-Junkbuster User Manual
+Privoxy 3.0.5 User Manual
-By: Junkbuster Developers
+Copyright © 2001 - 2006 by Privoxy Developers
-$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.35 2002/03/05 00:17:27 hal9 Exp $
+$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9 Exp $
-The user manual gives the users information on how to install and configure
-Internet Junkbuster. Internet Junkbuster is an application that provides
-privacy and security to users of the World Wide Web.
+The Privoxy User Manual gives users information on how to install, configure
+and use Privoxy.
-You can find the latest version of the user manual at http://
-ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/.
+Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting
+privacy, modifying web page data, managing cookies, controlling access, and
+removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a
+very flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and
+tastes. Privoxy has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user
+networks.
-Feel free to send a note to the developers at <
-ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net>.
+Privoxy is based on Internet Junkbuster (tm).
+
+You can find the latest version of the Privoxy User Manual at http://
+www.privoxy.org/user-manual/. Please see the Contact section on how to contact
+the developers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
- 1.1. New Features
+ 1.1. Features
2. Installation
- 2.1. Source
- 2.2. Red Hat
- 2.3. SuSE
- 2.4. OS/2
- 2.5. Windows
- 2.6. Other
+ 2.1. Binary Packages
+
+ 2.1.1. Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs
+ 2.1.2. Debian
+ 2.1.3. Windows
+ 2.1.4. Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX
+ 2.1.5. OS/2
+ 2.1.6. Mac OSX
+ 2.1.7. AmigaOS
+ 2.1.8. Gentoo
+
+ 2.2. Building from Source
+ 2.3. Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date
+
+3. What's New in this Release
+
+ 3.1. Note to Upgraders
+
+4. Quickstart to Using Privoxy
+
+ 4.1. Quickstart to Ad Blocking
+
+5. Starting Privoxy
+
+ 5.1. Red Hat, Fedora and Conectiva
+ 5.2. Debian
+ 5.3. SuSE
+ 5.4. Windows
+ 5.5. Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others
+ 5.6. OS/2
+ 5.7. Mac OSX
+ 5.8. AmigaOS
+ 5.9. Gentoo
+ 5.10. Command Line Options
+
+6. Privoxy Configuration
+
+ 6.1. Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser
+ 6.2. Configuration Files Overview
+
+7. The Main Configuration File
+
+ 7.1. Local Set-up Documentation
+
+ 7.1.1. user-manual
+ 7.1.2. trust-info-url
+ 7.1.3. admin-address
+ 7.1.4. proxy-info-url
+
+ 7.2. Configuration and Log File Locations
+
+ 7.2.1. confdir
+ 7.2.2. logdir
+ 7.2.3. actionsfile
+ 7.2.4. filterfile
+ 7.2.5. logfile
+ 7.2.6. jarfile
+ 7.2.7. trustfile
+
+ 7.3. Debugging
+
+ 7.3.1. debug
+ 7.3.2. single-threaded
+
+ 7.4. Access Control and Security
+
+ 7.4.1. listen-address
+ 7.4.2. toggle
+ 7.4.3. enable-remote-toggle
+ 7.4.4. enable-remote-http-toggle
+ 7.4.5. enable-edit-actions
+ 7.4.6. ACLs: permit-access and deny-access
+ 7.4.7. buffer-limit
+
+ 7.5. Forwarding
+
+ 7.5.1. forward
+ 7.5.2. forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a
+ 7.5.3. Advanced Forwarding Examples
+ 7.5.4. forwarded-connect-retries
+
+ 7.6. Windows GUI Options
-3. Invoking and Configuring JunkBuster
+8. Actions Files
- 3.1. Command Line Options
- 3.2. The Main Configuration File
+ 8.1. Finding the Right Mix
+ 8.2. How to Edit
+ 8.3. How Actions are Applied to URLs
+ 8.4. Patterns
+
+ 8.4.1. The Domain Pattern
+ 8.4.2. The Path Pattern
- 3.2.1. Defining Other Configuration Files
- 3.2.2. Other Configuration Options
- 3.2.3. Access Control List (ACL)
- 3.2.4. Forwarding
- 3.2.5. Windows GUI Options
+ 8.5. Actions
- 3.3. The Actions File
+ 8.5.1. add-header
+ 8.5.2. block
+ 8.5.3. content-type-overwrite
+ 8.5.4. crunch-client-header
+ 8.5.5. crunch-if-none-match
+ 8.5.6. crunch-incoming-cookies
+ 8.5.7. crunch-server-header
+ 8.5.8. crunch-outgoing-cookies
+ 8.5.9. deanimate-gifs
+ 8.5.10. downgrade-http-version
+ 8.5.11. fast-redirects
+ 8.5.12. filter
+ 8.5.13. filter-client-headers
+ 8.5.14. filter-server-headers
+ 8.5.15. force-text-mode
+ 8.5.16. handle-as-empty-document
+ 8.5.17. handle-as-image
+ 8.5.18. hide-accept-language
+ 8.5.19. hide-content-disposition
+ 8.5.20. hide-if-modified-since
+ 8.5.21. hide-forwarded-for-headers
+ 8.5.22. hide-from-header
+ 8.5.23. hide-referrer
+ 8.5.24. hide-user-agent
+ 8.5.25. inspect-jpegs
+ 8.5.26. kill-popups
+ 8.5.27. limit-connect
+ 8.5.28. prevent-compression
+ 8.5.29. overwrite-last-modified
+ 8.5.30. redirect
+ 8.5.31. send-vanilla-wafer
+ 8.5.32. send-wafer
+ 8.5.33. session-cookies-only
+ 8.5.34. set-image-blocker
+ 8.5.35. treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks
+ 8.5.36. Summary
- 3.3.1. URL Domain and Path Syntax
- 3.3.2. Actions
- 3.3.3. Aliases
+ 8.6. Aliases
+ 8.7. Actions Files Tutorial
- 3.4. The Filter File
- 3.5. Templates
+ 8.7.1. default.action
+ 8.7.2. user.action
+
+9. Filter Files
+
+ 9.1. Filter File Tutorial
+ 9.2. The Pre-defined Filters
+
+10. Privoxy's Template Files
+11. Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
+
+ 11.1. Get Support
+ 11.2. Reporting Problems
+
+ 11.2.1. Reporting Ads or Other Configuration Problems
+ 11.2.2. Reporting Bugs
+
+ 11.3. Request New Features
+ 11.4. Other
-4. Quickstart to Using Junkbuster
-5. Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
-6. Copyright and History
+12. Privoxy Copyright, License and History
- 6.1. License
- 6.2. History
+ 12.1. License
+ 12.2. History
+ 12.3. Authors
-7. See also
-8. Appendix
+13. See Also
+14. Appendix
- 8.1. Regular Expressions
+ 14.1. Regular Expressions
+ 14.2. Privoxy's Internal Pages
+
+ 14.2.1. Bookmarklets
+
+ 14.3. Chain of Events
+ 14.4. Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action
1. Introduction
-Internet Junkbuster is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for
-protecting privacy, filtering and modifying web page content, managing cookies,
-controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious
-Internet Junk. Junkbuster has a very flexible configuration and can be
-customized to suit individual needs and tastes. Internet Junkbuster has
-application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.
-
-This documentation is included with the current BETA version of Internet
-Junkbuster and mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for
-the time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
-configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing
-completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over earlier
-versions. The target release date for stable v3.0 is "soon" ;-)
+This documentation is included with the current BETA version of Privoxy,
+v.3.0.5, and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference
+for the time being is still the comments in the source files and in the
+individual configuration files. Development of a new version is currently
+nearing completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
+earlier versions. .
Since this is a BETA version, not all new features are well tested. This
-documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result. And there may be bugs,
-though hopefully not many!
+documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with CVS
+sources). And there may be bugs, though hopefully not many!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-1.1. New Features
+1.1. Features
-In addition to Junkbuster's traditional features of ad and banner blocking and
-cookie management, this is a list of new features currently under development:
+In addition to the core features of ad blocking and cookie management, Privoxy
+provides many supplemental features, some of them currently under development,
+that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
- * Integrated browser based configuration and control utility (http://i.j.b).
- Browser-based tracing of rule and filter effects.
+ * Integrated browser based configuration and control utility at http://
+ config.privoxy.org/ (shortcut: http://p.p/). Browser-based tracing of rule
+ and filter effects. Remote toggling.
- * Modularized configuration that will allow for system wide settings, and
- individual user settings. (not implemented yet, probably a 3.1 feature)
+ * Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size, invisible
+ "web-bugs", JavaScript and HTML annoyances, pop-up windows, etc.)
- * Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows.
+ * Modularized configuration that allows for standard settings and user
+ settings to reside in separate files, so that installing updated actions
+ files won't overwrite individual user settings.
- * HTTP/1.1 compliant (most, but not all 1.1 features are supported).
+ * HTTP/1.1 compliant (but not all optional 1.1 features are supported).
* Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files,
and generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
previous versions.
- * GIF de-animation.
+ * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
- * Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size, invisible
- "web-bugs", JavaScript, pop-ups, status bar abuse, etc.)
+ * GIF de-animation.
* Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection).
* Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
- * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
+ * User-customizable HTML templates for all proxy-generated pages (e.g.
+ "blocked" page).
- * User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page).
+ * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes.
- * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
+ * Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix).
- * Builds from source on most UNIX-like systems. Packages available for: Linux
- (RedHat, SuSE, or Debian), Windows, Sun Solaris, Mac OSX, OS/2.
+ * Every feature now controllable on a per-site or per-location basis,
+ configuration more powerful and versatile over-all.
- * In addition, the configuration is much more powerful and versatile
- over-all.
+ * Many smaller new features added, limitations and bugs removed, and security
+ holes fixed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Installation
-Junkbuster is available as raw source code, or pre-compiled binaries. See the
-Junkbuster Home Page for current release info. Junkbuster is also available via
-CVS. This is the recommended approach at this time. But please be aware that
-CVS is constantly changing, and it may break in mysterious ways.
+Privoxy is available both in convenient pre-compiled packages for a wide range
+of operating systems, and as raw source code. For most users, we recommend
+using the packages, which can be downloaded from our Privoxy Project Page.
+
+Note: On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed
+versions, if found. (See below for your platform). In any case be sure to
+backup your old configuration if it is valuable to you. See the note to
+upgraders section below.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-2.1. Source
+2.1. Binary Packages
-For gzipped tar archives, unpack the source:
+How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
- tar xzvf ijb_source_* [.tgz or .tar.gz]
- cd ijb_source_2.9.10_beta
-
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-For retrieving the current CVS sources, you'll need the CVS package installed
-first. To download CVS source:
+2.1.1. Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs
- cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa login
- cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa co current
- cd current
-
+RPMs can be installed with rpm -Uvh privoxy-3.0.5-1.rpm, and will use /etc/
+privoxy for the location of configuration files.
-This will create a directory named current/, which will contain the source
-tree.
+Note that on Red Hat, Privoxy will not be automatically started on system boot.
+You will need to enable that using chkconfig, ntsysv, or similar methods.
-Then, in either case, to build from tarball/CVS source:
+If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM: rpm
+--rebuild privoxy-3.0.5-1.src.rpm. This will use your locally installed
+libraries and RPM version.
- ./configure (--help to see options)
- make (the make from gnu, gmake for *BSD)
- su
- make -n install (to see where all the files will go)
- make install (to really install)
-
+Also note that if you have a Junkbuster RPM installed on your system, you need
+to remove it first, because the packages conflict. Otherwise, RPM will try to
+remove Junkbuster automatically if found, before installing Privoxy.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+2.1.2. Debian
-For Redhat and SuSE Linux RPM packages, see below.
+DEBs can be installed with apt-get install privoxy, and will use /etc/privoxy
+for the location of configuration files.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-2.2. Red Hat
+2.1.3. Windows
-To build Redhat RPM packages, install source as above. Then:
+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.
- autoheader [suggested for CVS source]
- autoconf [suggested for CVS source]
- ./configure
- make redhat-dist
-
+Version 3.0.4 introduced full Windows service functionality. On Windows only,
+the Privoxy program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
+Privoxy as a service.
+
+Arguments:
+
+ --install[:service_name]
+
+ --uninstall[:service_name]
+
+After invoking Privoxy with --install, you will need to bring up the Windows
+service console to assign the user you want Privoxy to run under, and whether
+or not you want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the Windows
+services console with the following command: services.msc. If you do not take
+the manual step of modifying Privoxy's service settings, it will not start.
+Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that actually
+exists, or it will not be permitted to write to its log and configuration
+files.
-This will create both binary and src RPMs in the usual places. Example:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686/junkbuster-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
+2.1.4. Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX
- /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS/junkbuster-2.9.11-1.src.rpm
+Create a new directory, cd to it, then unzip and untar the archive. For the
+most part, you'll have to figure out where things go.
-To install, of course:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- rpm -Uvv /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686/junkbuster-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
-
+2.1.5. OS/2
-This will place the Junkbuster configuration files in /etc/junkbuster/, and log
-files in /var/log/junkbuster/.
+First, make sure that no previous installations of Junkbuster and / or Privoxy
+are left on your system. Check that no Junkbuster or Privoxy objects are in
+your startup folder.
+
+Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will guide
+you through the installation process. A shadow of the Privoxy executable will
+be placed in your startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2
+starts.
+
+The directory you choose to install Privoxy into will contain all of the
+configuration files.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-2.3. SuSE
+2.1.6. Mac OSX
+
+Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file from the
+finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there). Then, double-click on
+the package installer icon named Privoxy.pkg and follow the installation
+process. Privoxy will be installed in the folder /Library/Privoxy. It will
+start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from starting
+automatically, remove or rename the folder /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
-To build SuSE RPM packages, install source as above. Then:
+To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on StartPrivoxy.command in the /Library/
+Privoxy folder. Or, type this command in the Terminal:
- autoheader [suggested for CVS source]
- autoconf [suggested for CVS source]
- ./configure
- make suse-dist
+ /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
-This will create both binary and src RPMs in the usual places. Example:
+You will be prompted for the administrator password.
- /usr/src/packages/RPMS/i686/junkbuster-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- /usr/src/packages/SRPMS/junkbuster-2.9.11-1.src.rpm
+2.1.7. AmigaOS
-To install, of course:
+Copy and then unpack the lha archive to a suitable location. All necessary
+files will be installed into Privoxy directory, including all configuration and
+log files. To uninstall, just remove this directory.
- rpm -Uvv /usr/src/packages/RPMS/i686/junkbuster-2.9.11-1.i686.rpm
-
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+2.1.8. Gentoo
-This will place the Junkbuster configuration files in /etc/junkbuster/, and log
-files in /var/log/junkbuster/.
+Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for Privoxy are contained in the Gentoo
+Portage Tree (they are not on the download page, but there is a Gentoo section,
+where you can see when a new Privoxy Version is added to the Portage Tree).
+
+Before installing Privoxy under Gentoo just do first emerge rsync to get the
+latest changes from the Portage tree. With emerge privoxy you install the
+latest version.
+
+Configuration files are in /etc/privoxy, the documentation is in /usr/share/doc
+/privoxy-3.0.5 and the Log directory is in /var/log/privoxy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-2.4. OS/2
+2.2. Building from Source
-Junkbuster is packaged in a WarpIN self- installing archive. The
-self-installing program will be named depending on the release version,
-something like: ijbos2_setup_1.2.3.exe. In order to install it, simply run this
-executable or double-click on its icon and follow the WarpIN installation
-panels. A shadow of the Junkbuster executable will be placed in your startup
-folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
+The most convenient way to obtain the Privoxy sources is to download the source
+tarball from our project page.
-The directory you choose to install Junkbuster into will contain all of the
-configuration files.
+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 the CVS repository.
-If you would like to build binary images on OS/2 yourself, you will need a few
-Unix-like tools: autoconf, autoheader and sh. These tools will be used to
-create the required config.h file, which is not part of the source distribution
-because it differs based on platform. You will also need a compiler. The
-distribution has been created using IBM VisualAge compilers, but you can use
-any compiler you like. GCC/EMX has the disadvantage of needing to be
-single-threaded due to a limitation of EMX's implementation of the select()
-socket call.
+To build Privoxy from source, autoconf, GNU make (gmake), and, of course, a C
+compiler like gcc are required.
-In addition to needing the source code distribution as outlined earlier, you
-will want to extract the os2seutp directory from CVS:
+When building from a source tarball, first unpack the source:
- cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa login
- cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa co os2setup
-
+ tar xzvf privoxy-3.0.5-beta-src* [.tgz or .tar.gz]
+ cd privoxy-3.0.5-beta
-This will create a directory named os2setup/, which will contain the
-Makefile.vac makefile and os2build.cmd which is used to completely create the
-binary distribution. The sequence of events for building the executable for
-yourself goes something like this:
+For retrieving the current CVS sources, you'll need a CVS client installed.
+Note that sources from CVS are typicially development quality, and may not be
+stable, or well tested. To download CVS source, check the Sourceforge
+documentation, which might give commands like:
- cd current
- autoheader
- autoconf
- sh configure
- cd ..\os2setup
- nmake -f Makefile.vac
-
+ cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@ijbswa.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa login
+ cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@ijbswa.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa co current
+ cd current
-You will see this sequence laid out in os2build.cmd.
+This will create a directory named current/, which will contain the source
+tree.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+You can also check out any Privoxy "branch", just exchange the current name
+with the wanted branch name (Example: v_3_0_branch for the 3.0 cvs tree).
-2.5. Windows
+It is also strongly recommended to not run Privoxy as root, and instead it is
+suggested to create a "privoxy" user and group for this purpose. See your local
+documentation for the correct command line to do this.
-Click-click. (I need help on this. Not a clue here. Also for configuration
-section below. HB.)
+/etc/passwd might then look like:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ privoxy:*:7777:7777:privoxy proxy:/no/home:/no/shell
-2.6. Other
+And then /etc/group, like:
-Some quick notes on other Operating Systems.
+ privoxy:*:7777:
-For FreeBSD (and other *BSDs?), the build will require gmake instead of the
-included make. gmake is available from http://www.gnu.org. The rest should be
-the same as above for Linux/Unix.
+Some binary packages may do this for you.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Then, to build from either unpacked tarball or CVS source:
-3. Invoking and Configuring JunkBuster
+ autoheader
+ autoconf
+ ./configure # (--help to see options)
+ make # (the make from GNU, sometimes called gmake)
+ su
+ make -n install # (to see where all the files will go)
+ make -s install # (to really install, -s to silence output)
+
+If you have GNU make, you can have the first four steps automatically done for
+you by just typing:
+
+ make
+
+in the freshly downloaded or unpacked source directory.
+
+WARNING: If installing as root, the install will fail unless a non-root user or
+group is specified, or a privoxy user and group already exist on the system. If
+a non-root user is specified, and no group, then the installation will try to
+also use a group of the same name as "user". If a group is specified (and no
+user), then the support files will be installed as writable by that group, and
+owned by the user running the installation.
+
+configure accepts --with-user and --with-group options for setting user and
+group ownership of the configuration files (which need to be writable by the
+daemon). The specified user must already exist. When starting Privoxy, it
+should be run as this same user to insure write access to configuration and log
+files.
+
+Alternately, you can specify user and group on the make command line, but be
+sure both already exist:
+
+ make -s install USER=privoxy GROUP=privoxy
+
+The default installation path for make install is /usr/local. This may of
+course be customized with the various ./configure path options. If you are
+doing a root install to anywhere else besides /usr/local, be sure to set the
+appropriate paths with the correct configure options (./configure --help).
+
+If you do install to /usr/local, the install will use sysconfdir=$prefix/etc/
+privoxy by default. All other destinations, and the direct usage of
+--sysconfdir flag behave like normal, i.e. will not add the extra privoxy
+directory. This is for a safer install, as there may already exist another
+program that uses a file with the "config" name, and thus makes /usr/local/etc
+cleaner.
+
+If installing to /usr/local, the docs will go by default to $prefix/share/doc.
+But if this directory doesn't exist, it will then try $prefix/doc and install
+there before creating a new $prefix/share/doc just for Privoxy.
+
+Again, if the installs goes to /usr/local, the localstatedir (ie: var/) will
+default to /var instead of $prefix/var so the logs will go to /var/log/privoxy
+/, and the pid file will be created in /var/run/privoxy.pid.
+
+make install will attempt to set the correct values in config (main
+configuration file). You may want to check this to make sure all values are
+correct. If appropriate, an init script will be installed, but it is up to the
+user to determine how and where to start Privoxy. The init script should be
+checked for correct paths and values, if anything other than a default install
+is done.
+
+If install finds previous versions of any local configuration files, these will
+not be overwritten, and the new ones will be installed with a "new" extension.
+default.action, default.filter, and standard.action will be overwritten. You
+will then need to manually update the other installed configuration files as
+needed. All template files will be overwritten. If you have customized, local
+templates, you should save these first. If a previous version of Privoxy is
+already running, you will have to restart it manually.
+
+For more detailed instructions on how to build Redhat RPMs, Windows
+self-extracting installers, building on platforms with special requirements
+etc, please consult the developer manual.
-For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in /etc/
-junkbuster/ by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and AmigaOS these are all in the
-same directory as the Junkbuster executable. The name and number of
-configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is subject to
-change as development progresses.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though possibly
-aggressive by some standards. For the time being, there are only three default
-configuration files (this will change in time):
+2.3. Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date
- * The main configuration file is named config on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and
- AmigaOS and config.txt on Windows.
-
- * The ijb.action file is used to define various "actions" relating to images,
- banners, pop-ups, access restrictions, banners and cookies. There is a CGI
- based editor for this file that can be accessed via http://i.j.b. This is
- the easiest method of configuring actions. (Other actions files are
- included as well with differing levels of filtering and blocking, e.g.
- ijb-basic.action.)
-
- * The re_filterfile file can be used to rewrite the raw page content,
- including text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript.
-
-ijb.action and re_filterfile can use Perl style regular expressions for maximum
-flexibility. All files use the "#" character to denote a comment. Such lines
-are not processed by Junkbuster. After making any changes, there is no need to
-restart Junkbuster in order for the changes to take effect. Junkbuster should
-detect such changes automatically.
+As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated
+versions of both the main actions file (as a separate package) and the software
+itself (including the actions file) available for download.
-While under development, the configuration content is subject to change. The
-below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this. Also, what
-constitutes a "default" setting, may change, so please check all your
-configuration files on important issues.
+If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
+Privoxy or the actions file, subscribe to our announce mailing list,
+ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
+
+In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating to the
+latest default.action file we strongly recommend that you use user.action and
+user.filter for your local customizations of Privoxy. See the Chapter on
+actions files for details.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.1. Command Line Options
+3. What's New in this Release
-JunkBuster may be invoked with the following command-line options:
+There are many improvements and new features in Privoxy 3.0.5 :
- * --version
+ * Multiple filter files can now be specified in config. This allows for
+ locally defined filters that can be maintained separately from the filters
+ as supplied by the developers, i.e. default.filter.
- Print version info and exit, Unix only.
+ * There are a number of new actions:
- * --help
+ + content-type-overwrite
+
+ + crunch-client-header
+
+ + crunch-if-none-match
+
+ + crunch-server-header
+
+ + filter-client-headers
+
+ + filter-server-headers
+
+ + force-text-mode
+
+ + handle-as-empty-document
+
+ + hide-accept-language
+
+ + hide-content-disposition
+
+ + hide-if-modified-since
+
+ + inspect-jpegs
+
+ + overwrite-last-modified
+
+ + redirect
+
+ + treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks
+
+ In addition, fast-redirects has been significantly improved with enhanced
+ syntax.
- Print a short usage info and exit, Unix only.
+ And hide-referrer has a new option, conditional block.
- * --no-daemon
+ * MS-Windows versions can now be installed and started as a Windows service.
- Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group leader,
- don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
+ * config has two new options: enable-remote-http-toggle, and
+ forwarded-connect-retries.
- * --pidfile FILE
+ And there is improved handling of the user-manual option, for placing
+ documentation and help files on the local system.
- On startup, write the process ID to FILE. Delete the FILE on exit. Failiure
- to create or delete the FILE is non-fatal. If no FILE option is given, no
- PID file will be used. Unix only.
+ * Actions files problems and suggestions are now being directed to: http://
+ sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288. Please use this to
+ report such configuration related problems as missed ads, sites that don't
+ function properly due to one action or another, innocent images being
+ blocked, etc.
- * configfile
+ * In addition, there are numerous bug fixes and significant enhancements,
+ including error pages should no longer be cached if the problem is fixed,
+ much better DNS error handling, and various logging improvements.
- If no configfile is included on the command line, JunkBuster will look for
- a file named "config" in the current directory (except on Win32 where it
- will look for "config.txt" instead). Specify full path to avoid confusion.
+ * The default actions setting is now Cautious. Previous releases had a
+ default setting of Medium. Experienced users may want to adjust this, as it
+ is fairly conservative by Privoxy standards and past practices. See http://
+ config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default. New users should try the
+ default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.2. The Main Configuration File
+3.1. Note to Upgraders
-Again, the main configuration file is named config on Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2,
-and config.txt on Windows. Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword
-followed by a list of values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces
-or tabs). For example:
+A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier versions of
+Privoxy:
- blockfile blocklist.ini
+ * Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including
+ configuration files. Save any important configuration files!
+ * On the other hand, other installers may not overwrite any existing
+ configuration files, thinking you will want to do that. You may want to
+ manually check your saved files against the newer versions to see if the
+ improvements have merit, or whether there are new options that you may want
+ to consider. There are a number of new features, but most won't be
+ available unless these features are incorporated into your configuration
+ somehow.
+
+ * See the full documentation on fast-redirects which has changed syntax, and
+ will require adjustments to local configs, such as user.action. You must
+ reference the new syntax:
+
+ { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
+ .example.com
+ mybank.com
+ .google.
+
+ * The jarfile, cookie logger, is off by default now.
+
+ * What constitutes a "default" configuration has changed, and you may want to
+ review which actions are "on" by default. This is primarily a matter of
+ emphasis, but some features you may have been used to, may now be "off" by
+ default. There are also a number of new actions you may want to consider,
+ most of which are not incorporated into the default settings as yet (see
+ above).
+
+ * Some installers may not automatically start Privoxy after installation.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Indicates that the blockfile is named "blocklist.ini".
-
-A "#" indicates a comment. Any part of a line following a "#" is ignored,
-except if the "#" is preceded by a "\".
-
-Thus, by placing a "#" at the start of an existing configuration line, you can
-make it a comment and it will be treated as if it weren't there. This is called
-"commenting out" an option and can be useful to turn off features: If you
-comment out the "logfile" line, junkbuster will not log to a file at all. Watch
-for the "default:" section in each explanation to see what happens if the
-option is left unset (or commented out).
+4. Quickstart to Using Privoxy
-Long lines can be continued on the next line by using a "\" as the very last
-character.
+ * Install Privoxy. See the Installation Section below for platform specific
+ information.
+
+ * Advanced users and those who want to offer Privoxy service to more than
+ just their local machine should check the main config file, especially the
+ security-relevant options. These are off by default.
+
+ * Start Privoxy, if the installation program has not done this already (may
+ vary according to platform). See the section Starting Privoxy.
+
+ * Set your browser to use Privoxy as HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) proxy by setting
+ the proxy configuration for address of 127.0.0.1 and port 8118. DO NOT
+ activate proxying for FTP or any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)! It
+ won't work!
+
+ * Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad
+ images. If using Privoxy to manage cookies, you should remove any currently
+ stored cookies too.
+
+ * A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for most.
+ There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
+ configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little to no
+ initial configuration is required in most cases.
+
+ See the Configuration section for more configuration options, and how to
+ customize your installation. You might also want to look at the next
+ section for a quick introduction to how Privoxy blocks ads and banners.
+
+ * If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are blocked,
+ or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune Privoxy's behavior, take a look at
+ the actions files. As a quick start, you might find the richly commented
+ examples helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the
+ web-based user interface. The Appendix "Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
+ Action" has hints how to understand and debug actions that "misbehave".
+
+ * For easy access to Privoxy's most important controls, drag the provided
+ Bookmarklets into your browser's personal toolbar.
+
+ * Please see the section Contacting the Developers on how to report bugs,
+ problems with websites or to get help.
+
+ * Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-There are various aspects of Junkbuster behavior that can be tuned.
+4.1. Quickstart to Ad Blocking
+
+Ad blocking is but one of Privoxy's array of features. Many of these features
+are for the technically minded advanced user. But, ad and banner blocking is
+surely common ground for everybody.
+
+This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so you can get up to
+speed quickly without having to read the more extensive information provided
+below, though this is highly recommended.
+
+First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the more
+aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block things that were
+not intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want extreme ad free
+browsing, be prepared to deal with more "problem" sites, and to spend more time
+adjusting the configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short,
+there is not an easy way to eliminate all ads. Either take the easy way and
+settle for most ads blocked with the default configuration, or jump in and
+tweak it for your personal surfing habits and preferences.
+
+Secondly, a brief explanation of Privoxy's "actions". "Actions" in this
+context, are the directives we use to tell Privoxy to perform some task
+relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell Privoxy to take some
+"action". Each action has a unique name and function. While there are many
+potential actions in Privoxy's arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking.
+Actions, and action configuration files, are explained in depth below.
+
+Actions are specified in Privoxy's configuration, followed by one or more URLs
+to which the action should apply. URLs can actually be URL type patterns that
+use wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
+actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
+
+When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more of
+the sections as defined in Privoxy's configuration, or not. If so, then Privoxy
+will perform the respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens.
+Furthermore, web pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web
+browser will use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
+original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL embedded
+in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server, or a server
+somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many such embedded
+URLs.
+
+The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: block, handle-as-image,
+and set-image-blocker:
+
+ * block - this action stops any contact between your browser and any URL
+ patterns that match this action's configuration. It can be used for
+ blocking ads, but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By
+ itself, it simply stops any communication with the remote server and sends
+ Privoxy's own built-in BLOCKED page instead to let you now what has
+ happened.
+
+ * handle-as-image - tells Privoxy to treat this URL as an image. Privoxy's
+ default configuration already does this for all common image types (e.g.
+ GIF), but there are many situations where this is not so easy to determine.
+ So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly important for ad
+ blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of some kind, can we
+ replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the Privoxy BLOCKED
+ page (which would only result in a "broken image" icon). There are some
+ limitations to this though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an
+ image substitution for an entire HTML page in most situations.
+
+ * set-image-blocker - tells Privoxy what to display in place of an ad image
+ that has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
+ block action somewhere in the configuration, and, it must also match an
+ handle-as-image action.
+
+ The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
+
+ pattern - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad replacement is obvious.
+ This is the default.
+
+ blank - A very small empty GIF image is displayed. This is the so-called
+ "invisible" configuration option.
+
+ http://<URL> - A redirect to any image anywhere of the user's choosing
+ (advanced usage).
+
+The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
+the special Privoxy editor at http://config.privoxy.org/show-status (shortcut:
+http://p.p/show-status). This is an internal page, and does not require
+Internet access. Select the appropriate "actions" file, and click "Edit". It is
+best to put personal or local preferences in user.action since this is not
+meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
+other files. Here you can insert new "actions", and URLs for ad blocking or
+other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration. Privoxy will
+detect these changes automatically.
+
+A quick and simple step by step example:
+
+ * Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select "Copy Link Location"
+ from the pop-up menu.
+
+ * Set your browser to http://config.privoxy.org/show-status
+
+ * Find user.action in the top section, and click on "Edit":
+
+ Figure 1. Actions Files in Use
+
+ [files-in-u]
+
+ * You should have a section with only block listed under "Actions:". If not,
+ click a "Insert new section below" button, and in the new section that just
+ appeared, click the Edit button right under the word "Actions:". This will
+ bring up a list of all actions. Find block near the top, and click in the
+ "Enabled" column, then "Submit" just below the list.
+
+ * Now, in the block actions section, click the "Add" button, and paste the
+ URL the browser got from "Copy Link Location". Remove the http:// at the
+ beginning of the URL. Then, click "Submit" (or "OK" if in a pop-up window).
+
+ * Now go back to the original page, and press SHIFT-Reload (or flush all
+ browser caches). The image should be gone now.
+
+This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
+wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
+site. For a more extensive explanation of "patterns", and the entire actions
+concept, see the Actions section.
+
+For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want to
+now go to the Actions Files Tutorial. The ideas explained therein also apply to
+the web-based editor.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.2.1. Defining Other Configuration Files
+5. Starting Privoxy
-Junkbuster can use a number of other files to tell it what ads to block, what
-cookies to accept, etc. This section of the configuration file tells Junkbuster
-where to find all those other files.
+Before launching Privoxy for the first time, you will want to configure your
+browser(s) to use Privoxy as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) proxy. The default is
+127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
+used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done!
-On Windows and AmigaOS, Junkbuster looks for these files in the same directory
-as the executable. On Unix and OS/2, Junkbuster looks for these files in the
-current working directory. In either case, an absolute path name can be used to
-avoid problems.
+Please note that Privoxy can only proxy HTTP and HTTPS traffic. It will not
+work with FTP or other protocols.
-When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and per-user
-config will be stored in subdirectories of "confdir". For now, only confdir/
-templates is used for storing HTML templates for CGI results.
+Figure 2. Proxy Configuration Showing Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
+Settings
-The location of the configuration files:
+[proxy_setu]
- confdir /etc/junkbuster # No trailing /, please.
-
+With Firefox, this can be set under:
-The directory where all logging (i.e. logfile and jarfile) takes place. No
-trailing "/", please:
+ Tools -> Options -> General -> Connection Settings -> Manual Proxy
+Configuration
+
- logdir /var/log/junkbuster
-
+With Netscape (and Mozilla), this can be set under:
-Note that all file specifications below are relative to the above two
-directories!
+ Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy
+
-The "ijb.action" file contains patterns to specify the actions to apply to
-requests for each site. Default: Cookies to and from all destinations are kept
-only during the current browser session (i.e. they are not saved to disk).
-Pop-ups are disabled for all sites. All sites are filtered if "re_filterfile"
-specified. No sites are blocked. An empty image is displayed for filtered ads
-and other images (formerly "tinygif"). The syntax of this file is explained in
-detail below.
+For Internet Explorer v.5-6:
- actionsfile ijb.action
-
+ Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings
-The "re_filterfile" file contains content modification rules. These rules
-permit powerful changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable
-your favorite JavaScript annoyances, rewrite the actual content, or just have
-some fun replacing "Microsoft" with "MicroSuck" wherever it appears on a Web
-page. Default: No content modification, or whatever the developers are playing
-with :-/
+Then, check "Use Proxy" and fill in the appropriate info (Address: 127.0.0.1,
+Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS proxy support too
+(sometimes labeled "Secure"). Make sure any checkboxes like "Use the same proxy
+server for all protocols" is UNCHECKED. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
- re_filterfile re_filterfile
-
+Figure 3. Proxy Configuration Showing Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure)
+Settings
-The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The logfile
-can be useful for tracking down a problem with Junkbuster (e.g., it's not
-blocking an ad you think it should block) but in most cases you probably will
-never look at it.
+[proxy2]
-Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to periodically
-remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job (see "man cron").
-For Redhat, a logrotate script has been included.
+After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
+re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
+any cookies, if you want Privoxy to manage that. You are now ready to start
+enjoying the benefits of using Privoxy!
-On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like "/var/log/junkbuster.* +1024k
-644 nobody.nogroup" in /etc/logfiles, with the effect that cron.daily will
-automatically archive, gzip, and empty the log, when it exceeds 1M size.
+Privoxy 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, Privoxy will look for a file named config in the current
+directory. Except on Win32 where it will try config.txt.
-Default: Log to the a file named logfile. Comment out to disable logging.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- logfile logfile
-
+5.1. Red Hat, Fedora and Conectiva
-The "jarfile" defines where Junkbuster stores the cookies it intercepts. Note
-that if you use a "jarfile", it may grow quite large. Default: Don't store
-intercepted cookies.
+A default Red Hat installation may not start Privoxy upon boot. It will use the
+file /etc/privoxy/config as its main configuration file.
- #jarfile jarfile
-
+ # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
-If you specify a "trustfile", Junkbuster will only allow access to sites that
-are named in the trustfile. You can also mark sites as trusted referrers, with
-the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a
-trusted referrer was used. The link target will then be added to the
-"trustfile". This is a very restrictive feature that typical users most
-probably want to leave disabled. Default: Disabled, don't use the trust
-mechanism.
+Or ...
- #trustfile trust
-
+ # service privoxy start
-If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
-documentation about your blocking policy and to specify the URL(s) here. They
-will appear on the page that your users receive when they try to access
-untrusted content. Use multiple times for multiple URLs. Default: Don't display
-links on the "untrusted" info page.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- trust-info-url http://www.your-site.com/why_we_block.html
- trust-info-url http://www.your-site.com/what_we_allow.html
-
+5.2. Debian
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts Privoxy upon booting per
+default. It will use the file /etc/privoxy/config as its main configuration
+file.
-3.2.2. Other Configuration Options
+ # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
-This part of the configuration file contains options that control how
-Junkbuster operates.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-"Admin-address" should be set to the email address of the proxy administrator.
-It is used in many of the proxy-generated pages. Default: fill@me.in.please.
+5.3. SuSE
- #admin-address fill@me.in.please
-
+We use a script. It will use the file /etc/privoxy/config as its main
+configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting your PC.
-"Proxy-info-url" can be set to a URL that contains more info about this
-Junkbuster installation, it's configuration and policies. It is used in many of
-the proxy-generated pages and its use is highly recommended in multi-user
-installations, since your users will want to know why certain content is
-blocked or modified. Default: Don't show a link to on-line documentation.
+ # rcprivoxy start
- proxy-info-url http://www.your-site.com/proxy.html
-
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-"Listen-address" specifies the address and port where Junkbuster will listen
-for connections from your Web browser. The default is to listen on the
-localhost port 8118, and this is suitable for most users. (In your web browser,
-under proxy configuration, list the proxy server as "localhost" and the port as
-"8118").
+5.4. Windows
-If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
-serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
-will need to override the default. The syntax is "listen-address
-[<ip-address>]:<port>". If you leave out the IP address, junkbuster will bind
-to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable from the
-Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (acl's) (see
-"aclfile" above), or a firewall.
+Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy. If no configuration file is
+specified on the command line, Privoxy will look for a file named config.txt.
+Note that Windows will automatically start Privoxy when the system starts if
+you chose that option when installing.
-For example, suppose you are running Junkbuster on a machine which has the
-address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network (192.168.0.0) and has another
-outside connection with a different address. You want it to serve requests from
-inside only:
+Privoxy can run with full Windows service functionality. On Windows only, the
+Privoxy program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
+Privoxy as a service. See the Windows Installation instructions for details.
- listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
-
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-If you want it to listen on all addresses (including the outside connection):
+5.5. Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others
- listen-address :8118
-
+Example Unix startup command:
-If you do this, consider using ACLs (see "aclfile" above). Note: you will need
-to point your browser(s) to the address and port that you have configured here.
-Default: localhost:8118 (127.0.0.1:8118).
+ # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
-The debug option sets the level of debugging information to log in the logfile
-(and to the console in the Windows version). A debug level of 1 is informative
-because it will show you each request as it happens. Higher levels of debug are
-probably only of interest to developers.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- debug 1 # GPC = show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
- debug 2 # CONN = show each connection status
- debug 4 # IO = show I/O status
- debug 8 # HDR = show header parsing
- debug 16 # LOG = log all data into the logfile
- debug 32 # FRC = debug force feature
- debug 64 # REF = debug regular expression filter
- debug 128 # = debug fast redirects
- debug 256 # = debug GIF de-animation
- debug 512 # CLF = Common Log Format
- debug 1024 # = debug kill pop-ups
- debug 4096 # INFO = Startup banner and warnings.
- debug 8192 # ERROR = Non-fatal errors
-
+5.6. OS/2
-It is highly recommended that you enable ERROR reporting (debug 8192), at least
-until the next stable release.
+During installation, Privoxy is configured to start automatically when the
+system restarts. You can start it manually by double-clicking on the Privoxy
+icon in the Privoxy folder.
-The reporting of FATAL errors (i.e. ones which crash JunkBuster) is always on
-and cannot be disabled.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set "debug 512" ONLY, do
-not enable anything else.
+5.7. Mac OSX
-Multiple "debug" directives, are OK - they're logical-OR'd together.
+During installation, Privoxy is configured to start automatically when the
+system restarts. To start Privoxy manually, double-click on the
+StartPrivoxy.command icon in the /Library/Privoxy folder. Or, type this command
+in the Terminal:
- debug 15 # same as setting the first 4 listed above
-
+ /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
+
-Default:
+You will be prompted for the administrator password.
- debug 1 # URLs
- debug 4096 # Info
- debug 8192 # Errors - *we highly recommended enabling this*
-
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Junkbuster normally uses "multi-threading", a software technique that permits
-it to handle many different requests simultaneously. In some cases you may wish
-to disable this -- particularly if you're trying to debug a problem. The
-"single-threaded" option forces Junkbuster to handle requests sequentially.
-Default: Multi-threaded mode.
+5.8. AmigaOS
- #single-threaded
-
+Start Privoxy (with RUN <>NIL:) in your startnet script (AmiTCP), in s:
+user-startup (RoadShow), as startup program in your startup script (Genesis),
+or as startup action (Miami and MiamiDx). Privoxy will automatically quit when
+you quit your TCP/IP stack (just ignore the harmless warning your TCP/IP stack
+may display that Privoxy is still running).
-"toggle" allows you to temporarily disable all Junkbuster's filtering. Just set
-"toggle 0".
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-The Windows version of Junkbuster puts an icon in the system tray, which also
-allows you to change this option. If you right-click on that icon (or select
-the "Options" menu), one choice is "Enable". Clicking on enable toggles
-Junkbuster on and off. This is useful if you want to temporarily disable
-Junkbuster, e.g., to access a site that requires cookies which you would
-otherwise have blocked. This can also be toggled via a web browser at the
-Junkbuster internal address of http://i.j.b on any platform.
+5.9. Gentoo
-"toggle 1" means Junkbuster runs normally, "toggle 0" means that Junkbuster
-becomes a non-anonymizing non-blocking proxy. Default: 1 (on).
+A script is again used. It will use the file /etc/privoxy/config as its main
+configuration file.
- toggle 1
-
+ /etc/init.d/privoxy start
+
-For content filtering, i.e. the "+filter" and "+deanimate-gif" actions, it is
-necessary that Junkbuster buffers the entire document body. This can be
-potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending data indefinitely
-and wait for your RAM to exhaust. With nasty consequences.
+Note that Privoxy is not automatically started at boot time by default. You can
+change this with the rc-update command.
-The buffer-limit option lets you set the maximum size in Kbytes that each
-buffer may use. When the documents buffer exceeds this size, it is flushed to
-the client unfiltered and no further attempt to filter the rest of it is made.
-Remember that there may multiple threads running, which might require
-increasing the "buffer-limit" Kbytes each, unless you have enabled
-"single-threaded" above.
+ rc-update add privoxy default
+
- buffer-limit 4069
-
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-To enable the web-based ijb.action file editor set enable-edit-actions to 1, or
-0 to disable. Note that you must have compiled JunkBuster with support for this
-feature, otherwise this option has no effect. This internal page can be reached
-at http://i.j.b.
+5.10. Command Line Options
-Security note: If this is enabled, anyone who can use the proxy can edit the
-actions file, and their changes will affect all users. For shared proxies, you
-probably want to disable this. Default: enabled.
+Privoxy may be invoked with the following command-line options:
- enable-edit-actions 1
+ * --version
+
+ Print version info and exit. Unix only.
+
+ * --help
+
+ Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
+
+ * --no-daemon
+
+ Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group leader, and
+ don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
+
+ * --pidfile FILE
+
+ On startup, write the process ID to FILE. Delete the FILE on exit. Failure
+ to create or delete the FILE is non-fatal. If no FILE option is given, no
+ PID file will be used. Unix only.
+
+ * --user USER[.GROUP]
+
+ After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of USER, and if
+ included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the privileges are not sufficient to do
+ so. Unix only.
+
+ * --chroot
+
+ Before changing to the user ID given in the --user option, chroot to that
+ user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the Privoxy process
+ that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
+ the impact of possible vulnerabilities in Privoxy to the files contained in
+ that hierarchy. Unix only.
+ * configfile
+
+ If no configfile is included on the command line, Privoxy will look for a
+ file named "config" in the current directory (except on Win32 where it will
+ look for "config.txt" instead). Specify full path to avoid confusion. If no
+ config file is found, Privoxy will fail to start.
+
+On MS Windows only there are two additional command-line options to allow
+Privoxy to install and run as a service. See the Window Installation section
+for details.
-Allow JunkBuster to be toggled on and off remotely, using your web browser. Set
-"enable-remote-toggle"to 1 to enable, and 0 to disable. Note that you must have
-compiled JunkBuster with support for this feature, otherwise this option has no
-effect.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Security note: If this is enabled, anyone who can use the proxy can toggle it
-on or off (see http://i.j.b), and their changes will affect all users. For
-shared proxies, you probably want to disable this. Default: enabled.
+6. Privoxy Configuration
- enable-remote-toggle 1
-
+All Privoxy configuration is stored in text files. These files can be edited
+with a text editor. Many important aspects of Privoxy can also be controlled
+easily with a web browser.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.2.3. Access Control List (ACL)
+6.1. Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser
-Access controls are included at the request of some ISPs and systems
-administrators, and are not usually needed by individual users. Please note the
-warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute for a
-firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security weaknesses.
+Privoxy's user interface can be reached through the special URL http://
+config.privoxy.org/ (shortcut: http://p.p/), which is a built-in page and works
+without Internet access. You will see the following section:
-If no access settings are specified, the proxy talks to anyone that connects.
-If any access settings file are specified, then the proxy talks only to IP
-addresses permitted somewhere in this file and not denied later in this file.
+ Privoxy Menu
+ ? View & change the current configuration
+ ? View the source code version numbers
+ ? View the request headers.
+ ? Look up which actions apply to a URL and why
+ ? Toggle Privoxy on or off
+ ? Documentation
+
-Summary -- if using an ACL:
+This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
+actions files, which is where the ad, banner, cookie, and URL blocking magic is
+configured as well as other advanced features of Privoxy. This is an easy way
+to adjust various aspects of Privoxy configuration. The actions file, and other
+configuration files, are explained in detail below.
-Client must have permission to receive service.
+"Toggle Privoxy On or Off" is handy for sites that might have problems with
+your current actions and filters. You can in fact use it as a test to see
+whether it is Privoxy causing the problem or not. Privoxy continues to run as a
+proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e. Privoxy acts like a
+normal forwarding proxy. There is even a toggle Bookmarklet offered, so that
+you can toggle Privoxy with one click from your browser.
-LAST match in ACL wins.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Default behavior is to deny service.
+6.2. Configuration Files Overview
-The syntax for an entry in the Access Control List is:
+For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in /etc/privoxy/
+by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and AmigaOS these are all in the same
+directory as the Privoxy executable. The name and number of configuration files
+has changed from previous versions, and is subject to change as development
+progresses.
- ACTION SRC_ADDR[/SRC_MASKLEN] [ DST_ADDR[/DST_MASKLEN] ]
-
+The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though some
+settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the principle
+configuration files are:
-Where the individual fields are:
+ * The main configuration file is named config on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and
+ AmigaOS and config.txt on Windows. This is a required file.
+
+ * default.action (the main actions file) is used to define which "actions"
+ relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups, content modification, cookie
+ handling etc should be applied by default. It also defines many exceptions
+ (both positive and negative) from this default set of actions that enable
+ Privoxy to selectively eliminate the junk, and only the junk, on as many
+ websites as possible.
+
+ Multiple actions files may be defined in config. These are processed in the
+ order they are defined. Local customizations and locally preferred
+ exceptions to the default policies as defined in default.action (which you
+ will most probably want to define sooner or later) are probably best
+ applied in user.action, where you can preserve them across upgrades.
+ standard.action is for Privoxy's internal use.
+
+ There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from http://
+ config.privoxy.org/show-status (Shortcut: http://p.p/show-status) for the
+ various actions files.
+
+ * "Filter files" (the filter file) 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.
+ default.filter 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 config as you
+ can with actions files. We suggest user.filter for any locally defined
+ filters or customizations.
+
+The syntax of all configuration files has remained the same throughout the 3.x
+series. There have been enhancements, but no changes that would preclude the
+use of any configuration file from one version to the next. (There is one
+exception: +fast-redirects which has enhanced syntax and will require updating
+any local configs from earlier versions.)
+
+All files use the "#" character to denote a comment (the rest of the line will
+be ignored) and understand line continuation through placing a backslash ("\")
+as the very last character in a line. If the # is preceded by a backslash, it
+looses its special function. Placing a # in front of an otherwise valid
+configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
+out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
+
+The actions files and filter files can use Perl style regular expressions for
+maximum flexibility.
+
+After making any changes, there is no need to restart Privoxy in order for the
+changes to take effect. Privoxy detects such changes automatically. Note,
+however, that it may take one or two additional requests for the change to take
+effect. When changing the listening address of Privoxy, these "wake up"
+requests must obviously be sent to the old listening address.
- ACTION = "permit-access" or "deny-access"
+While under development, the configuration content is subject to change. The
+below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this. Also, what
+constitutes a "default" setting, may change, so please check all your
+configuration files on important issues.
- SRC_ADDR = client hostname or dotted IP address
- SRC_MASKLEN = number of bits in the subnet mask for the source
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- DST_ADDR = server or forwarder hostname or dotted IP address
- DST_MASKLEN = number of bits in the subnet mask for the target
-
+7. The Main Configuration File
-The field separator (FS) is whitespace (space or tab).
+Again, the main configuration file is named config on Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2,
+and config.txt on Windows. Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword
+followed by a list of values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces
+or tabs). For example:
-IMPORTANT NOTE: If the junkbuster is using a forwarder (see below) or a gateway
-for a particular destination URL, the DST_ADDR that is examined is the address
-of the forwarder or the gateway and NOT the address of the ultimate target.
-This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local Junkbuster to
-determine the address of the ultimate target (that's often what gateways are
-used for).
+ confdir /etc/privoxy
-Here are a few examples to show how the ACL features work:
+Assigns the value /etc/privoxy to the option confdir and thus indicates that
+the configuration directory is named "/etc/privoxy/".
-"localhost" is OK -- no DST_ADDR implies that ALL destination addresses are OK:
+All options in the config file except for confdir and logdir are optional.
+Watch out in the below description for what happens if you leave them unset.
- permit-access localhost
-
+The main config file controls all aspects of Privoxy's operation that are not
+location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter where you may be
+surfing).
-A silly example to illustrate permitting any host on the class-C subnet with
-Junkbuster to go anywhere:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- permit-access www.junkbusters.com/24
-
+7.1. Local Set-up Documentation
-Except deny one particular IP address from using it at all:
+If you intend to operate Privoxy for more users than just yourself, it might be
+a good idea to let them know how to reach you, what you block and why you do
+that, your policies, etc.
- deny-access ident.junkbusters.com
-
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-You can also specify an explicit network address and subnet mask. Explicit
-addresses do not have to be resolved to be used.
+7.1.1. user-manual
- permit-access 207.153.200.0/24
+Specifies:
-
-A subnet mask of 0 matches anything, so the next line permits everyone.
-
- permit-access 0.0.0.0/0
+ Location of the Privoxy User Manual.
-
-Note, you cannot say:
-
- permit-access .org
+Type of value:
+ A fully qualified URI
+
+Default value:
+
+ Unset
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ http://www.privoxy.org/version/user-manual/ will be used, where version is
+ the Privoxy version.
+
+Notes:
+
+ The User Manual URI is the single best source of information on Privoxy,
+ and is used for help links from some of the internal CGI pages. The manual
+ itself is normally packaged with the binary distributions, so you probably
+ want to set this to a locally installed copy.
+
+ Examples:
+
+ The best all purpose solution is simply to put the full local PATH to where
+ the User Manual is located:
+
+ user-manual /usr/share/doc/privoxy/user-manual
+
+ The User Manual is then available to anyone with access to the proxy, by
+ following the built-in URL: http://config.privoxy.org/user-manual/ (or the
+ shortcut: http://p.p/user-manual/).
+
+ If the documentation is not on the local system, it can be accessed from a
+ remote server, as:
+
+ user-manual http://example.com/privoxy/user-manual/
+
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | Warning |
+ |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
+ |If set, this option should be the first option in the config |
+ |file, because it is used while the config file is being read on |
+ |start-up. |
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
-to allow all *.org domains. Every IP address listed must resolve fully.
-
-An ISP may want to provide a Junkbuster that is accessible by "the world" and
-yet restrict use of some of their private content to hosts on its internal
-network (i.e. its own subscribers). Say, for instance the ISP owns the Class-B
-IP address block 123.124.0.0 (a 16 bit netmask). This is how they could do it:
-
- permit-access 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 # other clients can go anywhere
- # with the following exceptions:
-
- deny-access 0.0.0.0/0 123.124.0.0/16 # block all external requests for
- # sites on the ISP's network
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- permit 0.0.0.0/0 www.my_isp.com # except for the ISP's main
- # web site
+7.1.2. trust-info-url
- permit 123.124.0.0/16 0.0.0.0/0 # the ISP's clients can go
- # anywhere
+Specifies:
+
+ A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an
+ untrusted page is denied.
+
+Type of value:
+
+ URL
+Default value:
+
+ Two example URL are provided
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
+
+Notes:
+
+ The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism
+ has been activated. (See trustfile above.)
+
+ If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
+ documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here. Use
+ multiple times for multiple URLs.
+
+ The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up
+ locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first
+ place!
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Note that if some hostnames are listed with multiple IP addresses, the primary
-value returned by DNS (via gethostbyname()) is used. Default: Anyone can access
-the proxy.
+7.1.3. admin-address
+Specifies:
+
+ An email address to reach the proxy administrator.
+
+Type of value:
+
+ Email address
+
+Default value:
+
+ Unset
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
+
+Notes:
+
+ If both admin-address and proxy-info-url are unset, the whole "Local
+ Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will not be shown.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.1.4. proxy-info-url
+
+Specifies:
+
+ A URL to documentation about the local Privoxy setup, configuration or
+ policies.
+
+Type of value:
+
+ URL
+
+Default value:
+
+ Unset
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user
+ interface.
+
+Notes:
+
+ If both admin-address and proxy-info-url are unset, the whole "Local
+ Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will not be shown.
+
+ This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.2. Configuration and Log File Locations
+
+Privoxy can (and normally does) use a number of other files for additional
+configuration, help and logging. This section of the configuration file tells
+Privoxy where to find those other files.
+
+The user running Privoxy, must have read permission for all configuration
+files, and write permission to any files that would be modified, such as log
+files and actions files.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.2.1. confdir
+
+Specifies:
+
+ The directory where the other configuration files are located
+
+Type of value:
+
+ Path name
+
+Default value:
+
+ /etc/privoxy (Unix) or Privoxy installation dir (Windows)
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ Mandatory
+
+Notes:
+
+ No trailing "/", please
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.2.2. logdir
+
+Specifies:
+
+ The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where logfile and jarfile
+ are located)
+
+Type of value:
+
+ Path name
+
+Default value:
+
+ /var/log/privoxy (Unix) or Privoxy installation dir (Windows)
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ Mandatory
+
+Notes:
+
+ No trailing "/", please
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.2.3. actionsfile
+
+Specifies:
+
+ The actions file(s) to use
+
+Type of value:
+
+ File name, relative to confdir, without the .action suffix
+
+Default values:
+
+ standard # Internal purposes, no editing recommended
+
+ default # Main actions file
+
+ user # User customizations
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ No actions are taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
+
+Notes:
+
+ Multiple actionsfile lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended!
+
+ The default values include standard.action, which is used for internal
+ purposes and should be loaded, default.action, which is the "main" actions
+ file maintained by the developers, and user.action, where you can make your
+ personal additions.
+
+ Actions files are where all the per site and per URL configuration is done
+ for ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc. There is
+ no point in using Privoxy without at least one actions file.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.2.4. filterfile
+
+Specifies:
+
+ The filter file(s) to use
+
+Type of value:
+
+ File name, relative to confdir
+
+Default value:
+
+ default.filter (Unix) or default.filter.txt (Windows)
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all +filter{name} actions in
+ the actions files are turned neutral.
+
+Notes:
+
+ Multiple filterfile lines are permitted.
+
+ The filter files contain content modification rules that use regular
+ expressions. These rules permit powerful changes on the content of Web
+ pages, and optionally the headers as well, e.g., you could disable your
+ favorite JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just
+ have some fun playing buzzword bingo with web pages.
+
+ The +filter{name} actions rely on the relevant filter (name) to be defined
+ in a filter file!
+
+ A pre-defined filter file called default.filter that contains a number of
+ useful filters for common problems is included in the distribution. See the
+ section on the filter action for a list.
+
+ It is recommended to place any locally adapted filters into a separate
+ file, such as user.filter.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.2.5. logfile
+
+Specifies:
+
+ The log file to use
+
+Type of value:
+
+ File name, relative to logdir
+
+Default value:
+
+ logfile (Unix) or privoxy.log (Windows)
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (STDERR).
+
+Notes:
+
+ The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
+ of detail and number of messages are set with the debug option (see below).
+ The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with Privoxy (e.g.,
+ it's not blocking an ad you think it should block) but in most cases you
+ probably will never look at it.
+
+ Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
+ periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
+ (see "man cron"). For Red Hat, a logrotate script has been included.
+
+ On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like "/var/log/privoxy.* +1024k
+ 644 nobody.nogroup" in /etc/logfiles, with the effect that cron.daily will
+ automatically archive, gzip, and empty the log, when it exceeds 1M size.
+
+ Any log files must be writable by whatever user Privoxy is being run as
+ (default on UNIX, user id is "privoxy").
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.2.6. jarfile
+
+Specifies:
+
+ The file to store intercepted cookies in
+
+Type of value:
+
+ File name, relative to logdir
+
+Default value:
+
+ Unset (commented out). When activated: jarfile (Unix) or privoxy.jar
+ (Windows)
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ Intercepted cookies are not stored in a dedicated log file.
+
+Notes:
+
+ The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
+
+ If debug 8 (show header parsing) is enabled, cookies are written to the
+ logfile with the rest of the headers.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.2.7. trustfile
+
+Specifies:
+
+ The name of the trust file to use
+
+Type of value:
+
+ File name, relative to confdir
+
+Default value:
+
+ Unset (commented out). When activated: trust (Unix) or trust.txt (Windows)
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ The entire trust mechanism is disabled.
+
+Notes:
+
+ The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and
+ should be used with care. It is NOT recommended for the casual user.
+
+ If you specify a trust file, Privoxy will only allow access to sites that
+ are specified in the trustfile. Sites can be listed in one of two ways:
+
+ Prepending a ~ character limits access to this site only (and any sub-paths
+ within this site), e.g. ~www.example.com allows access to ~www.example.com/
+ features/news.html, etc.
+
+ Or, you can designate sites as trusted referrers, by prepending the name
+ with a + character. The effect is that access to untrusted sites will be
+ granted -- but only if a link from this trusted referrer was used to get
+ there. The link target will then be added to the "trustfile" so that
+ future, direct accesses will be granted. Sites added via this mechanism do
+ not become trusted referrers themselves (i.e. they are added with a ~
+ designation). There is a limit of 512 such entries, after which new entries
+ will not be made.
+
+ If you use the + operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over
+ time.
+
+ It is recommended that Privoxy be compiled with the --disable-force,
+ --disable-toggle and --disable-editor options, if this feature is to be
+ used.
+
+ Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.3. Debugging
+
+These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem. Note that you might
+also want to invoke Privoxy with the --no-daemon command line option when
+debugging.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.3.1. debug
+
+Specifies:
+
+ Key values that determine what information gets logged to the logfile.
+
+Type of value:
+
+ Integer values
+
+Default value:
+
+ 12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ Nothing gets logged.
+
+Notes:
+
+ The available debug levels are:
+
+ debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
+ debug 2 # show each connection status
+ debug 4 # show I/O status
+ debug 8 # show header parsing
+ debug 16 # log all data into the logfile
+ debug 32 # debug force feature
+ debug 64 # debug regular expression filter
+ debug 128 # debug fast redirects
+ debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
+ debug 512 # Common Log Format
+ debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
+ debug 2048 # CGI user interface
+ debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
+ debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
+
+ To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use multiple
+ debug lines.
+
+ A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request as
+ it happens. 1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended so that you will notice
+ when things go wrong. The other levels are probably only of interest if you
+ are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce a hell of an output
+ (especially 16).
+
+ The reporting of fatal errors (i.e. ones which crash Privoxy) is always on
+ and cannot be disabled.
+
+ If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set "debug 512" ONLY
+ and not enable anything else.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.3.2. single-threaded
+
+Specifies:
+
+ Whether to run only one server thread
+
+Type of value:
+
+ None
+
+Default value:
+
+ Unset
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability
+ to serve multiple requests simultaneously.
+
+Notes:
+
+ This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never need to
+ use it. It will drastically reduce performance.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.4. Access Control and Security
+
+This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects of
+Privoxy's configuration.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.4.1. listen-address
+
+Specifies:
+
+ The IP address and TCP port on which Privoxy will listen for client
+ requests.
+
+Type of value:
+
+ [IP-Address]:Port
+
+Default value:
+
+ 127.0.0.1:8118
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ Bind to 127.0.0.1 (localhost), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended
+ for home users who run Privoxy on the same machine as their browser.
+
+Notes:
+
+ You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
+
+ If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
+ serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well,
+ you will need to override the default.
+
+ If you leave out the IP address, Privoxy will bind to all interfaces
+ (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable from the Internet. In
+ that case, consider using access control lists (ACL's, see below), and/or a
+ firewall.
+
+ If you open Privoxy to untrusted users, you will also want to turn off the
+ enable-edit-actions and enable-remote-toggle options!
+
+Example:
+
+ Suppose you are running Privoxy on a machine which has the address
+ 192.168.0.1 on your local private network (192.168.0.0) and has another
+ outside connection with a different address. You want it to serve requests
+ from inside only:
+
+ listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.4.2. toggle
+
+Specifies:
+
+ Initial state of "toggle" status
+
+Type of value:
+
+ 1 or 0
+
+Default value:
+
+ 1
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ Act as if toggled on
+
+Notes:
+
+ If set to 0, Privoxy will start in "toggled off" mode, i.e. behave like a
+ normal, content-neutral proxy where all ad blocking, filtering, etc are
+ disabled. See enable-remote-toggle below. This is not really useful
+ anymore, since toggling is much easier via the web interface than via
+ editing the conf file.
+
+ The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray if
+ this option is present.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.4.3. enable-remote-toggle
+
+Specifies:
+
+ Whether or not the web-based toggle feature may be used
+
+Type of value:
+
+ 0 or 1
+
+Default value:
+
+ 1
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
+
+Notes:
+
+ When toggled off, Privoxy acts like a normal, content-neutral proxy, i.e.
+ it acts as if none of the actions applied to any URL.
+
+ For the time being, access to the toggle feature can not be controlled
+ separately by "ACLs" or HTTP authentication, so that everybody who can
+ access Privoxy (see "ACLs" and listen-address above) can toggle it for all
+ users. So this option is not recommended for multi-user environments with
+ untrusted users.
+
+ Note that you must have compiled Privoxy with support for this feature,
+ otherwise this option has no effect.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.4.4. enable-remote-http-toggle
+
+Specifies:
+
+ Whether or not Privoxy recognizes special HTTP headers to change its
+ behaviour.
+
+Type of value:
+
+ 0 or 1
+
+Default value:
+
+ 1
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ Privoxy ignores special HTTP headers.
+
+Notes:
+
+ When toggled on, the client can change Privoxy's behaviour by setting
+ special HTTP headers. Currently the only supported special header is
+ "X-Filter: No", to disable filtering for the ongoing request, even if it is
+ enabled in one of the action files.
+
+ If you are using Privoxy in a multi-user environment or with untrustworthy
+ clients and want to enforce filtering, you will have to disable this
+ option, otherwise you can ignore it.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.4.5. enable-edit-actions
+
+Specifies:
+
+ Whether or not the web-based actions file editor may be used
+
+Type of value:
+
+ 0 or 1
+
+Default value:
+
+ 1
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
+
+Notes:
+
+ For the time being, access to the editor can not be controlled separately
+ by "ACLs" or HTTP authentication, so that everybody who can access Privoxy
+ (see "ACLs" and listen-address above) can modify its configuration for all
+ users. So this option is not recommended for multi-user environments with
+ untrusted users.
+
+ Note that you must have compiled Privoxy with support for this feature,
+ otherwise this option has no effect.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.4.6. ACLs: permit-access and deny-access
+
+Specifies:
+
+ Who can access what.
+
+Type of value:
+
+ src_addr[/src_masklen] [dst_addr[/dst_masklen]]
+
+ Where src_addr and dst_addr are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or
+ valid DNS names, and src_masklen and dst_masklen are subnet masks in CIDR
+ notation, i.e. integer values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in
+ bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole destination part are
+ optional.
+
+Default value:
+
+ Unset
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ Don't restrict access further than implied by listen-address
+
+Notes:
+
+ Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
+ administrators, and are not usually needed by individual users. For a
+ typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that Privoxy only
+ listens on the localhost (127.0.0.1) or internal (home) network address by
+ means of the listen-address option.
+
+ Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a
+ substitute for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic
+ security weaknesses.
+
+ Multiple ACL lines are OK. If any ACLs are specified, then the Privoxy
+ talks only to IP addresses that match at least one permit-access line and
+ don't match any subsequent deny-access line. In other words, the last match
+ wins, with the default being deny-access.
+
+ If Privoxy is using a forwarder (see forward below) for a particular
+ destination URL, the dst_addr that is examined is the address of the
+ forwarder and NOT the address of the ultimate target. This is necessary
+ because it may be impossible for the local Privoxy to determine the IP
+ address of the ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
+
+ You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address
+ lookups take time. All DNS names must resolve! You can not use domain
+ patterns like "*.org" or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to
+ multiple IP addresses, only the first one is used.
+
+ Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
+ if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other
+ sites.
+
+Examples:
+
+ Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and listen-address are
+ set: "localhost" is OK. The absence of a dst_addr implies that all
+ destination addresses are OK:
+
+ permit-access localhost
+
+ Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
+ nothing but www.example.com:
+
+ permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
+
+ Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
+ with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access
+ www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
+
+ permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
+ deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.4.7. buffer-limit
+
+Specifies:
+
+ Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
+
+Type of value:
+
+ Size in Kbytes
+
+Default value:
+
+ 4096
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
+
+Notes:
+
+ For content filtering, i.e. the +filter and +deanimate-gif actions, it is
+ necessary that Privoxy buffers the entire document body. This can be
+ potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending data
+ indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
+ Hence this option.
+
+ When a document buffer size reaches the buffer-limit, it is flushed to the
+ client unfiltered and no further attempt to filter the rest of the document
+ is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads running, which might
+ require up to buffer-limit Kbytes each, unless you have enabled
+ "single-threaded" above.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.5. Forwarding
+
+This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of multiple
+proxies. It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
+accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains through an
+anonymous public proxy. Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or
+chaining to a parent proxy may be necessary because the machine that Privoxy
+runs on has no direct Internet access.
+
+Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. Privoxy supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS
+4A protocols.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.5.1. forward
+
+Specifies:
+
+ To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
+
+Type of value:
+
+ target_pattern http_parent[:port]
+
+ where target_pattern is a URL pattern that specifies to which requests
+ (i.e. URLs) this forward rule shall apply. Use / to denote "all URLs".
+ http_parent[:port] is the DNS name or IP address of the parent HTTP proxy
+ through which the requests should be forwarded, optionally followed by its
+ listening port (default: 8080). Use a single dot (.) to denote "no
+ forwarding".
+
+Default value:
+
+ Unset
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
+
+Notes:
+
+ If http_parent is ".", then requests are not forwarded to another HTTP
+ proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
+
+ Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match
+ wins.
+
+Examples:
+
+ Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443
+ (which it doesn't handle):
+
+ forward / anon-proxy.example.org:8080
+ forward :443 .
+
+ Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests to
+ that ISP's sites:
+
+ forward / caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
+ forward .example-isp.net .
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.5.2. forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a
+
+Specifies:
+
+ Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific
+ requests should be routed.
+
+Type of value:
+
+ target_pattern socks_proxy[:port] http_parent[:port]
+
+ where target_pattern is a URL pattern that specifies to which requests
+ (i.e. URLs) this forward rule shall apply. Use / to denote "all URLs".
+ http_parent and socks_proxy are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or
+ valid DNS names (http_parent may be "." to denote "no HTTP forwarding"),
+ and the optional port parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1
+ to 64535
+
+Default value:
+
+ Unset
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ Don't use SOCKS proxies.
+
+Notes:
+
+ Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match
+ wins.
+
+ The difference between forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a is that in the
+ SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the
+ SOCKS server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
+
+ If http_parent is ".", then requests are not forwarded to another HTTP
+ proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
+ a SOCKS proxy.
+
+Examples:
+
+ From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all "internal"
+ domains, but everything outbound goes through their ISP's proxy by way of
+ example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to the Internet.
+
+ forward-socks4a / socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
+ forward .example.com .
+
+ A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent
+ looks like this:
+
+ forward-socks4 / socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
+
+ To chain Privoxy and Tor, both running on the same system, you should use
+ the rule:
+
+ forward-socks4 / 127.0.0.1:9050 .
+
+ The public Tor network can't be used to reach your local network, therefore
+ it's a good idea to make some exceptions:
+
+ forward 192.168.*.*/ .
+ forward 10.*.*.*/ .
+ forward 127.*.*.*/ .
+
+ Unencrypted connections to systems in these address ranges will be as (un)
+ secure as the local network is, but the alternative is that you can't reach
+ the network at all.
+
+ If you also want to be able to reach servers in your local network by using
+ their names, you will need additional exceptions that look like this:
+
+ forward localhost/ .
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.5.3. Advanced Forwarding Examples
+
+If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content only to
+their subscribers, you can configure multiple Privoxies which have connections
+to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that your users
+can see the internal content of all ISPs.
+
+Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP
+connection to isp-b.net. Both run Privoxy. Their forwarding configuration can
+look like this:
+
+host-a:
+
+ forward / .
+ forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
+
+host-b:
+
+ forward / .
+ forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
+
+Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either host-a or host-b
+and be able to browse the internal content of both isp-a and isp-b.
+
+If you intend to chain Privoxy and squid locally, then chain as browser ->
+squid -> privoxy is the recommended way.
+
+Assuming that Privoxy and squid run on the same box, your squid configuration
+could then look like this:
+
+ # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
+ cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
+
+ # Define ACL for protocol FTP
+ acl ftp proto FTP
+
+ # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
+ always_direct allow ftp
+
+ # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
+ never_direct allow all
+
+You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to squid's address
+and port. Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult http_port in
+squid.conf.
+
+You could just as well decide to only forward requests for Windows executables
+through a virus-scanning parent proxy, say, on antivir.example.com, port 8010:
+
+ forward / .
+ forward /.*\.(exe|com|dll|zip)$ antivir.example.com:8010
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.5.4. forwarded-connect-retries
+
+Specifies:
+
+ How often Privoxy retries if a forwarded connection request fails.
+
+Type of value:
+
+ Number of retries.
+
+Default value:
+
+ 0
+
+Effect if unset:
+
+ Forwarded connections are treated like direct connections and no retry
+ attempts are made.
+
+Notes:
+
+ forwarded-connect-retries is mainly interesting for socks4a connections,
+ where Privoxy can't detect why the connections failed. The connection might
+ have failed because of a DNS timeout in which case a retry makes sense, but
+ it might also have failed because the server doesn't exist or isn't
+ reachable. In this case the retry will just delay the appearance of
+ Privoxy's error message.
+
+ Only use this option, if you are getting many forwarding related error
+ messages, that go away when you try again manually. Start with a small
+ value and check Privoxy's logfile from time to time, to see how many
+ retries are usually needed.
+
+Examples:
+
+ forwarded-connect-retries 1
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+7.6. Windows GUI Options
+
+Privoxy has a number of options specific to the Windows GUI interface:
+
+If "activity-animation" is set to 1, the Privoxy icon will animate when
+"Privoxy" is active. To turn off, set to 0.
+
+ activity-animation 1
+
+
+If "log-messages" is set to 1, Privoxy will log messages to the console window:
+
+ log-messages 1
+
+
+If "log-buffer-size" is set to 1, the size of the log buffer, i.e. the amount
+of memory used for the log messages displayed in the console window, will be
+limited to "log-max-lines" (see below).
+
+Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and eat
+up all your memory!
+
+ log-buffer-size 1
+
+
+log-max-lines is the maximum number of lines held in the log buffer. See above.
+
+ log-max-lines 200
+
+
+If "log-highlight-messages" is set to 1, Privoxy will highlight portions of the
+log messages with a bold-faced font:
+
+ log-highlight-messages 1
+
+
+The font used in the console window:
+
+ log-font-name Comic Sans MS
+
+
+Font size used in the console window:
+
+ log-font-size 8
+
+
+"show-on-task-bar" controls whether or not Privoxy will appear as a button on
+the Task bar when minimized:
+
+ show-on-task-bar 0
+
+
+If "close-button-minimizes" is set to 1, the Windows close button will minimize
+Privoxy instead of closing the program (close with the exit option on the File
+menu).
+
+ close-button-minimizes 1
+
+
+The "hide-console" option is specific to the MS-Win console version of Privoxy.
+If this option is used, Privoxy will disconnect from and hide the command
+console.
+
+ #hide-console
+
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8. Actions Files
+
+The actions files are used to define what actions Privoxy takes for which URLs,
+and thus determines 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 a number of such actions, with a wide range of
+functionality. Each action does something a little different. These actions
+give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert our control,
+preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that their effects are
+aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
+
+There are three action files included with Privoxy with differing purposes:
+
+ * default.action - is the primary action file that sets the initial values
+ for all actions. It is intended to provide a base level of functionality
+ for Privoxy's array of features. So it is a set of broad rules that should
+ work reasonably well as-is for most users. This is the file that the
+ developers are keeping updated, and making available to users. The user's
+ preferences as set in standard.action, e.g. either Cautious (the default),
+ Medium, or Advanced (see below).
+
+ * user.action - is intended to be for local site preferences and exceptions.
+ As an example, if your ISP or your bank has specific requirements, and need
+ special handling, this kind of thing should go here. This file will not be
+ upgraded.
+
+ * standard.action - is used by the web based editor at http://
+ config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default, to set various pre-defined
+ sets of rules for the default actions section in default.action.
+
+ Edit Set to Cautious Set to Medium Set to Advanced
+
+ These have increasing levels of aggressiveness and have no influence on
+ your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the editor. A default
+ installation should be pre-set to Cautious (versions prior to 3.0.5 were
+ set to Medium). New users should try this for a while before adjusting the
+ settings to more aggressive levels.
+
+ The Edit button allows you to turn each action on/off individually for
+ fine-tuning. The Cautious button changes the actions list to low/safe
+ settings which will activate a minimal set of Privoxy's features, and
+ subsequently there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
+ Medium button sets the list to a medium level of ad blocking and a low
+ level set of privacy features. The Advanced button sets the list to a high
+ level of ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The
+ latter three buttons over-ride any changes via with the Edit button. More
+ fine-tuning can be done in the lower sections of this internal page.
+
+ It is not recommend to edit the standard.action file itself.
+
+ The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
+ standard.action are:
+
+ Table 1. Default Configurations
+
+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ |Feature |Cautious |Medium |Advanced |
+ |------------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------------|
+ |Ad-blocking |medium |high |high |
+ |Aggressiveness | | | |
+ |------------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------------|
+ |Ad-filtering by |no |yes |yes |
+ |size | | | |
+ |------------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------------|
+ |Ad-filtering by |no |no |yes |
+ |link | | | |
+ |------------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------------|
+ |Pop-up killing |blocks only |blocks only |all |
+ |------------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------------|
+ |Privacy Features |low |medium |medium/high |
+ |------------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------------|
+ |Cookie handling |none |session-only |kill |
+ |------------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------------|
+ |Referer forging |no |yes |yes |
+ |------------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------------|
+ |GIF de-animation |no |yes |yes |
+ |------------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------------|
+ |Fast redirects |no |no |yes |
+ |------------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------------|
+ |HTML taming |no |yes |yes |
+ |------------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------------|
+ |JavaScript taming |no |yes |yes |
+ |------------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------------|
+ |Web-bug killing |no |yes |yes |
+ |------------------+-----------------+------------------+-----------------|
+ |Image tag |no |no |yes |
+ |reordering | | | |
+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
+file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g. default.action is
+typically process before user.action). The content of these can all be viewed
+and edited from http://config.privoxy.org/show-status. The over-riding
+principle when applying actions, is that the last action that matches a given
+URL, wins. The broadest, most general rules go first (defined in
+default.action), followed by any exceptions (typically also in default.action),
+which are then followed lastly by any local preferences (typically in
+user.action). Generally, user.action has the last word.
+
+An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use "aliases"
+in an actions file, you have to place the (optional) alias section at the top
+of that file. Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally
+to all sites and pages (be very careful with using such a universal set in
+user.action or any other actions file after default.action, because it will
+override the result from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
+exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard user.action as an
+appendix to default.action, with the advantage that is a separate file, which
+makes preserving your personal settings across Privoxy upgrades easier.
+
+Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or just
+some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted or
+rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not written
+to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking fooled, and
+much more. See below for a complete list of actions.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.1. Finding the Right Mix
+
+Note that some actions, like cookie suppression or script disabling, may render
+some sites unusable that rely on these techniques to work properly. Finding the
+right mix of actions is not always easy and certainly a matter of personal
+taste. And, things can always change, requiring refinements in the
+configuration. In general, it can be said that the more "aggressive" your
+default settings (in the top section of the actions file) are, the more
+exceptions for "trusted" sites you 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 cookies for
+actually useful purposes, like maybe your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
+
+We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
+distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
+things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
+Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again
+:).
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.2. How to Edit
+
+The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by using our
+browser-based editor, which can be reached from http://config.privoxy.org/
+show-status. 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 "Cautious", "Medium" or "Advanced". Warning: the "Advanced" setting is
+more aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
+Experienced users only!
+
+If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit
+the the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at default.action
+which is richly commented with many good examples.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.3. How Actions are Applied to URLs
+
+Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections, like the "
+alias" sections which will be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on
+regular sections: They have a heading line (often split up to multiple lines
+for readability) which consist of a list of actions, separated by whitespace
+and enclosed in curly braces. Below that, there is a list of URL patterns, each
+on a separate line.
+
+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 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, the
+effects are aggregated. E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading
+line of { +handle-as-image }, then later another one with just { +block },
+resulting in both actions to apply. And there may well be cases where you will
+want to combine actions together. Such a section then might look like:
+
+ { +handle-as-image +block }
+ # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
+ banners.example.com
+ media.example.com/.*banners
+ .example.com/images/ads/
+
+You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting http://
+config.privoxy.org/show-url-info.
+
+Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, Troubleshooting:
+Anatomy of an Action section.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.4. Patterns
+
+As mentioned, Privoxy uses "patterns" to determine what actions might apply to
+which sites and pages your browser attempts to access. These "patterns" use
+wild card type pattern matching to achieve a high degree of flexibility. This
+allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match against many similar
+patterns.
+
+Generally, a Privoxy pattern has the form <domain>/<path>, where both the
+<domain> and <path> are optional. (This is why the special / pattern matches
+all URLs). Note that the protocol portion of the URL pattern (e.g. http://)
+should not be included in the pattern. This is assumed already!
+
+The pattern matching syntax is different for the domain and path parts of the
+URL. The domain part uses a simple globbing type matching technique, while the
+path part uses a more flexible "Regular Expressions (PCRE)" based syntax.
+
+www.example.com/
+
+ is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to www.example.com,
+ regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
+ this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
+ simple example.com is different and would NOT match.
+
+www.example.com
+
+ means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing / may be
+ omitted.
+
+www.example.com/index.html
+
+ matches only the single document /index.html on www.example.com.
+
+/index.html
+
+ matches the document /index.html, regardless of the domain, i.e. on any web
+ server anywhere.
+
+index.html
+
+ matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and there
+ is no top-level domain called .html. So its a mistake.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.4.1. The Domain Pattern
+
+The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the domain
+starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end. For example:
+
+.example.com
+
+ matches any domain that ENDS in .example.com
+
+www.
+
+ matches any domain that STARTS with www.
+
+.example.
+
+ matches any domain that CONTAINS .example.. And, by the way, also included
+ would be any files or documents that exist within that domain since no path
+ limitations are specified. (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that
+ contains example as a domain.) This might be www.example.com,
+ news.example.de, or www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl for instance. All these
+ cases are matched.
+
+Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
+themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards: "*"
+represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is equivalent to the
+"Regular Expression" based syntax of ".*"), "?" represents any single character
+(this is equivalent to the regular expression syntax of a simple "."), and you
+can define "character classes" in square brackets which is similar to the same
+regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
+
+ad*.example.com
+
+ matches "adserver.example.com", "ads.example.com", etc but not
+ "sfads.example.com"
+
+*ad*.example.com
+
+ matches all of the above, and then some.
+
+.?pix.com
+
+ matches www.ipix.com, pictures.epix.com, a.b.c.d.e.upix.com etc.
+
+www[1-9a-ez].example.c*
+
+ matches www1.example.com, www4.example.cc, wwwd.example.cy,
+ wwwz.example.com etc., but not wwww.example.com.
+
+While flexibile, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression
+based syntax.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.4.2. The Path Pattern
+
+Privoxy uses Perl compatible (PCRE) "Regular Expression" based syntax (through
+the PCRE library) for matching the path portion (after the slash), and is thus
+more flexible.
+
+There is an Appendix with a brief quick-start into regular expressions, and
+full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line
+at http://www.pcre.org/man.txt. You might also find the Perl man page on
+regular expressions (man perlre) useful, which is available on-line at http://
+perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html.
+
+Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the "/", i.e. it
+matches as if it would start with a "^" (regular expression speak for the
+beginning of a line).
+
+Please also note that matching in the path is CASE INSENSITIVE by default, but
+you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the "(?
+-i)" switch: www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.* will match only documents whose
+path starts with PaTtErN in exactly this capitalization.
+
+.example.com/.*
+
+ Is equivalent to just ".example.com", since any documents within that
+ domain are matched with or without the ".*" regular expression. This is
+ redundant
+
+.example.com/.*/index.html
+
+ Will match any page in the domain of "example.com" that is named
+ "index.html", and that is part of some path. For example, it matches
+ "www.example.com/testing/index.html" but NOT "www.example.com/index.html"
+ because the regular expression called for at least two "/'s", thus the path
+ requirement. It also would match "www.example.com/testing/index_html",
+ because of the special meta-character ".".
+
+.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html
+
+ This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page named
+ "index.html" regardless of path which in this case can have one or more "/
+ 's". And this one must contain exactly ".html" (but does not have to end
+ with that!).
+
+.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)
+
+ This regular expression will match any path of "example.com" that contains
+ any of the words "ads", "banner", "banners" (because of the "?") or "junk".
+ The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
+
+.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$
+
+ This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
+ ".jpg", ".jpeg", ".gif" or ".png". So this one is limited to common image
+ formats.
+
+There are many, many good examples to be found in default.action, and more
+tutorials below in Appendix on regular expressions.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5. Actions
+
+All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
+somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a "+", and
+turned off if preceded with a "-". So a +action means "do that action", e.g.
++block means "please block URLs that match the following patterns", and -block
+means "don't block URLs that match the following patterns, even if +block
+previously applied."
+
+Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces
+and separated by whitespace, like in {+some-action -some-other-action
+{some-parameter}}, followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which
+they apply. Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up
+a section of the actions file.
+
+Actions fall into three categories:
+
+ * Boolean, i.e the action can only be "enabled" or "disabled". Syntax:
+
+ +name # enable action name
+ -name # disable action name
+
+ Example: +block
+
+ * Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of
+ action. Syntax:
+
+ +name{param} # enable action and set parameter to param,
+ # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
+ -name # disable action. The parameter can be omitted
+
+ Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized
+ action, the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are
+ simply ignored.
+
+ Example: +hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }
+
+ * Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions, but they behave
+ differently: If the action applies multiple times to the same URL, but with
+ different parameters, all the parameters from all matches are remembered.
+ This is used for actions that can be executed for the same request
+ repeatedly, like adding multiple headers, or filtering through multiple
+ filters. Syntax:
+
+ +name{param} # enable action and add param to the list of parameters
+ -name{param} # remove the parameter param from the list of parameters
+ # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
+ -name # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list
+
+ Examples: +add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text} and +filter{html-annoyances}
+
+If nothing is specified in any actions file, no "actions" are taken. So in this
+case Privoxy would just be a normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You
+must specifically enable the privacy and blocking features you need (although
+the provided default actions files will give a good starting point).
+
+Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions to any rules
+you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or in a file that is
+processed later when using multiple actions files such as user.action). For
+multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
+Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in config (the
+default installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any
+given URL pattern to match more than one pattern and thus more than one set of
+actions! Last match wins.
+
+The list of valid Privoxy actions are:
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.1. add-header
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Confuse log analysis, custom applications
+
+Effect:
+
+ Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
+
+Type:
+
+ Multi-value.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not
+ checked. It is recommended that you use the "X-" prefix for custom headers.
+
+Notes:
+
+ This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
+ headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
+ "HTTP headers" are, you definitely don't need to worry about this one.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ +add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.2. block
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Block ads or other unwanted content
+
+Effect:
+
+ Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
+ requests are trapped by Privoxy and the requested URL is never retrieved,
+ but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
+ the handle-as-image, set-image-blocker, and handle-as-empty-document
+ actions.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ Privoxy sends a special "BLOCKED" page for requests to blocked pages. This
+ page contains links to find out why the request was blocked, and a
+ click-through to the blocked content (the latter only if compiled with the
+ force feature enabled). The "BLOCKED" page adapts to the available screen
+ space -- it displays full-blown if space allows, or miniaturized and
+ text-only if loaded into a small frame or window. If you are using Privoxy
+ right now, you can take a look at the "BLOCKED" page.
+
+ A very important exception occurs if both block and handle-as-image, apply
+ to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
+ set-image-blocker (see below) also applies, the type of image will be
+ determined by its parameter, if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is
+ sent.
+
+ It is important to understand this process, in order to understand how
+ Privoxy deals with ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core
+ feature, and one upon which various other features depend.
+
+ The filter action can perform a very similar task, by "blocking" banner
+ images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
+ document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
+ Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse
+ the two.
+
+Example usage (section):
+
+ {+block}
+ # Block and replace with "blocked" page
+ .nasty-stuff.example.com
+
+ {+block +handle-as-image}
+ # Block and replace with image
+ .ad.doubleclick.net
+ .ads.r.us/banners/
+
+ {+block +handle-as-empty-document}
+ # Block and then ignore
+ adserver.exampleclick.net/.*\.js$
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.3. content-type-overwrite
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's
+ rendering mode
+
+Effect:
+
+ Replaces the "Content-Type:" HTTP server header.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ Any string.
+
+Notes:
+
+ The "Content-Type:" 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.
+
+ The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode the browser
+ chooses. If XHTML is delivered as "text/html", many browsers treat it as
+ yet another broken HTML document. If it is send as "application/xml",
+ browsers with XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
+
+ If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
+ "Content-Type: text/html", you can use Privoxy to overwrite it with
+ "application/xml" and validate the web master's claim inside your
+ XHTML-supporting browser. If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will
+ complain loudly.
+
+ 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 "text/html" and have it rendered as broken
+ HTML document.
+
+ By default content-type-overwrite only replaces "Content-Type:" headers
+ that look like some kind of text. If you want to overwrite it
+ unconditionally, you have to combine it with force-text-mode. This
+ limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
+
+ Most of the time it's easier to enable filter-server-headers 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.
+
+ Of course you can apply content-type-overwrite to a whole site and then
+ make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot more work to get the same
+ precision.
+
+Example usage (sections):
+
+ # 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
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.4. crunch-client-header
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Remove a client header Privoxy has no dedicated action for.
+
+Effect:
+
+ Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user
+ supplied as parameter.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ Any string.
+
+Notes:
+
+ This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
+ Privoxy action exists. Privoxy will remove every client header that
+ contains the string you supplied as parameter.
+
+ Regular expressions are not supported and you can't use this action to
+ block different headers in the same request, unless they contain the same
+ string.
+
+ crunch-client-header 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 filter-client-headers and create your own filter.
+
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | Warning |
+ |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
+ |Don't block any header without understanding the consequences. |
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+Example usage (section):
+
+ # Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
+ {+crunch-client-header {Privacy-Violation:}}
+ /
+
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.5. crunch-if-none-match
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.
+
+Effect:
+
+ Deletes the "If-None-Match:" HTTP client header.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ Removing the "If-None-Match:" HTTP client header is useful for filter
+ testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
+ code "304" which would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
+
+ It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
+ replacement.
+
+ Blocking the "If-None-Match:" header shouldn't cause any caching problems,
+ as long as the "If-Modified-Since:" header isn't blocked as well.
+
+ It is recommended to use this action together with hide-if-modified-since
+ and overwrite-last-modified.
+
+Example usage (section):
+
+ # Let the browser revalidate cached documents without being tracked across sessions
+ {+hide-if-modified-since {-60} \
+ +overwrite-last-modified {randomize} \
+ +crunch-if-none-match}
+ /
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.6. crunch-incoming-cookies
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
+
+Effect:
+
+ Deletes any "Set-Cookie:" HTTP headers from server replies.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ This action is only concerned with incoming cookies. For outgoing cookies,
+ use crunch-outgoing-cookies. Use both to disable cookies completely.
+
+ It makes no sense at all to use this action in conjunction with the
+ session-cookies-only action, since it would prevent the session cookies
+ from being set. See also filter-content-cookies.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ +crunch-incoming-cookies
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.7. crunch-server-header
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Remove a server header Privoxy has no dedicated action for.
+
+Effect:
+
+ Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user
+ supplied as parameter.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ Any string.
+
+Notes:
+
+ This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
+ Privoxy action exists. Privoxy will remove every server header that
+ contains the string you supplied as parameter.
+
+ Regular expressions are not supported and you can't use this action to
+ block different headers in the same request, unless they contain the same
+ string.
+
+ crunch-server-header 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 filter-server-headers and create your own filter.
+
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | Warning |
+ |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
+ |Don't block any header without understanding the consequences. |
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+Example usage (section):
+
+ # Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
+ {+crunch-server-header {no-cache}}
+ /
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.8. crunch-outgoing-cookies
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
+
+Effect:
+
+ Deletes any "Cookie:" HTTP headers from client requests.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ This action is only concerned with outgoing cookies. For incoming cookies,
+ use crunch-incoming-cookies. Use both to disable cookies completely.
+
+ It makes no sense at all to use this action in conjunction with the
+ session-cookies-only action, since it would prevent the session cookies
+ from being read.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ +crunch-outgoing-cookies
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.9. deanimate-gifs
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.
+
+Effect:
+
+ De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ "last" or "first"
+
+Notes:
+
+ This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
+ the option "first" is given, the first frame of the animation is used as
+ the replacement. If "last" 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).
+
+ 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.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ +deanimate-gifs{last}
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.10. downgrade-http-version
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1
+
+Effect:
+
+ Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ This is a left-over from the time when Privoxy 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.
+
+Example usage (section):
+
+ {+downgrade-http-version}
+ problem-host.example.com
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.11. fast-redirects
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.
+
+Effect:
+
+ Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting the
+ redirection server first.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ + "simple-check" to just search for the string "http://" to detect
+ redirection URLs.
+
+ + "check-decoded-url" to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching for
+ redirection URLs.
+
+Notes:
+
+ 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: "http://www.example.org/
+ click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/".
+
+ 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.
+
+ 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:
+
+ 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.
+ fast-redirects 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.
+
+ Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL
+ parameter. The URL: "http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//
+ www.example.net/&foo=bar". contains the redirection URL "http://
+ www.example.net/", followed by another parameter. fast-redirects doesn't
+ know that and will cause a redirect to "http://www.example.net/&foo=bar".
+ Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be
+ silently ignored or lead to a "page not found" error. It is possible to fix
+ these redirected requests with filter-client-headers but it requires a
+ little effort.
+
+ To detect a redirection URL, fast-redirects only looks for the string
+ "http://", either in plain text (invalid but often used) or encoded as
+ "http%3a//". 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 fast-redirects is fooled and the request reaches the redirection
+ server where it probably gets logged.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
+ .example.com
+
+ { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
+ another.example.com/testing
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.12. filter
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
+ do fun text replacements, etc.
+
+Effect:
+
+ 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
+ text/plain MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.) By default,
+ filtering works only on the raw document content itself (that which can be
+ seen with View Source), not the headers.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ The name of a filter, as defined in the filter file. Filters can be defined
+ in one or more files as defined by the filterfile option in the config file
+ . default.filter is the collection of filters supplied by the developers.
+ Locally defined filters should go in their own file, such as user.filter.
+
+ When used in its negative form, and without parameters, all filtering is
+ completely disabled.
+
+Notes:
+
+ 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.
+
+ 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.
+
+ "Rolling your own" filters requires a knowledge of "Regular Expressions"
+ and "HTML". This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
+ Use with caution.
+
+ The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the buffer-limit
+ option in the main config file. The default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this
+ limit is exceeded, the buffered data, and all pending data, is passed
+ through unfiltered.
+
+ Inappropriate 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 -filter exceptions.
+
+ At this time, Privoxy cannot uncompress compressed documents. If you want
+ filtering to work on all documents, even those that would normally be sent
+ compressed, use the prevent-compression action in conjunction with filter.
+
+ Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the block 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.
+
+ Feedback with suggestions for new or improved filters is particularly
+ welcome!
+
+ The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
+ predefined filter. There are more verbose explanations of what these
+ filters do in the filter file chapter.
+
+Example usage (with filters from the distribution default.filter file). See the
+ Predefined Filters section for more explanation on each:
+
+ +filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
+
+ +filter{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites)
+
+ +filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse
+
+ +filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content
+
+ +filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)
+
+ +filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows
+
+ +filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML
+
+ +filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective
+
+ +filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size
+
+ +filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers
+
+ +filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
+
+ +filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap
+
+ +filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves
+
+ +filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizeable
+
+ +filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets
+
+ +filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects
+
+ +filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies savable
+
+ +filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!
+
+ +filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering (demo only)
+
+ +filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.13. filter-client-headers
+
+Typical use:
+
+ To apply filtering to the client's (browser's) headers
+
+Effect:
+
+ By default, Privoxy's filters only apply to the document content itself.
+ This will extend those filters to include the client's headers as well.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ Regular expressions can be used to filter headers as well. Check your
+ filters closely before activating this action, as it can easily lead to
+ broken requests.
+
+ These filters are applied to each header on its own, not to them all at
+ once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside you
+ can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
+
+ The filters are used after the other header actions have finished and can
+ use their output as input.
+
+ Whenever possible one should specify ^, $, the whole header name and the
+ colon, to make sure the filter doesn't cause havoc to other headers or the
+ page itself. For example if you want to transform Galeon User-Agents to
+ Firefox User-Agents you shouldn't use:
+
+ s@Galeon/\d\.\d\.\d @@
+
+ but:
+
+ s@^(User-Agent:.*) Galeon/\d\.\d\.\d (Firefox/\d\.\d\.\d\.\d)$@$1 $2@
+
+Example usage (section):
+
+ {+filter-client-headers +filter{test_filter}}
+ problem-host.example.com
+
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.14. filter-server-headers
+
+Typical use:
+
+ To apply filtering to the server's headers
+
+Effect:
+
+ By default, Privoxy's filters only apply to the document content itself.
+ This will extend those filters to include the server's headers as well.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ Similar to filter-client-headers, but works on the server instead. To
+ filter both server and client, use both.
+
+ As with filter-client-headers, check your filters before activating this
+ action, as it can easily lead to broken requests.
+
+ These filters are applied to each header on its own, not to them all at
+ once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside you
+ can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
+
+ The filters are used after the other header actions have finished and can
+ use their output as input.
+
+ Remember too, whenever possible one should specify ^, $, the whole header
+ name and the colon, to make sure the filter doesn't cause havoc to other
+ headers or the page itself. See above for example.
+
+Example usage (section):
+
+ {+filter-server-headers +filter{test_filter}}
+ problem-host.example.com
+
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.15. force-text-mode
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Force Privoxy to treat a document as if it was in some kind of text format.
+
+Effect:
+
+ Declares a document as text, even if the "Content-Type:" isn't detected as
+ such.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ As explained above, Privoxy tries to only filter files that are in some
+ kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to content-type-overwrite.
+ force-text-mode declares a document as text, without looking at the
+ "Content-Type:" first.
+
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | Warning |
+ |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
+ |Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data |
+ |with regular expressions can cause file damage. |
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+Example usage:
+
+ +force-text-mode
+
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.16. handle-as-empty-document
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents if they get blocked
+
+Effect:
+
+ This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs. If
+ the block action also applies, the presence or absence of this mark decides
+ whether an HTML "blocked" page, or an empty document will be sent to the
+ client as a substitute for the blocked content. The empty document isn't
+ literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents are
+ blocked with Privoxy's default HTML page; this option can be used to
+ silence them.
+
+ The content type for the empty document can be specified with
+ content-type-overwrite{}, but usually this isn't necessary.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ # 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$
+
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.17. handle-as-image
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images if they
+ do get blocked, rather than HTML pages)
+
+Effect:
+
+ This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as
+ images. If the block action also applies, the presence or absence of this
+ mark decides whether an HTML "blocked" page, or a replacement image (as
+ determined by the set-image-blocker action) will be sent to the client as a
+ substitute for the blocked content.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ The below generic example section is actually part of default.action. It
+ marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and
+ should be left intact.
+
+ Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in
+ conjunction with block, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
+ reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
+
+ 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 handle-as-image in this situation will not
+ replace the ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
+
+Example usage (sections):
+
+ # 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
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.18. hide-accept-language
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Pretend to use different language settings.
+
+Effect:
+
+ Deletes or replaces the "Accept-Language:" HTTP header in client requests.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ Keyword: "block", or any user defined value.
+
+Notes:
+
+ Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a foreign
+ User-Agent set with hide-user-agent more believable.
+
+ However some sites with content in different languages check the
+ "Accept-Language:" to decide which one to take by default. Sometimes it
+ isn't possible to later switch to another language without changing the
+ "Accept-Language:" header first.
+
+ Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the "Accept-Language:"
+ header to languages you understand, or to languages that aren't wide
+ spread.
+
+ Before setting the "Accept-Language:" 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.
+
+Example usage (section):
+
+ # 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} \
+ }
+ /
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.19. hide-content-disposition
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.
+
+Effect:
+
+ Deletes or replaces the "Content-Disposition:" HTTP header set by some
+ servers.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ Keyword: "block", or any user defined value.
+
+Notes:
+
+ Some servers set the "Content-Disposition:" HTTP header for documents they
+ assume you want to save locally before viewing them. The
+ "Content-Disposition:" header contains the file name the browser is
+ supposed to use by default.
+
+ In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
+ just view the document, without downloading it first, even if it's just a
+ simple text file or an image.
+
+ Removing the "Content-Disposition:" header helps to prevent this annoyance,
+ but some browsers additionally check the "Content-Type:" 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.
+
+ 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.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ # Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
+ {-filter\
+ +content-type-overwrite {text/plain}\
+ +hide-content-disposition {block} }
+ .sourceforge.net/tracker/download.php
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.20. hide-if-modified-since
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.
+
+Effect:
+
+ Deletes the "If-Modified-Since:" HTTP client header or modifies its value.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ Keyword: "block", or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
+
+Notes:
+
+ Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force
+ a real reload instead of getting status code "304", which would cause the
+ browser to use a cached copy of the page.
+
+ Instead of removing the header, hide-if-modified-since can also add or
+ subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value. You specify a
+ range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and Privoxy
+ does the rest. A negative value means subtracting, a positive value adding.
+
+ Randomizing the value of the "If-Modified-Since:" makes sure it isn't used
+ as a cookie replacement, but you will run into caching problems if the
+ random range is too high.
+
+ It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
+ overwrite-last-modified handle the greater changes.
+
+ It is also recommended to use this action together with
+ crunch-if-none-match.
+
+Example usage (section):
+
+ # Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
+ {+hide-if-modified-since {-60}\
+ +overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
+ +crunch-if-none-match}
+ /
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.21. hide-forwarded-for-headers
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Improve privacy by hiding the true source of the request
+
+Effect:
+
+ Deletes any existing "X-Forwarded-for:" HTTP header from client requests,
+ and prevents adding a new one.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ It is fairly safe to leave this on.
+
+ This action is scheduled for improvement: It should be able to generate
+ forged "X-Forwarded-for:" headers using random IP addresses from a
+ specified network, to make successive requests from the same client look
+ like requests from a pool of different users sharing the same proxy.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ +hide-forwarded-for-headers
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.22. hide-from-header
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address
+
+Effect:
+
+ Deletes any existing "From:" HTTP header, or replaces it with the specified
+ string.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ Keyword: "block", or any user defined value.
+
+Notes:
+
+ The keyword "block" will completely remove the header (not to be confused
+ with the block action).
+
+ Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
+ server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
+ is actually used by a real person.
+
+ This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send "From:"
+ headers anymore.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ +hide-from-header{block}
+
+ or
+
+ +hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.23. hide-referrer
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site
+
+Effect:
+
+ Deletes the "Referer:" (sic) HTTP header from the client request, or
+ replaces it with a forged one.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ + "conditional-block" to delete the header completely if the host has
+ changed.
+
+ + "block" to delete the header unconditionally.
+
+ + "forge" to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are
+ talking to.
+
+ + Any other string to set a user defined referrer.
+
+Notes:
+
+ conditional-block 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.
+
+ Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host allows the
+ server owner to see the visitor's "click path", 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.
+
+ 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.
+
+ Both conditional-block and forge 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.
+
+ hide-referer is an alternate spelling of hide-referrer and the two can be
+ can be freely substituted with each other. ("referrer" is the correct
+ English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it requires it
+ to be spelled as "referer".)
+
+Example usage:
+
+ +hide-referrer{forge}
+
+ or
+
+ +hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.24. hide-user-agent
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Conceal your type of browser and client operating system
+
+Effect:
+
+ Replaces the value of the "User-Agent:" HTTP header in client requests with
+ the specified value.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ Any user-defined string.
+
+Notes:
+
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+ | Warning |
+ |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
+ |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 NOT the right thing to do: good |
+ |web sites work browser-independently). |
+ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+ Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
+ browsers will access the same Privoxy is not recommended. In single-user,
+ single-browser setups, you might use it to delete your OS version
+ information from the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known
+ bugs for your OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to
+ access sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
+ reason in some cases). Example of this: some MSN sites will not let Mozilla
+ enter, yet forging to a Netscape 6.1 user-agent works just fine. (Must be
+ just a silly MS goof, I'm sure :-).
+
+ This action is scheduled for improvement.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ +hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.25. inspect-jpegs
+
+Typical use:
+
+ To protect against the MS buffer over-run in JPEG processing
+
+Effect:
+
+ Protect against a known exploit
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ 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.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ +inspect-jpegs
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.26. kill-popups
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Eliminate those annoying pop-up windows (deprecated)
+
+Effect:
+
+ While loading the document, replace JavaScript code that opens pop-up
+ windows with (syntactically neutral) dummy code on the fly.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ This action is basically a built-in, hardwired special-purpose filter
+ action, but there are important differences: For kill-popups, the document
+ need not be buffered, so it can be incrementally rendered while
+ downloading. But kill-popups doesn't catch as many pop-ups as filter
+ {all-popups} does and is not as smart as filter{unsolicited-popups} is.
+
+ Think of it as a fast and efficient replacement for a filter that you can
+ use if you don't want any filtering at all. Note that it doesn't make sense
+ to combine it with any filter action, since as soon as one filter applies,
+ the whole document needs to be buffered anyway, which destroys the
+ advantage of the kill-popups action over its filter equivalent.
+
+ Killing all pop-ups unconditionally is problematic. Many shops and banks
+ rely on pop-ups to display forms, shopping carts etc, and the filter
+ {unsolicited-popups} does a fairly good job of catching only the unwanted
+ ones.
+
+ If the only kind of pop-ups that you want to kill are exit consoles (those
+ really nasty windows that appear when you close an other one), you might
+ want to use filter{js-annoyances} instead.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ +kill-popups
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.27. limit-connect
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Prevent abuse of Privoxy as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted
+ sites
+
+Effect:
+
+ Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes,
+ with the minimum defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
+
+Notes:
+
+ By default, i.e. if no limit-connect action applies, Privoxy only allows
+ HTTP CONNECT requests to port 443 (the standard, secure HTTPS port). Use
+ limit-connect if more fine-grained control is desired for some or all
+ destinations.
+
+ The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
+ ("https://" URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: the proxy connects
+ to the server on the specified port, and then short-circuits its
+ connections to the client and to the remote server. This can be a big
+ security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be abused as TCP relays
+ very easily.
+
+ Privoxy 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
+ treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks as well, to be able to quickly create
+ exceptions.
+
+Example usages:
+
+ +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
+ +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.28. prevent-compression
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be passed
+ through filters.
+
+Effect:
+
+ Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed
+ transfer.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which is
+ generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But for the filter,
+ deanimate-gifs and kill-popups actions to work, Privoxy needs access to the
+ uncompressed data. Unfortunately, Privoxy can't yet(!) uncompress, filter,
+ and re-compress the content on the fly. So if you want to ensure that all
+ websites, including those that normally compress, can be filtered, you need
+ to use this action.
+
+ This will slow down transfers from those websites, though. If you use any
+ of the above-mentioned actions, you will typically want to use
+ prevent-compression in conjunction with them.
+
+ Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for
+ uncompressed documents correctly (they send an empty document body). If you
+ use prevent-compression per default, you'll have to add exceptions for
+ those sites. See the example for how to do that.
+
+Example usage (sections):
+
+ # Set default:
+ #
+ {+prevent-compression}
+ / # Match all sites
+
+ # Make exceptions for ill sites:
+ #
+ {-prevent-compression}
+ www.debianhelp.org
+ www.pclinuxonline.com
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.29. overwrite-last-modified
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.
+
+Effect:
+
+ Deletes the "Last-Modified:" HTTP server header or modifies its value.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ One of the keywords: "block", "reset-to-request-time" and "randomize"
+
+Notes:
+
+ Removing the "Last-Modified:" header is useful for filter testing, where
+ you want to force a real reload instead of getting status code "304", which
+ would cause the browser to reuse the old version of the page.
+
+ The "randomize" option overwrites the value of the "Last-Modified:" 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
+ "Last-Modified:" header to track visits without using cookies. "Randomize"
+ makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
+
+ "reset-to-request-time" overwrites the value of the "Last-Modified:" header
+ with the current time. You could use this option together with
+ hided-if-modified-since to further customize your random range.
+
+ The preferred parameter here is "randomize". It is safe to use, as long as
+ the time settings are more or less correct. If the server sets the
+ "Last-Modified:" 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 hided-if-modified-since, just to be sure.
+
+ It is also recommended to use this action together with
+ crunch-if-none-match.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ # Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
+ {+hide-if-modified-since {-60}\
+ +overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
+ +crunch-if-none-match}
+ /
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.30. redirect
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Redirect requests to other sites.
+
+Effect:
+
+ Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved to another
+ location and the browser should get it from there.
+
+Type:
+
+ Parameterized
+
+Parameter:
+
+ Any URL.
+
+Notes:
+
+ This action is useful to replace whole documents with ones of your
+ choosing. This can be used to enforce safe surfing, or just as a simple
+ convenience.
+
+ You can do the same by combining the actions block, handle-as-image and
+ set-image-blocker{URL}. It doesn't sound right for non-image documents, and
+ that's why this action was created.
+
+ This action will be ignored if you use it together with block.
+
+Example usages:
+
+ # Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
+ { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
+ example.com/stylesheet.css
+
+ # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
+ { +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
+ a
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.31. send-vanilla-wafer
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Feed log analysis scripts with useless data.
+
+Effect:
+
+ Sends a cookie with each request stating that you do not accept any
+ copyright on cookies sent to you, and asking the site operator not to track
+ you.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ The vanilla wafer is a (relatively) unique header and could conceivably be
+ used to track you.
+
+ This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ +send-vanilla-wafer
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.32. send-wafer
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Send custom cookies or feed log analysis scripts with even more useless
+ data.
+
+Effect:
+
+ Sends a custom, user-defined cookie with each request.
+
+Type:
+
+ Multi-value.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ A string of the form "name=value".
+
+Notes:
+
+ Being multi-valued, multiple instances of this action can apply to the same
+ request, resulting in multiple cookies being sent.
+
+ This action is rarely used and not enabled in the default configuration.
+
+Example usage (section):
+
+ {+send-wafer{UsingPrivoxy=true}}
+ my-internal-testing-server.void
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+8.5.33. session-cookies-only
+
+Typical use:
+
+ Allow only temporary "session" cookies (for the current browser session
+ only).
+
+Effect:
+
+ Deletes the "expires" field from "Set-Cookie:" server headers. Most
+ browsers will not store such cookies permanently and forget them in between
+ sessions.
+
+Type:
+
+ Boolean.
+
+Parameter:
+
+ N/A
+
+Notes:
+
+ This is less strict than crunch-incoming-cookies / crunch-outgoing-cookies
+ and allows you to browse websites that insist or rely on setting cookies,
+ without compromising your privacy too badly.
+
+ Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed
+ by session-cookies-only and will forget about them between sessions. This
+ makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require
+ cookies so that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned
+ on for all sites, and is the recommended setting.
+
+ It makes no sense at all to use session-cookies-only together with
+ crunch-incoming-cookies or crunch-outgoing-cookies. If you do, cookies will
+ be plainly killed.
+
+ Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an
+ "expires" field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out
+ to be sure.
+
+ This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
+ previously by the browser before starting Privoxy. These would have to be
+ removed manually.
+
+ Privoxy also uses the content-cookies filter to block some types of
+ cookies. Content cookies are not effected by session-cookies-only.
+
+Example usage:
+
+ +session-cookies-only
+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.2.4. Forwarding
+8.5.34. set-image-blocker
-This feature allows chaining of HTTP requests via multiple proxies. It can be
-used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when accessing specific
-domains by routing requests to those domains to a special purpose filtering
-proxy such as lpwa.com. Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing.
-
-It can also be used in an environment with multiple networks to route requests
-via multiple gateways allowing transparent access to multiple networks without
-having to modify browser configurations.
-
-Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. Junkbuster SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A. The
-difference is that SOCKS 4A will resolve the target hostname using DNS on the
-SOCKS server, not our local DNS client.
-
-The syntax of each line is:
-
- forward target_domain[:port] http_proxy_host[:port]
- forward-socks4 target_domain[:port] socks_proxy_host[:port] http_proxy_host[:
-port]
- forward-socks4a target_domain[:port] socks_proxy_host[:port] http_proxy_host[:
-port]
+Typical use:
-
-If http_proxy_host is ".", then requests are not forwarded to a HTTP proxy but
-are made directly to the web servers.
-
-Lines are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
-
-There is an implicit line equivalent to the following, which specifies that
-anything not finding a match on the list is to go out without forwarding or
-gateway protocol, like so:
-
- forward .* . # implicit
+ Choose the replacement for blocked images
-
-In the following common configuration, everything goes to Lucent's LPWA, except
-SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
-
- forward .* lpwa.com:8000
- forward :443 .
+Effect:
-
-See the FAQ for instructions on how to automate the login procedure for LPWA.
-Some users have reported difficulties related to LPWA's use of "." as the last
-element of the domain, and have said that this can be fixed with this:
-
- forward lpwa. lpwa.com:8000
+ This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If both block and
+ handle-as-image also apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an
+ image, then the parameter of this action decides what will be sent as a
+ replacement.
-
-(NOTE: the syntax for specifying target_domain has changed since the previous
-paragraph was written -- it will not work now. More information is welcome.)
-
-In this fictitious example, everything goes via an ISP's caching proxy, except
-requests to that ISP:
-
- forward .* caching.myisp.net:8000
- forward myisp.net .
+Type:
-
-For the @home network, we're told the forwarding configuration is this:
-
- forward .* proxy:8080
+ Parameterized.
-
-Also, we're told they insist on getting cookies and JavaScript, so you should
-add home.com to the cookie file. We consider JavaScript a security risk. Java
-need not be enabled.
-
-In this example direct connections are made to all "internal" domains, but
-everything else goes through Lucent's LPWA by way of the company's SOCKS
-gateway to the Internet.
-
- forward-socks4 .* lpwa.com:8000 firewall.my_company.com:1080
- forward my_company.com .
+Parameter:
-
-This is how you could set up a site that always uses SOCKS but no forwarders:
-
- forward-socks4a .* . firewall.my_company.com:1080
+ + "pattern" to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is
+ visually decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners
+ were busted.
+
+ + "blank" to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners
+ disappear completely, but makes it hard to detect where Privoxy has
+ blocked images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if
+ Privoxy has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
+
+ + "target-url" to send a redirect to target-url. You can redirect to any
+ image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via "file:///" URL. (But
+ note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
+
+ A good application of redirects is to use special Privoxy-built-in
+ URLs, which send the built-in images, as target-url. This has the same
+ visual effect as specifying "blank" or "pattern" in the first place,
+ but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of
+ requesting it over and over again.
+
+Notes:
-
-An advanced example for network administrators:
-
-If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content to
-their subscribers, you can configure forwarding to pass requests to the
-specific host that's connected to that ISP so that everybody can see all of the
-content on all of the ISPs.
-
-This is a bit tricky, but here's an example:
-
-host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.com. And host-b has a PPP connection to
-isp-b.com. host-a can run a Junkbuster proxy with forwarding like this:
-
- forward .* .
- forward isp-b.com host-b:8118
+ The URLs for the built-in images are "http://config.privoxy.org/
+ send-banner?type=type", where type is either "blank" or "pattern".
-
-host-b can run a Junkbuster proxy with forwarding like this:
-
- forward .* .
- forward isp-a.com host-a:8118
+ There is a third (advanced) type, called "auto". It is NOT to be used in
+ set-image-blocker, but meant for use from filters. Auto will select the
+ type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an
+ image.
-
-Now, anyone on the Internet (including users on host-a and host-b) can set
-their browser's proxy to either host-a or host-b and be able to browse the
-content on isp-a or isp-b.
-
-Here's another practical example, for University of Kent at Canterbury students
-with a network connection in their room, who need to use the University's Squid
-web cache.
-
- forward *. ssbcache.ukc.ac.uk:3128 # Use the proxy, except for:
- forward .ukc.ac.uk . # Anything on the same domain as us
- forward * . # Host with no domain specified
- forward 129.12.*.* . # A dotted IP on our /16 network.
- forward 127.*.*.* . # Loopback address
- forward localhost.localdomain . # Loopback address
- forward www.ukc.mirror.ac.uk . # Specific host
+Example usage:
-
-If you intend to chain Junkbuster and squid locally, then chain as browser ->
-squid -> junkbuster is the recommended way.
-
-Your squid configuration could then look like this:
-
- # Define junkbuster as parent cache
-
- cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 0 no-query
-
- # Define ACL for protocol FTP
- acl FTP proto FTP
-
- # Do not forward ACL FTP to junkbuster
- always_direct allow FTP
-
- # Do not forward ACL CONNECT (https) to junkbuster
- always_direct allow CONNECT
-
- # Forward the rest to junkbuster
- never_direct allow all
+ Built-in pattern:
+
+ +set-image-blocker{pattern}
+
+ Redirect to the BSD devil:
+
+ +set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}
+
+ Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
+
+ +set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}
-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.2.5. Windows GUI Options
+8.5.35. treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks
-Junkbuster has a number of options specific to the Windows GUI interface:
-
-If "activity-animation" is set to 1, the Junkbuster icon will animate when
-"Junkbuster" is active. To turn off, set to 0.
-
- activity-animation 1
+Typical use:
-
-If "log-messages" is set to 1, Junkbuster will log messages to the console
-window:
-
- log-messages 1
+ Block forbidden connects with an easy to find error message.
-
-If "log-buffer-size" is set to 1, the size of the log buffer, i.e. the amount
-of memory used for the log messages displayed in the console window, will be
-limited to "log-max-lines" (see below).
-
-Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and eat
-up all your memory!
-
- log-buffer-size 1
+Effect:
-
-log-max-lines is the maximum number of lines held in the log buffer. See above.
-
- log-max-lines 200
+ If this action is enabled, Privoxy no longer makes a difference between
+ forbidden connects and ordinary blocks.
-
-If "log-highlight-messages" is set to 1, Junkbuster will highlight portions of
-the log messages with a bold-faced font:
-
- log-highlight-messages 1
+Type:
-
-The font used in the console window:
-
- log-font-name Comic Sans MS
+ Boolean
-
-Font size used in the console window:
-
- log-font-size 8
+Parameter:
-
-"show-on-task-bar" controls whether or not Junkbuster will appear as a button
-on the Task bar when minimized:
-
- show-on-task-bar 0
+ N/A
-
-If "close-button-minimizes" is set to 1, the Windows close button will minimize
-Junkbuster instead of closing the program (close with the exit option on the
-File menu).
-
- close-button-minimizes 1
+Notes:
+
+ By default Privoxy answers forbidden "Connect" requests with a short error
+ message inside the headers. If the browser doesn't display headers (most
+ don't), you just see an empty page.
+
+ With this action enabled, Privoxy 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 "See why" link.
+
+ For "Connect" requests the clients tell Privoxy which host they are
+ interested in, but not which document they plan to get later. As a result,
+ the "Go there anyway" 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.
+ If you previously configured Privoxy to do the request through a SSL
+ tunnel, everything will work. Most likely you haven't and the server will
+ respond with an error message because it is expecting HTTPS (SSL).
+
+Example usage:
+
+ +treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-The "hide-console" option is specific to the MS-Win console version of
-JunkBuster. If this option is used, Junkbuster will disconnect from and hide
-the command console.
+8.5.36. Summary
- #hide-console
-
+Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
+misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways a site
+designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header content, and other
+criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard and fast rules for all
+sites. See the Appendix for a brief example on troubleshooting actions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.3. The Actions File
+8.6. Aliases
+
+Custom "actions", known to Privoxy as "aliases", can be defined by combining
+other actions. These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
+Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab, "=", "{"
+and "}", but we strongly recommend that you only use "a" to "z", "0" to "9",
+"+", and "-". Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start
+with a "+" or "-" sign, since they are merely textually expanded.
+
+Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they must be defined in a
+special section at the top of the file! And there can only be one such section
+per actions file. Each actions file may have its own alias section, and the
+aliases defined in it are only visible within that file.
+
+There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
+used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
+decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called "shop",
+you can later change your policy on shops in one place, and your changes will
+take effect everywhere in the actions file where the "shop" alias is used.
+Calling aliases by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
+
+Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though: Privoxy's
+built-in web-based action file editor honors aliases when reading the actions
+files, but it expands them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are
+of course preserved, but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections
+that use aliases with it. This is likely to change in future versions of
+Privoxy.
+
+Now let's define some aliases...
+
+ # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
+ #
+ # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
+ # must be at the top of the actions file!
+ #
+ {{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 -filter{content-cookies}
+
+ # These aliases define combinations of actions
+ # that are useful for certain types of sites:
+ #
+ fragile = -block -filter -crunch-all-cookies -fast-redirects -hide-referrer -kill-popups
+ shop = -crunch-all-cookies -filter{all-popups} -kill-popups
+
+ # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
+ #
+ c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
+ c1 = -crunch-all-cookies
+
+...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
+actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
+up for the "/" pattern):
+
+ # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
+ # user data and require minimal interference to work:
+ #
+ {fragile}
+ .office.microsoft.com
+ .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
+ .nytimes.com
+
+ # Shopping sites:
+ # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
+ #
+ {shop}
+ .quietpc.com
+ .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
+ .scan.co.uk
+
+ # These shops require pop-ups:
+ #
+ {shop -kill-popups -filter{all-popups}}
+ .dabs.com
+ .overclockers.co.uk
-The "ijb.action" file (formerly actionsfile) is used to define what actions
-Junkbuster takes, and thus determines how images, cookies and various other
-aspects of HTTP content and transactions are handled. Images can be anything
-you want, including ads, banners, or just some obnoxious image that you would
-rather not see. Cookies can be accepted or rejected, or accepted only during
-the current browser session (i.e. not written to disk). Changes to ijb.action
-should be immediately visible to Junkbuster without the need to restart.
+Aliases like "shop" and "fragile" are often used for "problem" sites that
+require some actions to be disabled in order to function properly.
-To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
-compared to all patterns in this file. Every time it matches, the list of
-applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated. You can trace this
-process by visiting http://i.j.b/show-url-info.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-The actions file can be edited with a browser by loading http://i.j.b/, and
-then select "Edit Actions".
+8.7. Actions Files Tutorial
-There are four types of lines in this file: comments (begin with a "#"
-character), actions, aliases and patterns, all of which are explained below, as
-well as the configuration file syntax that Junkbuster understands.
+The above chapters have shown which actions files there are and how they are
+organized, how actions are specified and applied to URLs, how patterns work,
+and how to define and use aliases. Now, let's look at an example default.action
+and user.action file and see how all these pieces come together:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.3.1. URL Domain and Path Syntax
+8.7.1. default.action
-Generally, a pattern has the form <domain>/<path>, where both the <domain> and
-<path> part are optional. If you only specify a domain part, the "/" can be
-left out:
+Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose:
-www.example.com - is a domain only pattern and will match any request to
-"www.example.com".
+# Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net>
-www.example.com/ - means exactly the same.
+Then, since this is the default.action file, the first section is a special
+section for internal use that you needn't change or worry about:
+
+##########################################################################
+# Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
+##########################################################################
+
+{{settings}}
+for-privoxy-version=3.0
+
+After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example section
+from the above chapter on aliases, that also explains why and how aliases are
+used:
+
+##########################################################################
+# Aliases
+##########################################################################
+{{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 -filter{content-cookies}
+
+ # These aliases define combinations of actions
+ # that are useful for certain types of sites:
+ #
+ fragile = -block -filter -crunch-all-cookies -fast-redirects -hide-referrer -kill-popups
+ shop = -crunch-all-cookies -filter{all-popups} -kill-popups
+
+Now come the regular sections, i.e. sets of actions, accompanied by URL
+patterns to which they apply. Remember all actions are disabled when matching
+starts, so we have to explicitly enable the ones we want.
+
+The first regular section is probably the most important. It has only one
+pattern, "/", but this pattern matches all URLs. Therefore, the set of actions
+used in this "default" section will be applied to all requests as a start. It
+can be partly or wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or
+in user.action, but it will still be largely responsible for your overall
+browsing experience.
+
+Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is no real
+need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless, to have a
+complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a "+" preceding the action name
+enables the action, a "-" disables!). Also note how this long line has been
+made more readable by splitting it into multiple lines with line continuation.
+
+##########################################################################
+# "Defaults" section:
+##########################################################################
+ { \
+ -add-header \
+ -block \
+ -content-type-overwrite \
+ -crunch-client-header \
+ -crunch-if-none-match \
+ -crunch-incoming-cookies \
+ -crunch-server-header \
+ -crunch-outgoing-cookies \
+ +deanimate-gifs \
+ -downgrade-http-version \
+ +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} \
+ +filter{js-annoyances} \
+ -filter{js-events} \
+ +filter{html-annoyances} \
+ -filter{content-cookies} \
+ +filter{refresh-tags} \
+ +filter{unsolicited-popups} \
+ -filter{all-popups} \
+ +filter{img-reorder} \
+ +filter{banners-by-size} \
+ -filter{banners-by-link} \
+ +filter{webbugs} \
+ -filter{tiny-textforms} \
+ +filter{jumping-windows} \
+ -filter{frameset-borders} \
+ -filter{demoronizer} \
+ -filter{shockwave-flash} \
+ -filter{quicktime-kioskmode} \
+ -filter{fun} \
+ -filter{crude-parental} \
+ +filter{ie-exploits} \
+ -filter-client-headers \
+ -filter-server-headers \
+ -force-text-mode \
+ -handle-as-empty-document \
+ -handle-as-image \
+ -hide-accept-language \
+ -hide-content-disposition \
+ -hide-if-modified-since \
+ +hide-forwarded-for-headers \
+ +hide-from-header{block} \
+ +hide-referrer{forge} \
+ -hide-user-agent \
+ -inspect-jpegs \
+ -kill-popups \
+ -limit-connect \
+ +prevent-compression \
+ -overwrite-last-modified \
+ -redirect \
+ -send-vanilla-wafer \
+ -send-wafer \
+ +session-cookies-only \
+ +set-image-blocker{pattern} \
+ -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks \
+ }
+ / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.
+
+The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding the
+user agent, are part of a "general policy" that applies universally and won't
+get any exceptions defined later. Other choices, like not blocking (which is
+understandably the default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify
+explicitly what we want to block in later sections.
+
+The first of our specialized sections is concerned with "fragile" sites, i.e.
+sites that require minimum interference, because they are either very complex
+or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that make them
+unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use our
+pre-defined fragile alias instead of stating the list of actions explicitly:
+
+##########################################################################
+# Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
+##########################################################################
+
+# "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
+#
+{ fragile }
+.office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
+.windowsupdate.microsoft.com
+
+Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically require cookies to log
+in, and pop-up windows for shopping carts or item details. Again, we'll use a
+pre-defined alias:
+
+# Shopping sites:
+#
+{ shop }
+.quietpc.com
+.worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
+.jungle.com
+.scan.co.uk
+
+The fast-redirects action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some
+sites. So disable it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
+
+{ -fast-redirects }
+login.yahoo.com
+edit.*.yahoo.com
+.google.com
+.altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
+.altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
+.nytimes.com
+
+It is important that Privoxy knows which URLs belong to images, so that if they
+are to be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
+Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it would destroy
+the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it would feed the
+advertisers (in terms of money and information). We can mark any URL as an
+image with the handle-as-image action, and marking all URLs that end in a known
+image file extension is a good start:
+
+##########################################################################
+# Images:
+##########################################################################
+
+# Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
+# blocked further down this file:
+#
+{ +handle-as-image }
+/.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$
+
+And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to generate the
+banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the request is for an image.
+Hence we block them and mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
++block-as-image alias defined above. (We could of course just as well use +
+block +handle-as-image here.) Remember that the type of the replacement image
+is chosen by the set-image-blocker action. Since all URLs have matched the
+default section with its +set-image-blocker{pattern} action before, it still
+applies and needn't be repeated:
+
+# Known ad generators:
+#
+{ +block-as-image }
+ar.atwola.com
+.ad.doubleclick.net
+.ad.*.doubleclick.net
+.a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
+.a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
+bs*.gsanet.com
+bs*.einets.com
+.qkimg.net
+
+One of the most important jobs of Privoxy is to block banners. A huge bunch of
+them can be "blocked" by the filter{banners-by-size} action, which we enabled
+above, and which deletes the references to banner images from the pages while
+they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request them anymore, and hence they
+don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally doesn't catch all banners,
+and some people choose not to use filters, so we need a comprehensive list of
+patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the block action to them.
+
+First comes a bunch of generic patterns, which do most of the work, by matching
+typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes a list of
+individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here to keep the
+example short:
+
+##########################################################################
+# Block these fine banners:
+##########################################################################
+{ +block }
+
+# Generic patterns:
+#
+ad*.
+.*ads.
+banner?.
+count*.
+/.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
+/(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
+
+# Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
+#
+.hitbox.com
+
+You wouldn't believe how many advertisers actually call their banner servers
+ads.company.com, or call the directory in which the banners are stored simply
+"banners". So the above generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
+
+But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want to
+block. The pattern .*ads. e.g. catches "nasty-ads.nasty-corp.com" as intended,
+but also "downloads.sourcefroge.net" or "adsl.some-provider.net." So here come
+some well-known exceptions to the +block section above.
+
+Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
+"downloads.sourcefroge.net": Initially, all actions are deactivated, so it
+wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the URL,
+but just deactivates the block action once again. Then it matches .*ads., an
+exception to the general non-blocking policy, and suddenly +block applies. And
+now, it'll match .*loads., where -block applies, so (unless it matches again
+further down) it ends up with no block action applying.
+
+##########################################################################
+# Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
+##########################################################################
+
+# By domain:
+#
+{ -block }
+adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
+adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
+ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
+.edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
+.*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
+
+# By path:
+#
+/.*loads/
+
+# Site-specific:
+#
+www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
+www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv
-www.example.com/index.html - matches only the single document "/index.html" on
-"www.example.com".
+Filtering source code can have nasty side effects, so make an exception for our
+friends at sourceforge.net, and all paths with "cvs" in them. Note that -filter
+disables all filters in one fell swoop!
-/index.html - matches the document "/index.html", regardless of the domain.
+# Don't filter code!
+#
+{ -filter }
+/.*cvs
+.sourceforge.net
-index.html - matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name
-and there is no top-level domain called ".html".
+The actual default.action is of course much more comprehensive, but we hope
+this example made clear how it works.
-The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the domain
-starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end. For example:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-.example.com - matches any domain that ENDS in ".example.com".
+8.7.2. user.action
+
+So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies, which
+would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now, you might want to be
+more specific and have customized rules that are more suitable to your personal
+habits and preferences. These would be for narrowly defined situations like
+your ISP or your bank, and should be placed in user.action, which is parsed
+after all other actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any
+previously defined actions. user.action is also a safe place for your personal
+settings, since default.action is actively maintained by the Privoxy developers
+and you'll probably want to install updated versions from time to time.
+
+So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
+user.action:
+
+# My user.action file. <fred@foobar.com>
+
+As aliases are local to the actions file that they are defined in, you can't
+use the ones from default.action, unless you repeat them here:
+
+# 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
+ 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}
+
+# Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
+# MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
+handle-as-text = -filter +-content-type-overwrite{text/plain} +-force-text-mode -hide-content-disposition
-www. - matches any domain that STARTS with "www".
+
-Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
-themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: "*" stands for zero
-or more arbitrary characters, "?" stands for any single character. And you can
-define character classes in square brackets and they can be freely mixed:
+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 allow-all-cookies 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.
-ad*.example.com - matches "adserver.example.com", "ads.example.com", etc but
-not "sfads.example.com".
+{ allow-all-cookies }
+ sourceforge.net
+ .yahoo.com
+ .msdn.microsoft.com
+ .redhat.com
-*ad*.example.com - matches all of the above, and then some.
+Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable
+them all:
-.?pix.com - matches "www.ipix.com", "pictures.epix.com", "a.b.c.d.e.upix.com",
-etc.
+{ -filter }
+ .your-home-banking-site.com
-www[1-9a-ez].example.com - matches "www1.example.com", "www4.example.com",
-"wwwd.example.com", "wwwz.example.com", etc., but not "wwww.example.com".
+Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
-If Junkbuster was compiled with "pcre" support (default), Perl compatible
-regular expressions can be used. See the pcre/docs/ directory or "man perlre"
-(also available on http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html) for details.
-A brief discussion of regular expressions is in the Appendix. For instance:
+# 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/
+
+Example of a simple block 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 "copy image location" and pasted the URL below while removing the
+leading http://, into a { +block } section. Note that { +handle-as-image } need
+not be specified, since all URLs ending in .gif will be tagged as images by the
+general rules as set in default.action anyway:
+
+{ +block }
+ www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.gif
+ another.popular.site.net/more/junk/here/
+
+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 Privoxy to guess the file type just by looking at the URL. You
+can use the +block-as-image 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 "broken image" icon by the browser. Use cautiously.
+
+{ +block-as-image }
+ .doubleclick.net
+ .fastclick.net
+ /Realmedia/ads/
+ ar.atwola.com/
+
+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 feedback, so you just used the fragile alias on the site, and --
+whoa! -- it worked. The fragile aliases disables those actions that are most
+likely to break a site. Also, good for testing purposes to see if it is Privoxy
+that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites that
+misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
+
+{ fragile }
+ .forbes.com
+ mail.example.com
+ .mybank.com
+
+You like the "fun" text replacements in default.filter, but it is disabled in
+the distributed actions file. (My colleagues on the team just don't have a
+sense of humour, that's why! ;-). So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
+update-safe config, once and for all:
+
+{ +filter{fun} }
+ / # For ALL sites!
+
+Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions to the
+filters in default.action for things that really shouldn't be filtered, like
+code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since user.action has the last word, these
+exceptions won't be valid for the "fun" filtering specified here.
+
+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:
+
+{ allow-ads }
+ .sourceforge.net
+ .slashdot.org
+ .osdn.net
+
+Note that allow-ads has been aliased to -block, -filter{banners-by-size}, and -
+filter{banners-by-link} above.
+
+Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type application/
+x-sh which typically would open a download type dialog. In my case, I want to
+look at the shell script, and then I can save it should I choose to.
+
+{ handle-as-text }
+ /.*\.sh$
+
+user.action is generally the best place to define exceptions and additions to
+the default policies of default.action. Some actions are safe to have their
+default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
+"blank" image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for ALL sites. "/" of
+course matches all URL paths and patterns:
+
+{ +set-image-blocker{blank} }
+/ # ALL sites
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-/.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpe?g - would match a URL from any domain, with any path that
-includes "advert" followed immediately by one or more digits, then a "." and
-ending in either "jpeg" or "jpg". So we match "example.com/ads/advert2.jpg",
-and "www.example.com/ads/banners/advert39.jpeg", but not "www.example.com/ads/
-banners/advert39.gif" (no gifs in the example pattern).
+9. Filter Files
+
+On-the-fly text substitutions that can be invoked through the filter action
+need to be defined in a "filter file". Once defined, they can then be invoked
+as an "action". Multiple filter files can be defined through the filterfile
+config directive. The filters as supplied by the developers will be found in
+default.filter. It is recommended that any locally defined or modified filters
+go in a separately defined file such as user.filter.
+
+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 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes
+or web-bugs), or just to have fun. The possibilities are endless.
+
+Filtering works on any text-based document type, including HTML, JavaScript,
+CSS etc. (all text/* MIME types, except text/plain). Substitutions are made at
+the source level, so if you want to "roll your own" filters, you should first
+be familiar with HTML syntax, and, of course, regular expressions. By default,
+filters are only applied to the raw document content, but can be extended to
+the HTTP headers with the supplemental actions: filter-client-headers and
+filter-server-headers.
+
+Just like the actions files, the filter file is organized in sections, which
+are called filters here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts
+with the keyword FILTER:, followed by the filter's name, and a short (one line)
+description of what it does. Below that line come the jobs, i.e. lines that
+define the actual text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
+should describe what the filter eliminates. The comment is used in the
+web-based user interface.
+
+Once a filter called name has been defined in the filter file, it can be
+invoked by using an action of the form +filter{name} in any actions file.
+
+A filter header line for a filter called "foo" could look like this:
+
+FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
+
+Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that define what
+text replacements the filter executes. They are specified in a syntax that
+imitates Perl's s/// operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you will find
+this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the PCRS documentation for
+the subtle differences to Perl behaviour. Most notably, the non-standard option
+letter U is supported, which turns the default to ungreedy matching.
+
+If you are new to "Regular Expressions", you might want to take a look at the
+Appendix on regular expressions, and see the Perl manual for the s///
+operator's syntax and Perl-style regular expressions in general. The below
+examples might also help to get you started.
-Please note that matching in the path is case INSENSITIVE by default, but you
-can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the "(?-i)"
-switch:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.* - will match only documents whose path starts
-with "PaTtErN" in exactly this capitalization.
+9.1. Filter File Tutorial
+
+Now, let's complete our "foo" filter. We have already defined the heading, but
+the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace "foo" with "bar",
+there is only one (trivial) job needed:
+
+s/foo/bar/
+
+But wait! Didn't the comment say that all occurrences of "foo" should be
+replaced? Our current job will only take care of the first "foo" on each page.
+For global substitution, we'll need to add the g option:
+
+s/foo/bar/g
+
+Our complete filter now looks like this:
+
+FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
+s/foo/bar/g
+
+Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see a
+filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
+abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
+
+FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
+
+# Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
+#
+s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg
+
+Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses |
+as the delimiter instead of /, because the pattern contains a forward slash,
+which would otherwise have to be escaped by a backslash (\).
+
+Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <script.* enclosed in
+parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and * means: "Match an
+arbitrary number of the element left of myself", this matches "<script",
+followed by any text, i.e. it matches the whole page, from the start of the
+first <script> tag.
+
+That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: document\.referrer matches
+only the exact string "document.referrer". The dot needed to be escaped, i.e.
+preceded by a backslash, to take away its special meaning as a joker, and make
+it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is: Match from the start of the
+first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including, the text
+"document.referrer", if both are present in the page (and appear in that
+order).
+
+But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in
+parentheses, is .*</script>. You already know what .* means, so the whole
+pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a page
+to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text "document.referrer"
+appears somewhere in between.
+
+This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the
+parentheses: The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed
+in parentheses, will be remembered and be available through the variables $1,
+$2, ... in the substitute. The U option switches to ungreedy matching, which
+means that the first .* in the pattern will only "eat up" all text in between "
+<script" and the first occurrence of "document.referrer", and that the second .
+* will only span the text up to the first "</script>" tag. Furthermore, the s
+option says that the match may span multiple lines in the page, and the g
+option again means that the substitution is global.
+
+So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
+"document.referrer". Remember the parts of the script from (and including) the
+start tag up to (and excluding) the string "document.referrer" as $1, and the
+part following that string, up to and including the closing tag, as $2.
+
+Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
+lets look at the substitute: $1"Not Your Business!"$2 is easy to read: The text
+remembered as $1, followed by "Not Your Business!" (including the quotation
+marks!), followed by the text remembered as $2. This produces an exact copy of
+the original string, with the middle part (the "document.referrer") replaced by
+"Not Your Business!".
+
+The whole job now reads: Replace "document.referrer" by "Not Your Business!"
+wherever it appears inside a <script> tag. Note that this job won't break
+JavaScript syntax, since both the original and the replacement are
+syntactically valid string objects. The script just won't have access to the
+referrer information anymore.
+
+We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but this
+time only point out the constructs of special interest:
+
+# The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
+#
+s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig
+
+\s stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline, carriage return, form
+feed), so that \s* means: "zero or more whitespace". The ? in .*? makes this
+matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the U option is not set). The
+['"] construct means: "a single or a double quote". Finally, \1 is a
+back-reference to the first parenthesis just like $1 above, with the difference
+that in the pattern, a backslash indicates a back-reference, whereas in the
+substitute, it's the dollar.
+
+So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
+strings to the "window.status" object with a dummy assignment (using a variable
+name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with real variables in
+scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless descriptions are
+displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when you move your mouse
+over links.
+
+# Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
+#
+s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU
+
+Including the OnUnload event binding in the HTML DOM was a CRIME. When I close
+a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta. This job replaces the
+"onunload" attribute in "<body>" tags with the dummy word never. Note that the
+i option makes the pattern matching case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy
+matching alone doesn't always guarantee a minimal match: In the first
+parenthesis, we had to use [^>]* instead of .* to prevent the match from
+exceeding the <body> tag if it doesn't contain "OnUnload", but the page's
+content does.
+
+The last example is from the fun department:
+
+FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
+
+# Spice the daily news:
+#
+s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig
+
+Note the (?!\.com) part (a so-called negative lookahead) in the job's pattern,
+which means: Don't match, if the string ".com" appears directly following
+"microsoft" in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being
+trashed, while still replacing the word everywhere else.
+
+# Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
+#
+s* industry[ -]leading \
+| cutting[ -]edge \
+| customer[ -]focused \
+| market[ -]driven \
+| award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
+| high[ -]performance \
+| solutions[ -]based \
+| unmatched \
+| unparalleled \
+| unrivalled \
+*<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
+*igx
+
+The x option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for e.g. the
+liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
+
+You get the idea?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.3.2. Actions
+9.2. The Pre-defined Filters
-Actions are enabled if preceded with a "+", and disabled if preceded with a
-"-". Actions are invoked by enclosing the action name in curly braces (e.g.
-{+some_action}), followed by a list of URLs to which the action applies. There
-are three classes of actions:
+The distribution default.filter file contains a selection of pre-defined
+filters for your convenience:
- * Boolean (e.g. "+/-block"):
+js-annoyances
- {+name} # enable this action
- {-name} # disable this action
-
+ The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying
+ JavaScript abuse. To that end, it
- * parameterized (e.g. "+/-hide-user-agent"):
+ + replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
+ with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the
+ hide-referrer action on the content level.
+
+ + removes the bindings to the DOM's unload event which we feel has no
+ right to exist and is responsible for most "exit consoles", i.e. nasty
+ windows that pop up when you close another one.
+
+ + removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired
+ properties, such as being full-screen, non-resizeable, without
+ location, status or menu bar etc.
+
+js-events
- {+name{param}} # enable action and set parameter to "param"
- {-name} # disable action
-
+ 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.
- * Multi-value (e.g. "{+/-add-header{Name: value}}", "{+/-wafer{name=value}}
- "):
+ We strongly discourage 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).
- {+name{param}} # enable action and add parameter "param"
- {-name{param}} # remove the parameter "param"
- {-name} # disable this action totally
-
+html-annoyances
-If nothing is specified in this file, no "actions" are taken. So in this case
-JunkBuster would just be a normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You
-must specifically enable the privacy and blocking features you need (although
-the provided default ijb.action file will give a good starting point).
-
-Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. For multi-valued actions,
-the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
-
-The list of valid Junkbuster "actions" are:
-
- * Add the specified HTTP header, which is not checked for validity. You may
- specify this many times to specify many different headers:
+ This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
- +add-header{Name: value}
-
+ The BLINK and MARQUEE tags are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser
+ windows will be created as resizeable (as of course they should be!), and
+ will have location, scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
- * Block this URL totally.
+content-cookies
- +block
-
+ Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted by
+ the crunch-incoming-cookies and crunch-outgoing-cookies actions. But web
+ sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript to sneak
+ cookies to the browser on the content level.
- * De-animate all animated GIF images, i.e. reduce them to their last frame.
- This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
- the option "first" is given, the first frame of the animation is used as
- the replacement. If "last" 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).
+ This filter disables HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets cookies.
+ Use it wherever you would also use the cookie crunch actions.
- +deanimate-gifs{last}
- +deanimate-gifs{first}
-
+refresh tags
- * "+downgrade" will downgrade HTTP/1.1 client requests to HTTP/1.0 and
- downgrade the responses as well. Use this action for servers that use HTTP/
- 1.1 protocol features that Junkbuster doesn't handle well yet. HTTP/1.1 is
- only partially implemented. Default is not to downgrade requests.
+ 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.
- +downgrade
-
+unsolicited-popups
- * Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
- will link to some script on their own server, giving the destination as a
- parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs resulting
- from this scheme typically look like: http://some.place/some_script?http://
- some.where-else.
+ This filter attempts to prevent only "unsolicited" 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.
- 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.
+ 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 afterward.
- The "+fast-redirects" option enables interception of these requests by
- Junkbuster, who will cut off all but the last valid URL in the request and
- send a local redirect back to your browser without contacting the remote
- site.
+all-popups
- +fast-redirects
-
+ Attempt to prevent all 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.
- * Filter the website through the re_filterfile:
+img-reorder
- +filter{filename}
-
+ This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
+ banners-by-size and banners-by-link (see below) filters more effective and
+ should be enabled together with them.
- * Block any existing X-Forwarded-for header, and do not add a new one:
+banners-by-size
- +hide-forwarded
-
+ 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.
- * If the browser sends a "From:" header containing your e-mail address, this
- either completely removes the header ("block"), or changes it to the
- specified e-mail address.
+ 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.
- +hide-from{block}
- +hide-from{spam@sittingduck.xqq}
-
+banners-by-link
- * Don't send the "Referer:" (sic) header to the web site. You can block it,
- forge a URL to the same server as the request (which is preferred because
- some sites will not send images otherwise) or set it to a constant string
- of your choice.
+ 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.
- +hide-referer{block}
- +hide-referer{forge}
- +hide-referer{http://nowhere.com}
-
+webbugs
- * Alternative spelling of "+hide-referer". It has the same parameters, and
- can be freely mixed with, "+hide-referer". ("referrer" is the correct
- English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it requires it
- to be spelled "referer".)
+ 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.
- +hide-referrer{...}
-
+ This filter removes the HTML code that loads such "webbugs".
- * Change the "User-Agent:" header so web servers can't tell your browser
- type. Warning! This breaks many web sites. Specify the user-agent value you
- want. Example, pretend to be using Netscape on Linux:
+tiny-textforms
- +hide-user-agent{Mozilla (X11; I; Linux 2.0.32 i586)}
-
+ 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.
- * Treat this URL as an image. This only matters if it's also "+block"ed, in
- which case a "blocked" image can be sent rather than a HTML page. See
- "+image-blocker{}" below for the control over what is actually sent.
+ It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
- +image
-
+jumping-windows
- * Decides what to do with URLs that end up tagged with "{+block +image}".
- There are 4 options. "-image-blocker" will send a HTML "blocked" page,
- usually resulting in a "broken image" icon. "+image-blocker{logo}" will
- send a "JunkBuster" image. "+image-blocker{blank}" will send a 1x1
- transparent GIF image. And finally, "+image-blocker{http://xyz.com}" will
- send a HTTP temporary redirect to the specified image. This has the
- advantage of the icon being being cached by the browser, which will speed
- up the display.
+ 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.
- +image-blocker{logo}
- +image-blocker{blank}
- +image-blocker{http://i.j.b/send-banner}
-
+frameset-borders
- * By default (i.e. in the absence of a "+limit-connect" action), Junkbuster
- will only allow CONNECT requests to port 443, which is the standard port
- for https as a precaution.
+ 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.
- The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
- (https:// URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: the proxy connects
- to the server on the specified port, and then short-circuits its
- connections to the client and to the remote proxy. This can be a big
- security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be abused as TCP relays
- very easily.
+ This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to
+ sites which need it.
+
+demoronizer
- If you want to allow CONNECT for more ports than this, or want to forbid
- CONNECT altogether, you can specify a comma separated list of ports and
- port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum defaulting to 0 and
- max to 65K):
+ 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.
- +limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need no be specified.
- +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
- +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Port less than 3, 7, 20 to 100
- #and above 500 are OK.
-
+ 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 weird garbage characters
+ sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this
+ on the fly.
- * "+no-compression" prevents the website from compressing the data. Some
- websites do this, which can be a problem for Junkbuster, since "+filter",
- "+no-popup" and "+gif-deanimate" will not work on compressed data. This
- will slow down connections to those websites, though. Default is
- "nocompression" is turned on.
+shockwave-flash
- +nocompression
-
+ 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.
- * If the website sets cookies, "no-cookies-keep" will make sure they are
- erased when you exit and restart your web browser. This makes profiling
- cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so that you
- can log in for transactions. Default: on.
+quicktime-kioskmode
- +no-cookies-keep
-
+ Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
+ prevents saving, is disabled.
- * Prevent the website from reading cookies:
+fun
- +no-cookies-read
-
+ Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
+ Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
- * Prevent the website from setting cookies:
+crude-parental
- +no-cookies-set
-
+ A demonstration-only filter that shows how Privoxy can be used to delete
+ web content on a keyword basis.
- * Filter the website through a built-in filter to disable those obnoxious
- JavaScript pop-up windows via window.open(), etc. The two alternative
- spellings are equivalent.
+ie-exploits
- +no-popup
- +no-popups
-
+ A collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
+ code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
- * This action only applies if you are using a jarfile for saving cookies. It
- sends a cookie to every site stating that you do not accept any copyright
- on cookies sent to you, and asking them not to track you. Of course, this
- is a (relatively) unique header they could use to track you.
+ Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug,
+ and would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
- +vanilla-wafer
-
+site-specifics
- * This allows you to add an arbitrary cookie. It can be specified multiple
- times in order to add as many cookies as you like.
+ Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't
+ apply anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
- +wafer{name=value}
-
+ 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
+ default.action file does. Users shouldn't need to change anything regarding
+ this filter.
-The meaning of any of the above is reversed by preceding the action with a "-",
-in place of the "+".
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Some examples:
+10. Privoxy's Template Files
-Turn off cookies by default, then allow a few through for specified sites:
+All Privoxy built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the "404 - No Such Domain"
+error page, the "BLOCKED" page and all pages of its web-based user interface,
+are generated from templates. (Privoxy must be running for the above links to
+work as intended.)
- # Turn off all persistent cookies
- { +no-cookies-read }
- { +no-cookies-set }
- # Allow cookies for this browser session ONLY
- { +no-cookies-keep }
+These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the configuration directory
+called templates. On Unixish platforms, this is typically /etc/privoxy/
+templates/.
- # Exceptions to the above, sites that benefit from persistent cookies
- { -no-cookies-read }
- { -no-cookies-set }
- { -no-cookies-keep }
- .javasoft.com
- .sun.com
- .yahoo.com
- .msdn.microsoft.com
- .redhat.com
+The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called
+symbols or exports), which Privoxy fills at run time. You can edit the
+templates with a normal text editor, should you want to customize them. (Not
+recommended for the casual user). Note that just like in configuration files,
+lines starting with # are ignored when the templates are filled in.
- # Alternative way of saying the same thing
- {-no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-keep}
- .sourceforge.net
- .sf.net
-
+The place-holders are of the form @name@, and you will find a list of available
+symbols, which vary from template to template, in the comments at the start of
+each file. Note that these comments are not always accurate, and that it's
+probably best to look at the existing HTML code to find out which symbols are
+supported and what they are filled in with.
-Now turn off "fast redirects", and then we allow two exceptions:
+A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole 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 Privoxy is in an alpha or beta development stage:
- # Turn them off!
- {+fast-redirects}
-
- # Reverse it for these two sites, which don't work right without it.
- {-fast-redirects}
- www.ukc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wac\.cgi\?
- login.yahoo.com
-
+<!-- @if-unstable-start -->
+
+ ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
+
+<!-- if-unstable-end@ -->
-Turn on page filtering, with one exception for sourceforge:
+If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
+@if-unstable-start and if-unstable-end@ will disappear, leaving nothing but an
+empty comment:
- # Run everything through the default filter file (re_filterfile):
- {+filter}
-
- # But please don't re_filter code from sourceforge!
- {-filter}
- .cvs.sourceforge.net
-
-
-Now some URLs that we want "blocked", ie we won't see them. Many of these use
-regular expressions that will expand to match multiple URLs:
-
- # Blocklist:
- {+block}
- /.*/(.*[-_.])?ads?[0-9]?(/|[-_.].*|\.(gif|jpe?g))
- /.*/(.*[-_.])?count(er)?(\.cgi|\.dll|\.exe|[?/])
- /.*/(ng)?adclient\.cgi
- /.*/(plain|live|rotate)[-_.]?ads?/
- /.*/(sponsor)s?[0-9]?/
- /.*/_?(plain|live)?ads?(-banners)?/
- /.*/abanners/
- /.*/ad(sdna_image|gifs?)/
- /.*/ad(server|stream|juggler)\.(cgi|pl|dll|exe)
- /.*/adbanners/
- /.*/adserver
- /.*/adstream\.cgi
- /.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/
- /.*/banner_?ads/
- /.*/banners?/
- /.*/banners?\.cgi/
- /.*/cgi-bin/centralad/getimage
- /.*/images/addver\.gif
- /.*/images/marketing/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
- /.*/popupads/
- /.*/siteads/
- /.*/sponsor.*\.gif
- /.*/sponsors?[0-9]?/
- /.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpg
- /Media/Images/Adds/
- /ad_images/
- /adimages/
- /.*/ads/
- /bannerfarm/
- /grafikk/annonse/
- /graphics/defaultAd/
- /image\.ng/AdType
- /image\.ng/transactionID
- /images/.*/.*_anim\.gif # alvin brattli
- /ip_img/.*\.(gif|jpe?g)
- /rotateads/
- /rotations/
- /worldnet/ad\.cgi
- /cgi-bin/nph-adclick.exe/
- /.*/Image/BannerAdvertising/
- /.*/ad-bin/
- /.*/adlib/server\.cgi
- /autoads/
-
+<!-- -->
+
+There's also an if-then-else construct and an #include mechanism, but you'll
+sure find out if you are inclined to edit the templates ;-)
+
+All templates refer to a style located at http://config.privoxy.org/
+send-stylesheet. This is, of course, locally served by Privoxy and the source
+for it can be found and edited in the cgi-style.css template.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.3.3. Aliases
+11. Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
-Custom "actions", known to Junkbuster as "aliases", can be defined by combining
-other "actions". These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in "actions".
-Currently, an alias can contain any character except space, tab, "=", "{" or "}
-". But please use only "a"- "z", "0"-"9", "+", and "-". Alias names are not
-case sensitive, and must be defined before anything else in the ijb.actionfile
-! And there can only be one set of "aliases" defined.
+We value your feedback. In fact, we rely on it to improve Privoxy and its
+configuration. However, please note the following hints, so we can provide you
+with the best support:
-Now let's define a few aliases:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- # Useful customer aliases we can use later. These must come first!
- {{alias}}
- +no-cookies = +no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
- -no-cookies = -no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
- fragile =
- -block -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -no-popups
- shop = -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects
- +imageblock = +block +image
+11.1. Get Support
- #For people who don't like to type too much: ;-)
- c0 = +no-cookies
- c1 = -no-cookies
- c2 = -no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read
- c3 = +no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read
- #... etc. Customize to your heart's content.
-
+For casual users, our support forum at SourceForge is probably best suited:
+http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=211118
-Some examples using our "shop" and "fragile" aliases from above:
+All users are of course welcome to discuss their issues on the users mailing
+list, where the developers also hang around.
- # These sites are very complex and require
- # minimal interference.
- {fragile}
- .office.microsoft.com
- .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
- .nytimes.com
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- # Shopping sites - still want to block ads.
- {shop}
- .quietpc.com
- .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
- .jungle.com
- .scan.co.uk
+11.2. Reporting Problems
- # These shops require pop-ups
- {shop -no-popups}
- .dabs.com
- .overclockers.co.uk
-
+"Problems" for our purposes, come in two forms:
+ * Configuration issues, such as ads that slip through, or sites that don't
+ function properly due to one Privoxy "action" or another being turned "on".
+
+ * "Bugs" in the programming code that makes up Privoxy, such as that might
+ cause a crash.
+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.4. The Filter File
+11.2.1. Reporting Ads or Other Configuration Problems
-The filter file defines what filtering of web pages Junkbuster does. The
-default filter file is re_filterfile, located in the config directory. In this
-file, any document content, whether viewable text or embedded non-visible
-content, can be changed.
+Please send feedback on ads that slipped through, innocent images that were
+blocked, sites that don't work properly, and other configuration related
+problem of default.action file, to http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=
+11118&atid=460288, the Actions File Tracker.
-This file uses regular expressions to alter or remove any string in the target
-page. Some examples from the included default re_filterfile:
+New, improved default.action files may occasionally be made available based on
+your feedback. These will be announced on the ijbswa-announce list and
+available from our the files section of our project page.
-Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by deleting
-such references:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless buzzwords.
- # Again, check it out on http://www.airport-cgn.de/.
- s/status='.*?';*//ig
-
+11.2.2. Reporting Bugs
-Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of "Microsoft" with "MicroSuck":
+Please report all bugs only through our bug tracker: http://sourceforge.net/
+tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=111118.
- s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig
-
+Before doing so, please make sure that the bug has not already been submitted
+and observe the additional hints at the top of the submit form. If already
+submitted, please feel free to add any info to the original report that might
+help to solve the issue.
+
+Please try to verify that it is a Privoxy bug, and not a browser or site bug
+first. If unsure, try toggling off Privoxy, and see if the problem persists. If
+you are using your own custom configuration, please try the stock configs to
+see if the problem is configuration related.
-Kill those auto-refresh tags:
+If not using the latest version, the bug may have been found and fixed in the
+meantime. We would appreciate if you could take the time to upgrade to the
+latest version (or even the latest CVS snapshot) and verify your bug.
- # Kill refresh tags. I like to refresh myself. Manually.
- # check it out on http://www.airport-cgn.de/ and go to the arrivals page.
- #
- s/<meta[^>]*http-equiv[^>]*refresh.*URL=([^>]*?)"?>/<link rev="x-refresh" href
-=$1>/i
- s/<meta[^>]*http-equiv="?page-enter"?[^>]*content=[^>]*>/<!
---no page enter for me-->/i
+Please be sure to provide the following information:
+
+ * The exact Privoxy version of the proxy software (if you got the source from
+ CVS, please also provide the source code revisions as shown in http://
+ config.privoxy.org/show-version).
+
+ * The operating system and versions you run Privoxy on, (e.g. Windows XP
+ SP2), if you are using some kind of Unix flavour, sending the output of
+ "uname -a" should do.
+
+ * The name, platform, and version of the browser you were using (e.g.
+ Internet Explorer v5.5 for Mac).
+
+ * The URL where the problem occurred, or some way for us to duplicate the
+ problem (e.g. http://somesite.example.com/?somethingelse=123).
+
+ * Whether your version of Privoxy is one supplied by the developers of
+ Privoxy via SourceForge, or somewhere else.
+
+ * Whether you are using Privoxy in tandem with another proxy such as Tor. If
+ so, please try disabling the other proxy.
+ * Whether you are using a personal firewall product. If so, does Privoxy work
+ without it?
+
+ * Any other pertinent information to help identify the problem such as config
+ or log file excerpts (yes, you should have log file entries for each action
+ taken).
+
+ * Please provide your SF login, or email address, in case we need to contact
+ you.
+
+The appendix of the Privoxy User Manual also has helpful information on
+understanding actions, and action debugging.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-3.5. Templates
+11.3. Request New Features
-When Junkbuster displays one of its internal pages, such as a 404 Not Found
-error page, it uses the appropriate template. On Linux, BSD, and Unix, these
-are locate in /etc/junkbuster/templates by default. These may be customized, if
-desired.
+You are welcome to submit ideas on new features or other proposals for
+improvement through our feature request tracker at http://sourceforge.net/
+tracker/?atid=361118&group_id=11118.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4. Quickstart to Using Junkbuster
-
-Install package, then run and enjoy! JunkBuster accepts only one command line
-option -- the configuration file to be used. Example Unix startup command:
-
-
- # /usr/sbin/junkbuster /etc/junkbuster/config
-
-
+11.4. Other
-An init script is provided for SuSE and Redhat.
+For any other issues, feel free to use the mailing lists. Technically
+interested users and people who wish to contribute to the project are also
+welcome on the developers list! You can find an overview of all Privoxy-related
+mailing lists, including list archives, at: http://sourceforge.net/mail/?
+group_id=11118.
-For for SuSE: /etc/rc.d/junkbuster start
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-For RedHat: /etc/rc.d/init.d/junkbuster start
+12. Privoxy Copyright, License and History
-If no configuration file is specified on the command line, Junkbuster will look
-for a file named config in the current directory. Except on Win32 where it will
-try config.txt. If no file is specified on the command line and no default
-configuration file can be found, Junkbuster will fail to start.
+Copyright © 2001 - 2006 by Privoxy Developers <
+ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net>
-Be sure your browser is set to use the proxy which is by default at localhost,
-port 8118. With Netscape (and Mozilla), this can be set under Edit ->
-Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy. For Internet Explorer: Tools
-> Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting. Then, check "Use Proxy"
-and fill in the appropriate info (Address: localhost, Port: 8118). Include if
-HTTPS proxy support too.
+Some source code is based on code Copyright © 1997 by Anonymous Coders and
+Junkbusters, Inc. and licensed under the GNU General Public License.
-The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
-point, though may be somewhat aggressive in blocking junk. You will probably
-want to keep an eye out for sites that require persistent cookies, and add
-these to ijb.action as needed. By default, most of these will be accepted only
-during the current browser session, until you add them to the configuration. If
-you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need to edit ijb.action
-and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make more
-sense to let Junkbuster handle this. In which case, the browser(s) should be
-set to accept all cookies.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-If a particular site shows problems loading properly, try adding it to the
-{fragile} section of ijb.action. This will turn off most actions for this site.
+12.1. License
-Junkbuster is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all 1.1 features are as yet
-implemented. If browsers that support HTTP/1.1 (like Mozilla or recent versions
-of I.E.) experience problems, you might try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility.
-For Mozilla, look under Edit -> Preferences -> Debug -> Networking. Or set the
-"+downgrade" config option in ijb.action.
+Privoxy is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
+terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2, as published by the Free
+Software Foundation.
-After running Junkbuster for a while, you can start to fine tune the
-configuration to suit your personal, or site, preferences and requirements.
-There are many, many aspects that can be customized. "Actions" (as specified in
-ijb.action) can be adjusted by pointing your browser to http://i.j.b/, and then
-follow the link to "edit the actions list". (This is an internal page and does
-not require Internet access.)
+This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
+WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details, which
+is available from the Free Software Foundation, Inc, 51 Franklin Street, Fifth
+Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA
-In fact, various aspects of Junkbuster configuration can be viewed from this
-page, including current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
-the browser's request headers, and "actions" that apply to a given URL. In
-addition to the ijb.action file editor mentioned above, Junkbuster can also be
-turned "on" and "off" from this page.
+You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
+this program; if not, write to the
-If you encounter problems, please verify it is a Junkbuster bug, by disabling
-Junkbuster, and then trying the same page. Also, try another browser if
-possible to eliminate browser or site problems. Before reporting it as a bug,
-see if there is not a configuration option that is enabled that is causing the
-page not to load. You can then add an exception for that page or site. If a
-bug, please report it to the developers (see below).
+ Free Software
+ Foundation, Inc. 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
+ Boston, MA 02110-1301
+ USA
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-5. Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
+12.2. History
-Please do not use the mailing lists for feature requests or bug reports. They
-are not as easily tracked this way!
+Along time ago, there was the Internet Junkbuster, by Anonymous Coders and
+Junkbusters Corporation. This saved many users a lot of pain in the early days
+of web advertising and user tracking.
-Feature requests and other questions should be posted to the Feature request
-page at SourceForge. There is also an archive there.
+But the web, its protocols and standards, and with it, the techniques for
+forcing ads on users, give up autonomy over their browsing, and for tracking
+them, keeps evolving. Unfortunately, the Internet Junkbuster did not. Version
+2.0.2, published in 1998, was (and is) the last official release available from
+Junkbusters Corporation. Fortunately, it had been released under the GNU GPL,
+which allowed further development by others.
-Anyone interested in actively participating in development and related
-discussions can join the appropriate mailing list here. Archives are available
-here too.
+So Stefan Waldherr started maintaining an improved version of the software, to
+which eventually a number of people contributed patches. It could already
+replace banners with a transparent image, and had a first version of pop-up
+killing, but it was still very closely based on the original, with all its
+limitations, such as the lack of HTTP/1.1 support, flexible per-site
+configuration, or content modification. The last release from this effort was
+version 2.0.2-10, published in 2000.
-Please report bugs, using the form at Sourceforge. Please try to verify that it
-is a Junkbuster bug, and not a browser or site bug first. Also, check to make
-sure this is not already a known bug. If you are using your own custom
-configuration, please try the stock configs to see if the problem is a
-configuration related bug.
+Then, some developers picked up the thread, and started turning the software
+inside out, upside down, and then reassembled it, adding many new features
+along the way.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+The result of this is Privoxy, whose first stable version, 3.0, was released
+August, 2002.
-6. Copyright and History
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-6.1. License
+12.3. Authors
-Internet Junkbuster is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
-under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
-Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any
-later version.
+Current Privoxy Team:
-This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
-WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
-PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details, which
-is available from the Free Software Foundation, Inc, 59 Temple Place - Suite
-330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
+ Fabian Keil, developer
+ David Schmidt, developer
+
+ Hal Burgiss
+ Ian Cummings
+ Félix Rauch
+ Roland Rosenfeld
+
+Former Privoxy Team Members:
+
+ Johny Agotnes
+ Rodrigo Barbosa
+ Moritz Barsnick
+ Brian Dessent
+ Jon Foster
+ Karsten Hopp
+ Alexander Lazic
+ Daniel Leite
+ Gábor Lipták
+ Adam Lock
+ Guy Laroche
+ Mark Martinec
+ Andreas Oesterhelt
+ Haroon Rafique
+ Georg Sauthoff
+ Thomas Steudten
+ Joerg Strohmayer
+ Rodney Stromlund
+ Sviatoslav Sviridov
+ Sarantis Paskalis
+ Stefan Waldherr
+
+Thanks to the many people who have tested Privoxy, reported bugs, made
+suggestions or contributed in some way. These include (in alphabetical order):
+
+ Ken Arromdee
+ Devin Bayer
+ Reiner Buehl
+ Andrew J. Caines
+ Clifford Caoile
+ Michael T. Davis
+ Mattes Dolak
+ Ulrich Drepper
+ Peter E
+ Aaron Hamid
+ Magnus Holmgren
+ Don Libes
+ Paul Lieverse
+ Jindrich Makovicka
+ David Mediavilla
+ Oliver Stoeneberg
+ Roberto Ragusa
+ Maynard Riley
+ Bart Schelstraete
+ Bobby G. Vinyard
+ Darren Wiebe
+ Jörg Weinmann
+ Oliver Yeoh
+ Jamie Zawinski
+
+Privoxy is based in part on code originally developed by:
+
+ Junkbusters Corp.
+ Anonymous Coders
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-6.2. History
+13. See Also
-Junkbuster was originally written by Anonymous Coders and Junkbuster's
-Corporation, and was released as free open-source software under the GNU GPL.
-Stefan Waldherr made many improvements, and started the SourceForge project to
-rekindle development. There are now several active developers contributing. The
-last stable release was v2.0.2, which has now grown whiskers ;-).
+Other references and sites of interest to Privoxy users:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+http://www.privoxy.org/, the Privoxy Home page.
-7. See also
+http://www.privoxy.org/faq/, the Privoxy FAQ.
- http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa
+http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/, the Project Page for Privoxy on
+SourceForge.
- http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/
+http://config.privoxy.org/, the web-based user interface. Privoxy must be
+running for this to work. Shortcut: http://p.p/
- http://i.j.b/
+http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288, to submit "misses"
+and other configuration related suggestions to the developers.
- http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html
+http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html, an explanation how cookies are
+used to track web users.
- http://www.waldherr.org/junkbuster/
+http://www.junkbusters.com/ijb.html, the original Internet Junkbuster.
- http://privacy.net/analyze/
+http://privacy.net/, a useful site to check what information about you is
+leaked while you browse the web.
- http://www.squid-cache.org/
+http://www.squid-cache.org/, a very popular caching proxy, which is often used
+together with Privoxy.
-
+http://tor.eff.org/, Tor can help anonymize web browsing, web publishing,
+instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications.
+
+http://www.privoxy.org/developer-manual/, the Privoxy developer manual.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-8. Appendix
+14. Appendix
-8.1. Regular Expressions
+14.1. Regular Expressions
-Junkbuster can use "regular expressions" in various config files. Assuming
-support for "pcre" (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) is compiled in, which
-is the default. Such configuration directives do not require regular
-expressions, but they can be used to increase flexibility by matching a pattern
-with wild-cards against URLs.
+Privoxy uses Perl-style "regular expressions" in its actions files and filter
+file, through the PCRE and PCRS libraries.
If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what "regular
expressions" are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
introduction only. A full explanation would require a book ;-)
-"Regular expressions" is a way of matching one character expression against
-another to see if it matches or not. One of the "expressions" is a literal
-string of readable characters (letter, numbers, etc), and the other is a
-complex string of literal characters combined with wild-cards, and other
-special characters, called meta-characters. The "meta-characters" have special
-meanings and are used to build the complex pattern to be matched against. Perl
-Compatible Regular Expressions is an enhanced form of the regular expression
-language with backward compatibility.
+Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be run
+against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they match the
+string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex) strings of
+literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special characters,
+called meta-characters. The "meta-characters" have special meanings and are
+used to build complex patterns to be matched against. Perl Compatible Regular
+Expressions are an especially convenient "dialect" of the regular expression
+language.
To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
characters when listing files with the dir command in DOS. *.* matches all
\ - The "escape" character denotes that the following character should be taken
literally. This is used where one of the special characters (e.g. ".") needs to
-be taken literally and not as a special meta-character.
+be taken literally and not as a special meta-character. Example: "example
+\.com", makes sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded
+to its meta-character meaning of any single character).
-[] - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if any of the enclosed
-characters are encountered.
+[ ] - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if any of the enclosed
+characters are encountered. For instance, "[0-9]" matches any numeric digit
+(zero through nine). As an example, we can combine this with "+" to match any
+digit one of more times: "[0-9]+".
-() - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression, or multiple
+( ) - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression, or multiple
sub-expressions.
| - The "bar" character works like an "or" conditional statement. A match is
-successful if the sub-expression on either side of "|" matches.
-
-s/string1/string2/g - This is used to rewrite strings of text. "string1" is
-replaced by "string2" in this example.
+successful if the sub-expression on either side of "|" matches. As an example:
+"/(this|that) example/" uses grouping and the bar character and would match
+either "this example" or "that example", and nothing else.
These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
-Junkbuster, and is a long way from a definitive list. This is enough to get us
+Privoxy, and is a long way from a definitive list. This is enough to get us
started with a few simple examples which may be more illuminating:
/.*/banners/.* - A simple example that uses the common combination of "." and "
banners/annoying.html", or almost an infinite number of other possible
combinations, just so it has "banners" in the path somewhere.
-A now something a little more complex:
+And now something a little more complex:
/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/ - We have several literal forward
slashes again ("/"), so we are building another expression that is a file path
would then match either spelling.
/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g) - Again another path statement with forward
-slashes. Anything in the square brackets "[]" can be matched. This is using
+slashes. Anything in the square brackets "[ ]" can be matched. This is using
"0-9" as a shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the
same as saying "0123456789". So any digit matches. The "+" means one or more of
the preceding expression must be included. The preceding expression here is
"advert1.gif" (no leading slash), or "/adverts232.jpg" (the expression does not
include an "s"), or "/advert1.jsp" ("jsp" is not in the expression anywhere).
-s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i - This is a substitution. "MicroSuck" will
-replace any occurrence of "microsoft". The "i" at the end of the expression
-means ignore case. The "(?!.com)" means the match should fail if "microsoft" is
-followed by ".com". In other words, this acts like a "NOT" modifier. In case
-this is a hyperlink, we don't want to break it ;-).
-
We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
-can understand the default Junkbuster configuration files, and maybe use this
+can understand the default Privoxy configuration files, and maybe use this
knowledge to customize your own installation. There is much, much more that can
be done with regular expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you
can learn more on your own :/
-More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions: http://www.perldoc.com/
-perl5.6/pod/perlre.html
+More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions: http://perldoc.perl.org/
+perlre.html
+
+For information on regular expression based substitutions and their
+applications in filters, please see the filter file tutorial in this manual.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+14.2. Privoxy's Internal Pages
+
+Since Privoxy proxies each requested web page, it is easy for Privoxy to trap
+certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to Privoxy, and see how
+it is configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these rules and
+other configuration options, and even turn Privoxy's filtering off, all with a
+web browser.
+
+The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access to Privoxy.
+Of course, Privoxy must be running to access these. If not, you will get a
+friendly error message. Internet access is not necessary either.
+
+ * Privoxy main page:
+
+ http://config.privoxy.org/
+
+ There is a shortcut: http://p.p/ (But it doesn't provide a fall-back to a
+ real page, in case the request is not sent through Privoxy)
+
+ * Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
+ editing of actions files:
+
+ http://config.privoxy.org/show-status
+
+ * Show the source code version numbers:
+
+ http://config.privoxy.org/show-version
+
+ * Show the browser's request headers:
+
+ http://config.privoxy.org/show-request
+
+ * Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
+
+ http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info
+
+ * Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, "Privoxy" continues to run, but
+ only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:
+
+ http://config.privoxy.org/toggle
+
+ Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
+
+ http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable
+
+ http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable
+
+These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+14.2.1. Bookmarklets
+
+Below are some "bookmarklets" to allow you to easily access a "mini" version of
+some of Privoxy's special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer,
+but should work equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which
+support JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not
+by clicking the links below (although that should work for testing).
+
+To save them, right-click the link and choose "Add to Favorites" (IE) or "Add
+Bookmark" (Netscape). You will get a warning that the bookmark "may not be
+safe" - just click OK. Then you can run the Bookmarklet directly from your
+favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access, you can put them on the "Links"
+bar (IE) or the "Personal Toolbar" (Netscape), and run them with a single
+click.
+
+ * Privoxy - Enable
+
+ * Privoxy - Disable
+
+ * Privoxy - Toggle Privoxy (Toggles between enabled and disabled)
+
+ * Privoxy- View Status
+
+ * Privoxy - Why?
+
+Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is
+www.bookmarklets.com. They have more information about bookmarklets.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+14.3. Chain of Events
+
+Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
+requested by your browser and Privoxy is on duty:
+
+ * First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send the
+ request to Privoxy, which will in turn, relay the request to the remote web
+ server after passing the following tests:
+
+ * Privoxy traps any request for its own internal CGI pages (e.g http://p.p/)
+ and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
+
+ * Next, Privoxy checks to see if the URL matches any "+block" patterns. If
+ so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be
+ contacted. "+handle-as-image" is then checked and if it does not match, an
+ HTML "BLOCKED" page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match, an image is
+ returned. The type of image depends on the setting of "+set-image-blocker"
+ (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
+
+ * Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the trust file, then
+ that is done.
+
+ * If the URL pattern matches the "+fast-redirects" action, it is then
+ processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
+
+ * Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
+ of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. "+hide-user-agent", etc.),
+ headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and their
+ parameters.
+
+ * Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
+ page and related data).
+
+ * First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
+ things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
+ filtered as determined by the "+crunch-incoming-cookies",
+ "+session-cookies-only", and "+downgrade-http-version" actions.
+
+ * If the "+kill-popups" action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript
+ document, the popup-code in the response is filtered on-the-fly as it is
+ received.
+
+ * If a "+filter" or "+deanimate-gifs" 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 default.filter and any
+ other filter files) are processed against the buffered 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 Privoxy back to your browser.
+
+ If neither "+filter" or "+deanimate-gifs" matches, then Privoxy passes the
+ raw data through to the client browser as it becomes available.
+
+ * As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it reads
+ and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page source,
+ e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
+ frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
+ request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
+ complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+14.4. Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action
+
+The way Privoxy applies actions and filters to any given URL can be complex,
+and not always so easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need
+to be able to see just what Privoxy is doing. Especially, if something Privoxy
+is doing is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to
+look at the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled
+with regular expressions whose consequences are not always so obvious.
+
+One quick test to see if Privoxy is causing a problem or not, is to disable it
+temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting step. See the
+Bookmarklets section on a quick and easy way to do this (be sure to flush
+caches afterward!). Looking at the logs is a good idea too.
+
+Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any customization
+of your installation, revert back to the installed defaults and see if that
+helps. There are times the developers get complaints about one thing or
+another, and the problem is more related to a customized configuration issue.
+
+Privoxy also provides the http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info page that can
+show us very specifically how actions are being applied to any given URL. This
+is a big help for troubleshooting.
+
+First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then Privoxy will tell
+us how the current configuration will handle it. This will not help with
+filtering effects (i.e. the "+filter" action) from 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 you will only get info for the actual URL that is
+pasted into the prompt area -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about
+embedded URLs like ads, you will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use
+your browser's "View Page Source" option for this. Or right click on the ad,
+and grab the URL.
+
+Let's try an example, google.com, and look at it one section at a time in a
+sample configuration (your real configuration may vary):
+
+ Matches for http://google.com:
+
+ In file: default.action [ View ] [ Edit ]
+
+ {-add-header
+ -block
+ -content-type-overwrite
+ -crunch-client-header
+ -crunch-if-none-match
+ -crunch-incoming-cookies
+ -crunch-outgoing-cookies
+ -crunch-server-header
+ +deanimate-gifs {last}
+ -downgrade-http-version
+ +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
+ -filter {js-events}
+ -filter {content-cookies}
+ -filter {all-popups}
+ -filter {banners-by-link}
+ -filter {tiny-textforms}
+ -filter {frameset-borders}
+ -filter {demoronizer}
+ -filter {shockwave-flash}
+ -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
+ -filter {fun}
+ -filter {crude-parental}
+ -filter {site-specifics}
+ +filter {js-annoyances}
+ +filter {html-annoyances}
+ +filter {refresh-tags}
+ +filter {unsolicited-popups}
+ +filter {img-reorder}
+ +filter {banners-by-size}
+ +filter {webbugs}
+ +filter {jumping-windows}
+ +filter {ie-exploits}
+ -filter-client-headers
+ -filter-server-headers
+ -force-text-mode
+ -handle-as-empty-document
+ -handle-as-image
+ -hide-accept-language
+ -hide-content-disposition
+ +hide-forwarded-for-headers
+ +hide-from-header {block}
+ -hide-if-modified-since
+ +hide-referrer {forge}
+ -hide-user-agent
+ -inspect-jpegs
+ -kill-popups
+ -limit-connect
+ -overwrite-last-modified
+ +prevent-compression
+ -redirect
+ -send-vanilla-wafer
+ -send-wafer
+ +session-cookies-only
+ +set-image-blocker {pattern}
+ -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
+/
+
+ { -session-cookies-only }
+ .google.com
+
+ { -fast-redirects }
+ .google.com
+
+In file: user.action [ View ] [ Edit ]
+(no matches in this file)
+
+This is telling us how we have defined our "actions", and which ones match for
+our test case, "google.com". Displayed is all the actions that are available to
+us. Remember, the + sign denotes "on". - denotes "off". So some are "on" here,
+but many are "off". Each example we try may provide a slightly different end
+result, depending on our configuration directives.
+
+The first listing is for our default.action file. The large, multi-line
+listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
+settings. If you look at your "actions" file, this would be the section just
+below the "aliases" section near the top. This will apply to all URLs as
+signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing -- " / ".
+
+But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these
+general rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these
+exceptions would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two
+explicit matches for ".google.com". The first is negating our previous cookie
+setting, which was for "+session-cookies-only" (i.e. not persistent). So we
+will allow persistent cookies for google, at least that is how it is in this
+example. The second turns off any "+fast-redirects" action, allowing this to
+take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading dot here -- ".google.com".
+This will match any hosts and sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such
+as "www.google.com" or "mail.google.com". But it would not match
+"www.google.de"! So, apparently, we have these two actions defined as
+exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower part of our
+default.action file, and "google.com" is referenced somewhere in these latter
+sections.
+
+Then, for our user.action file, we again have no hits. So there is nothing
+google-specific that we might have added to our own, local configuration. If
+there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from previously processed
+files, such as default.action. user.action typically has the last word. This is
+the best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
+
+And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
+Privoxy is applying all its "actions" to "google.com":
+
+ Final results:
+
+ -add-header
+ -block
+ -content-type-overwrite
+ -crunch-client-header
+ -crunch-if-none-match
+ -crunch-incoming-cookies
+ -crunch-outgoing-cookies
+ -crunch-server-header
+ +deanimate-gifs {last}
+ -downgrade-http-version
+ -fast-redirects
+ +filter {js-annoyances}
+ +filter {html-annoyances}
+ +filter {refresh-tags}
+ +filter {unsolicited-popups}
+ +filter {img-reorder}
+ +filter {banners-by-size}
+ +filter {webbugs}
+ +filter {jumping-windows}
+ +filter {ie-exploits}
+ -filter-client-headers
+ -filter-server-headers
+ -force-text-mode
+ -handle-as-empty-document
+ -handle-as-image
+ -hide-accept-language
+ -hide-content-disposition
+ +hide-forwarded-for-headers
+ +hide-from-header {block}
+ -hide-if-modified-since
+ +hide-referrer {forge}
+ -hide-user-agent
+ -inspect-jpegs
+ -kill-popups
+ -limit-connect
+ -overwrite-last-modified
+ +prevent-compression
+ -redirect
+ -send-vanilla-wafer
+ -send-wafer
+ -session-cookies-only
+ +set-image-blocker {pattern}
+ -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks
+
+Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to "fast-redirects"
+and "session-cookies-only", which are activated specifically for this site in
+our configuration, and thus show in the "Final Results".
+
+Now another example, "ad.doubleclick.net":
+
+ { +block }
+ ad*.
+
+ { +block }
+ .ad.
+
+ { +block +handle-as-image }
+ .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
+
+We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is matched
+three different times. Two "+block" sections, and a "+block +handle-as-image",
+which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
+"+block-as-image". ("Aliases" are defined in the first section of the actions
+file and typically used to combine more than one action.)
+
+Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
+image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively would
+also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys though ;-)
+Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious URL to be invisible, it should be
+defined as "ad.doubleclick.net" is done here -- as both a "+block" and an
+"+handle-as-image". The custom alias "+block-as-image" just simplifies the
+process and make it more readable.
+
+One last example. Let's try "http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/". This one is
+giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
+
+ Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
+
+ In file: default.action [ View ] [ Edit ]
+
+ {-add-header
+ -block
+ -content-type-overwrite
+ -crunch-client-header
+ -crunch-if-none-match
+ -crunch-incoming-cookies
+ -crunch-outgoing-cookies
+ -crunch-server-header
+ +deanimate-gifs
+ -downgrade-http-version
+ +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}
+ +filter{html-annoyances}
+ +filter{js-annoyances}
+ +filter{kill-popups}
+ +filter{webbugs}
+ +filter{nimda}
+ +filter{banners-by-size}
+ +filter{hal}
+ +filter{fun}
+ -filter-client-headers
+ -filter-server-headers
+ -force-text-mode
+ -handle-as-empty-document
+ -handle-as-image
+ -hide-accept-language
+ -hide-content-disposition
+ +hide-forwarded-for-headers
+ +hide-from-header{block}
+ +hide-referer{forge}
+ -hide-user-agent
+ -inspect-jpegs
+ +kill-popups
+ -overwrite-last-modified
+ +prevent-compression
+ -redirect
+ -send-vanilla-wafer
+ -send-wafer
+ +session-cookies-only
+ +set-image-blocker{blank}
+ -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks }
+ /
+
+ { +block +handle-as-image }
+ /ads
+
+Ooops, the "/adsl/" is matching "/ads" in our configuration! But we did not
+want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. It is actually
+triggering two different actions here, and the effects are aggregated so that
+the URL is blocked, and Privoxy is told to treat the block as if it were an
+image. But this is, of course, all wrong. We could now add a new action below
+this (or better in our own user.action file) that explicitly un blocks ( "
+{-block}") paths with "adsl" in them (remember, last match in the configuration
+wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
+
+ { -block }
+ /adsl
+
+Now the page displays ;-) Remember to flush your browser's caches when making
+these kinds of changes to your configuration to insure that you get a freshly
+delivered page! Or, try using Shift+Reload.
+
+But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like we did
+with:
+
+ { +block +handle-as-image }
+ /ads
+
+That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem was.
+If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default rules in
+the first section of default.action is causing the problem. This would require
+some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate the offending
+rule. One likely cause would be one of the "+filter" actions. These tend to be
+harder to troubleshoot. Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that
+turn off "+filter":
+
+ { shop }
+ .quietpc.com
+ .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
+ .jungle.com
+ .scan.co.uk
+ .forbes.com
+
+"{ shop }" is an "alias" that expands to "{ -filter -session-cookies-only }".
+Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
+
+ { -filter }
+ # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
+ .forbes.com
+ developer.ibm.com
+ localhost
+
+This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best put in
+user.action, for local site exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern
+is used by itself (without the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within
+that domain are included automatcially in the scope of the action.
+
+Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the "+filter
+{banners-by-size}" rule, which assumes that images of certain sizes are ad
+banners (works well most of the time since these tend to be standardized).
+
+"{ fragile }" is an alias that disables most actions that are the most likely
+to cause trouble. This can be used as a last resort for problem sites.
+
+ { fragile }
+ # Handle with care: easy to break
+ mail.google.
+ mybank.example.com
+
+Remember to flush caches! Note that the mail.google reference lacks the TLD
+portion (e.g. ".com". This will effectively match any TLD with google in it,
+such as mail.google.de, just as an example.
+
+If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining actions
+one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
projects / privoxy.git / blobdiff