<!entity license SYSTEM "license.sgml">
<!entity p-authors SYSTEM "p-authors.sgml">
<!entity config SYSTEM "p-config.sgml">
-<!entity p-version SYSTEM "doc_version.tmp">
-<!entity p-status SYSTEM "doc_status.tmp">
+<!entity p-version "3.0.4">
+<!entity p-status "BETA">
<!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
-<!entity % p-not-stable "IGNORE">
+<!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
<!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
<!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
<!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
This file belongs into
ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/home/groups/i/ij/ijbswa/htdocs/
- $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.2 2002/09/05 05:45:30 hal9 Exp $
+ $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9 Exp $
- Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
+ Copyright (C) 2001- 2006 Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
See LICENSE.
========================================================================
<subscript>
<!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
<!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
- <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001, 2002 by
+ <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001 - 2004 by
<ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
</subscript>
</pubdate>
-<pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.2 2002/09/05 05:45:30 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
+<pubdate>$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9 Exp $</pubdate>
<!--
Hal.
-<copyright>
- <year>2001</year>
- <year>2002</year>
- <holder>Privoxy Developers</holder>
-</copyright>
-
-<legalnotice id="legalnotice">
- <para>
- text goes here ........
- </para>
-</legalnotice>
-->
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian</title>
<para>
- DEBs can be installed with <literal>dpkg -i
- privoxy_&p-version;-1.deb</literal>, and will use
- <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of configuration
- files.
+ DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
+ and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
+ configuration files.
</para>
</sect3>
<para>
Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
the installation process. You will find the configuration files
- in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in. We do not
- use the registry of Windows.
+ in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in.
</para>
</sect3>
If you like to live on the bleeding edge and are not afraid of using
possibly unstable development versions, you can check out the up-to-the-minute
version directly from <ulink url="http://sourceforge.net/cvs/?group_id=11118">the
- CVS repository</ulink> or simply download <ulink
- url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.gz">the nightly CVS
+ CVS repository</ulink>.
+<!--
+ deprecated...out of business.
+ or simply download <ulink
+ url="http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cvstarballs/ijbswa-cvsroot.tar.bz2">the nightly CVS
tarball.</ulink>
+-->
</para>
<!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
</para>
<para>
- In order not to loose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
+ In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> for your
customization of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
<!-- ~ End section ~ -->
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect1 id="upgradersnote">
-<title>Note to Upgraders</title>
-<para>
- There are very significant changes from earlier
- <application>Junkbuster</application> versions to the current
- <application>Privoxy</application>. The number, names, syntax, and
- purposes of configuration files have substantially changed.
- <application>Junkbuster 2.0.x</application> configuration
- files will not migrate, <application>Junkbuster 2.9.x</application>
- and <application>Privoxy</application> configurations will need to be
- ported. The functionalities of the old <filename>blockfile</filename>,
- <filename>cookiefile</filename> and <filename>imagelist</filename>
- are now combined into the <link linkend="actions-file"><quote>actions
- files</quote></link>.
- <filename>default.action</filename>, is the main actions file. Local
- exceptions should best be put into <filename>user.action</filename>.
-</para>
+<sect1 id="whatsnew">
+<title>What's New in this Release</title>
<para>
- A <link linkend="filter-file"><quote>filter file</quote></link> (typically
- <filename>default.filter</filename>) is new as of <application>Privoxy
- 2.9.x</application>, and provides some of the new sophistication (explained
- below). <filename>config</filename> is much the same as before.
+ There are many new features in <application>Privoxy</application> &p-version;
+ :
</para>
+
<para>
- If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
- files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
- When porting personal rules over from the old <filename>blockfile</filename>
- to the new actions files, please note that even the pattern syntax has
- changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
- recommended to use the new configuration files.
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Mulitiple <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link> can now be specifed in <filename>config</filename>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ There are a number of new <link linkend="actions-file">actions</link>:
+ </para>
+
+ <para>
+ <itemizedlist>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="crunch-client-header">crunch-client-header</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="crunch-server-header">crunch-server-header</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="hide-accept-language">hide-accept-language</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="hide-content-disposition">hide-content-disposition</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="inspect-jpegs">inspect-jpegs</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </para>
+
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <application>MS-Windows</application> versions can now be installed and
+ started as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ In addition, there are various bug fixes and enhancements, including
+ error pages are no longer cached, better DNS error handling, and logging
+ improvements.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
+
+ </itemizedlist>
</para>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+
+<sect2 id="upgradersnote">
+<title>Note to Upgraders</title>
+
<para>
- A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading:
+ A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
+ versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
</para>
<para>
<itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another
- service (NAS).
- </para>
- </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
- Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any
- important configuration files!
+ Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including
+ configuration files. Save any important configuration files!
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>
- <application>Privoxy</application> is controllable with a web browser
- at the special URL: <ulink
- url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
- (Shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>). Many
- aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
- <application>Privoxy</application>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- The primary configuration files for cookie management, ad and banner
- blocking, and many other aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
- configuration are the <link linkend="actions-file">actions
- files</link>. It is strongly recommended to become familiar with the new
- actions concept below, before modifying these files. Locally defined rules
- should go into <filename>user.action</filename>.
+ <para>
+ What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
+ and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
+ default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
+ you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
+
<listitem>
<para>
<!-- I think it is best to keep this somewhat vague, in case -->
</itemizedlist>
</para>
+</sect2>
</sect1>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<para>
<itemizedlist>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- If upgrading, from versions before 2.9.16, please back up any configuration
- files. See the <link linkend="upgradersnote">Note to Upgraders</link> Section.
- </para>
-</listitem>
-
<listitem>
<para>
Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
<listitem>
<para>
Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
- HTTPS proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
+ HTTPS (SSL) proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
<literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
(<application>Junkbuster</application> and earlier versions of
<application>Privoxy</application> used port 8000.) See the section <link
<listitem>
<para>
Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
+ If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage cookies, you should
+ remove any currently stored cookies too.
</para>
</listitem>
linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
banners.]]>
- </para>
+</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
</para>
</listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ For easy access to Privoxy's most important controls, drag the provided
+ <link linkend="bookmarklets">Bookmarklets</link> into your browser's
+ personal toolbar.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+
<listitem>
<para>
Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
<listitem>
<para>
- Now enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy!
+ Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
</para>
</listitem>
</figure>
</para>
+
+<para>
+ With <application>Firefox</application>, this can be set under:
+</para>
+
+<literallayout>
+<!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
+<!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
+ <guibutton>Tools</guibutton>
+ |_
+ <guibutton>Options</guibutton>
+ |_
+ <guibutton>General</guibutton>
+ |_
+ <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton>
+ |_
+ <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
+</literallayout>
+
+
<para>
With <application>Netscape</application> (and
<application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
</para>
-
+
+
<literallayout>
<!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
<!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
</para>
<para>
- <application>Privoxy</application> is typically started by specifying the
+ <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
<para>
See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
- furher info.
+ further info.
</para>
must find a better place for this paragraph
<emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
</para>
- </listitem>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
+
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> 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.
+ Unix only.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
<emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
</member>
<member>
- ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/&p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
+ ▪ <ulink url="http://www.privoxy.org/
+ &p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
</member>
</simplelist>
</msgtext>
<listitem>
<para>
- <filename>default.filter</filename> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
+ <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
- whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
+ whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
+ <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
+ available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
+ others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
+ filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
+ actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
+ locally defined filters or customizations.
</para>
</listitem>
</para>
<para>
- The actions files and <filename>default.filter</filename>
+ The actions files and filter files
can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
maximum flexibility.
</para>
<application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determine
how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
- are three such files included with <application>Privoxy</application>, with
- differing purposes:
-</para>
+ are three such files included with <application>Privoxy</application>
+ with differing purposes:
+ </para>
<para>
<itemizedlist>
you select them explicitly in the editor</emphasis>. It is not recommend
to edit this file.
</para>
+ <para>
+ The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
+ <filename>standard.action</filename> are:
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
+ <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
+ <colspec colname=c1>
+ <colspec colname=c2>
+ <colspec colname=c3>
+ <colspec colname=c4>
+ <thead>
+ <row>
+ <entry>Feature</entry>
+ <entry>Cautious</entry>
+ <entry>Medium</entry>
+ <entry>Adventuresome</entry>
+ </row>
+ </thead>
+ <!-- <tfoot> -->
+ <!-- <row> -->
+ <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
+ <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
+ <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
+ <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
+ <!-- </row> -->
+ <!-- </tfoot> -->
+ <tbody>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Ad-blocking by URL</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Referer forging</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
+ <entry>none</entry>
+ <entry>session-only</entry>
+ <entry>kill</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
+ <entry>unsolicited</entry>
+ <entry>unsolicited</entry>
+ <entry>all</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>HTML taming</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Fun text replacements</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+ <row>
+ <entry>Demoronizer</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>no</entry>
+ <entry>yes</entry>
+ </row>
+
+
+ </tbody>
+ </tgroup>
+ </table>
+ </para>
+
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
<para>
The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
- file, and are processed in the order they are defined. The content of these
- can all be viewed and edited from <ulink
+ file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
+ <filename>default.action</filename> is typically process before
+ <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
+ edited from <ulink
url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
</para>
certainly a matter of personal taste. In general, it can be said that the more
<quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
- will have to make later. If, for example, you want to kill popup windows per
+ will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
- regularly use and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe
- your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
+ regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful puposes, like maybe
+ your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
</para>
<para>
url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
- <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Advanced</quote>.
+ <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or <quote>Adventuresome</quote>.
+ Warning: the <quote>Adventuresome</quote> setting is not only more aggressive,
+ but includes settings that are fun and subversive, and which some may find of
+ dubious merit!
</para>
<para>
<para>
To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
- compared to all patterns in each action file file. Every time it matches, the list of
+ compared to all patterns in each <quote>action file</quote> file. Every time it matches, the list of
applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
<listitem>
<para>
matches any domain that <emphasis>ENDS</emphasis> in
- <literal>.example.com</literal> (e.g. <literal>www.example.com</literal>)
+ <literal>.example.com</literal>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect3>
+
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
-<title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
+<!--
+new action
+-->
+<title>content-type-overwrite</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Typical use:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>
- Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
- </para>
+ <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Effect:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
+ Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Type:</term>
<!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
<listitem>
- <para>Boolean.</para>
+ <para>Parameterized.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Parameter:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- N/A
- </para>
+ Any string.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
- <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
- <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
- Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
+ The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
+ browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
+ header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
+ displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
+ supported by the browser.
</para>
<para>
- It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
- with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
- since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
- <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
+ The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
+ the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
+ many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
+ If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
+ XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
+ <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use Privoxy
+ to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
+ the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
+ If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
+ error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
+ as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
+ <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
+ <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
+ If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
+ <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
+ This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Most of the time it's easier to enable
+ <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
+ and replace this action with a custom regular expression. It allows you
+ to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
+ only replace the content types you aimed at.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
+ to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
+ more work to get the same precision.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>Example usage:</term>
+ <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
<listitem>
- <para>
- <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
+ <para>
+ <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
+{+content-type-overwrite {application/xml}}
+www.example.net/
+# but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
+{-content-type-overwrite}
+www.example.net/*.\.css$
+www.example.net/*.style
+</screen>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
-<title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
+<!--
+new action
+-->
+<title>crunch-server-header</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Typical use:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>
- Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
- </para>
+ <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Effect:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
+ Deletes every header send by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Type:</term>
<!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
<listitem>
- <para>Boolean.</para>
+ <para>Parameterized.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Parameter:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- N/A
- </para>
+ Any string.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
- <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
- <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
- Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
+ This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
+ <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
+ <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
+ contains the string you supplied as parameter.
</para>
<para>
- It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
- with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
- since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
+ Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
+ use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
+ they contain the same string.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
+ If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
+ parts of them, you should enable
+ <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
+ and create your own filter.
</para>
+ <warning>
+ <para>
+ Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
+ </para>
+ </warning>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>Example usage:</term>
+ <term>Example usage (section):</term>
<listitem>
- <para>
- <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
+ <para>
+ <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
+{+crunch-client-header {Privacy-Violation:}}
+/
+ </screen>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
-
</variablelist>
</sect3>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
-<title>deanimate-gifs</title>
-
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
+<title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
+<!--
+new action
+-->
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Typical use:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
+ <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Effect:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
+ Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Type:</term>
- <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
<listitem>
- <para>Parameterized.</para>
+ <para>Boolean.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Parameter:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
- </para>
+ N/A
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
- the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
- is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
- frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
- most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
- last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
+ Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
+ is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
+ reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
+ would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
</para>
<para>
- You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
- objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
- a GIF.
+ It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
+ replacement.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
+ caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
+ isn't blocked as well.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ It is recommended to use this action together with
+ <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
+ and
+ <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>Example usage:</term>
+ <term>Example usage (section):</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
- </para>
+ <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents without being tracked across sessions
+{+hide-if-modified-since {-1} \
++overwrite-last-modified {randomize} \
++crunch-if-none-match}
+/ </screen>
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect3>
+
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
-<title>downgrade-http-version</title>
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
+<title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Typical use:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
+ <para>
+ Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Effect:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
+ Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Type:</term>
- <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
<listitem>
<para>Boolean.</para>
</listitem>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
-<varlistentry>
+ <varlistentry>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
- didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
- unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
- out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
- is a chance you might need this action.
+ This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies. For
+ <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies, use
+ <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
+ Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
+ with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
+ since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
+ <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>Example usage (section):</term>
+ <term>Example usage:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>
- <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
-problem-host.example.com</screen>
- </para>
+ <para>
+ <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
-
</variablelist>
</sect3>
-<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
-<title>fast-redirects</title>
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
+<title>crunch-server-header</title>
+<!--
+new action
+-->
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Typical use:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links</para>
+ <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Effect:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Cut off all but the last valid URL from requests.
+ Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Type:</term>
- <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
<listitem>
- <para>Boolean.</para>
+ <para>Parameterized.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Parameter:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- N/A
- </para>
+ Any string.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
-
+
<varlistentry>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>
- Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
+ <para>
+ This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
+ <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
+ will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
+ use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
+ they contain the same string.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
+ If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
+ parts of them, you should enable
+ <literal><link linkend="filter-server-headers">filter-server-headers</link></literal>
+ and create your own filter.
+ </para>
+ <warning>
+ <para>
+ Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
+ </para>
+ </warning>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Example usage (section):</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
+{+crunch-server-header {no-cache}}
+/ </screen>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
+<title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
+
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Typical use:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type:</term>
+ <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Boolean.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Parameter:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ N/A
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> cookies. For
+ <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> cookies, use
+ <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
+ Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable cookies completely.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
+ with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
+ since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Example usage:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
+<title>deanimate-gifs</title>
+
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Typical use:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type:</term>
+ <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Parameterized.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Parameter:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
+ the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
+ is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
+ frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
+ most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
+ last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
+ objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
+ a GIF.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Example usage:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
+<title>downgrade-http-version</title>
+
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Typical use:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type:</term>
+ <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Boolean.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Parameter:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ N/A
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+<varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
+ didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
+ unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1 related problems with some server
+ out there. Not all (optional) HTTP/1.1 features are supported yet, so there
+ is a chance you might need this action.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Example usage (section):</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
+problem-host.example.com</screen>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
+<title>fast-redirects</title>
+
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Typical use:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
+ the redirection server first.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type:</term>
+ <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Parameterized.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Parameter:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
+ to detect redirection URLs.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
+ for redirection URLs.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
resulting from this scheme typically look like:
- <emphasis>http://some.place/click-tracker.cgi?target=http://some.where.else</emphasis>.
+ <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
+ URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
+ since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
+ to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
+ browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
+ the advertisers.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
+ If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
+ this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
+ Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
+ For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
+ <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
+ looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
+ the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
+ the user gets redirected anyway.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
+ The URL:
+ <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
+ contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
+ followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
+ and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
+ Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
+ or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. It is possible to fix these redirected
+ requests with <literal><link linkend="filter-client-headers">filter-client-headers</link></literal>
+ but it requires a little effort.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
+ looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
+ (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
+ Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
+ of the target server or replace it with a database id. In theses cases
+ <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
+ redirection server where it probably gets logged.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Example usage:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <screen>+fast-redirects{simple-check}</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <screen>+fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</screen>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
+<title>filter</title>
+
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Typical use:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), do fun text replacements, etc.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ All files of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which this
+ action applies, are filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular expression
+ based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
+ are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
+ <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they
+ don't know.)
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type:</term>
+ <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Parameterized.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Parameter:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
+ Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
+ <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
+ option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
+ <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
+ supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
+ in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ When used in its negative form,
+ and without parameters, filtering is completely disabled.
</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
+ in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
+ a list.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
+ slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
+ passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
+ since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
+ noticeable on slower connections.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This is very powerful feature, and <quote>rolling your own</quote>
+ filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
+ <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
+ option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
+ default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
+ data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Inadequate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
+ (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
+ (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
+ the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
+ be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
+ by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> sections.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
+ documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
+ would normally be sent compressed, use the
+ <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
+ action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
+ <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
+ action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
+ works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
+ based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
+ standardized.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
+ improved filters is particularly welcome!
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
+ predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
+ verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
+ linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
+ See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
+ more explanation on each:</term>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
- URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
- since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
- to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
- browser ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
- the advertisers.
+ <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
+ <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
</para>
<para>
- This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
- It is likely to break some sites. You should expect to need possibly
- many exceptions to this action, if it is enabled by default in
- <filename>default.action</filename>. Some sites just don't work without
- it.
+ <anchor id="filter-js-events">
+ <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites)</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
+ <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
+ <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
+ <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
+ <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
+ <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
+ <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
+ <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
+ <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
+ <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
+ <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
+ <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
+ <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
+ <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
+ <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
+ <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-fun">
+ <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
+ <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering (demo only)</screen>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
+ <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits</screen>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
+<title>force-text-mode</title>
+<!--
+new action
+-->
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Typical use:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type:</term>
+ <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Boolean.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Parameter:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ N/A
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
+ <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
+ in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
+ <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
+ <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
+ without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
+ </para>
+ <warning>
+ <para>
+ Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
+ with regular expressions can cause file damage.
+ </para>
+ </warning>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Example usage:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <screen>
++force-text-mode
+ </screen>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
+<title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
+<!--
+new action
+-->
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Typical use:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
+ If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
+ the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
+ page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
+ The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type:</term>
+ <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Boolean.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Parameter:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ N/A
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
+ are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
+ default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The content type for the empty document can be specified with
+ <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
+ but usually this isn't necessary.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Example usage:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
+# but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
+{+block +handle-as-empty-document}
+example.org/.*\.js$
+ </screen>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
+<title>handle-as-image</title>
+
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Typical use:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by imagee <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis>)</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
+ If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
+ the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
+ page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
+ linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
+ client as a substitute for the blocked content.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type:</term>
+ <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Boolean.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Parameter:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ N/A
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
+ It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
+ be left intact.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
+ <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
+ reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
+ frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
+ Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
+ ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term>Example usage:</term>
- <listitem>
- <para>
- <screen>{+fast-redirects}</screen>
- </para>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <screen># Generic image extensions:
+#
+{+handle-as-image}
+/.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
+
+# These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
+# blocked as images:
+#
+{+block +handle-as-image}
+some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
+
+# Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
+ad.doubleclick.net
+</screen>
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
-
</variablelist>
</sect3>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
-<title>filter</title>
-
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
+<title>hide-accept-language</title>
+<!--
+new action
+-->
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Typical use:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), do fun text replacements, etc.</para>
+ <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Effect:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Text documents, including HTML and JavaScript, to which this action
- applies, are filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular expression
- based substitutions.
+ Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Type:</term>
- <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
<listitem>
<para>Parameterized.</para>
</listitem>
<term>Parameter:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- The name of a filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>
- (typically <filename>default.filter</filename>, set by the
- <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
- option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>). Filtering
- can be completely disabled without the use of parameters.
- </para>
+ Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
- in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
- a list.
- </para>
- <para>
- This is potentially a very powerful feature! But <quote>rolling your own</quote>
- filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
- </para>
- <para>
- Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
- slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
- passed the filters. (It does not really take longer, but seems that way
- since the page is not incrementally displayed.) This effect will be more
- noticeable on slower connections.
- </para>
- <para>
- The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
- <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
- option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
- default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
- data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
- </para>
- <para>
- Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
- Encrypted SSL data (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either since
- this would violate the integrity of the secure transaction.
+ Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
+ foreign User-Agent set with
+ <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
+ more believable.
</para>
<para>
- At this time, <application>Privoxy</application> cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
- documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
- would normally be sent compressed, use the
- <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
- action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
+ However some sites with content in different languages check the
+ <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
+ Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
+ changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
</para>
<para>
- Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
- <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
- action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
- works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
- based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
- standardized.
+ Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
+ <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
+ or to languages that aren't wide spread.
</para>
<para>
- <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
- improved filters is particularly welcome!
+ Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
+ to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
+ make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
+ If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
+ you should stick to a common language.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file):</term>
+ <term>Example usage (section):</term>
<listitem>
- <para>
- <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
- <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
- </para>
- <para>
- <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
- <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse</screen>
- </para>
- <para>
- <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
- <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners based on their size for this page (<emphasis>very</emphasis> efficient!)</screen>
- </para>
- <para>
- <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
- <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners based on the link they are contained in (experimental)</screen>
- </para>
- <para>
- <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
- <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective</screen>
- </para>
- <para>
- <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
- <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come sneaking in the HTML or JS content</screen>
- </para>
- <para>
- <anchor id="filter-popups">
- <screen>+filter{popups} # Kill all popups in JS and HTML</screen>
- </para>
- <para>
- <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
- <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)</screen>
+ <para>
+ <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
+{+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
++hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
+}
+/ </screen>
</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
+<title>hide-content-disposition</title>
+<!--
+new action
+-->
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Typical use:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect:</term>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- <anchor id="filter-fun">
- <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
+ Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type:</term>
+ <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Parameterized.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Parameter:</term>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
- <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable</screen>
- </para>
+ Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
<para>
- <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
- <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)</screen>
+ Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
+ documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
+ The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
+ the browser is supposed to use by default.
</para>
<para>
- <anchor id="filter-nimda">
- <screen>+filter{nimda} # Remove Nimda (virus) code.</screen>
+ In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
+ <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
+ even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
</para>
<para>
- <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
- <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects</screen>
+ Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
+ to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
+ <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
+ display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
+ to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
+ download menus.
</para>
<para>
- <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
- <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez"</screen>
+ It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
+ to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
+ it up.
</para>
- <para>
- <anchor id="filter-js-events">
- <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (<emphasis>Radically destructive!</emphasis> Only for extra nasty sites) </screen>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Example usage:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
+{-filter\
++content-type-overwrite {text/plain}\
++hide-content-disposition {block} }
+.sourceforge.net/tracker/download.php</screen>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
-<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
-<title>handle-as-image</title>
-
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
+<title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
+<!--
+new action
+-->
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Typical use:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis>)</para>
+ <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Effect:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
- If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
- the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
- page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
- linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
- client as a substitute for the blocked content.
+ Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Type:</term>
<!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
<listitem>
- <para>Boolean.</para>
+ <para>Parameterized.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Parameter:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- N/A
- </para>
+ Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
- It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
- be left intact.
+ Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
+ reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
+ browser to use a cached copy of the page.
</para>
<para>
- Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
- <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
- reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
+ Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
+ also add or substract a random amount of time to/from the headers value.
+ You specify a range of hours were the random factor should be chosen from and
+ <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
+ subtracting, a positive value adding.
</para>
<para>
- Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
- frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
- Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
- ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
+ Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
+ sure it isn't used as a cookie replacement, but you will run into
+ caching problems if the random range is too high.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
+ <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
+ handle the greater changes.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ It is also recommended to use this action together with
+ <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
+ <term>Example usage (section):</term>
<listitem>
- <para>
- <screen># Generic image extensions:
-#
-{+handle-as-image}
-/.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
-
-# These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
-# blocked as images:
-#
-{+block +handle-as-image}
-some.nasty-banner-server.com/junk.cgi?output=trash
-
-# Banner source! Who cares if they also have non-image content?
-ad.doubleclick.net
-</screen>
+ <para>
+ <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
+{+hide-if-modified-since {-1}\
++overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
++crunch-if-none-match}
+/</screen>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-forwarded-for-headers">
<title>hide-forwarded-for-headers</title>
-
+<!--
+new action
+-->
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Typical use:</term>
<listitem>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
- <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header completely.</para>
+ <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- <quote>forge</quote> is the preferred option here, since some servers will
- not send images back otherwise, in an attempt to prevent their valuable
- content from being embedded elsewhere (and hence, without being surrounded
- by <emphasis>their</emphasis> banners).
+ <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
+ that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
+ referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
+ typed in the address directly.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
+ allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
+ but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
+ other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
+ a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
+ different requests.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
+ failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
+ requests, in an attempt to prevent their valuable content from being
+ embedded or linked to elsewhere.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
+ will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
+ are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
+ <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
+ substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
+ correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
+ requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
</para>
- <para>
- <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
- <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
- substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
- correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
- requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
- </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<listitem>
<warning>
<para>
- This breaks many web sites that depend on looking at this header in order
- to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
- way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> a <ulink
- url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
+ This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
+ order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
+ way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
+ work browser-independently).
+ <!--
+ <ulink url="http://www.javascriptkit.com/javaindex.shtml">smart way to do
that</ulink>!).
+ -->
</para>
</warning>
<para>
(Must be just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
</para>
<para>
- This action is scheduled for improvement.
+ This action is scheduled for improvement.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Example usage:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="inspect-jpegs">
+<title>inspect-jpegs</title>
+<!--
+new action
+-->
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Typical use:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>To protect against the MS buffer over-run in JPEG processing</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ To protect against a known exploit
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type:</term>
+ <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Boolean.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Parameter:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ N/A
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ See Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-028. JPEG images are one of the most
+ common image types found across the Internet. The exploit as described can
+ allow execution of code on the target system, giving an attacker access
+ to the system in question by merely planting an altered JPEG image, which
+ would have no obvious indications of what lurks inside. This action
+ prevents unwanted intrusion.
</para>
- </listitem>
+
+ </listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Example usage:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>
- <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
- </para>
+ <para><screen>+inspect-jpegs</screen></para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect3>
+
+
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="kill-popups">
<title>kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"></title>
<varlistentry>
<term>Typical use:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows</para>
+ <para>Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows (deprecated)</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Notes:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- This action is easily confused with the built-in, hardwired <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
+ This action is basically a built-in, hardwired special-purpose filter
action, but there are important differences: For <literal>kill-popups</literal>,
the document need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
downloading. But <literal>kill-popups</literal> doesn't catch as many pop-ups as
<literal><link
- linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>popups</replaceable>}</literal>
- does.
+ linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>all-popups</replaceable>}</link></literal>
+ does and is not as smart as <literal><link
+ linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
+ </literal>is.
</para>
<para>
Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you
the <literal>kill-popups</literal> action over its filter equivalent.
</para>
<para>
- Killing all pop-ups is a dangerous business. Many shops and banks rely on
- pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and killing only the unwanted pop-ups
- would require artificial intelligence in <application>Privoxy</application>.
+ Killing all pop-ups unconditionally is problematic. Many shops and banks rely on
+ pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and the <literal><link
+ linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{<replaceable>unsolicited-popups</replaceable>}</link>
+ </literal> does a fairly good job of catching only the unwanted ones.
+ </para>
+ <para>
If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
<emphasis>really nasty</emphasis> windows that appear when you close an other
one), you might want to use
<varlistentry>
<term>Typical use:</term>
<listitem>
- <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay</para>
+ <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
abused as TCP relays very easily.
</para>
<para>
- If you don't know what any of this means, there probably is no reason to
- change this one, since the default is already very restrictive.
+ <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
+ the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent Privoxy's
+ filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
+ If you plan to disable SSL by default, consider enabling
+ <literal><link linkend="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks ">treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</link></literal>
+ as well, to be able to quickly create exceptions.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<screen>+limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need not be specified.
+limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
+limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
-+limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK (gaping security hole!)</screen>
++limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
++limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS traffic is allowed</screen>
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<listitem>
<para>
Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
- passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s
+ passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Effect:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Adds a header to the request that asks for uncompressed transfer.
+ Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</sect3>
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
+<title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
+<!--
+new action
+-->
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Typical use:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type:</term>
+ <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Parameterized.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Parameter:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
+ and <quote>randomize</quote>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
+ testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
+ code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
+ version of the page.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
+ <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
+ between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
+ could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
+ header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
+ makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
+ <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
+ this option together with
+ <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>
+ to further customize your random range.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
+ to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
+ If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
+ of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
+ Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
+ <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
+ just to be sure.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ It is also recommended to use this action together with
+ <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Example usage:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
+{+hide-if-modified-since {-1}\
++overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
++crunch-if-none-match}
+/</screen>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+
+
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
+<title>redirect</title>
+<!--
+new action
+-->
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Typical use:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Redirect requests to other sites.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
+ to another location and the browser should get it from there.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type:</term>
+ <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Parameterized</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Parameter:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Any URL.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This action is useful to replace whole documents with your own
+ ones. For that to work, they have to be available on another server.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ You can do the same by combining the actions
+ <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
+ <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> and
+ <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{URL}</link></literal>.
+ It doesn't sound right for non-image documents, and that's why this action
+ was created.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This action will be ignored if you use it together with
+ <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Example usage:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
+{+redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css}}
+example.com/stylesheet.css</screen>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+
+
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="send-vanilla-wafer">
<title>send-vanilla-wafer</title>
<term>Typical use:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
+ Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
+ browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Effect:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
- Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> server headers.
- Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and forget them in between sessions.
+ Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
+ server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
+ forget them in between sessions.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
</para>
+ <para>
+ This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
+ previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
+ These would have to be removed manually.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
+ the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
+ to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
+ <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
+ </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<para>
<quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
- to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem (via <quote>file:///</quote> URL).
+ to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
+ (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
</para>
<para>
A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
</sect3>
+<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
+<sect3 renderas="sect4" id="treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks">
+<title>treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</title>
+<!--
+new action
+-->
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Typical use:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Block forbidden connects with an easy to find error message.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Effect:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ If this action is enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> no longer
+ makes a difference between forbidden connects and ordinary blocks.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Type:</term>
+ <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Boolean</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Parameter:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>N/A</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Notes:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ By default <application>Privoxy</application> answers
+ <link linkend="limit-connect">forbidden <quote>Connect</quote> requests</link>
+ with a short error message inside the headers. If the browser doesn't display
+ headers (most don't), you just see an empty page.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ With this action enabled, <application>Privoxy</application> displays
+ the message that is used for ordinary blocks instead. If you decide
+ to make an exception for the page in question, you can do so by
+ following the <quote>See why</quote> link.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ For <quote>Connect</quote> requests the clients tell
+ <application>Privoxy</application> which host they are interested
+ in, but not which document they plan to get later. As a result, the
+ <quote>Go there anyway</quote> link becomes rather useless:
+ it lets the client request the home page of the forbidden host
+ through unencrypted HTTP, still using the port of the last request.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ If you previously configured <application>Privoxy</application> to do the
+ request through a SSL tunnel, everything will work. Most likely you haven't
+ and the server will responds with an error message because it is expecting
+ HTTPS.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>Example usage:</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ <screen>+treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks</screen>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+</variablelist>
+</sect3>
+
+
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect3>
<title>Summary</title>
# These aliases just save typing later:
# (Note that some already use other aliases!)
#
- +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
- -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
+ +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
+ -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
- mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
+ mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
# These aliases define combinations of actions
# that are useful for certain types of sites:
#
- fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
- shop = -crunch-all-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
+ fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
+ shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
# Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
#
# These shops require pop-ups:
#
- {shop -kill-popups -filter{popups}}
+ {shop -kill-popups -filter{all-popups}}
.dabs.com
.overclockers.co.uk</screen>
</para>
in order to function properly.
</para>
</sect2>
-
+<!--
+hal stop here
+-->
<!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
<sect2 id="act-examples">
<title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
</para>
<para>
- <screen># Sample default.action file <developers@privoxy.org></screen>
+ <screen># Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net></screen>
</para>
<para>
##########################################################################
{{alias}}
-# These aliases just save typing later:
-# (Note that some already use other aliases!)
-#
-+crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
--crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
-block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
-mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
+ # These aliases just save typing later:
+ # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
+ #
+ +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
+ -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
+ block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
+ mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
-# These aliases define combinations of actions
-# that are useful for certain types of sites:
-#
-fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
-shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups</screen>
+ # These aliases define combinations of actions
+ # that are useful for certain types of sites:
+ #
+ fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link>
+ shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></screen>
</para>
<para>
+<link linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS">deanimate-gifs</link> \
-<link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION">downgrade-http-version</link> \
+<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> \
- +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
+<link linkend="FILTER-JS-ANNOYANCES">filter{js-annoyances}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-EVENTS">filter{js-events}</link> \
+ +<link linkend="FILTER-HTML-ANNOYANCES">filter{html-annoyances}</link> \
-<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link> \
- +<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> \
- +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
- -<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
- -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
- +<link linkend="FILTER-NIMDA">filter{nimda}</link> \
+ +<link linkend="FILTER-REFRESH-TAGS">filter{refresh-tags}</link> \
+ +<link linkend="FILTER-UNSOLICITED-POPUPS">filter{unsolicited-popups}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link> \
+ +<link linkend="FILTER-IMG-REORDER">filter{img-reorder}</link> \
+<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE">filter{banners-by-size}</link> \
-<link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-LINK">filter{banners-by-link}</link> \
- -<link linkend="FILTER-IMG-REORDER">filter{img-reorder}</link> \
+ +<link linkend="FILTER-WEBBUGS">filter{webbugs}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-TINY-TEXTFORMS">filter{tiny-textforms}</link> \
+ +<link linkend="FILTER-JUMPING-WINDOWS">filter{jumping-windows}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-FRAMESET-BORDERS">filter{frameset-borders}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-DEMORONIZER">filter{demoronizer}</link> \
-<link linkend="FILTER-SHOCKWAVE-FLASH">filter{shockwave-flash}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-QUICKTIME-KIOSKMODE">filter{quicktime-kioskmode}</link> \
+ -<link linkend="FILTER-FUN">filter{fun}</link> \
-<link linkend="FILTER-CRUDE-PARENTAL">filter{crude-parental}</link> \
- -<link linkend="FILTER-JS-EVENTS">filter{js-events}</link> \
+ +<link linkend="FILTER-IE-EXPLOITS">filter{ie-exploits}</link> \
-<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> \
+<link linkend="HIDE-FORWARDED-FOR-HEADERS">hide-forwarded-for-headers</link> \
+<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
like not blocking (which is <emphasis>understandably</emphasis> the
default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
want to block in later sections.
- We will also want to make exceptions from our general pop-up-killing,
- and use our defined aliases for that.
</para>
<para>
.scan.co.uk</screen>
</para>
+<!-- No longer needed BEGIN OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK
+
<para>
Then, there are sites which rely on pop-up windows (yuck!) to work.
Since we made pop-up-killing our default above, we need to make exceptions
now. <ulink url="http://www.mozilla.org/">Mozilla</ulink> users, who
can turn on smart handling of unwanted pop-ups in their browsers, can
safely choose
- -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
+ -<literal><link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link></literal> (and
-<literal><link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link></literal>) above
and hence don't need this section. Anyway, disabling an already disabled
action doesn't hurt, so we'll define our exceptions regardless of what was
<screen>
# These sites require pop-ups too :(
#
-{ -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
+{ -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{popups}</link> }
.dabs.com
.overclockers.co.uk
.deutsche-bank-24.de</screen>
</para>
+ END OF COMMENTED OUT BLOCK -->
+
<para>
The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable
<para>
<screen>
+# Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
# (Re-)define aliases for this file:
#
{{alias}}
+#
+# These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
+# be self explanatory.
+#
++crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
-crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
-mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
-fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
-shop = mercy-for-cookies -filter{popups} -kill-popups
-allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} # (see below)</screen>
+ allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
+ allow-popups = -filter{all-popups} -kill-popups
++block-as-image = +block +handle-as-image
+-block-as-image = -block
+
+# These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
+# certain types of sites:
+#
+fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer -kill-popups
+shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
+
+# Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
+#
+allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}</screen>
+
</para>
Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
- <literal>mercy-for-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
- that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and
- processing of cookies to make them temporary.
+ <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
+ that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
+ processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
</para>
<para>
<screen>
-{ mercy-for-cookies }
+{ allow-all-cookies }
+sourceforge.net
sunsolve.sun.com
-slashdot.org
+.slashdot.org
.yahoo.com
.msdn.microsoft.com
.redhat.com</screen>
</para>
<para>
- Your bank needs popups and is allergic to some filter, but you don't
- know which, so you disable them all:
+ Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
</para>
<para>
<screen>
-{ -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -<link linkend="KILL-POPUPS">kill-popups</link> }
+{ -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
.your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
</para>
<para>
- While browsing the web with <application>Privoxy</application> you
- noticed some ads that sneaked through, but you were too lazy to
- report them through our fine and easy <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>
- system, so you have added them here:
+ Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ <screen>
+# Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
+# erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
+#
+.tldp.org
+/(.*/)?selfhtml/
+
+# And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
+# so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
+#
+stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
+ seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
+ You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
+ and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
+ <literal>{ +block }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
+ }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
+ <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
+ in default.action anyway:
</para>
<para>
<screen>
{ +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
-www.a-popular-site.com/some/unobvious/path
+www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.gif
another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
</para>
<para>
- Note that, assuming the banners in the above example have regular image
- extensions (most do),
- <literal>+<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link></literal>
- need not be specified, since all URLs ending in these extensions will
- already have been tagged as images in the relevant section of
- <filename>default.action</filename> by now.
+ The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
+ farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
+ makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
+ the file type just by looking at the URL.
+ You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
+ these cases.
+ Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
+ image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
+ browser. Use cautiously.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+ <screen>
+{ +block-as-image }
+.doubleclick.net
+/Realmedia/ads/
+ar.atwola.com/</screen>
</para>
<para>
- Then you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
+ Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
- -- whoa! -- it worked:
+ -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
+ aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
+ good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
+ that is causing the problem or not.
</para>
<para>
</para>
<para>
- Finally, you might think about how your favourite free websites are
+ You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
sites that you feel provide value to you:
<para>
Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
- <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
- <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>
- above.
+ <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
+ <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
+ <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
</para>
+
+<para>
+ <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
+ exceptions and additions to the default policies of
+ <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
+ default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
+ <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
+ <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
+ paths and patterns:
+</para>
+
+<para>
+<screen>
+{ +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
+/ # ALL sites</screen>
+</para>
+
</sect3>
</sect2>
<!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
<sect1 id="filter-file">
-<title>The Filter File</title>
+<title>Filter Files</title>
<para>
All text substitutions that can be invoked through the
- <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action
- must first be defined in the filter file, which is typically
- called <filename>default.filter</filename> and which can be
- selected through the <literal>
+ <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> action which
+ must first be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>, such as
+ <filename>default.filter</filename>. Mulitple filter files can be
+ defined through the <literal>
<link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config
- option.
+ option. The filters as supplied by the developers will be found in
+ <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
+ defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
+ <filename>user.filter</filename>.
+
</para>
<para>
- Typical reasons for doing such substitutions are to eliminate
+ Typical reasons for doing these kinds of substitutions are to eliminate
common annoyances in HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
</para>
<para>
- Filtering works on any text-based document type, including plain
- text, HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
- MIME types). Substitutions are made at the source level, so if
- you want to <quote>roll your own</quote> filters, you should be
- familiar with HTML syntax.
+ Filtering works on any text-based document type, including
+ HTML, JavaScript, CSS etc. (all <literal>text/*</literal>
+ MIME types, <emphasis>except</emphasis> <literal>text/plain</literal>).
+ Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
+ your own</quote> filters, you should be familiar with HTML syntax.
</para>
<para>
in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
<literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
- <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/pcrs.3.html">PCRS man page</ulink>
- for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most notably, the non-standard
- option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported, which turns the default
- to ungreedy matching.
+ PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most
+ notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
+ which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
</para>
<para>
The below examples might also help to get you started.
</para>
+
<!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
<sect2><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
<para>
You get the idea?
</para>
+</sect2>
+
+<!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
+
+<sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
+
+<!--
+
+ Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
+ keep these listings in sync.
+
+-->
+
+<para>
+The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
+pre-defined filters for your convenience:
+</para>
+
+<variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
+ To that end, it
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
+ with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
+ linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ removes the bindings to the DOM's
+ <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
+ event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
+ nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
+ full-screen, non-resizable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
+ means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
+ resizing etc, anymore.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
+ many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
+ need to go there).
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+<varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
+ are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
+ resizable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
+ scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialogue, where they can be intercepted
+ by the
+ <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
+ and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
+ actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
+ to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This filter disables HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets cookies. Use
+ it wherever you would also use the cookie crunch actions.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>refresh tags</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
+ that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
+ for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
+ annoying.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
+ windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
+ has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
+ as an improvement over earlier such filters.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
+ function to a dummy function during the loading and rendering phase of each
+ HTML page access, and restoring the function afterwards.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
+ Note this should be used with more discretion than the above, since it is
+ more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal usage. Use
+ with caution.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
+ <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
+ (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
+ for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
+ sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
+ but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
+ their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
+ not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
+ are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
+ As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
+ browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
+ through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
+ the use ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
+ HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
+ multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
+ It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
+ a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
+ neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
+ or behave as intended when using this filter.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
+ web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
+ because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
+ yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
+ small to show their whole content.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
+ which need it.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
+ violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
+ HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
+ It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
+ all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
+ worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if wierd garbage characters
+ sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
+ the fly.
+<!--
+ My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows litte square boxes for quote
+ characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
+ can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
+-->
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
+ out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
+ prevents saving, is disabled.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
+ Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
+ can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ A collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
+ code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
+ would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
+ anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
+ to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
+ <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
+ anything regarding this filter.
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry id="filter-server-headers">
+ <term><emphasis>filter-server-headers</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry id="filter-client-headers">
+ <term><emphasis>filter-client-headers</emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+<!--
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ </para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+-->
+</variablelist>
+
</sect2>
</sect1>
blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
- in in an alpha or beta development stage:
+ is in an alpha or beta development stage:
</para>
<para>
expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
+<!--
+ dead 08/27/06
<ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
+-->
+ <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
</para>
<para>
url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y','ijbstatus','width=250,height=2,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy- View Status</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>
-
+<!--
<listitem>
<para>
<ulink url="javascript:w=Math.floor(screen.width/2);h=Math.floor(screen.height*0.9);void(window.open('http://www.privoxy.org/actions/index.php?url='+escape(location.href),'Feedback','screenx='+w+',width='+w+',height='+h+',scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy - Submit Actions File Feedback</ulink>
</para>
</listitem>
+ -->
<listitem>
<para>
<ulink url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());">Privoxy - Why?</ulink>
action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
<filename>default.filter</filename>) are processed against the buffered
- content. Filters are applied in the order they are specified in the
- <filename>default.filter</filename> file. Animated GIFs, if present, are
+ content. Filters are applied in the order they are specified in one of the
+ filter files. Animated GIFs, if present, are
reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
<application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
- the <filename>default.filter</filename> file since this is handled very
+ one of the filter files since this is handled very
differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
<para>
Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
- <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>.
+ <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
+ which are actived specifically for this site in our configuration.
</para>
<para>
Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
$Log: user-manual.sgml,v $
- Revision 2.2 2002/09/05 05:45:30 hal9
- Syncing with 3.0. This should be it for doc sources. Not all builds tested
- yet. No new content, just catching up.
+ Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9
+ Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only
+ stubbed in. More to be done.
+
+ Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil
+ Documented new actions that were part of
+ the "minor Privoxy improvements".
+
+ Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt
+ Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch)
+ with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch)
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9
+ Fix typo 'loose'
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9
+ Fix two minor typos per bug SF report.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes
+ Fixed an inaccuracy
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9
+ Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may
+ is dependent on browser.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes
+ Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes
+ Some minor clarifications
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9
+ Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings,
+ and copyright notice dates.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9
+ Changed the demoronizer filter description.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes
+ Updated link to nightly CVS tarball
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9
+ Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro
+ Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more
+ solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9
+ Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions
+ files).
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes
+ Updated hard-coded copyright dates
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9
+ Add new section on Predefined Filters.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9
+ More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :(
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9
+ Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was
+ causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking
+ it was a comment).
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes
+ s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes
+ Added documentation for new chroot option
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes
+ Adapted to the new filters
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9
+ Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes.
+ Add faq on cookies.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9
+ Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9
+ Add demoronizer to filter section.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9
+ s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9
+ Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing
+ cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently.
+
+ Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9
+ More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL.
Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9
Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff