NAME

       [--pidfile pidfile ] [--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname ] [--user
       user[.group] ] [--version ] [configfile ]



OPTIONS

       Privoxy may be invoked with the following command line options:

       --chroot
              Before changing to the user ID given in the --user option,
              chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel
              pretend to the Privoxy process that the directory tree starts
              there. If set up carefully, this can limit the impact of
              possible vulnerabilities in Privoxy to the files contained in
              that hierarchy.

       --config-test
              Exit after loading the configuration files before binding to the
              listen address. The exit code signals whether or not the
              configuration files have been successfully loaded.

              If the exit code is 1, at least one of the configuration files
              is invalid, if it is 0, all the configuration files have been
              successfully loaded (but may still contain errors that can
              currently only be detected at run time).

              This option doesn't affect the log setting, combination with
              "--no-daemon" is recommended if a configured log file shouldn't
              be used.

       --help Print brief usage info and exit.

       --no-daemon
              Don't  become  a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process
              group leader, don't detach from controlling tty, and do all
              logging there.

       --pidfile pidfile
              On startup, write the process ID to pidfile.  Delete the pidfile
              on exit.  Failure to create or delete the pidfile is non-fatal.
              If no --pidfile option is given, no PID file will be used.

       --pre-chroot-nslookup hostname
              Initialize the resolver library using hostname before
              chroot'ing. On some systems this reduces the number of files
              that must be copied into the chroot tree.

       --user user[.group]
              After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
              user and the GID of group, or, if the optional group was not
              given, the default group of user. Exit if the privileges are not
              sufficient to do so.


       Privoxy is Free Software and licensed under the GNU GPLv2 or later.

       Privoxy is an associated project of Software in the Public Interest
       (SPI).

       Helping hands and donations are welcome:

       • https://www.privoxy.org/participate

       • https://www.privoxy.org/donate


INSTALLATION AND USAGE

       Browsers can either be individually configured to use Privoxy as a HTTP
       proxy (recommended), or Privoxy can be combined with a packet filter to
       build an intercepting proxy (see config).  The default setting is  for
       localhost,  on port  8118 (configurable in the main config file).  To
       set the HTTP proxy in Firefox, go through: Tools; Options; General;
       Connection Settings; Manual Proxy Configuration.

       For Internet Explorer, go through: Tools; Internet Properties;
       Connections; LAN Settings.

       The Secure (SSL) Proxy should also be set to the same values, otherwise
       https: URLs will not be proxied. Note: Privoxy can only proxy HTTP and
       HTTPS traffic. Do not try it with FTP or other protocols.  HTTPS
       presents some limitations, and not all features will work with HTTPS
       connections.

       For other browsers, check the documentation.


CONFIGURATION

       Privoxy can be configured with the various configuration files. The
       default configuration files are: config, default.filter, default.action
       and default.action. user.action should be used for locally defined
       exceptions to the default rules in match-all.action and default.action,
       and user.filter for locally defined filters. These are well commented.
       On Unix and Unix-like systems, these are located in /etc/privoxy/ by
       default.

       Privoxy uses the concept of actions in order to manipulate the data
       stream between the browser and remote sites.  There are various actions
       available with specific functions for such things as blocking web
       sites, managing cookies, etc. These actions can be invoked individually
       or combined, and used against individual URLs, or groups of URLs that
       can be defined using wildcards and regular expressions. The result is
       that the user has greatly enhanced control and freedom.

       The actions list (ad blocks, etc) can also be configured with your web
       browser at http://config.privoxy.org/ (assuming the configuration
       allows it).  Privoxy's configuration parameters  can also  be viewed at
       the same page. In addition, Privoxy can be toggled on/off.  This is an
        /etc/privoxy/templates/*
        /var/log/privoxy/logfile

       Various other files should be included, but may vary depending on
       platform and build configuration. Additional documentation should be
       included in the local documentation directory.


SIGNALS

       Privoxy terminates on the SIGINT and SIGTERM signals. Log rotation
       scripts may cause a re-opening of the logfile by sending a SIGHUP to
       Privoxy. Note that unlike other daemons,  Privoxy does not need to be
       made aware of config file changes by SIGHUP -- it will detect them
       automatically. Signals other than the ones listed above aren't
       explicitly handled and result in the default action defined by the
       operating system.


NOTES

       Please see the User Manual on how to contact the developers, for
       feature requests, reporting problems, and other questions.


SEE ALSO

       Other references and sites of interest to Privoxy users:

       https://www.privoxy.org/, the Privoxy Home page.

       https://www.privoxy.org/faq/, the Privoxy FAQ.

       https://www.privoxy.org/developer-manual/, the Privoxy developer
       manual.

       https://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/, the Project Page for Privoxy
       on SourceForge.

       http://config.privoxy.org/, the web-based user interface. Privoxy must
       be running for this to work. Shortcut: http://p.p/

       https://sourceforge.net/p/ijbswa/actionsfile-feedback/, to submit
       ``misses'' and other configuration related suggestions to the
       developers.


DEVELOPMENT TEAM

        Fabian Keil, lead developer
        David Schmidt
        Lee Rian
        Roland Rosenfeld
        Ian Silvester


COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE


COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2001-2023 by Privoxy Developers <privoxy-
       devel@lists.privoxy.org>

       (at your option) any later version.

       Privoxy is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
       ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
       FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the  license for details.

Privoxy 3.0.34                 05 February 2023                     PRIVOXY(8)