X-Git-Url: http://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?p=privoxy.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fsource%2Fuser-manual.sgml;h=6172c9e8277b26c6ace189b63f86e8a4637dccac;hp=c9f6a94d9804f85351e52dd18b96bd85814e57a3;hb=ee0ab00a07f0abda120329e593e5587640960e57;hpb=00ff6723cacb0c08cbf3f1044e8639a89ebc23d7
diff --git a/doc/source/user-manual.sgml b/doc/source/user-manual.sgml
index c9f6a94d..6172c9e8 100644
--- a/doc/source/user-manual.sgml
+++ b/doc/source/user-manual.sgml
@@ -11,11 +11,11 @@
-
-
+
+
-
-
+
+
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
+Privoxy">
]>
- Copyright &my-copy; 2001 - 2006 by
+ Copyright &my-copy; 2001 - 2008 by
Privoxy Developers
-$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt Exp $
+$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.80 2008/07/18 16:54:30 fabiankeil Exp $
@@ -96,7 +97,7 @@ Hal.
- You can find the latest version of the User Manual at Privoxy User Manual at http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/ .
Please see the Contact section on how to
contact the developers.
@@ -135,7 +136,8 @@ Hal.
Features
In addition to the core
- features of ad blocking and cookie management,
+ features of ad blocking and
+ cookie management,
Privoxy provides many supplemental
features,
that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
@@ -175,8 +177,10 @@ Hal.
How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
+
+
-Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs
+Red Hat and Fedora RPMs
RPMs can be installed with rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm ,
@@ -188,8 +192,7 @@ How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
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. Note that SuSE will
-automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
+ ntsysv , or similar methods.
@@ -207,7 +210,7 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
-Debian
+Debian and Ubuntu
DEBs can be installed with apt-get install privoxy ,
and will use /etc/privoxy for the location of
@@ -224,7 +227,7 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in.
- Version 3.0.4 introduces full Windows service
+ Version 3.0.5 beta 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 .
@@ -249,7 +252,7 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
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
+ 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
@@ -259,7 +262,7 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
-Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX
+Solaris
Create a new directory, cd to it, then unzip and
@@ -295,32 +298,24 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
-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 .
-
+Mac OS X
- To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on
- StartPrivoxy.command in the
- /Library/Privoxy folder.
- Or, type this command in the Terminal:
+ Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the zip file
+ icon from the Finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
+ Then, double-click on the package installer icon and follow the
+ installation process.
-
- /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
-
+ The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
+ installation (in addition to every time your computer starts up). To
+ prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
+ computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
+ /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy .
- You will be prompted for the administrator password.
+ To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the Privoxy Utility
+ for Mac OS X. This application controls the privoxy service (e.g.
+ starting and stopping the service as well as uninstalling the software).
@@ -334,6 +329,25 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
+
+FreeBSD
+
+
+ Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
+ it with cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean .
+
+
+ If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
+ the package with pkg_add -r privoxy .
+
+
+ The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
+ File Release
+ Page , but there's no reason to use them unless you're interested in the
+ beta releases which are only available there.
+
+
+
Gentoo
@@ -362,7 +376,8 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
The most convenient way to obtain the Privoxy sources
- is to download the source tarball from our project
+ is to download the source tarball from our
+ project download
page .
@@ -421,162 +436,182 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
What's New in this Release
- There are many improvements and new features in Privoxy &p-version;
- :
+ There are many improvements and new features since Privoxy 3.0.8 , the last stable release:
- Mulitiple filter files can now be specifed in config . This allows for
- locally defined filters that can be maintained separately from the filters as
- supplied by the developers.
+ Added SOCKS5 support (with address resolution done by
+ the SOCKS5 server). Patch provided by Eric M. Hopper.
-
-
-
- There are a number of new actions:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 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.
-
+
- And hide-referrer
- has a new option, conditional block .
+ The "blocked" CGI pages include a block reason that was
+ provided as argument to the last-applying block action.
-
-
-
+
- MS-Windows versions can now be
- installed and
- started as a Windows service .
+ If enable-edit-actions is disabled (the default since 3.0.7 beta)
+ the show-status page hides the edit buttons and explains why.
+ Previously the user would get the "this feature has been disabled"
+ message after using the edit button.
-
- config has two new options:
- enable-remote-http-toggle,
- and forwarded-connect-retries.
+ Forbidden CONNECT requests are treated like blocks by default.
+ The now-pointless treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks action
+ has been removed.
+
+
- And there is improved handling of the user-manual
- option, for placing documentation and help files on the local system.
+ Not enabling limit-connect now allows CONNECT requests to all ports.
+ In previous versions it would only allow CONNECT requests to port 443.
+ Use +limit-connect{443} if you think you need the old default behaviour.
-
- 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.
+ The CGI editor gets turned off after three edit requests with invalid
+ file modification timestamps. This makes life harder for attackers
+ who can leverage browser bugs to send fake Referers and intend to
+ brute-force edit URLs.
-
- In addition, there are various bug fixes and significant enhancements, including
- error pages should no longer be cached if the problem is fixed, better DNS
- error handling, and various logging improvements.
+ Action settings for multiple patterns in the same section are
+ shared in memory. As a result these sections take up less space
+ (and are loaded slightly faster). Problem reported by Franz Schwartau.
+
+
+
+
+ Linear white space in HTTP headers will be normalized to single
+ spaces before parsing the header's content, headers split across
+ multiple lines get merged first.
+
+
+
+
+ Host information is gathered outside the main thread so it's less
+ likely to delay other incoming connections if the host is misconfigured.
+
+
+
+
+ New config option "hostname" to use a hostname other than
+ the one returned by the operating system. Useful to speed-up responses
+ for CGI requests on misconfigured systems. Requested by Max Khon.
+
+
+
+
+ The CGI editor supports the "disable all filters of this type"
+ directives "-client-header-filter", "-server-header-filter",
+ "-client-header-tagger" and "-server-header-tagger".
+
+
+
+
+ Fixed false-positives with the link-by-url filter and URLs that
+ contain the pattern "/jump/".
+
+
+
+
+ The less-download-windows filter no longer messes
+ "Content-Type: application/x-shockwave-flash" headers up.
+
+
+
+
+ In the show-url-info page's "Final results" section active and
+ inactive actions are listed separately. Patch provided by Lee.
+
+
+
+
+ The GNUmakefile supports the DESTDIR variable. Patch for
+ the install target submitted by Radoslaw Zielinski.
+
+
+
+
+ Embedding the content of configuration files in the show-status
+ page is significantly faster now. For a largish action file (1 MB)
+ a speedup of about 2450 times has been measured. This is mostly
+ interesting if you are using large action files or regularly use
+ Privoxy-Regression-Test while running Privoxy through Valgrind,
+ for stock configuration files it doesn't really matter.
+
+
+
+
+ If zlib support is unavailable and there are content
+ filters active but the prevent-compression action is disabled,
+ the show-url-info page includes a warning that compression
+ might prevent filtering.
+
+
+
+
+ The show-url-info page provides an OpenSearch Description that
+ allows to access the page through browser search plugins.
+
+
+
+
+ The obsolete kill-popups action has been removed as the
+ PCRS-based popup filters can do the same and are slightly
+ less unreliable.
+
+
+
+
+ The inspect-jpegs action has been removed.
+
+
+
+
+ The send-wafer and send-vanilla-wafer actions have been removed.
+ They weren't particular useful and their behaviour could be emulated
+ with add-header anyway.
+
+
+
+
+ Privoxy-Regression-Test has been significantly improved.
+
+
+
+
+ Most sections in the default.action file contain tests for
+ Privoxy-Regression-Test to verify that they are working as intended.
+
+
+
+
+ Parts of Privoxy have been refactored to increase maintainability.
+
+
+
+
+ Building with zlib (if available) is done by default.
-
-
+
+ For a more detailed list of changes please have a look at the ChangeLog.
+
+
@@ -590,60 +625,145 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
+
+
+ The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
+ configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
+ is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
+ diff and maybe patch .
+
+
+ There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
+ most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
+ files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
+ to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
+ &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
+
+
- Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including
- configuration files. Save any important configuration files!
+ Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
+ including configuration files, therefore you should really save
+ any important configuration files!
- On the other hand, some 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.
+ On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
+ files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
-
- See the full documentation on
- fast-redirects
- which has changed syntax, and may require adjustments to local configs.
-
-
+
+ standard.action now only includes the enabled actions.
+ Not all actions as before.
+
+
+
+
+ In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
+ You can change that in the debug section
+ of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
+ logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
+ as expected.
+
+
+
- The jarfile , cookie logger, is off by default now.
+ Three other config file settings are now off by default:
+ enable-remote-toggle,
+ enable-remote-http-toggle,
+ and enable-edit-actions.
+ If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
+ be aware of the security issues involved.
+
+
+ The filter-client-headers
and
+ filter-server-headers
actions that were introduced with
+ Privoxy 3.0.5 to apply content filters to
+ the headers have been removed and replaced with new actions.
+ See the What's New section above.
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
Some installers may not automatically start
Privoxy after installation.
+-->
+
-Quickstart to Using Privoxy
+Quickstart to Using Privoxy
@@ -676,18 +796,21 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
Set your browser to use Privoxy as HTTP and
- HTTPS (SSL) proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
+ 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!
+ any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
+ browser from using these protocols.
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.
+ If using Privoxy to manage
+ cookies ,
+ you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
@@ -696,40 +819,47 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
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.
+ to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
+ to enable the
+ web-based action editor though.
+ Be sure to read the warnings first.
See the Configuration section for more
configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
- next section for a quick
introduction to how Privoxy blocks ads and
- banners.]]>
+ banners.
- If you experience ads that slipped through, innocent images that are
+ If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
- Privoxy's behaviour, take a look at the 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 Anatomy of an
- Action
has hints how to debug actions that
+ Appendix Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
+ Action
has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
misbehave
.
+
@@ -744,7 +874,7 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
-
+
@@ -770,7 +900,8 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
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
+ things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
+ may not work as 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
@@ -808,13 +939,17 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
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.
+ such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
+ instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
+ server are blocked.
- The actions we need to know about for ad blocking are: block , handle-as-image , and
+ linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image,
+ handle-as-empty-document ,and
set-image-blocker :
@@ -823,12 +958,14 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
- 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.
+ block - this is perhaps
+ the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
+ 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 (with some exceptions, see below).
@@ -848,6 +985,15 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
+
+
+ handle-as-empty-document -
+ sends an empty document instead of Privoxy's
+ normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
+ HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
+
+
+
+
+ Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
+ filters as well. Filters
+ are very different from blocks .
+ A block
blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
+ are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
+ filter usage: a text replacement of no-no
for
+ nasty-word
. That is a very simple example. This process can be
+ used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
+ some pitfalls to be wary off.
+
+
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
+ is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
+
+
+
+ Note that as of Privoxy 3.0.7 beta the
+ action editor is disabled by default. Check the
+ enable-edit-actions
+ section in the configuration file to learn why and in which
+ cases it's safe to enable again.
+
+
+
+ If you decided to enable the action editor, 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
@@ -931,7 +1102,7 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
Actions Files in Use
-
+
[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]
@@ -988,6 +1159,13 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
to now go to the Actions Files Tutorial.
The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
+
+ There are also various
+ filters that can be used for ad blocking
+ (filters are a special subset of actions). These
+ fall into the advanced
usage category, and are explained in
+ depth in later sections.
+
@@ -998,13 +1176,15 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
-Starting Privoxy
+Starting Privoxy
Before launching Privoxy for the first time, you
will want to configure your browser(s) to use
- Privoxy as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is
+ 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!
+ used port 8000). This is the one configuration step that must be done
+ !
Please note that Privoxy can only proxy HTTP and
@@ -1013,10 +1193,11 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
- Proxy Configuration (Mozilla)
+ Proxy Configuration Showing
+ Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings
-
+
[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]
@@ -1027,21 +1208,21 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
- With Firefox , this can be set under:
+ With Firefox , this is typically set under:
-
-
- Tools
- |_
- Options
- |_
- General
- |_
- Connection Settings
- |_
- Manual Proxy Configuration
+ Tools -> Options -> Advanced -> Network ->Connection -> Settings
+
+
+
+
+ Or optionally on some platforms:
+
+
+
+ Edit -> Preferences -> General -> Connection Settings -> Manual Proxy Configuration
+
@@ -1054,43 +1235,48 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
- Edit
- |_
- Preferences
- |_
- Advanced
- |_
- Proxies
- |_
- HTTP Proxy
+ Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy
+
- For Internet Explorer :
+ For Internet Explorer v.5-7 :
-
-
- Tools
- |_
- Internet Properties
- |_
- Connections
- |_
- LAN Settings
+ Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings
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.
+ 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)!
+
+
+ Proxy Configuration Showing
+ Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings
+
+
+
+
+
+ [ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]
+
+
+
+
+
+
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. You
- are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
+ 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 !
@@ -1103,44 +1289,38 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
-Red Hat and Conectiva
+Red Hat and Fedora
- We use a script. Note that Red Hat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
- default. It will use the file /etc/privoxy/config as
- its main configuration file.
+ A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
+ the file /etc/privoxy/config as its main configuration
+ file.
# /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
-
-
-
-Debian
- We use a script. Note that Debian starts Privoxy upon booting per
- default. It will use the file
- /etc/privoxy/config as its main configuration
- file.
+ Or ...
- # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
+ # service privoxy start
-
-SuSE
+
+Debian
-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.
+ We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
+ default. It will use the file
+ /etc/privoxy/config as its main configuration
+ file.
- # rcprivoxy start
+ # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
@@ -1148,16 +1328,16 @@ your PC.
Windows
-Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy . If no configuration file is
+Click on the &my-app; 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
+ automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
when installing.
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
+ On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
+ to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
Windows Installation
instructions for details.
@@ -1186,21 +1366,34 @@ Example Unix startup command:
-Mac OSX
+Mac OS X
- During installation, Privoxy is configured to
- start automatically when the system restarts. To start Privoxy by hand,
- double-click on the StartPrivoxy.command icon in the
- /Library/Privoxy folder. Or, type this command
- in the Terminal:
+ After downloading the privoxy software, unzip the downloaded file by
+ double-clicking on the zip file icon. Then, double-click on the
+ installer package icon and follow the installation process.
+
+
+ The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful
+ installation. In addition, the privoxy service will automatically
+ start every time your computer starts up.
+
+
+ To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your
+ computer starts up, remove or rename the folder named
+ /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy.
+
+
+ A simple application named Privoxy Utility has been created which
+ enables administrators to easily start and stop the privoxy service.
-
- /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
-
+ In addition, the Privoxy Utility presents a simple way for
+ administrators to edit the various privoxy config files. A method
+ to uninstall the software is also available.
- You will be prompted for the administrator password.
+ An administrator username and password must be supplied in order for
+ the Privoxy Utility to perform any of the tasks.
@@ -1273,18 +1466,16 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
- sites is the popup-killing (through the +kill-popups
and
- +filter{popups}
- actions), because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
+ sites is the popup-killing (through +filter{popups}
),
+ because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
popups (explained below).
- Privoxy is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of
- the optional 1.1 features are as yet supported. In the unlikely event that
- you experience inexplicable problems with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
+ Privoxy does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
+ features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
+ with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
(like Mozilla or recent versions of I.E.), you might
try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under Edit ->
Preferences -> Debug -> Networking .
@@ -1380,7 +1571,6 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
--pidfile FILE
-
On startup, write the process ID to FILE . Delete the
@@ -1392,7 +1582,6 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
--user USER[.GROUP]
-
After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
@@ -1400,19 +1589,36 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
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
+ chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
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.
+ the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
Unix only.
+
+
+ --pre-chroot-nslookup hostname
+
+
+ Specifies a hostname to look up before doing a chroot. On some systems, initializing the
+ resolver library involves reading config files from /etc and/or loading additional shared
+ libraries from /lib. On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
+ the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
+
+
+ For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
+ your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
+ (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
+ but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
+
+
+
configfile
@@ -1431,8 +1637,8 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
- On MS Windows only there are two addition
- options to allow Privoxy to install and
+ 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.
@@ -1446,7 +1652,7 @@ for details.
-Privoxy Configuration
+Privoxy Configuration
All Privoxy configuration is stored
in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
@@ -1458,7 +1664,7 @@ for details.
-Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser
+Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser
Privoxy 's user interface can be reached through the special
URL http://config.privoxy.org/
@@ -1490,8 +1696,8 @@ for details.
▪ Toggle Privoxy on or off
- ▪ Documentation
+ ▪ Documentation
@@ -1519,6 +1725,14 @@ for details.
your browser.
+
+ Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
+ in Privoxy 3.0.7 beta and later.
+ Check the
+ configuration file to learn why
+ and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
+
+
@@ -1572,7 +1786,7 @@ for details.
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
+ upgrades. standard.action is only for
Privoxy's internal use.
@@ -1605,9 +1819,9 @@ for details.
- 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.
+ The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
+ Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
+
@@ -1617,7 +1831,7 @@ for details.
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.
+ out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
@@ -1675,7 +1889,8 @@ for details.
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.
+ our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
+ their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
There
@@ -1691,9 +1906,13 @@ for details.
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 for users everywhere.
+ 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).
@@ -1706,12 +1925,42 @@ for details.
- standard.action - is used by the web based editor,
+ standard.action - is used only 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 . These have increasing levels of
- aggressiveness and have no influence on your browsing unless
- you select them explicitly in the editor . It is not recommend
- to edit this file.
+ 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 more aggressive
+ the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
+ not working as they should.
+
+
+ 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
+ ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'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
+ other features 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
@@ -1729,7 +1978,7 @@ for details.
Feature
Cautious
Medium
- Adventuresome
+ Advanced
@@ -1743,31 +1992,37 @@ for details.
- Ad-blocking by URL
- yes
- yes
- yes
+ Ad-blocking Aggressiveness
+ medium
+ high
+ high
Ad-filtering by size
- yes
+ no
yes
yes
- GIF de-animation
+ Ad-filtering by link
+ no
no
- yes
yes
-
- Referer forging
- no
- yes
- yes
+ Pop-up killing
+ blocks only
+ blocks only
+ blocks only
+
+
+
+ Privacy Features
+ low
+ medium
+ medium/high
@@ -1778,69 +2033,56 @@ for details.
- Pop-up killing
- unsolicited
- unsolicited
- all
-
-
-
- Fast redirects
- no
+ Referer forging
no
yes
-
-
-
- HTML taming
- yes
- yes
yes
+
- JavaScript taming
- yes
+ GIF de-animation
+ no
yes
yes
+
- Web-bug killing
- yes
- yes
+ Fast redirects
+ no
+ no
yes
- Fun text replacements
+ HTML taming
no
no
yes
- Image tag reordering
+ JavaScript taming
no
no
yes
- Ad-filtering by link
- no
+ Web-bug killing
no
yes
+ yes
- Demoronizer
- no
+ Image tag reordering
no
yes
+ yes
-
@@ -1853,11 +2095,18 @@ for details.
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
+ default.action is typically processed 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
@@ -1870,15 +2119,15 @@ for details.
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
+ with the advantage that it 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
+ just some obnoxious URL whose content 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
+ written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
fooled, and much more. See below for a complete list
of actions.
@@ -1890,13 +2139,14 @@ for details.
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. In general, it can be said that the more
+ 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 puposes, like maybe
- your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
+ regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
+ your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
@@ -1914,55 +2164,73 @@ for details.
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 Adventuresome
.
- Warning: the Adventuresome
setting is not only more aggressive,
- but includes settings that are fun and subversive, and which some may find of
- dubious merit!
-
+ Note: the config file option enable-edit-actions must be enabled for
+ this to work. 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. Look at default.action which is richly
- commented.
+ the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
+ default.action which is richly commented with many
+ good examples.
-How Actions are Applied to URLs
+How Actions are Applied to Requests
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.
+ Below that, there is a list of URL and tag 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 {
+ compared to all URL patterns in each action file
.
+ Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
+ incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
+ pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
+
+
+
+ If multiple applying sections 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.
+ 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{Banner ads.} }
+ # 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 .
- More detail on this is provided in the Appendix,
- Anatomy of an Action.
+ Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix,
+ Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action section.
@@ -1971,15 +2239,15 @@ for details.
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
+ 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
+ Generally, an URL pattern has the form
<domain>/<path> , where both the
<domain> and <path> are
optional. (This is why the special / pattern matches all
@@ -1987,6 +2255,13 @@ for details.
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 more flexible
+ Regular
+ Expressions
(POSIX 1003.2).
+
@@ -1994,7 +2269,9 @@ for details.
is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to www.example.com ,
- regardless of which document on that server is requested.
+ 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.
@@ -2008,7 +2285,16 @@ for details.
- www.example.com/index.html
+ www.example.com/index.html$
+
+
+ matches all the documents on www.example.com
+ whose name starts with /index.html .
+
+
+
+
+ www.example.com/index.html$
matches only the single document /index.html
@@ -2017,11 +2303,11 @@ for details.
- /index.html
+ /index.html$
matches the document /index.html , regardless of the domain,
- i.e. on any web server.
+ i.e. on any web server anywhere.
@@ -2029,8 +2315,9 @@ for details.
index.html
- matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
- there is no top-level domain called .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.
@@ -2051,8 +2338,11 @@ for details.
.example.com
- matches any domain that ENDS in
- .example.com
+ matches any domain with first-level domain com
+ and second-level domain example .
+ For example www.example.com ,
+ example.com and foo.bar.baz.example.com .
+ Note that it wouldn't match if the second-level domain was another-example .
@@ -2061,7 +2351,8 @@ for details.
matches any domain that STARTS with
- www.
+ www. (It also matches the domain
+ www but most of the time that doesn't matter.)
@@ -2069,8 +2360,14 @@ for details.
.example.
- matches any domain that CONTAINS .example.
- (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains example as a domain.)
+ 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.
@@ -2078,10 +2375,15 @@ for details.
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, you can define character classes in square
- brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
+ 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:
@@ -2124,6 +2426,10 @@ for details.
+
+ While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
+
+
@@ -2133,18 +2439,16 @@ for details.
The Path Pattern
- Privoxy uses Perl compatible regular expressions
- (through the PCRE library) for
- matching the path.
+ Privoxy uses modern
POSIX 1003.2
+ Regular
+ Expressions
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 .
+ expressions, you also might want to have a look at your operating system's documentation
+ on regular expressions (try man re_format ).
@@ -2160,6 +2464,135 @@ for details.
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.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Tag Pattern
+
+
+ Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
+ request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
+ client-header-tagger
+ or the server-header-tagger action.
+
+
+
+ Tag patterns have to start with TAG:
, so &my-app;
+ can tell them apart from URL patterns. Everything after the colon
+ including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
+ path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
+ automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a ^
,
+ you have to do it yourself if you need it).
+
+
+
+ To match all requests that are tagged with foo
+ your pattern line should be TAG:^foo$
,
+ TAG:foo
would work as well, but it would also
+ match requests whose tags contain foo
somewhere.
+ TAG: foo
wouldn't work as it requires white space.
+
+
+
+ Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
+ but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
+ always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
+
+
+
+ Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
+ of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
+ tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
+ taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
+
+
+
+ For example you could tag client requests which use the
+ POST method,
+ then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
+ are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
+ the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
+ you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
+ method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
+ The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
+ the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
+
+
+
+ While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
+ indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
+ make too much sense.
+
+
@@ -2193,7 +2626,7 @@ for details.
- There are three classes of actions:
+ Actions fall into three categories:
@@ -2209,7 +2642,7 @@ for details.
-name # disable action name
- Example: +block
+ Example: +handle-as-image
@@ -2230,7 +2663,7 @@ for details.
the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
- Example: +hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }
+ Example: +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070602 Firefox/2.0.0.4}
@@ -2262,20 +2695,22 @@ for details.
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
+ normal, non-blocking, non-filtering 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). 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!
+ Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
+ 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 to match more than one pattern
(because of wildcards and
+ regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
+ match wins.
@@ -2364,7 +2799,7 @@ for details.
Typical use:
- Block ads or other obnoxious content
+ Block ads or other unwanted content
@@ -2372,10 +2807,16 @@ for details.
Effect:
- Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the requests are not
- forwarded to the remote server, but answered locally with a substitute page or image,
- as determined by the handle-as-image
- and set-image-blocker actions.
+ Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
+ requests are trapped by &my-app; 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.
+
@@ -2384,14 +2825,14 @@ for details.
Type:
- Boolean.
+ Parameterized.
Parameter:
- N/A
+ A block reason that should be given to the user.
@@ -2400,14 +2841,10 @@ for details.
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 .
+ for requests to blocked pages. This page contains the block reason given as
+ parameter, a link to find out why the block action applies, and a click-through
+ to the blocked content (the latter only if the force feature is available and
+ enabled).
A very important exception occurs if both
@@ -2420,7 +2857,8 @@ for details.
It is important to understand this process, in order
to understand how Privoxy deals with
- ads and other unwanted content.
+ ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
+ upon which various other features depend.
The filter
@@ -2436,16 +2874,202 @@ for details.
Example usage (section):
- {+block} # Block and replace with "blocked" page
-.nasty-stuff.example.com
+ {+block{No nasty stuff for you.}}
+# Block and replace with "blocked" page
+ .nasty-stuff.example.com
+
+{+block{Doubleclick banners.} +handle-as-image}
+# Block and replace with image
+ .ad.doubleclick.net
+ .ads.r.us/banners/
+
+{+block{Layered ads.} +handle-as-empty-document}
+# Block and then ignore
+ adserver.example.net/.*\.js$
+
+
+
-{+block +handle-as-image} # Block and replace with image
-.ad.doubleclick.net
-.ads.r.us
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
@@ -2453,9 +3077,6 @@ for details.
-
content-type-overwrite
@@ -2511,7 +3132,7 @@ new action
If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
- Content-Type: text/html
, you can use Privoxy
+ Content-Type: text/html
, you can use &my-app;
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.
@@ -2530,10 +3151,9 @@ new action
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
+ Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
+ server-header filter .
+ 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.
@@ -2549,12 +3169,13 @@ new action
# Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
-{+content-type-overwrite {application/xml}}
+{ +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
+www.example.net/.*\.css$
+www.example.net/.*style
@@ -2621,9 +3242,8 @@ new action
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.
+ parts of them, you should use a
+ client-header filter .
@@ -2638,7 +3258,7 @@ new action
# Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
-{+crunch-client-header {Privacy-Violation:}}
+{ +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
/
@@ -2699,12 +3319,12 @@ new action
It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
- replacement.
+ replacement (unlikely but possible).
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.
+ isn't blocked or missing as well.
It is recommended to use this action together with
@@ -2719,10 +3339,11 @@ new action
Example usage (section):
- # Let the browser revalidate cached documents without being tracked across sessions
-{+hide-if-modified-since {-1} \
-+overwrite-last-modified {randomize} \
-+crunch-if-none-match}
+ # Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
+# allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
+{+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
+ +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
+ +crunch-if-none-match}
/
@@ -2740,7 +3361,7 @@ new action
Typical use:
- Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
+ Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
@@ -2775,10 +3396,10 @@ new action
Notes:
- This action is only concerned with incoming cookies. For
- outgoing cookies, use
+ This action is only concerned with incoming HTTP cookies. For
+ outgoing HTTP cookies, use
crunch-outgoing-cookies .
- Use both to disable cookies completely.
+ Use both to disable HTTP cookies completely.
It makes no sense at all to use this action in conjunction
@@ -2857,9 +3478,8 @@ new action
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.
+ parts of them, you should use a custom
+ server-header filter .
@@ -2874,7 +3494,7 @@ new action
# Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
-{+crunch-server-header {no-cache}}
+{ +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
/
@@ -2892,7 +3512,7 @@ new action
Typical use:
- Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
+ Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
@@ -2927,10 +3547,10 @@ new action
Notes:
- This action is only concerned with outgoing cookies. For
- incoming cookies, use
+ This action is only concerned with outgoing HTTP cookies. For
+ incoming HTTP cookies, use
crunch-incoming-cookies .
- Use both to disable cookies completely.
+ Use both to disable HTTP cookies completely.
It makes no sense at all to use this action in conjunction
@@ -3066,8 +3686,8 @@ new action
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.
+ out there. Not all HTTP/1.1 features and requirements are supported yet,
+ so there is a chance you might need this action.
@@ -3175,9 +3795,9 @@ problem-host.example.com
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.
+ or lead to a page not found
error. You can prevent this problem by
+ first using the redirect action
+ to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
To detect a redirection URL, fast-redirects only
@@ -3195,10 +3815,12 @@ problem-host.example.com
Example usage:
- +fast-redirects{simple-check}
-
-
- +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}
+
+ { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
+ one.example.com
+
+ { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
+ another.example.com/testing
@@ -3215,7 +3837,8 @@ problem-host.example.com
Typical use:
- Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), do fun text replacements, etc.
+ Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
+ do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.
@@ -3223,13 +3846,11 @@ problem-host.example.com
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
+ All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
+ this action applies, can be 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 document content
- itself, not the headers.
+ text/plain MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
@@ -3246,7 +3867,7 @@ problem-host.example.com
Parameter:
- The name of a filter, as defined in the filter file.
+ The name of a content 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.
@@ -3256,7 +3877,7 @@ problem-host.example.com
When used in its negative form,
- and without parameters, filtering is completely disabled.
+ and without parameters, all filtering is completely disabled.
@@ -3277,8 +3898,14 @@ problem-host.example.com
noticeable on slower connections.
- This is very powerful feature, and rolling your own
- filters requires a knowledge of regular expressions and HTML.
+ Rolling your own
+ filters requires a knowledge of
+ Regular
+ Expressions
and
+ HTML
.
+ This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
+ Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
+ action
is not available.
The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
@@ -3288,22 +3915,27 @@ problem-host.example.com
data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
- Inadequate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
+ 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 sections.
+ by defining appropriate -filter exceptions.
+
+
+ Compressed content can't be filtered either, unless &my-app;
+ is compiled with zlib support (requires at least &my-app; 3.0.7),
+ in which case &my-app; will decompress the content before filtering
+ it.
- At this time, Privoxy cannot (yet!) uncompress compressed
- documents. If you want filtering to work on all documents, even those that
- would normally be sent compressed, use the
- prevent-compression
+ If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
+ as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
+ you must use the prevent-compression
action in conjunction with filter .
- Filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
+ Content 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
@@ -3330,71 +3962,71 @@ problem-host.example.com
- +filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
+ +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{js-events} # Kill all JS event bindings and timers (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites).
- +filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse
+ +filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.
- +filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content
+ +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{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups).
- +filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective
+ +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-size} # Kill banners by size.
- +filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers
+ +filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers.
- +filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking)
+ +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{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{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves.
- +filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable
+ +filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable.
- +filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets
+ +filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets.
- +filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects
+ +filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects.
- +filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable
+ +filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable.
@@ -3402,129 +4034,53 @@ problem-host.example.com
- +filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering (demo only)
+ +filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering. Note that this filter doesn't work reliably.
- +filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits
+ +filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Type:
-
+
Boolean.
@@ -3555,58 +4109,44 @@ problem-host.example.com
-
-
+
+
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.
+ 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.
-
+
+
+ Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
+ with regular expressions can cause file damage.
+
+
-
+
- Example usage (section):
+ Example usage:
-
+
-{+filter-server-headers +filter{test_filter}}
-problem-host.example.com
-
-
++force-text-mode
+
+
-
-
-force-text-mode
+
+forward-override
@@ -3614,7 +4154,7 @@ new action
Typical use:
- Force Privoxy to treat a document as if it was in some kind of text format.
+ Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin
@@ -3622,7 +4162,7 @@ new action
Effect:
- Declares a document as text, even if the Content-Type:
isn't detected as such.
+ Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
@@ -3631,16 +4171,40 @@ new action
Type:
- Boolean.
+ Multi-value.
Parameter:
-
- N/A
-
+
+
+ forward .
to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.
+
+
+
+ forward 127.0.0.1:8123
to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
+
+
+
+
+ forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .
to use the socks4a proxy listening at
+ 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace forward-socks4a
with forward-socks4
+ to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead, use forward-socks5
+ for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
+
+
+
+
+ forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000
to use the socks4a proxy
+ listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
+ Replace forward-socks4a
with forward-socks4
to use a socks4 connection
+ (with local DNS resolution) instead, use forward-socks5
+ for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
+
+
+
@@ -3648,17 +4212,25 @@ new action
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.
+ This action takes parameters similar to the
+ forward directives in the configuration
+ file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
+ used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
- Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
- with regular expressions can cause file damage.
+ Please read the description for the forward directives before
+ using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
+ chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
+
+
+ If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
+ in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
+ to exit.
+
+
+ Use the show-url-info CGI page
+ to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
@@ -3669,7 +4241,19 @@ new action
-+force-text-mode
+# Always use direct connections for requests previously tagged as
+# User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0
and make sure
+# resuming downloads continues to work.
+# This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
+# without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
+# or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
+# Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
+# values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
+{+forward-override{forward .} \
+ -hide-if-modified-since \
+ -overwrite-last-modified \
+}
+TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
@@ -3698,7 +4282,7 @@ new action
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
+ 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.
@@ -3729,6 +4313,8 @@ new action
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.
+ And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
+ BLOCKED message in frames.
The content type for the empty document can be specified with
@@ -3744,7 +4330,7 @@ new action
# 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}
+{+block{Blocked JavaScript} +handle-as-empty-document}
example.org/.*\.js$
@@ -3762,7 +4348,7 @@ example.org/.*\.js$
Typical use:
- Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by imagee if they get blocked )
+ Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images if they do get blocked , rather than HTML pages)
@@ -3831,11 +4417,8 @@ example.org/.*\.js$
# 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
+{+block{Nasty banners.} +handle-as-image}
+nasty-banner-server.example.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
@@ -3997,6 +4580,10 @@ new action
to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
it up.
+
+ This action will probably be removed in the future,
+ use server-header filters instead.
+
@@ -4005,10 +4592,10 @@ new action
# Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
-{-filter\
-+content-type-overwrite {text/plain}\
-+hide-content-disposition {block} }
-.sourceforge.net/tracker/download.php
+{ -filter \
+ +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
+ +hide-content-disposition{block} }
+ .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php
@@ -4066,15 +4653,15 @@ new action
Instead of removing the header, hide-if-modified-since can
- also add or substract a random amount of time to/from the headers value.
- You specify a range of hours were the random factor should be chosen from and
+ 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 less likely that the server can use the time 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
@@ -4083,7 +4670,8 @@ new action
It is also recommended to use this action together with
- crunch-if-none-match .
+ crunch-if-none-match ,
+ otherwise it's more or less pointless.
@@ -4092,10 +4680,10 @@ new action
Example usage (section):
- # Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
-{+hide-if-modified-since {-1}\
-+overwrite-last-modified {randomize}\
-+crunch-if-none-match}
+ # Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
+{+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
+ +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
+ +crunch-if-none-match}
/
@@ -4105,16 +4693,13 @@ new action
-