Privoxy 3.0.35 User Manual

Copyright © 2001-2023 by Privoxy Developers

The Privoxy User Manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use Privoxy.

Privoxy is a non-caching web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for enhancing privacy, modifying web page data and HTTP headers, controlling access, and removing ads and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and tastes. It has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.

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:

You can find the latest version of the Privoxy User Manual at https://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/. Please see the Contact section on how to contact the developers.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Features
2. Installation
2.1. Binary Packages
2.1.1. Debian and Ubuntu
2.1.2. Windows
2.1.3. Mac OS X
2.1.4. Installation from ready-built package
2.1.5. Installation from source
2.1.6. FreeBSD and ElectroBSD
2.2. Building from Source
2.2.1. Windows
2.3. Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date
3. What's New in this Release
3.1. Note to Upgraders
4. Quickstart to Using Privoxy
4.1. Quickstart to Ad Blocking
5. Starting Privoxy
5.1. Debian
5.2. FreeBSD and ElectroBSD
5.3. Windows
5.4. Generic instructions for Unix derivates (Solaris, NetBSD, HP-UX etc.)
5.5. Mac OS X
5.6. Command Line Options
6. Privoxy Configuration
6.1. Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser
6.2. Configuration Files Overview
7. The Main Configuration File
7.1. Local Set-up Documentation
7.1.1. user-manual
7.1.2. trust-info-url
7.1.3. admin-address
7.1.4. proxy-info-url
7.2. Configuration and Log File Locations
7.2.1. confdir
7.2.2. templdir
7.2.3. temporary-directory
7.2.4. logdir
7.2.5. actionsfile
7.2.6. filterfile
7.2.7. logfile
7.2.8. trustfile
7.3. Debugging
7.3.1. debug
7.3.2. single-threaded
7.3.3. hostname
7.4. Access Control and Security
7.4.1. listen-address
7.4.2. toggle
7.4.3. enable-remote-toggle
7.4.4. enable-remote-http-toggle
7.4.5. enable-edit-actions
7.4.6. enforce-blocks
7.4.7. ACLs: permit-access and deny-access
7.4.8. buffer-limit
7.4.9. enable-proxy-authentication-forwarding
7.4.10. trusted-cgi-referer
7.4.11. cors-allowed-origin
7.5. Forwarding
7.5.1. forward
7.5.2. forward-socks4, forward-socks4a, forward-socks5 and forward-socks5t
7.5.3. Advanced Forwarding Examples
7.5.4. forwarded-connect-retries
7.6. Miscellaneous
7.6.1. accept-intercepted-requests
7.6.2. allow-cgi-request-crunching
7.6.3. split-large-forms
7.6.4. keep-alive-timeout
7.6.5. tolerate-pipelining
7.6.6. default-server-timeout
7.6.7. connection-sharing
7.6.8. socket-timeout
7.6.9. max-client-connections
7.6.10. listen-backlog
7.6.11. enable-accept-filter
7.6.12. handle-as-empty-doc-returns-ok
7.6.13. enable-compression
7.6.14. compression-level
7.6.15. client-header-order
7.6.16. client-specific-tag
7.6.17. client-tag-lifetime
7.6.18. trust-x-forwarded-for
7.6.19. receive-buffer-size
7.7. HTTPS Inspection
7.7.1. ca-directory
7.7.2. ca-cert-file
7.7.3. ca-key-file
7.7.4. ca-password
7.7.5. certificate-directory
7.7.6. cipher-list
7.7.7. trusted-cas-file
7.8. Windows GUI Options
8. Actions Files
8.1. Finding the Right Mix
8.2. How to Edit
8.3. How Actions are Applied to Requests
8.4. Patterns
8.4.1. The Host Pattern
8.4.2. The Path Pattern
8.4.3. The Request Tag Pattern
8.4.4. The Negative Request Tag Patterns
8.4.5. The Client Tag Pattern
8.5. Actions
8.5.1. add-header
8.5.2. block
8.5.3. change-x-forwarded-for
8.5.4. client-header-filter
8.5.5. client-body-filter
8.5.6. client-body-tagger
8.5.7. client-header-tagger
8.5.8. content-type-overwrite
8.5.9. crunch-client-header
8.5.10. crunch-if-none-match
8.5.11. crunch-incoming-cookies
8.5.12. crunch-server-header
8.5.13. crunch-outgoing-cookies
8.5.14. deanimate-gifs
8.5.15. delay-response
8.5.16. downgrade-http-version
8.5.17. external-filter
8.5.18. fast-redirects
8.5.19. filter
8.5.20. force-text-mode
8.5.21. forward-override
8.5.22. handle-as-empty-document
8.5.23. handle-as-image
8.5.24. hide-accept-language
8.5.25. hide-content-disposition
8.5.26. hide-if-modified-since
8.5.27. hide-from-header
8.5.28. hide-referrer
8.5.29. hide-user-agent
8.5.30. https-inspection
8.5.31. ignore-certificate-errors
8.5.32. limit-connect
8.5.33. limit-cookie-lifetime
8.5.34. prevent-compression
8.5.35. overwrite-last-modified
8.5.36. redirect
8.5.37. server-header-filter
8.5.38. server-header-tagger
8.5.39. suppress-tag
8.5.40. session-cookies-only
8.5.41. set-image-blocker
8.5.42. Summary
8.6. Aliases
8.7. Actions Files Tutorial
8.7.1. match-all.action
8.7.2. default.action
8.7.3. user.action
9. Filter Files
9.1. Filter File Tutorial
9.2. The Pre-defined Filters
9.3. External filter syntax
10. Privoxy's Template Files
11. HOWTOs
11.1. HTTPS-Inspection HOWTO
11.1.1. How TLS Certificates for websites work
11.1.2. How HTTPS inspection works
11.1.3. What happens, if the original certificate is invalid?
11.1.4. HTTPS inspection prerequisites
11.1.5. Configuring HTTPS inspection in Privoxy
11.1.6. Browser configuration
11.1.7. Enabeling HTTPS inspection
11.2. Client Tags HOWTO
12. Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
12.1. Please provide sufficient information
12.2. Get Support
12.3. Reporting Problems
12.3.1. Reporting Ads or Other Configuration Problems
12.3.2. Reporting Bugs
12.4. Reporting security problems
12.5. Mailing Lists
12.6. SourceForge support trackers
13. Privoxy Copyright, License and History
13.1. License
13.1.1. GNU General Public License version 2
13.1.2. GNU General Public License version 3
13.1.3. Third-party licenses and copyrights
13.2. History
13.3. Authors
14. See Also
15. Appendix
15.1. Regular Expressions
15.2. Privoxy's Internal Pages
15.3. Chain of Events
15.4. Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action
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