X-Git-Url: http://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?p=privoxy.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fsource%2Fuser-manual.sgml;h=7fd3f8353d949d61ba563ab0dc5f0f365b7d9021;hp=88a7e411412c482147fb77eb40a1d3d9535c4d1b;hb=7bbee96637ad3a65a3ef35d37efc7fc059a96e5a;hpb=46adfc8e72b8874fa6e5a9c61535f5137871cbeb diff --git a/doc/source/user-manual.sgml b/doc/source/user-manual.sgml index 88a7e411..7fd3f835 100644 --- a/doc/source/user-manual.sgml +++ b/doc/source/user-manual.sgml @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ + @@ -8,14 +8,23 @@ - - - - + + + + + + + + + + + + +Privoxy"> ]> + + Copyright &my-copy; 2001 - 2007 by + Privoxy Developers + + + +$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil Exp $ + + - - - - By: Privoxy Developers - - - + @@ -67,21 +87,21 @@ ]]> - The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use - Privoxy. - + The Privoxy User Manual gives users information on how to + install, configure and use Privoxy. + &p-intro; - 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 + Please see the Contact section on how to contact the developers. - + @@ -91,29 +111,19 @@ - - - - - - - - Introduction - This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of Privoxy, v.&p-version;soon ;-)]]>. + configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing + completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over + earlier versions. ]]>. - + Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with @@ -123,16 +133,15 @@ ]]> - -New Features +Features - In addition to Internet Junkbuster's traditional - feature of ad and banner blocking and cookie management, - Privoxy provides new features: - + In addition to the core + features of ad blocking and + cookie management, + Privoxy provides many supplemental + features, + that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom: - &newfeatures; @@ -145,249 +154,568 @@ Installation + - Privoxy is available as raw source code (tarball - or via CVS), or pre-compiled binaries for various platforms. See the Privoxy Project Page for - the most up to date release information. - Privoxy is also available via CVS. - 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. - - &supported; - - - -Source - - - - &buildsource; - + + 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. + + +Binary Packages - For Redhat and SuSE Linux RPM packages, see below. +How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system: + -Red Hat +Red Hat and Fedora RPMs + - To build Redhat RPM packages from source, install source as above. Then: + RPMs can be installed with rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm, + and will use /etc/privoxy for the location + of configuration files. - - autoheader - autoconf - ./configure - make redhat-dist - + 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. - This will create both binary and src RPMs in the usual places. Example: + If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM: + rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm. This + will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version. -    /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686/privoxy-&p-version;-1.i686.rpm + 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. + + + +Debian -    /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS/privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm + DEBs can be installed with apt-get install privoxy, + and will use /etc/privoxy for the location of + configuration files. + - - To install, of course: + +Windows + + + 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. + + + 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. + + + +Solaris, NetBSD, HP-UX + - - rpm -Uvv /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686/privoxy-&p-version;-1.i686.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. + + + +OS/2 - This will place the Privoxy configuration - files in /etc/privoxy/, and log files in - /var/log/privoxy/. Run - chkconfig privoxy on to have - Privoxy start automatically during init. + 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. + -SuSE +Mac OSX - To build SuSE RPM packages, install source as above. Then: + 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. - - - autoheader - autoconf - ./configure - make suse-dist - + To start Privoxy by hand, double-click on + StartPrivoxy.command in the + /Library/Privoxy folder. + Or, type this command in the Terminal: + + + + /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command + + + + You will be prompted for the administrator password. + + +AmigaOS - This will create both binary and src RPMs in the usual places. Example: + 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. + + + +FreeBSD -    /usr/src/packages/RPMS/i686/privoxy-&p-version;-1.i686.rpm + Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install + it with cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean. -    /usr/src/packages/SRPMS/privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm + If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install + the package with pkg_add -r privoxy. - - To install, of course: + The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the + File Release + Page, but if you're interested in stable releases only you don't + gain anything by using them. + + +Gentoo - - rpm -Uvv /usr/src/packages/RPMS/i686/privoxy-&p-version;-1.i686.rpm - + 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). - - This will place the Privoxy configuration - files in /etc/privoxy/, and log files in - /var/log/privoxy/. + 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-&p-version; + and the Log directory is in /var/log/privoxy. - + -OS/2 - - +Building from Source - Privoxy is packaged in a WarpIN self- - installing archive. The self-installing program will be named depending - on the release version, something like: - privoxyos2_setup_&p-version;.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 Privoxy - 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 download + page. - The directory you choose to install Privoxy - 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. + - - + +&buildsource; + - -Windows -Click-click. (I need help on this. Not a clue here. Also for -configuration section below. HB.) + + +Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date + + 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. - - -Other - Some quick notes on other Operating Systems. + 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. - 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. + 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. - + - + +What's New in this Release + + There are many improvements and new features since Privoxy 3.0.6, the last stable release: + + + + + + + Header filtering can be done with dedicated header filters now. As a result + the actions filter-client-headers and filter-server-headers + that were introduced with Privoxy 3.0.5 to apply + the content filters to the headers as, well have been removed again. + + + + + + + Note to Upgraders + - There are very significant changes from older versions of - Junkbuster to the current - Privoxy. Configuration is substantially - changed. Junkbuster 2.0.x and earlier - configuration files will not migrate. The functionality of the old - blockfile, cookiefile and - imagelist, are now combined into the - actions file - (default.action for most installations). - - - A filterfile (typically - default.filter) is new with - Privoxy 2.9.x, and provides some of the new - sophisticaton (explained below). config is - much the same. - - - If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config - files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files. - If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still recommended - to use the new configuration files. - - - A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading: + A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier + versions of Privoxy: - - The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another - service (NAS). + + Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including + configuration files. Save any important configuration files! - + - Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. 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. - - Privoxy is reachable with a web browser - at the special URL: http://p.p/. Many - aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling - Privoxy. Alternately, - http://config.privoxy.org - may work in some rare cases where the former does not. - - + + 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 and filters you may want to + consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default + settings as yet (see above). + + + + + + 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 &my-app; + 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. + + + + + + The default setting has filtering turned off, which + subsequently means that compression is on. Remember + that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to + use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example: + + + + { +filter{google} +prevent-compression } + .google. + + + Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want + to turn off compression for all sites in + default.action (or + user.action). + + + + + - The primary configuration file for cookie management, ad and banner - blocking, and many other aspects of Privoxy - configuration is default.action. + Also, session-cookies-only is + off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want + to turn it back on in user.action now. - + + + @@ -397,315 +725,289 @@ configuration section below. HB.) + - + - -Starting <application>Privoxy</application> - - 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 localhost for the proxy address, - and port 8118 (earlier versions used port 8000). This is the one required - configuration that must be done! - - - - 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. - - +Quickstart to Using Privoxy - After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a - re-reading of all pages and get rid of any ads that may be cached. You - are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using - Privoxy. - + + + + Install Privoxy. See the Installation Section below for platform specific + information. + + - - Privoxy is typically started by specifying the - main configuration file to be used on the command line. Example Unix startup - command: - + + + 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. + + - - - - # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config - - - + + + Start Privoxy, if the installation program has + not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section + Starting Privoxy. + + - - An init script is provided for SuSE and Redhat. - + + + 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! + + - - For for SuSE: /etc/rc.d/privoxy start - + + + 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. + + - - For RedHat: /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start + + + 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 on how to understand and debug actions that + misbehave. + + - - 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. If no file is specified on the - command line and no default configuration file can be found, - Privoxy will fail to start. - + + + For easy access to &my-app;'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. + + - - The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting - point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the - actions files. These are where various cookie actions are - defined, ad and banner blocking, and other aspects of - Privoxy configuration. There are several such - files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness. - - - - You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites that require persistent - cookies, and add these to default.action as needed. By - default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser - session (aka session cookies), until you add them to the - configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need - to edit default.action and disable this feature. If you - use more than one browser, it would make more sense to let - Privoxy handle this. In which case, the - browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies. - - - - Privoxy 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 - default.action. + + + Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy! + + + + - - After running Privoxy 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 default.action) - can be adjusted by pointing your browser to - http://p.p/, - and then follow the link to edit the actions list. - (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.) - - - In fact, various aspects of Privoxy - 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 default.action file - editor mentioned above, Privoxy can also - be turned on and off from this page. - + + +Quickstart to Ad Blocking + - If you encounter problems, please verify it is a - Privoxy bug, by disabling - Privoxy, 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. For instance, try adding it to the - {fragile} section of default.action. - This will turn off most actions for this site. For more on troubleshooting - problem sites, see the Appendix. If a bug, please report it - to the developers (see below). + 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. - - - - - - -Command Line Options - - Privoxy may be invoked with the following - command-line options: + + 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. 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 + 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 WWW 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. &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 most important actions for basic ad blocking are: block, handle-as-image, + handle-as-empty-document,and + set-image-blocker: - - - - --version - - - Print version info and exit, Unix only. - - - - - --help - - - Print a short usage info and exit, Unix only. - - + - --no-daemon - - - Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group - leader, don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only. + 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). + - --pidfile FILE - - - - 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. + 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. + - --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. + 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. + - configfile + 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. - 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. + The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are: - - - - - - - - - - - - - -<application>Privoxy</application> Configuration - - 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. - - - - - - - -Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser - - Privoxy can be reached by the special - URL http://p.p/ (or alternately - http://config.privoxy.org/), - which is an internal page. You will see the following section: - - - - - - -Please choose from the following options: - - * Privoxy main page - * Show information about the current configuration - * Show the source code version numbers - * Show the request headers. - * Show which actions apply to a URL and why - * Toggle Privoxy on or off - * Edit the actions list - - - - - - This should be self-explanatory. Note the last item is an editor for the - actions list, which is where much of 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. - Privoxy will automatically detect any changes - to these files. Note: one or two requests to the proxy might required to - wake up Privoxy, - and force a re-reading of the configuration. It is not necessarily - instantaneous. - - - - Toggle Privoxy On or Off is handy for sites that might - have problems with your current actions and filters, or just to test if - a site misbehaves, whether it is Privoxy - causing the problem or not. Privoxy continues - to run as a proxy in this case, but all filtering is disabled. + + +    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). + + + + - - - - - - - - - - -Configuration Files Overview - 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 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. - 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 may change in time): + A quick and simple step by step example: @@ -713,2513 +1015,6740 @@ Please choose from the following options: - The main configuration file is named config - on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and AmigaOS and config.txt - on Windows. + Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select + Copy Link Location from the + pop-up menu. - - The default.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://p.p. (Other actions - files are included as well with differing levels of filtering - and blocking, e.g. basic.action.) + Set your browser to + http://config.privoxy.org/show-status - - The default.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. + Find user.action in the top section, and click + on Edit: - + + +
Actions Files in Use + + + + + + [ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ] + + +
+ + + + + + 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. + + + - default.action and default.filter - can use Perl style regular expressions for maximum flexibility. All files use - the # character to denote a comment. Such - lines are not processed by Privoxy. After - making any changes, there is no need to restart - Privoxy in order for the changes to take - effect. Privoxy should detect such changes - automatically. + 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. - - 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. + 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. -]]> + + 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. + + + - + - -The Main Configuration File - - 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: - + + +Starting Privoxy - - - - blockfile blocklist.ini - - - + 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 +! - - Indicates that the blockfile is named blocklist.ini. (A - default installation does not use this.) + Please note that Privoxy can only proxy HTTP and + HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols. - - A # indicates a comment. Any part of a - line following a # is ignored, except if - the # is preceded by a - \. - + + +
Proxy Configuration Showing + Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings + + + + + + [ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ] + + +
+ + - - 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, Privoxy 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). + + With Firefox, this is typically set under: + + + Tools -> Options -> General -> Connection Settings -> Manual Proxy Configuration - - Long lines can be continued on the next line by using a - \ as the very last character. + + + + Or optionally on some platforms: + + + Edit -> Preferences -> General -> Connection Settings -> Manual Proxy Configuration - - There are various aspects of Privoxy behavior - that can be tuned. + + + + + With Netscape (and + Mozilla), this can be set under: - + + + + Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy - -Defining Other Configuration Files + - Privoxy can use a number of other files to tell it - what ads to block, what cookies to accept, and perform other functions. This - section of the configuration file tells Privoxy - where to find all those other files. + For Internet Explorer v.5-6: + + Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings + + - On Windows and AmigaOS, - Privoxy looks for these files in the same - directory as the executable. On Unix and OS/2, - Privoxy looks for these files in the current - working directory. In either case, an absolute path name can be used to - avoid problems. + 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)! + + +
Proxy Configuration Showing + Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings + + + + + + [ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ] + + +
+ + + - 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. + 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! - The location of the configuration files: + 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. + +Red Hat and Fedora - - - - confdir /etc/privoxy # No trailing /, please. - - - + 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. - - The directory where all logging (i.e. logfile and - jarfile) takes place. No trailing - /, please: + + # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start + - - - - - logdir /var/log/privoxy - - - + Or ... - - Note that all file specifications below are relative to - the above two directories! + + # service privoxy start + + + +Debian - The default.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 through selected sections of default.filter. No sites - are blocked. Privoxy displays a checkboard type - pattern for filtered ads and other images. The syntax of this file is - explained in detail below. Other - actions files are included, and you are free to use any of - them. They have varying degrees of aggressiveness. + 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. - - - - - actionsfile default.action - - - + + # /etc/init.d/privoxy start + + + + +Windows - - - - filterfile default.filter - - - +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 &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option + when installing. - - The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. 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. + Privoxy can run with full Windows service functionality. + 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. + + +Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX and others - 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. +Example Unix startup command: - - 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. + + # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config + + + +OS/2 - Default: Log to the a file named logfile. - Comment out to disable logging. + 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. + + +Mac OSX - - - - logfile logfile - - - + During installation, Privoxy is configured to + start automatically when the system restarts. To start &my-app; manually, + double-click on the StartPrivoxy.command icon in the + /Library/Privoxy folder. Or, type this command + in the Terminal: - - The jarfile defines where - Privoxy stores the cookies it intercepts. Note - that if you use a jarfile, it may grow quite large. Default: - Don't store intercepted cookies. + + /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command + - - - - - #jarfile jarfile - - - + You will be prompted for the administrator password. + + + +AmigaOS - If you specify a trustfile, - Privoxy 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. + 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). + + +Gentoo - - - - #trustfile trust - - - + A script is again used. It will use the file /etc/privoxy/config + as its main configuration file. - - 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. + + /etc/init.d/privoxy start + - - - - - trust-info-url http://www.example.com/why_we_block.html - trust-info-url http://www.example.com/what_we_allow.html - - - + Note that Privoxy is not automatically started at + boot time by default. You can change this with the rc-update + command. + + + rc-update add privoxy default + + + - - - - - - - - - -Other Configuration Options + + + +Command Line Options - 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. + Privoxy may be invoked with the following + command-line options: - - - - 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 - - - - + - - It is highly recommended that you enable ERROR - reporting (debug 8192), at least until v3.0 is released. - -]]> + + + --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 &my-app; + process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit + the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; 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. + + - - 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, do not enable anything else. + 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. - - Multiple debug directives, are OK - they're logical-OR'd - together. - + - - - - - debug 15 # same as setting the first 4 listed above - - - - + - - Default: - + - - - - - debug 1 # URLs - debug 4096 # Info - debug 8192 # Errors - *we highly recommended enabling this* - - - - - - Privoxy 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 - Privoxy to handle requests sequentially. - Default: Multi-threaded mode. - + +Privoxy Configuration + + 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. + - - - - - #single-threaded - - - - - - toggle allows you to temporarily disable all - Privoxy's filtering. Just set toggle - 0. - + + +Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser - The Windows version of Privoxy 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 - Privoxy on and off. This is useful if you want - to temporarily disable Privoxy, 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 Privoxy - internal address of http://p.p on - any platform. - + 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: - - toggle 1 means Privoxy runs - normally, toggle 0 means that - Privoxy becomes a non-anonymizing non-blocking - proxy. Default: 1 (on). - - - - - toggle 1 - - - - + + + +     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 + + + + - - 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. - - 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. + 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. - - - - buffer-limit 4096 - - - + 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. - - To enable the web-based default.action file editor set - enable-edit-actions to 1, or 0 to disable. Note - that you must have compiled Privoxy with - support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect. This - internal page can be reached at http://p.p. - + + + - - 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. - - - - - - enable-edit-actions 1 - - - - - - Allow Privoxy to be toggled on and off - remotely, using your web browser. Set enable-remote-toggleto - 1 to enable, and 0 to disable. Note that you must have compiled - Privoxy with support for this feature, - otherwise this option has no effect. - + + + +Configuration Files Overview - Security note: If this is enabled, anyone who can use the proxy can toggle - it on or off (see http://p.p), and - their changes will affect all users. For shared proxies, you probably want to - disable this. Default: enabled. + 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. - - - - enable-remote-toggle 1 - - - + 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: - + + - + + + 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 only 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. + + - -Access Control List (ACL) - - 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. + - 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. + 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.) - Summary -- if using an ACL: + 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. - - - Client must have permission to receive service. - - - - - LAST match in ACL wins. - - - - - Default behavior is to deny service. - - - - The syntax for an entry in the Access Control List is: + The actions files and filter files + can use Perl style regular expressions for + maximum flexibility. - - - - ACTION SRC_ADDR[/SRC_MASKLEN] [ DST_ADDR[/DST_MASKLEN] ] - - - + 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. + - Where the individual fields are: + 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. +]]> - - - - - ACTION = permit-access or deny-access + + + - 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 - - - - + + + + + &config; + - - The field separator (FS) is whitespace (space or tab). - - - IMPORTANT NOTE: If Privoxy 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 - Privoxy to determine the address of the - ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for). - + - - Here are a few examples to show how the ACL features work: - - - localhost is OK -- no DST_ADDR implies that - ALL destination addresses are OK: - + + + +Actions Files - - - - permit-access localhost - - - - + 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 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. + + + 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 + standard.action are: + + + Default Configurations + + + + + + + + Feature + Cautious + Medium + Advanced + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Ad-blocking Aggressiveness + medium + high + high + + + + Ad-filtering by size + no + yes + yes + + + + Ad-filtering by link + no + no + yes + + + Pop-up killing + blocks only + blocks only + blocks only + + + + 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 + no + yes + + + + JavaScript taming + no + no + yes + + + + Web-bug killing + no + yes + yes + + + + Image tag reordering + no + no + yes + + + + +
+ + + + + + + + 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 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. + - A silly example to illustrate permitting any host on the class-C subnet with - Privoxy to go anywhere: + 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. - - - - - permit-access www.privoxy.com/24 - - - + + 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. + + +Finding the Right Mix - Except deny one particular IP address from using it at all: + 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. - - - - deny-access ident.privoxy.com - - - + 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 :). + + + +How to Edit - You can also specify an explicit network address and subnet mask. - Explicit addresses do not have to be resolved to be used. + 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! - - - - permit-access 207.153.200.0/24 - - - + 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. + + + +How Actions are Applied to Requests - A subnet mask of 0 matches anything, so the next line permits everyone. + 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 and tag patterns, each on a separate line. - - - - permit-access 0.0.0.0/0 - - - + To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is + 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. - Note, you cannot say: + 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. And there may well be + cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then + might look like: - - - - - permit-access .org - - - - + + + { +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/ + - to allow all *.org domains. Every IP address listed must resolve fully. + You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info. - An ISP may want to provide a Privoxy 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: + Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, + Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action section. + - - - - - permit-access 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 # other clients can go anywhere - # with the following exceptions: + + +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. + - 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 - - permit 123.124.0.0/16 0.0.0.0/0 # the ISP's clients can go - # anywhere - - - + + Generally, a URL 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! - - 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. + 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. + + + + - - -Forwarding +The Domain Pattern - 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. + 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: - - 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. - + + + .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. + + + + - Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. Privoxy - 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. - + 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. + + + + - The syntax of each line is: + While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax. - - - - - 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] - - - - + - - 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: - + +The Path Pattern - - - - forward .* . # implicit - - - + 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. - In the following common configuration, everything goes to Lucent's LPWA, - except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle): + 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. - - - - forward .* lpwa.com:8000 - forward :443 . - - - + 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). - - 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 - - - - - - - (NOTE: the syntax for specifying target_domain has changed since the - previous paragraph was written -- it will not work now. More information - is welcome.) + 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. - - In this fictitious example, everything goes via an ISP's caching proxy, - except requests to that ISP: - + + + .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. + + + + - - - - forward .* caching.myisp.net:8000 - forward myisp.net . - - - + There are many, many good examples to be found in default.action, + and more tutorials below in Appendix on regular expressions. - - For the @home network, we're told the forwarding configuration is this: - + + - - - - - forward .* proxy:8080 - - - - - - Also, we're told they insist on getting cookies and JavaScript, so you should - allow cookies from home.com. We consider JavaScript a potential security risk. - Java need not be enabled. - + +The Tag Pattern - 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. + 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. - - - - forward-socks4 .* lpwa.com:8000 firewall.my_company.com:1080 - forward my_company.com . - - - + 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 patterns syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored + automatically (Privoxy doesn't silently add a ^, + you have to do it yourself if you need it). - This is how you could set up a site that always uses SOCKS but no forwarders: + 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. - - - - forward-socks4a .* . firewall.my_company.com:1080 - - - + 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. - An advanced example for network administrators: + 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. - 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. + For example you could tag client requests which use the POST method, + use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies + are send, and then block based on the cookie tag. 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. - This is a bit tricky, but here's an example: + 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. + - - 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 Privoxy proxy with - forwarding like this: - - - - - - - forward .* . - forward isp-b.com host-b:8118 - - - - + - - host-b can run a Privoxy proxy with forwarding - like this: - + - - - - - forward .* . - forward isp-a.com host-a:8118 - - - - - - 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. - + + +Actions - 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. - + 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. - - - - - 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 - - - - - If you intend to chain Privoxy and - squid locally, then chain as - browser -> squid -> privoxy is the recommended way. + + 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. - -Your squid configuration could then look like this (assuming that the IP -address of the box is 192.168.0.1 ): + + Actions fall into three categories: - - - - # Define Privoxy as parent cache - - cache_peer 192.168.0.1 parent 8118 0 no-query - - # don't listen to the whole world - http_port 192.168.0.1:3128 - - # define the local lan - acl mylocallan src 192.168.0.1-192.168.0.5/255.255.255.255 - - # grant access for http to local lan - http_access allow mylocallan - - # Define ACL for protocol FTP - acl FTP proto FTP + + + + Boolean, i.e the action can only be enabled or + disabled. Syntax: + + + + +name # enable action name + -name # disable action name + + + Example: +block + + - # Do not forward ACL FTP to privoxy - always_direct allow FTP - # Do not forward ACL CONNECT (https) to privoxy - always_direct allow CONNECT + + + 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} + + - # Forward the rest to privoxy - never_direct allow all - - - + - - - - - - - - -Windows GUI Options - - Privoxy has a number of options specific to the - Windows GUI interface: + 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). - If activity-animation is set to 1, the - Privoxy icon will animate when - Privoxy is active. To turn off, set to 0. + 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 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. + - - - - activity-animation 1 - - - + The list of valid Privoxy actions are: - - 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 - - - - + +add-header - - log-max-lines is the maximum number of lines held - in the log buffer. See above. - + + + Typical use: + + Confuse log analysis, custom applications + + - - - - - log-max-lines 200 - - - - + + Effect: + + + Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server. + + + - - If log-highlight-messages is set to 1, - Privoxy will highlight portions of the log - messages with a bold-faced font: - + + 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. + + + - - - - - log-highlight-messages 1 - - - - + + Example usage: + + + +add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks} + + + + + - - The font used in the console window: - - - - - - log-font-name Comic Sans MS - - - - + + +block - - Font size used in the console window: - + + + Typical use: + + Block ads or other unwanted content + + - - - - - log-font-size 8 - - - - + + Effect: + + + 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. + + + + - - show-on-task-bar controls whether or not - Privoxy will appear as a button on the Task bar - when minimized: - + + Type: + + + Boolean. + + - - - - - show-on-task-bar 0 - - - - + + 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. + + + - - 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). - + + Example usage (section): + + + {+block} +# Block and replace with "blocked" page + .nasty-stuff.example.com - - - - - close-button-minimizes 1 - - - - +{+block +handle-as-image} +# Block and replace with image + .ad.doubleclick.net + .ads.r.us/banners/ - - 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. - +{+block +handle-as-empty-document} +# Block and then ignore + adserver.exampleclick.net/.*\.js$ + + + - - - - - #hide-console - - - - + - - - - -The Actions File + +client-header-filter - - The default.action file (formerly - actionsfile or ijb.action) is used - to define what actions Privoxy takes, and thus - determines how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content - and transactions are handled. These can be accepted or rejected for all - sites, or just those sites you choose. See below for a complete list of - actions. - - - Anything you want can blocked, 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). - Changes to default.action should be immediately visible - to Privoxy without the need to restart. - + + + Typical use: + + + Rewrite or remove single client headers. + + + - - Note that some sites may misbehave, or possibly not work at all with some - actions. This may require some tinkering with the rules to get the most - mileage of Privoxy's features, and still be - able to see and enjoy just what you want to. There is no general rule of - thumb on these things. There just are too many variables, and sites are - always changing. + + Effect: + + + All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through + the specified regular expression based substitutions. + + + + + + Type: + + + Parameterized. + + + + + Parameter: + + + The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the + filter files. + + + + + + Notes: + + + Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to + 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. + You can do that by using tags though. + + + Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished + and use their output as input. + + + Please refer to the filter file chapter + to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to + create your own. + + + + + + Example usage (section): + + + +{+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}} +.exit/ + + + + + + + + + + + +client-header-tagger + + + + Typical use: + + + Block requests based on their headers. + + + + + + Effect: + + + Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through + the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as + tag. + + + + + + Type: + + + Parameterized. + + + + + Parameter: + + + The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the + filter files. + + + + + + Notes: + + + Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own, + and as the header isn't modified, each tagger sees + the original. + + + Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed + and their tags can be used to control every other action. + + + + + + Example usage (section): + + + +# Tag every request with the User-Agent header +{+client-header-filter{user-agent}} +/ + + + + + + + + + + + + +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 &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. + + + 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 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. + + + 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 + + + + + + + + + + + +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 use a + client-header filter. + + + + 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:} } +/ + + + + + + + + + + +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} +/ + + + + + + + + + +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 + + + + + + + + + +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 use a custom + server-header filter. + + + + 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} } +/ + + + + + + + + + +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 + + + + + + + + + + +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} + + + + + + + + +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 + + + + + + + + + +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. 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 + 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 + + + + + + + + + + +filter + + + + Typical use: + + Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size), + do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc. + + + + + Effect: + + + 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.) + + + + + + Type: + + + Parameterized. + + + + + Parameter: + + + 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. + 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. + 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 + 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. + + + 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. + + + 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. + + + 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 + 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. Useful if your browser lacks this ability. + + + + +filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML. Useful if your browser lacks this ability. + + + + +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 + + + + +filter{site-specifics} # Custom filters for specific site related problems + + + + +filter{google} # Removes text ads and other Google specific improvements + + + + +filter{yahoo} # Removes text ads and other Yahoo specific improvements + + + + +filter{msn} # Removes text ads and other MSN specific improvements + + + + +filter{blogspot} # Cleans up Blogspot blogs + + + + +filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes from anchor and area tags + + + + + + + + + +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. + + + + Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data + with regular expressions can cause file damage. + + + + + + + Example usage: + + + ++force-text-mode + + + + + + + + + + +forward-override + + + + Typical use: + + Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin + + + + + Effect: + + + Overrules the forward directives in the configuration files. + + + + + + Type: + + + Multi-value. + + + + + Parameter: + + + + 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. + + + + + 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. + + + + + + + + Notes: + + + 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. + + + + 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. + + + + + + + Example usage: + + + +# 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. +{+forward-override{forward .} \ + -hide-if-modified-since \ + -overwrite-last-modified \ +} +TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0$ + + + + + + + + + + +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. + 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 + 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$ + + + + + + + + + + +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 + + + + + + + + + + +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} \ +} +/ + + + + + + + + + +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 + + + + + + + + + +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} +/ + + + + + + + + + +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 + + + + + + + + + +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} + + + + + + + + + +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/} + + + + + + + + + +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: + + + + 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)} + + + + + + + + + +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 + + + + + + + + + + +kill-popups<anchor id="kill-popup"> + + + + 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 better 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. + + + This action is most appropriate for browsers that don't have any controls + for unwanted pop-ups. Not recommended for general usage. + + + + + + + + Example usage: + + +kill-popups + + + + + + + + +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 &my-app;'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 + + + + + + + + +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 the filter, deanimate-gifs + and kill-popups actions need + access to the uncompressed data. + + + When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be + filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action. + If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib + support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed. + + + Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%, + for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't + unusual. + + + Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only + enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all + predefined action settings. + + + Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed + documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body, + some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content. If you enable + prevent-compression per default, you might want to add + exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that. + + + + + + Example usage (sections): + + + +# Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter +# +{ +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression } +# Match only these sites + .google. + sourceforge.net + sf.net + +# Or instead, we could set a universal default: +# +{ +prevent-compression } + / # Match all sites + +# Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites: +# +{ -prevent-compression } +.compusa.com/ + + + + + + + + + + +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} +/ + + + + + + + + + +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: + + + An absolute URL or a single pcrs command. + + + + + + Notes: + + + Requests to which this action applies are answered with a + HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is + either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a + single pcrs command to the original URL. + + + This action will be ignored if you use it together with + block. + It can be combined with + fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} + to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL. + + + Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops + and be aware that using your own redirects might make it + possible to fingerprint your requests. + + + + + + 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 +# (relies on the browser accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;) +{ +redirect{http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} } + a + +# Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles +# (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure +# the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well) +{+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}} +undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$ + + + + + + + + + + +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 + + + + + + + + + + +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 + + + + + + + + + +server-header-filter + + + + Typical use: + + + Rewrite or remove single server headers. + + + + + + Effect: + + + All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly + through the specified regular expression based substitutions. + + + + + + Type: + + + Parameterized. + + + + + Parameter: + + + The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the + filter files. + + + + + + Notes: + + + Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to + 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. + You can do that by using tags though. + + + Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished + and use their output as input. + + + Please refer to the filter file chapter + to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to + create your own. + + + + + Example usage (section): + + + +{+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}} +example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html + +{+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}} +example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not + + + + + + + + + + + +server-header-tagger + + + + Typical use: + + + Disable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header. + + + + + + Effect: + + + Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through + the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as + tag. + + + + + + Type: + + + Parameterized. + + + + + Parameter: + + + The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the + filter files. + + + + + + Notes: + + + Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own, + and as the header isn't modified, each tagger sees + the original. + + + Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions + that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control + all of the other server-header actions, the content filters + and the crunch actions (redirect + and block). + + + Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers + doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file. + + + + + + Example usage (section): + + + +# Tag every request with the declared content type +{+client-header-filter{content-type}} +/ + + + + + + + + + + + +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 + + + + + + + + + +set-image-blocker + + + + Typical use: + + Choose the replacement for blocked images + + + + + Effect: + + + 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. + + + + + + Type: + + + Parameterized. + + + + + Parameter: + + + + + 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: + + + The URLs for the built-in images are http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=type, where type is + either blank or pattern. + + + 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. + + + + + + Example usage: + + + Built-in pattern: + + + +set-image-blocker{pattern} + + + Redirect to the BSD daemon: + + + +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} + + + + + + + + + +treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks + + + + Typical use: + + Block forbidden connects with an easy to find error message. + + + + + Effect: + + + If this action is enabled, Privoxy no longer + makes a difference between forbidden connects and ordinary blocks. + + + + + + Type: + + + Boolean + + + + + Parameter: + + N/A + + + + + 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 wouldn't work and is therefore suppressed. + + + + + + Example usage: + + + +treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks + + + + + + + + + +Summary + + 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. + + + + + + +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. + + + + 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 + allow-all-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 -prevent-compression + + 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 + # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com + mail.google.com + + # Shopping sites: + # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data) + # + {shop} + .quietpc.com + .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com + mybank.example.com + + # These shops require pop-ups: + # + {-kill-popups -filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}} + .dabs.com + .overclockers.co.uk + + + + Aliases like shop and fragile are typically used for + problem sites that require more than one action to be disabled + in order to function properly. + + + + + +Actions Files Tutorial + + 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: + + +default.action + + +Every config file should start with a short comment stating its purpose: + + + + # Sample default.action file <ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net> + + + +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 - The easiest way to edit the actions file is with a browser by - loading http://p.p/, and then select - Edit Actions List. A text editor can also be used. +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: - 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://p.p/show-url-info. + +########################################################################## +# 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. + - 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 - Privoxy understands. + 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 \ + -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} \ + -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{google} \ + -filter{yahoo} \ + -filter{msn} \ + -filter{blogspot} \ + -filter{no-ping} \ + -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 \ + -server-header-filter{xml-to-html} \ + -server-header-filter{html-to-xml} \ + +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: +########################################################################## - - -URL Domain and Path Syntax +# "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above): +# +{ fragile } +.office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise! +.windowsupdate.microsoft.com +mail.google.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: + + - 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: + +# Shopping sites: +# +{ shop } +.quietpc.com +.worldpay.com # for quietpc.com +.jungle.com +.scan.co.uk + + - www.example.com/index.html - matches only the single - document /index.html on www.example.com. + The fast-redirects + action, which we enabled per default above, breaks some sites. So disable + it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves: - /index.html - matches the document /index.html, - regardless of the domain. So would match any page named index.html - on any site. + +{ -fast-redirects } +login.yahoo.com +edit.*.yahoo.com +.google.com +.altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http +.altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http +.nytimes.com - index.html - matches nothing, since it would be - interpreted as a domain name and there is no top-level domain called - .html. + 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: - 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: + +########################################################################## +# 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 +.qkimg.net + + + + One of the most important jobs of Privoxy + is to block banners. Many of these 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 many 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 + + + + It's quite remarkable 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) +adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either) +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 + + + + 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! + + + + +# Don't filter code! +# +{ -filter } +/(.*/)?cvs +bugzilla. +developer. +wiki. +.sourceforge.net + + + + The actual default.action is of course much more + comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works. + + + + +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 + + + + + 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. + + + + +{ allow-all-cookies } + sourceforge.net + .yahoo.com + .msdn.microsoft.com + .redhat.com + + + + Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all: + + + + +{ -filter } + .your-home-banking-site.com + + + + Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons: + + + + +# 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 + webmail.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 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Filter Files + + + On-the-fly text substitutions need + to be defined in a filter file. Once defined, they + can then be invoked as an action. + + + + &my-app; supports three different filter actions: + filter to + rewrite the content that is send to the client, + client-header-filter + to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and + server-header-filter + to rewrite headers that are send by the server, and + + + + &my-app; also supports two tagger actions: + client-header-tagger + and + server-header-tagger. + Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the differnce + is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten + version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the + applying actions through sections with tag-patterns. + + + + + 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. + + + + + Command tasks for content filters 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. + + + + Content 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. + + + + 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 one of the + keywords FILTER:, + CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER: or SERVER-HEADER-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. + + + + Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter + type, the filter name and the filter description. + A content 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. + + + + + +Filter File Tutorial + + Now, let's complete our foo content 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 (\). - .example.com - matches any domain or sub-domain that - ENDS in .example.com. + 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. - www. - matches any domain that STARTS with - www. + 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). - 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: + 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. - ad*.example.com - matches adserver.example.com, - ads.example.com, etc but not sfads.example.com. + 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. - *ad*.example.com - matches all of the above, and then some. + 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. - .?pix.com - matches www.ipix.com, - pictures.epix.com, a.b.c.d.e.upix.com, etc. + 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!". - 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. + 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. - If Privoxy was compiled with - pcre support (the default), Perl compatible regular expressions - can be used. These are more flexible and powerful than other types - of regular expressions. 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: + We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but + this time only point out the constructs of special interest: - /.*/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). + +# The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah +# +s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig - 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: + \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. - www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.* - will match only - documents whose path starts with PaTtErN in - exactly this capitalization. + 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. - - - - - - - - - -Actions - 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: + +# Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html +# +s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU - - - - - Boolean (e.g. +/-block): - - - - - - {+name} # enable this action - {-name} # disable this action - - - - - + 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: + - - - parameterized (e.g. +/-hide-user-agent): - - - - - - {+name{param}} # enable action and set parameter to param - {-name} # disable action - - - - - - - - - Multi-value (e.g. {+/-add-header{Name: value}}, {+/-wafer{name=value}}): - - - - - - {+name{param}} # enable action and add parameter param - {-name{param}} # remove the parameter param - {-name} # disable this action totally - - - - - + + +FILTER: fun Fun text replacements - +# Spice the daily news: +# +s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig - If nothing is specified in this 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 default.action file will - give a good starting point). + 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. - Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions - to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file. For - multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are - specified. + +# 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 list of valid Privoxy actions are: + 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. - - - - - Add the specified HTTP header, which is not checked for validity. - You may specify this many times to specify many different headers: - - - - - - +add-header{Name: value} - - - - - - - - - - Block this URL totally. In a default installation, a blocked - URL will result in bright red banner that says BLOCKED, - with a reason why it is being blocked, and an option to see it anyway. - The page displayed for this is the blocked template - file. - - - - - - +block - - - - - - - - - - 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). - - - - - - +deanimate-gifs{last} - +deanimate-gifs{first} - - - - - - - - - +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 - Privoxy doesn't handle well yet. HTTP/1.1 - is only partially implemented. Default is not to downgrade requests. - - - - - - +downgrade - - - - - - - - - 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. - - - 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. - - - The +fast-redirects option enables interception of these - types of requests by Privoxy, 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 intermediate site(s). - - - - - - +fast-redirects - - - - - - - - - Apply the filters in the section_header - section of the default.filter file to the site(s). - default.filter sections are grouped according to like - functionality. Filters can be used to - re-write any of the raw page content. This is a potentially a - very powerful feature! - - - - - - - +filter{section_header} - - - - - - - Filter sections that are pre-defined in the supplied - default.filter include: - + You get the idea? + + -
- - - html-annoyances: Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse. - - - - - js-annoyances: Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse - - - - - no-poups: Kill all popups in JS and HTML - - - - - frameset-borders: Give frames a border - - - - - webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking) - - - - - no-refresh: Automatic refresh sucks on auto-dialup lines - - - - - fun: Text replacements for subversive browsing fun! - - - - - nimda: Remove (virus) Nimda code. - - - - - banners-by-size: Kill banners by size - - - - - crude-parental: Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or "warez" - - -
+ - +The Pre-defined Filters - - - Block any existing X-Forwarded-for header, and do not add a new one: - - - - - - +hide-forwarded - - - - - + - - - - - Treat this URL as an image. This only matters if it's also +blocked, - 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. - If you want invisible ads, they should be defined as - images and blocked. And also, - image-blocker should be set to blank. Note you - cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, frames - require an HTML page to display. So a frame that is an ad, cannot be - treated as an image. Forcing an image in this - situation just will not work. - - - - - - +image - - - - - - - - Decides what to do with URLs that end up tagged with {+block - +image}, e.g an advertizement. There are five options. - -image-blocker will send a HTML blocked page, - usually resulting in a broken image icon. - - - -+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. -+image-blocker{pattern} will send a checkboard type pattern - - - - - - - - - - +image-blocker{blank} - +image-blocker{pattern} - +image-blocker{http://p.p/send-banner} - - - - - - - - - By default (i.e. in the absence of a +limit-connect - action), Privoxy will only allow CONNECT - requests to port 443, which is the standard port for https as a - precaution. - - - - 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. - - - - 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): - - - - - - - +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. - - - - - - - - - +no-compression prevents the website from compressing the - data. Some websites do this, which can be a problem for - Privoxy, since +filter, - +no-popup and +gif-deanimate will not work on - compressed data. This will slow down connections to those websites, - though. Default is no-compression is turned on. - + +The distribution default.filter file contains a selection of +pre-defined filters for your convenience: + - - - - - +nocompression - - - - - - - - - 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. - - - - - - +no-cookies-keep - - - - - - - - - Prevent the website from reading cookies: - - - - - - +no-cookies-read - - - - - - - - - Prevent the website from setting cookies: - - - - - - +no-cookies-set - - - - - - - - - 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. - - - - - - +no-popup - +no-popups - - - - - - - - - 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. - - - - - - +vanilla-wafer - - - - - + + + js-annoyances + + + The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse. + To that end, it + + + + 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. + + + + + + Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that + rely heavily on JavaScript. + + + - - - This allows you to add an arbitrary cookie. It can be specified multiple - times in order to add as many cookies as you like. - - - - - - +wafer{name=value} - - - - - + + js-events + + + 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. Use with caution! + + + 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). + + + - - + + html-annoyances + + + This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse. + + + 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. + + + - - The meaning of any of the above is reversed by preceding the action with a - -, in place of the +. - + + content-cookies + + + 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. + + + This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets + cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it + should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also + use the cookie crunch actions. + + + - - Some examples: - + + refresh tags + + + 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. + + + - - Turn off cookies by default, then allow a few through for specified sites: - - - - - - - # Turn off all persistent cookies - { +no-cookies-read } - { +no-cookies-set } - # Allow cookies for this browser session ONLY - { +no-cookies-keep } - - # 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 + + unsolicited-popups + + + 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. + + + Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript + function to a dummy function, PrivoxyWindowOpen(), + during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and + restoring the function afterward. + + + This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function + reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows + in order to function normally. Use with caution. + + + - # Alternative way of saying the same thing - {-no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-keep} - .sourceforge.net - .sf.net - - - - + + all-popups + + + Attempt to prevent all pop-up windows from opening. + Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since + it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal + usage. Use with caution. + + + - - Now turn off fast redirects, and then we allow two exceptions: - + + img-reorder + + + 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. + + + - - - - - # 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 - - - - + + banners-by-size + + + 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. + + + 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. + + + Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default + block rules should catch 95+% of all ads without this filter enabled. + + + - - Turn on page filtering according to rules in the defined sections - of refilterfile, and make one exception for - sourceforge: - + + banners-by-link + + + 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. + + + - - - - - # Run everything through the filter file, using only the - # specified sections: - +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups}\ - +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} - - # Then disable filtering of code from sourceforge! - {-filter} - .cvs.sourceforge.net - - - - - - - Now some URLs that we want blocked (normally generates - the blocked banner). 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/ - - - - + + webbugs + + + 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 user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site. + HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses. + + + This filter removes the HTML code that loads such webbugs. + + + - - 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 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. - + + tiny-textforms + + + 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. + + + It is not recommended to use this filter as a default. + + + - + + jumping-windows + + + 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. Use with caution. + + + - + + frameset-borders + + + 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. + + + This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites + which need it. + + + + + demoronizer + + + 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. + + + 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. + + + + - - -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 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 - default.actionfile! And there can only be one set of - aliases defined. - + + shockwave-flash + + + 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. + + + + + - - Now let's define a few aliases: - + + quicktime-kioskmode + + + Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which + prevents saving, is disabled. + + + - - - - - # Useful custom 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 + + fun + + + Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite + Monopolist or play buzzword bingo. + + + - #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. - - - - + + crude-parental + + + A demonstration-only filter that shows how Privoxy + can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis. + + + - - Some examples using our shop and fragile - aliases from above: - + + ie-exploits + + + An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript + code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer. + + + Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and + would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection. + + + - - - - - # These sites are very complex and require - # minimal interference. - {fragile} - .office.microsoft.com - .windowsupdate.microsoft.com - .nytimes.com + + site-specifics + + + Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply + anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites. + + + 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. + + + - # Shopping sites - still want to block ads. - {shop} - .quietpc.com - .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com - .jungle.com - .scan.co.uk + + google + + + A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation + and the toolbar advertisement. + + + + + + yahoo + + + Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes + a width limitation as well. + + + - # These shops require pop-ups - {shop -no-popups} - .dabs.com - .overclockers.co.uk - - - - + + msn + + + Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes + tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation. + + + - - The shop and fragile aliases are often used for - problem sites that require most actions to be disabled - in order to function properly. + + blogspot + + + Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one! + + + This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the + page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded corners would + appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser + that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead. + + + - + + xml-to-html + + + Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html. + + + + + + html-to-xml + + + Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml. + + + + + + no-ping + + + Removes the non-standard ping attribute from + anchor and area HTML tags. + + + + + + hide-tor-exit-notation + + + Client-header filter to remove the Tor exit node notation + found in Host and Referer headers. + + + If &my-app; and Tor are chained and &my-app; + is configured to use socks4a, one can use http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/ + to access the host www.example.org through the + Tor exit node foobar. + + + As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the + whole string www.example.org.foobar.exit as host and uses it + for the Host and Referer headers. From the + server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems. + + + An invalid Referer header can trigger hot-linking + protections, an invalid Host header will make it impossible for + the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address). + + + This client-header filter removes the foo.exit part in those headers + to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies + the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server + to detect your Tor exit node based on the IP address + the request is coming from. + + + + + + - + - - -The Filter File - - Any web page can be dynamically modified with the filter file. This - modification can be removal, or re-writing, of any web page content, - including tags and non-visible content. The default filter file is - default.filter, located in the config directory. - - - This is potentially a very powerful feature, and requires knowledge of both - regular expression and HTML in order create custom - filters. But, there are a number of useful filters included with - Privoxy for many common situations. - + + +Privoxy's Template Files - The included example file is divided into sections. Each section begins - with the FILTER keyword, followed by the identifier - for that section, e.g. FILTER: webbugs. Each section performs - a similar type of filtering, such as html-annoyances. + 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.) - This file uses regular expressions to alter or remove any string in the - target page. The expressions can only operate on one line at a time. Some - examples from the included default default.filter: + These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the configuration + directory called templates. On Unixish platforms, + this is typically + /etc/privoxy/templates/. - Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by - deleting such references: + 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. - - - - FILTER: html-annoyances - - # New browser windows should be resizeable and have a location and status - # bar. Make it so. - # - s/resizable="?(no|0)"?/resizable=1/ig s/noresize/yesresize/ig - s/location="?(no|0)"?/location=1/ig s/status="?(no|0)"?/status=1/ig - s/scrolling="?(no|0|Auto)"?/scrolling=1/ig - s/menubar="?(no|0)"?/menubar=1/ig - - # The <BLINK> tag was a crime! - # - s*<blink>|</blink>**ig - - # Is this evil? - # - #s/framespacing="?(no|0)"?//ig - #s/margin(height|width)=[0-9]*//gi - - - + 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. - Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of Microsoft with - MicroSuck, and have a little fun with topical buzzwords: + 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: - - - - FILTER: fun + +<!-- @if-unstable-start --> - s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig + ... beta warning HTML code goes here ... - # Buzzword Bingo: - # - s/industry-leading|cutting-edge|award-winning/<font color=red><b>BINGO!</b></font>/ig - - - +<!-- if-unstable-end@ --> - Kill those pesky little web-bugs: + 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: - - - - # webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking) - FILTER: webbugs - - s/<img\s+[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1\D[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1(\D[^>]*?)?>/<!-- Squished WebBug -->/sig - - - + <!-- --> - - - - - - - - - -Templates - When Privoxy 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 located in - /etc/privoxy/templates by default. These may be - customized, if desired. cgi-style.css is - used to control the HTML attributes (fonts, etc). + 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 ;-) - - The default Blocked banner page with the bright red top - banner, is called just blocked. This - may be customized or replaced with something else if desired. + + 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. - @@ -3236,48 +7765,24 @@ Requests &contacting; - - - -Submitting Ads and <quote>Action</quote> Problems - - Ads and banners that are not stopped by Privoxy - can be submitted to the developers by accessing a special page and filling - out the brief, required form. Conversely, you can also report pages, images, - etc. that Privoxy is blocking, but should not. - The form itself does require Internet access. - - - To do this, point your browser to Privoxy - at http://p.p/, and then select - Actions file feedback system, - near the bottom of the page. Paste in the URL that is the cause of the - unwanted behavior, and follow the prompts. The developers will - try to incorporate your submission into future versions. - - - - New default.actions files will occasionally be made - available based on your feedback. These - will be announced on the - ijbswa-announce - list. - - - + + -Copyright and History +Privoxy Copyright, License and History -Copyright ©right; - + +License + + &license; + + @@ -3288,8 +7793,18 @@ Requests &history; + +Authors + + &p-authors; + + + + + + See Also @@ -3307,30 +7822,33 @@ Requests Regular Expressions - Privoxy 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 ;-) + 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. @@ -3351,72 +7869,71 @@ Requests and then some examples: - + . - Matches any single character, e.g. a, A, 4, :, or @. - + - + ? - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE times. Either/or. - + - + + - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE times. - + - + * - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE times. - + - + \ - 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. + 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, + ( ) - 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. + 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 @@ -3444,7 +7961,7 @@ Requests - A now something a little more complex: + And now something a little more complex: @@ -3482,7 +7999,7 @@ Requests /.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g) - Again another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets - [] can be matched. This is using 0-9 as a + [ ] 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 @@ -3507,16 +8024,6 @@ Requests 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 Privoxy @@ -3528,9 +8035,14 @@ Requests More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions: - http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html + 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. - @@ -3538,7 +8050,7 @@ Requests -<application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages +Privoxy's Internal Pages Since Privoxy proxies each requested @@ -3573,15 +8085,16 @@ Requests - Alternately, this may be reached at http://p.p/, but this - variation may not work as reliably as the above in some configurations. + 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: + Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and + editing of actions files:
@@ -3603,7 +8116,7 @@ Requests - Show the client's request headers: + Show the browser's request headers:
@@ -3647,23 +8160,12 @@ Requests
- - - - Edit the actions list file: - -
- - http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions - -
- - These may be bookmarked for quick reference. + These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next. @@ -3681,7 +8183,7 @@ Requests 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 favourites/bookmarks. For even faster access, + 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. @@ -3691,42 +8193,49 @@ Requests - Enable Privoxy + Privoxy - Enable - Disable Privoxy + Privoxy - Disable - Toggle Privoxy (Toggles between enabled and disabled) + Privoxy - Toggle Privoxy (Toggles between enabled and disabled) - View Privoxy Status + Privoxy- View Status - + + + + Privoxy - Why? - - - - Credit: The site which gave me the general idea for these bookmarklets is - www.bookmarklets.com. They + Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these bookmarklets is + www.bookmarklets.com. They have more information about bookmarklets. @@ -3736,116 +8245,336 @@ Requests + + +Chain of Events + + Let's take a quick look at how some of Privoxy's + core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web + page is requested by your browser: + + + + + + + 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 + and + +handle-as-empty-document + are then checked, and if there is no match, an + HTML BLOCKED page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if + it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text + document for the latter. The type of image would depend 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). + + + + + 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 any +filter action + 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 a +filter action + 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 + separate request (this is easily viewable in Privoxy's + logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a + complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these + secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very + differing set of actions is triggered. + + + + + + + NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL + request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on + Privoxy's core features only. + + + + + -Anatomy of an Action +Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action - The way Privoxy applies actions - and filters to any given URL can be complex, and not always so + 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 inadvertantly. It can be a little daunting to look at + 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. Privoxy provides the + 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 from the default.filter file! 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. + 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 look at an example, google.com, - one section at a time: + 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): - System default actions: + Matches for http://google.com: - { -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects -filter - -hide-forwarded -hide-from -hide-referer -hide-user-agent -image - -image-blocker -limit-connect -no-compression -no-cookies-keep - -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set -no-popups -vanilla-wafer -wafer } + In file: default.action [ View ] [ Edit ] + + {-add-header + -block + -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} + -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 {google} + -filter {yahoo} + -filter {msn} + -filter {blogspot} + -filter {no-ping} + -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 + -server-header-filter{xml-to-html} + -server-header-filter{html-to-xml} + +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 the top section, and only tells us of the compiled in defaults. This - is basically what Privoxy would do if there - were not any actions defined, i.e. it does nothing. Every action - is disabled. This is not particularly informative for our purposes here. OK, - next section: + 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. - - - - Matches for http://google.com: - - { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects - +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups} - +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal} - +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge} - -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression - +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups - -vanilla-wafer -wafer } - / - - { -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set } - .google.com - - { -fast-redirects } - .google.com - - + 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 -- / . - This is much more informative, and tells us how we have defined our - actions, and which ones match for our example, - google.com. The first grouping shows our default - settings, which would apply to all URLs. If you look at your actions - file, this would be the section just below the aliases section - near the top. This applies to all URLs as signified by the single forward - slash -- /. - + 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. - These are the default actions we have enabled. But we can define additional - actions that would be exceptions to these general rules, and then list - specific URLs that these exceptions would apply to. Last match wins. - Just below this then are two explict matches for .google.com. - The first is negating our various cookie blocking actions (i.e. we will allow - cookies here). The second is allowing fast-redirects. 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. So, apparently, we have these actions defined - somewhere in the lower part of our actions file, and - google.com is referenced in these 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 now we pull it altogether in the bottom section and summarize how - Privoxy is appying all its actions + And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how + Privoxy is applying all its actions to google.com: @@ -3854,16 +8583,75 @@ Requests Final results: - - -add-header -block -deanimate-gifs -downgrade -fast-redirects - +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups} - +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal} - +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge} - -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} -limit-connect +no-compression - -no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups -vanilla-wafer - -wafer - - + + -add-header + -block + -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} + -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 {google} + -filter {yahoo} + -filter {msn} + -filter {blogspot} + -filter {no-ping} + -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 + -server-header-filter{xml-to-html} + -server-header-filter{html-to-xml} + -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. @@ -3873,24 +8661,25 @@ Requests - { +block +image } - .ad.doubleclick.net - - { +block +image } + { +block } ad*. - { +block +image } - .doubleclick.net + { +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. Each as an +block +image, + 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: - +imageblock. (Aliases are defined in the - first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more + +block-as-image. (Aliases are defined in + the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more than one action.) @@ -3900,42 +8689,104 @@ Requests 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 - +image. The custom alias +imageblock does this - for us. + 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.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/. - This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm... + 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.rhapsodyk.net/adsl/HOWTO/: - - { -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs -downgrade +fast-redirects - +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{no-popups} - +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal} - +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded +hide-from{block} +hide-referer{forge} - -hide-user-agent -image +image-blocker{blank} +no-compression - +no-cookies-keep -no-cookies-read -no-cookies-set +no-popups - -vanilla-wafer -wafer } + Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/: + + In file: default.action [ View ] [ Edit ] + + {-add-header + -block + -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation} + -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 {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 {google} + -filter {yahoo} + -filter {msn} + -filter {blogspot} + -filter {no-ping} + -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 + -server-header-filter{xml-to-html} + -server-header-filter{html-to-xml} + +session-cookies-only + +set-image-blocker{blank} + -treat-forbidden-connects-like-blocks } / - { +block +image } + { +block +handle-as-image } /ads - - + - Ooops, the /adsl/ is matching /ads! But - we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. We could - now add a new action below this that explictly does not - block (-block) pages with adsl. There are various ways to - handle such exceptions. Example: + 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 &my-app; 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: @@ -3943,13 +8794,14 @@ Requests { -block } /adsl - - + - Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when - making such changes. Or, try using Shift+Reload. + 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. @@ -3960,55 +8812,94 @@ Requests - { -block } - /adsl - - + { +block +handle-as-image } + /ads + - That actually was very telling and pointed us quickly to where the problem + 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 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. Try - adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off +filter: + 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} + { shop } .quietpc.com .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com .jungle.com .scan.co.uk .forbes.com - - + - {shop} is an alias that expands to - { -filter -no-cookies -no-cookies-keep }. Or you could do - your own exception to negate filtering: + { shop } is an alias that expands to + { -filter -session-cookies-only }. + Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering: - {-filter} + { -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 + automatically 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 + - {fragile} is an alias that disables most actions. This can be - used as a last resort for problem sites. Remember to flush caches! 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. + 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. @@ -4032,10 +8923,403 @@ Requests The GNU General Public License should be included with this file. If not, you can view it at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html - or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 - Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. + or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., + 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, + USA $Log: user-manual.sgml,v $ + Revision 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil + Start to document forward-override{}. + + Revision 2.30 2007/04/25 15:10:36 fabiankeil + - Describe installation for FreeBSD. + - Start to document taggers and tag patterns. + - Don't confuse devils and daemons. + + Revision 2.29 2007/04/05 11:47:51 fabiankeil + Some updates regarding header filtering, + handling of compressed content and redirect's + support for pcrs commands. + + Revision 2.28 2006/12/10 23:42:48 hal9 + Fix various typos reported by Adam P. Thanks. + + Revision 2.27 2006/11/14 01:57:47 hal9 + Dump all docs prior to 3.0.6 release. Various minor changes to faq and user + manual. + + Revision 2.26 2006/10/24 11:16:44 hal9 + Add new filters. + + Revision 2.25 2006/10/18 10:50:33 hal9 + Add note that since filters are off in Cautious, compression is ON. Turn off + compression to make filters work on all sites. + + Revision 2.24 2006/10/03 11:13:54 hal9 + More references to the new filters. Include html this time around. + + Revision 2.23 2006/10/02 22:43:53 hal9 + Contains new filter definitions from Fabian, and few other miscellaneous + touch-ups. + + Revision 2.22 2006/09/22 01:27:55 hal9 + Final commit of probably various minor changes here and there. Unless + something changes this should be ready for pending release. + + Revision 2.21 2006/09/20 03:21:36 david__schmidt + Just the tiniest tweak. Wafer thin! + + Revision 2.20 2006/09/10 14:53:54 hal9 + Results of spell check. User manual has some updates to standard.actions file + info. + + Revision 2.19 2006/09/08 12:19:02 fabiankeil + Adjust hide-if-modified-since example values + to reflect the recent changes. + + Revision 2.18 2006/09/08 02:38:57 hal9 + Various changes: + -Fix a number of broken links. + -Migrate the new Windows service command line options, and reference as + needed. + -Rebuild so that can be used with the new "user-manual" config capabilities. + -Etc. + + Revision 2.17 2006/09/05 13:25:12 david__schmidt + Add Windows service invocation stuff (duplicated) in FAQ and in user manual under Windows startup. One probably ought to reference the other. + + Revision 2.16 2006/09/02 12:49:37 hal9 + Various small updates for new actions, filterfiles, etc. + + Revision 2.15 2006/08/30 11:15:22 hal9 + More work on the new actions, especially filter-*-headers, and What's New + section. User Manual is close to final form for 3.0.4 release. Some tinkering + and proof reading left to do. + + Revision 2.14 2006/08/29 10:59:36 hal9 + Add a "Whats New in this release" Section. Further work on multiple filter + files, and assorted other minor changes. + + Revision 2.13 2006/08/22 11:04:59 hal9 + Silence warnings and errors. This should build now. New filters were only + stubbed in. More to be done. + + Revision 2.12 2006/08/14 08:40:39 fabiankeil + Documented new actions that were part of + the "minor Privoxy improvements". + + Revision 2.11 2006/07/18 14:48:51 david__schmidt + Reorganizing the repository: swapping out what was HEAD (the old 3.1 branch) + with what was really the latest development (the v_3_0_branch branch) + + Revision 1.123.2.43 2005/05/23 09:59:10 hal9 + Fix typo 'loose' + + Revision 1.123.2.42 2004/12/04 14:39:57 hal9 + Fix two minor typos per bug SF report. + + Revision 1.123.2.41 2004/03/23 12:58:42 oes + Fixed an inaccuracy + + Revision 1.123.2.40 2004/02/27 12:48:49 hal9 + Add comment re: redirecting to local file system for set-image-blocker may + is dependent on browser. + + Revision 1.123.2.39 2004/01/30 22:31:40 oes + Added a hint re bookmarklets to Quickstart section + + Revision 1.123.2.38 2004/01/30 16:47:51 oes + Some minor clarifications + + Revision 1.123.2.37 2004/01/29 22:36:11 hal9 + Updates for no longer filtering text/plain, and demoronizer default settings, + and copyright notice dates. + + Revision 1.123.2.36 2003/12/10 02:26:26 hal9 + Changed the demoronizer filter description. + + Revision 1.123.2.35 2003/11/06 13:36:37 oes + Updated link to nightly CVS tarball + + Revision 1.123.2.34 2003/06/26 23:50:16 hal9 + Add a small bit on filtering and problems re: source code being corrupted. + + Revision 1.123.2.33 2003/05/08 18:17:33 roro + Use apt-get instead of dpkg to install Debian package, which is more + solid, uses the correct and most recent Debian version automatically. + + Revision 1.123.2.32 2003/04/11 03:13:57 hal9 + Add small note about only one filterfile (as opposed to multiple actions + files). + + Revision 1.123.2.31 2003/03/26 02:03:43 oes + Updated hard-coded copyright dates + + Revision 1.123.2.30 2003/03/24 12:58:56 hal9 + Add new section on Predefined Filters. + + Revision 1.123.2.29 2003/03/20 02:45:29 hal9 + More problems with \-\-chroot causing markup problems :( + + Revision 1.123.2.28 2003/03/19 00:35:24 hal9 + Manual edit of revision log because 'chroot' (even inside a comment) was + causing Docbook to hang here (due to double hyphen and the processor thinking + it was a comment). + + Revision 1.123.2.27 2003/03/18 19:37:14 oes + s/Advanced|Radical/Adventuresome/g to avoid complaints re fun filter + + Revision 1.123.2.26 2003/03/17 16:50:53 oes + Added documentation for new chroot option + + Revision 1.123.2.25 2003/03/15 18:36:55 oes + Adapted to the new filters + + Revision 1.123.2.24 2002/11/17 06:41:06 hal9 + Move default profiles table from FAQ to U-M, and other minor related changes. + Add faq on cookies. + + Revision 1.123.2.23 2002/10/21 02:32:01 hal9 + Updates to the user.action examples section. A few new ones. + + Revision 1.123.2.22 2002/10/12 00:51:53 hal9 + Add demoronizer to filter section. + + Revision 1.123.2.21 2002/10/10 04:09:35 hal9 + s/Advanced/Radical/ and added very brief note. + + Revision 1.123.2.20 2002/10/10 03:49:21 hal9 + Add notes to session-cookies-only and Quickstart about pre-existing + cookies. Also, note content-cookies work differently. + + Revision 1.123.2.19 2002/09/26 01:25:36 hal9 + More explanation on Privoxy patterns, more on content-cookies and SSL. + + Revision 1.123.2.18 2002/08/22 23:47:58 hal9 + Add 'Documentation' to Privoxy Menu shot in Configuration section to match + CGIs. + + Revision 1.123.2.17 2002/08/18 01:13:05 hal9 + Spell checked (only one typo this time!). + + Revision 1.123.2.16 2002/08/09 19:20:54 david__schmidt + Update to Mac OSX startup script name + + Revision 1.123.2.15 2002/08/07 17:32:11 oes + Converted some internal links from ulink to link for PDF creation; no content changed + + Revision 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes + Nits re: actions file download + + Revision 1.123.2.13 2002/08/02 18:23:19 g_sauthoff + Just 2 small corrections to the Gentoo sections + + Revision 1.123.2.12 2002/08/02 18:17:21 g_sauthoff + Added 2 Gentoo sections + + Revision 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes + - Added version info to title + - Added info on new filters + - Revised parts of the filter file tutorial + - Added info on where to get updated actions files + + Revision 1.123.2.10 2002/07/25 21:42:29 hal9 + Add brief notes on not proxying non-HTTP protocols. + + Revision 1.123.2.9 2002/07/11 03:40:28 david__schmidt + + Updated Mac OSX sections due to installation location change + + Revision 1.123.2.8 2002/06/09 16:36:32 hal9 + Clarifications on filtering and MIME. Hardcode 'latest release' in index.html. + + Revision 1.123.2.7 2002/06/09 00:29:34 hal9 + Touch ups on filtering, in actions section and Anatomy. + + Revision 1.123.2.6 2002/06/06 23:11:03 hal9 + Fix broken link. Linkchecked all docs. + + Revision 1.123.2.5 2002/05/29 02:01:02 hal9 + This is break out of the entire config section from u-m, so it can + eventually be used to generate the comments, etc in the main config file + so that these are in sync with each other. + + Revision 1.123.2.4 2002/05/27 03:28:45 hal9 + Ooops missed something from David. + + Revision 1.123.2.3 2002/05/27 03:23:17 hal9 + Fix FIXMEs for OS2 and OSX startup. Fix Redhat typos (should be Red Hat). + That's a wrap, I think. + + Revision 1.123.2.2 2002/05/26 19:02:09 hal9 + Move Amiga stuff around to take of FIXME in start up section. + + Revision 1.123.2.1 2002/05/26 17:04:25 hal9 + -Spellcheck, very minor edits, and sync across branches + + Revision 1.123 2002/05/24 23:19:23 hal9 + Include new image (Proxy setup). More fun with guibutton. + Minor corrections/clarifications here and there. + + Revision 1.122 2002/05/24 13:24:08 oes + Added Bookmarklet for one-click pre-filled access to show-url-info + + Revision 1.121 2002/05/23 23:20:17 oes + - Changed more (all?) references to actions to the + style. + - Small fixes in the actions chapter + - Small clarifications in the quickstart to ad blocking + - Removed from s since the new doc CSS + renders them red (bad in TOC). + + Revision 1.120 2002/05/23 19:16:43 roro + Correct Debian specials (installation and startup). + + Revision 1.119 2002/05/22 17:17:05 oes + Added Security hint + + Revision 1.118 2002/05/21 04:54:55 hal9 + -New Section: Quickstart to Ad Blocking + -Reformat Actions Anatomy to match new CGI layout + + Revision 1.117 2002/05/17 13:56:16 oes + - Reworked & extended Templates chapter + - Small changes to Regex appendix + - #included authors.sgml into (C) and hist chapter + + Revision 1.116 2002/05/17 03:23:46 hal9 + Fixing merge conflict in Quickstart section. + + Revision 1.115 2002/05/16 16:25:00 oes + Extended the Filter File chapter & minor fixes + + Revision 1.114 2002/05/16 09:42:50 oes + More ulink->link, added some hints to Quickstart section + + Revision 1.113 2002/05/15 21:07:25 oes + Extended and further commented the example actions files + + Revision 1.112 2002/05/15 03:57:14 hal9 + Spell check. A few minor edits here and there for better syntax and + clarification. + + Revision 1.111 2002/05/14 23:01:36 oes + Fixing the fixes + + Revision 1.110 2002/05/14 19:10:45 oes + Restored alphabetical order of actions + + Revision 1.109 2002/05/14 17:23:11 oes + Renamed the prevent-*-cookies actions, extended aliases section and moved it before the example AFs + + Revision 1.108 2002/05/14 15:29:12 oes + Completed proofreading the actions chapter + + Revision 1.107 2002/05/12 03:20:41 hal9 + Small clarifications for 127.0.0.1 vs localhost for listen-address since this + apparently an important distinction for some OS's. + + Revision 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9 + This is mostly proposed copyright/licensing additions and changes. Docs + are still GPL, but licensing and copyright are more visible. Also, copyright + changed in doc header comments (eliminate references to JB except FAQ). + + Revision 1.105 2002/05/05 20:26:02 hal9 + Sorting out license vs copyright in these docs. + + Revision 1.104 2002/05/04 08:44:45 swa + bumped version + + Revision 1.103 2002/05/04 00:40:53 hal9 + -Remove the TOC first page kludge. It's fixed proper now in ldp.dsl.in. + -Some minor additions to Quickstart. + + Revision 1.102 2002/05/03 17:46:00 oes + Further proofread & reactivated short build instructions + + Revision 1.101 2002/05/03 03:58:30 hal9 + Move the user-manual config directive to top of section. Add note about + Privoxy needing read permissions for configs, and write for logs. + + Revision 1.100 2002/04/29 03:05:55 hal9 + Add clarification on differences of new actions files. + + Revision 1.99 2002/04/28 16:59:05 swa + more structure in starting section + + Revision 1.98 2002/04/28 05:43:59 hal9 + This is the break up of configuration.html into multiple files. This + will probably break links elsewhere :( + + Revision 1.97 2002/04/27 21:04:42 hal9 + -Rewrite of Actions File example. + -Add section for user-manual directive in config. + + Revision 1.96 2002/04/27 05:32:00 hal9 + -Add short section to Filter Files to tie in with +filter action. + -Start rewrite of examples in Actions Examples (not finished). + + Revision 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa + bookmarks cleaned, changed structure of user manual, screen and programlisting cleanups, and numerous other changes that I forgot + + Revision 1.94 2002/04/26 05:24:36 hal9 + -Add most of Andreas suggestions to Chain of Events section. + -A few other minor corrections and touch up. + + Revision 1.92 2002/04/25 18:55:13 hal9 + More catchups on new actions files, and new actions names. + Other assorted cleanups, and minor modifications. + + Revision 1.91 2002/04/24 02:39:31 hal9 + Add 'Chain of Events' section. + + Revision 1.90 2002/04/23 21:41:25 hal9 + Linuxconf is deprecated on RH, substitute chkconfig. + + Revision 1.89 2002/04/23 21:05:28 oes + Added hint for startup on Red Hat + + Revision 1.88 2002/04/23 05:37:54 hal9 + Add AmigaOS install stuff. + + Revision 1.87 2002/04/23 02:53:15 david__schmidt + Updated OSX installation section + Added a few English tweaks here an there + + Revision 1.86 2002/04/21 01:46:32 hal9 + Re-write actions section. + + Revision 1.85 2002/04/18 21:23:23 hal9 + Fix ugly typo (mine). + + Revision 1.84 2002/04/18 21:17:13 hal9 + Spell Redhat correctly (ie Red Hat). A few minor grammar corrections. + + Revision 1.83 2002/04/18 18:21:12 oes + Added RPM install detail + + Revision 1.82 2002/04/18 12:04:50 oes + Cosmetics + + Revision 1.81 2002/04/18 11:50:24 oes + Extended Install section - needs fixing by packagers + + Revision 1.80 2002/04/18 10:45:19 oes + Moved text to buildsource.sgml, renamed some filters, details + + Revision 1.79 2002/04/18 03:18:06 hal9 + Spellcheck, and minor touchups. + + Revision 1.78 2002/04/17 18:04:16 oes + Proofreading part 2 + + Revision 1.77 2002/04/17 13:51:23 oes + Proofreading, part one + + Revision 1.76 2002/04/16 04:25:51 hal9 + -Added 'Note to Upgraders' and re-ordered the 'Quickstart' section. + -Note about proxy may need requests to re-read config files. + Revision 1.75 2002/04/12 02:08:48 david__schmidt Remove OS/2 building info... it is already in the developer-manual