SPAN
8080 > filtering specified here.</P
8082 > You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
8083 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
8084 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
8085 sites that you feel provide value to you:</P
8107 > has been aliased to
8111 HREF="actions-file.html#BLOCK"
8118 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"
8119 >filter{banners-by-size}</A
8125 HREF="actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK"
8126 >filter{banners-by-link}</A
8130 > Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <TT
8132 > application/x-sh</TT
8133 > which typically would open a download type
8134 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
8135 it should I choose to.</P
8155 > is generally the best place to define
8156 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
8160 >. Some actions are safe to have their
8161 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
8165 > image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
8175 > of course matches all URL
8176 paths and patterns:</P
8187 HREF="actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"
8188 >set-image-blocker{blank}</A
8203 SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
8232 HREF="filter-file.html"
8242 >The Main Configuration File</TD
projects / privoxy.git / blob