privoxy [--help ] [--version ] [--no-daemon ] [--pidfile pidfile ] [--user user[.group] ] [configfile ] (UNIX)
privoxy.exe [configfile ] (Windows)
Privoxy may be invoked with the following command line options:
If the configfile is not specified on the command line, Privoxy will look for a file named config in the current directory (except on Win32 where it will try config.txt). If no configfile is found, Privoxy will fail to start.
Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting privacy, filtering web page content, managing cookies, controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a very flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and tastes. Privoxy has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.
Privoxy is based on Internet Junkbuster (tm).
Browsers must be individually configured to use Privoxy as a HTTP proxy. The default setting is for localhost, on port 8118 (configurable in the main config file). To set the HTTP proxy in Netscape and Mozilla, go through: Edit; Preferences; Advanced; Proxies; Manual Proxy Configuration; View.
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.
For other browsers, check the documentation.
Privoxy can be configured with the various configuration files. The default configuration files are: config, default.filter, and default.action. user.action should be used for locally defined exceptions to the default rules of default.action These are all well commented. On Unix and Unix-like systems, these are located in /etc/privoxy/ by default. On Windows, OS/2 and AmigaOS, these files are in the same directory as the Privoxy executable.
The name and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is subject to change as development progresses. In fact, the configuration itself is changed and much more sophisticated. See the user-manual for a complete explanation of all configuration options and general usage, and notes for upgrading from Junkbuster and earlier Privoxy versions.
The actions list (ad blocks, etc) can also be configured with your web browser at http://config.privoxy.org/. Privoxy's configuration parameters can also be viewed at the same page. In addition, Privoxy can be toggled on/off. This is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
A brief example of what a simple default.action configuration might look like:
# Define a few useful custom aliases for later use
{{alias}}
# Useful aliases
+crunch-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
-crunch-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
+imageblock = +block +handle-as-image
# Fragile sites should have the minimum changes
fragile = -block -deanimate-gifs -fast-redirects -filter \
-hide-referer -prevent-cookies -kill-popups
## Turn some actions on ################################
{ \
-add-header \
-block \
+deanimate-gifs{last} \
-downgrade-http-version \
-fast-redirects \
+filter{html-annoyances} \
+filter{js-annoyances} \
+filter{content-cookies} \
+filter{webbugs} \
+filter{banners-by-size} \
+hide-forwarded-for-headers \
+hide-from-header{block} \
+hide-referrer{forge} \
-hide-user-agent \
-handle-as-image \
+set-image-blocker{pattern} \
-limit-connect \
+prevent-compression \
+session-cookies-only \
-crunch-cookies \
-kill-popups \
}
/ # '/' Matches *all* URL patterns
# Block, and treat these URL patterns as if they were 'images'.
# We would expect these to be ads.
{+imageblock}
.ad.doubleclick.net
.a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
ad.*.doubleclick.net
# Block any URLs that match these patterns
{+block}
ad*.
.*ads.
banner?.
/.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
.hitbox.com
# Make exceptions for these harmless ones that would be
# caught by our +block patterns just above.
{-block}
adsl.
advice.
.*downloads.
Then for a user.action, we would put local, narrowly defined exceptions:
# Re-define aliases as needed here
{{alias}}
# Useful aliases
-crunch-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
# Set personal exceptions to the policies in default.action #######
# Sites where we want persistant cookies, so allow *all* cookies
{-crunch-cookies -session-cookies-only}
.redhat.com
.sun.com
.msdn.microsoft.com
# This site breaks easily.
{-block -fast-redirects}
.forbes.com
See the comments in the configuration files themselves, or the user-manual for explanations of the above syntax, and other Privoxy configuration options.
/usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config /etc/privoxy/default.action /etc/privoxy/standard.action /etc/privoxy/user.action /etc/privoxy/default.filter /etc/privoxy/trust /etc/privoxy/templates/* /var/log/privoxy/logfile
Various other files should be included, but may vary depending on platform and build configuration. More documentation should be included in the local documentation directory.
Privoxy terminates on the SIGINT, SIGTERM and SIGABRT 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.
This is a alpha version of Privoxy. Not all features are well tested.
Please see the User Manual on how to contact the developers for feature requests, reporting problems, and other questions.
Other references and sites of interest to Privoxy users:
http://www.privoxy.org/, the Privoxy Home page.
http://www.privoxy.org/faq/, the Privoxy FAQ.
http://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/
http://www.privoxy.org/actions/, to submit ``misses'' to the developers.
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/ijbswa/contrib/, cool and fun ideas from Privoxy users.
http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html, an explanation how cookies are used to track web users.
http://www.junkbusters.com/ijb.html, the original Internet Junkbuster.
http://www.waldherr.org/junkbuster/, Stefan Waldherr's version of Junkbuster, from which Privoxy was derived.
http://privacy.net/analyze/, a useful site to check what information about you is leaked while you browse the web.
http://www.squid-cache.org/, a very popular caching proxy, which is often used together with Privoxy.
http://www.privoxy.org/developer-manual/, the Privoxy developer manual.
Jon Foster Andreas Oesterhelt Stefan Waldherr Thomas Steudten Rodney Stromlund Rodrigo Barbosa (RPM specfiles) Moritz Barsnick Hal Burgiss (docs) Karsten Hopp (Red Hat) Alexander Lazic Gábor Lipták Guy Haroon Rafique Roland Rosenfeld (Debian) Georg Sauthoff (Gentoo) David Schmidt (OS/2, Mac OSX ports) Joerg Strohmayer (Amiga) Sarantis Paskalis
Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
Some source code is based on code Copyright (C) 1997 by Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters, Inc. and licensed under the GNU General Public License.
Privoxy is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2, as published by the Free Software Foundation.
This program 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 GNU General Public License for more details, which is available from the Free Software Foundation, Inc, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330 Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA