X-Git-Url: http://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?p=privoxy.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fsource%2Fuser-manual.sgml;h=7fd3f8353d949d61ba563ab0dc5f0f365b7d9021;hp=f047e9e17fd34493b711f9b7e1f72890a224cd92;hb=7bbee96637ad3a65a3ef35d37efc7fc059a96e5a;hpb=78d6e267ce0ffc112db6b8e9854981fd7f1cbf1e
diff --git a/doc/source/user-manual.sgml b/doc/source/user-manual.sgml
index f047e9e1..7fd3f835 100644
--- a/doc/source/user-manual.sgml
+++ b/doc/source/user-manual.sgml
@@ -9,16 +9,22 @@
-
-
-
-
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
+
+
+
+Privoxy">
]>
- Privoxy Developers
+ Privoxy Developers
-$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.106 2002/05/10 01:48:20 hal9 Exp $
+$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 2.31 2007/06/02 14:01:37 fabiankeil Exp $
@@ -92,9 +87,9 @@ Hal.
]]>
- The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
- Privoxy Privoxy User Manual gives users information on how to
+ install, configure and use Privoxy .
@@ -102,9 +97,9 @@ Hal.
- You can find the latest version of the user manual at Privoxy User Manual at http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/ .
- Please see the Contact section on how to
+ Please see the
@@ -122,10 +117,9 @@ Hal.
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. ]]>.
@@ -141,10 +135,12 @@ Hal.
Features
- In addition to Internet Junkbuster's traditional
- features 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;
@@ -168,14 +164,11 @@ Hal.
- Note: If you have a previous Junkbuster or
- Privoxy installation on your system, you
- will need to remove it. Some platforms do this for you as part
- of their installation procedure. (See below for your platform).
- In any case be sure to backup your old configuration
- if it is valuable to you. See the
- be sure to backup
+ your old configuration if it is valuable to you. See the
@@ -184,8 +177,10 @@ Hal.
How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
+
+
-Red Hat and SuSE RPMs
+Red Hat and Fedora RPMs
RPMs can be installed with rpm -Uvh privoxy-&p-version;-1.rpm ,
@@ -197,13 +192,12 @@ How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
Note that on Red Hat, Privoxy will
not be automatically started on system boot. You will
need to enable that using chkconfig ,
- ntsysv , or similar methods. Note that SuSE will
-automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
+ ntsysv , or similar methods.
If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM:
- rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm; . This
+ rpm --rebuild privoxy-&p-version;-1.src.rpm . This
will use your locally installed libraries and RPM version.
@@ -211,14 +205,16 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
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, before installing Privoxy .
+ automatically if found, before installing Privoxy .
Debian
- FIXME.
+ DEBs can be installed with apt-get install privoxy ,
+ and will use /etc/privoxy for the location of
+ configuration files.
Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
the installation process. You will find the configuration files
- in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in. We do not
- use the registry of Windows.
+ in the same directory as you installed Privoxy in.
+
+
+ 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, FreeBSD, HP-UX
+Solaris, NetBSD, HP-UX
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. FIXME.
+ things go.
Junkbuster and / or
Privoxy are left on your
- system. You can do this by
+ system. Check that no Junkbuster
+ or Privoxy objects are in
+ your startup folder.
+
@@ -267,17 +298,32 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
Max OSX
-
- Unzip the downloaded package (you can either double-click on the file
- in the finder, or on the desktop if you downloaded it there). Then,
- double-click on the package installer icon and follow the installation
- process.
- Privoxy will be installed in the subdirectory
- /Applications/Privoxy.app .
- Privoxy will set itself up to start
- automatically on system bring-up via
- /System/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy .
+Mac OSX
+
+ Unzip the downloaded file (you can either double-click on the file
+ from the finder, or from the desktop if you downloaded it there).
+ Then, double-click on the package installer icon named
+ Privoxy.pkg
+ and follow the installation process.
+ Privoxy will be installed in the folder
+ /Library/Privoxy .
+ It will start automatically whenever you start up. To prevent it from
+ starting automatically, remove or rename the folder
+ /Library/StartupItems/Privoxy .
+
+
+ To 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.
+FreeBSD
+
- 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).
+ Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
+ it with cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean .
+
+
+ If you don't use the ports, you can fetch and install
+ the package with pkg_add -r privoxy .
+
+
+ The port skeleton and the package can also be downloaded from the
+ File Release
+ Page , but if you're interested in stable releases only you don't
+ gain anything by using them.
+
+Gentoo
+
+ Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for Privoxy are
+ contained in the Gentoo Portage Tree (they are not on the download page,
+ but there is a Gentoo section, where you can see when a new
+ Privoxy Version is added to the Portage Tree).
+
+
+ Before installing Privoxy under Gentoo just do
+ first emerge rsync to get the latest changes from the
+ Portage tree. With emerge privoxy you install the latest
+ version.
+
+
+ Configuration files are in /etc/privoxy , the
+ documentation is in /usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;
+ and the Log directory is in /var/log/privoxy .
The most convenient way to obtain the Privoxy sources
- is to download the source tarball from our project
+ is to download the source tarball from our
+ project download
page .
@@ -314,92 +393,329 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
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 or simply download the nightly CVS
+ CVS repository .
+
&buildsource;
+
+
+Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date
+
+ As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated versions
+ of both the main separate
+ package ) and the software itself (including the actions file) available for
+ download.
+
+
+
+ If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
+ Privoxy or the actions file, subscribe
+ to our announce mailing list , ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
+
+
+
+ In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
+ to the latest default.action file we strongly
+ recommend that you use user.action and
+ user.filter for your local
+ customizations of Privoxy . See the
+
-Note to Upgraders
-
- There are very significant changes from earlier
- Junkbuster versions to the current
- Privoxy . The number, names, syntax, and
- purposes of configuration files have substantially changed.
- Junkbuster 2.0.x configuration
- files will not migrate, Junkbuster 2.9.x
- and Privoxy configurations will need to be
- ported. The functionalities of the old blockfile ,
- cookiefile and imagelist
- are now combined into the actions
- files
default.action , is the main actions file. Local
- exceptions should best be put into user.action .
-
+
+What's New in this Release
- A filter file
default.filter ) is new as of Privoxy
- 2.9.x , and provides some of the new sophistication (explained
- below). config is much the same as before.
+ There are many improvements and new features since Privoxy 3.0.6 , the last stable release:
+
- If upgrading from a 2.0.x version, you will have to use the new config
- files, and possibly adapt any personal rules from your older files.
- When porting personal rules over from the old blockfile
- to the new actions files, please note that even the pattern syntax has
- changed. If upgrading from 2.9.x development versions, it is still
- recommended to use the new configuration files.
+
+
+
+ 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
+
- 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 controllable with a web browser
- at the special URL: http://config.privoxy.org/
- (Shortcut: http://p.p/ ). Many
- aspects of configuration can be done here, including temporarily disabling
- Privoxy .
-
-
+
+ See the full documentation on
+ 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:
+
+
+
+ { +
+
+
+ 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 in the actions
- files . It is strongly recommended to become familiar with the new
- actions concept below, before modifying these files. Locally defined rules
- should go into user.action .
+ Also, user.action now.
-
+
+
+
@@ -409,140 +725,550 @@ automatically start Privoxy in the boot process.
+
+
-Quickstart to Using <application>Privoxy</application>
+Quickstart to Using Privoxy
-
-
- If upgrading, please back up any configuration files. See
- the
-
Install Privoxy . See the
- Start Privoxy , if the installation program has
- not done this already. See the section Privoxy .
+ Advanced users and those who want to offer Privoxy
+ service to more than just their local machine should check the
- Set your browser to use Privoxy as HTTP and HTTPS
- proxy by setting the proxy configuration for address of
- 127.0.0.1 and port 8118 .
- (Junkbuster and earlier versions of
- Privoxy used port 8000.) See the section Privoxy .
+ Start Privoxy , if the installation program has
+ not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
+ Privoxy .
+
+
+
+
+
+ Set your browser to use Privoxy as HTTP and
+ HTTPS (SSL) proxy
+ by setting the proxy configuration for address of
+ 127.0.0.1 and port 8118 .
+ DO NOT activate proxying for FTP or
+ any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)! It won't work!
- Flush your browser's caches, to remove any cached ad images.
+ 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.
-
+
- Enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy. You may want to customize the
- user.action file to
- personalize your new browsing experience. See the
+
+ See the Privoxy blocks ads and
+ banners.
+
-
+
- If you experience problems with sites that misbehave
, see
- the Privoxy's behavior, take a look at the web-based user interface . The
+ Appendix
has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
+ misbehave
.
-
+
+
+
+ For easy access to &my-app;'s most important controls, drag the provided
+
+
+
Please see the section
+
+
+ Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
+
+
+
-
-Starting <application>Privoxy</application>
+
+
+Quickstart to Ad Blocking
+
- 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
- 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!
+ 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.
-
- 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:
- 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy support too.
+ 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 are specified in Privoxy's configuration,
+ followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
+ can actually be URL type
+
+ 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:
- After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
- re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. You
- are now ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
- Privoxy !
-
+
+
+
+
+ Privoxy 's own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
+ let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
+
+
-
- Privoxy 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 .
+
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
+
+
+ Privoxy's
+ normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
+ HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
+
+
+
+
+
+ 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
+ and , it must also match an
+
+
+ The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
+
+
+
+ pattern - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
+ replacement is obvious. This is the default.
+
+
+
+
+ blank - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
+ This is the so-called invisible
configuration option.
+
+
+
+
+ http://<URL> - A redirect to any image anywhere
+ of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
+
+
+
+
+
-
-RedHat and Debian
-We use a script. Note that RedHat does not start Privoxy upon booting per
-default. It will use the file /etc/privoxy/config as its
-main configuration file. FIXME: Debian??
+ 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.
+
-
- # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
-
+ A quick and simple step by step example:
-
-
-SuSE
-We use a script. It will use the file /etc/privoxy/config
-as its main configuration file. Note that SuSE starts Privoxy upon booting
+
+
+
+
+ Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
+ Copy Link Location
from the
+ pop-up menu.
+
+
+
+
+ Set your browser to
+ http://config.privoxy.org/show-status
+
+
+
+
+ Find user.action in the top section, and click
+ on Edit
:
+
+
+
+
+ Actions Files in Use
+
+
+
+
+
+ [ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ You should have a section with only
+ 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
+ Enabled
column, then Submit
+ just below the list.
+
+
+
+
+ Now, in the Add
button, and paste the URL the
+ browser got from Copy Link Location
.
+ Remove the http:// at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
+ Submit
(or
+ OK
if in a pop-up window).
+
+
+
+
+ Now go back to the original page, and press SHIFT-Reload
+ (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
+ wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
+ site. For a more extensive explanation of patterns
, and
+ the entire actions concept, see
+
+
+ For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
+ to now go to the
+
+ There are also various
+ advanced
usage category, and are explained in
+ depth in later sections.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Starting Privoxy
+
+ Before launching Privoxy for the first time, you
+ will want to configure your browser(s) to use
+ Privoxy as a HTTP and HTTPS (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
+ !
+
+
+ Please note that Privoxy can only proxy HTTP and
+ HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
+
+
+
+
+ Proxy Configuration Showing
+ Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings
+
+
+
+
+
+ [ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ With Firefox , this is typically set under:
+
+
+
+ Tools -> Options -> General -> Connection Settings -> Manual Proxy Configuration
+
+
+
+
+ Or optionally on some platforms:
+
+
+
+ Edit -> Preferences -> General -> Connection Settings -> Manual Proxy Configuration
+
+
+
+
+
+ With Netscape (and
+ Mozilla ), this can be set under:
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy
+
+
+
+
+ For Internet Explorer v.5-6 :
+
+
+
+ Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings
+
+
+
+ Then, check Use Proxy
and fill in the appropriate info
+ (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
+ proxy support too (sometimes labeled Secure
). Make sure any
+ checkboxes like Use the same proxy server for all protocols
is
+ UNCHECKED . You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
+
+
+
+
+ Proxy Configuration Showing
+ Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings
+
+
+
+
+
+ [ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
+ re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
+ any cookies ,
+ if you want Privoxy to manage that. You are now
+ ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
+ Privoxy !
+
+
+
+ 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
+
+ A default Red Hat installation may not start &my-app; upon boot. It will use
+ the file /etc/privoxy/config as its main configuration
+ file.
+
+
+
+ # /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start
+
+
+
+ Or ...
+
+
+
+ # service privoxy start
+
+
+
+
+
+Debian
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
+ # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
+
+
+
+
+
Windows
-Click on the Privoxy Icon to start Privoxy. If no configuration file is
+Click on the &my-app; Icon to start Privoxy . If no configuration file is
specified on the command line, Privoxy will look
for a file named config.txt . Note that Windows will
- automatically start Privoxy upon booting you PC.
+ automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
+ when installing.
+
+
+ Privoxy can run with full Windows service functionality.
+ On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
+ to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
+
@@ -577,14 +1311,29 @@ Example Unix startup command:
OS/2
-FIXME.
+ 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.
-MAX OSX
+Mac OSX
+
+ 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:
+
+
+
+ /Library/Privoxy/StartPrivoxy.command
+
+
-FIXME.
+ You will be prompted for the administrator password.
@@ -592,7 +1341,36 @@ FIXME.
AmigaOS
-FIXME.
+ 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
+
+ A script is again used. It will use the file /etc/privoxy/config
+ as its main configuration file.
+
+
+
+ /etc/init.d/privoxy start
+
+
+
+ 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
+
@@ -600,7 +1378,7 @@ FIXME.
See the section
must find a better place for this paragraph
@@ -681,17 +1459,17 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
- If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to read more about the actions concept
- or even dive deep into the Appendix
- on actions .
+ If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to
If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
- section Contacting the
- Developers
Contacting the
+ Developers
below.
-->
@@ -754,7 +1532,20 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
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
@@ -772,6 +1563,14 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
+
+ On MS Windows only there are two additional
+ command-line options to allow Privoxy to install and
+ run as a service . See the
+
+
@@ -780,7 +1579,7 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
-<application>Privoxy</application> Configuration
+Privoxy Configuration
All Privoxy configuration is stored
in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
@@ -792,7 +1591,7 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
-Controlling <application>Privoxy</application> with Your Web Browser
+Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser
Privoxy 's user interface can be reached through the special
URL http://config.privoxy.org/
@@ -805,7 +1604,7 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
- Privoxy Menu
+ Privoxy Menu
@@ -823,6 +1622,10 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
▪ Toggle Privoxy on or off
+
+ ▪ Documentation
+
@@ -899,10 +1702,10 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
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 propably want
+ default.action (which you will most probably want
to define sooner or later) are probably best applied in
user.action , where you can preserve them across
- upgrades. standard.action is for
+ upgrades. standard.action is only for
Privoxy's internal use.
@@ -917,17 +1720,32 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
- default.filter (the Filter files
(the default.filter includes various filters made
+ available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
+ others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
+ filter files in config as you can with
+ actions files. We suggest user.filter for any
+ locally defined filters or customizations.
+
+ The syntax of all configuration files has remained the same throughout the
+ 3.x series. There have been enhancements, but no changes that would preclude
+ the use of any configuration file from one version to the next. (There is
+ one exception:
+
All files use the #
character to denote a
comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
@@ -935,11 +1753,11 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
in a line. If the # is preceded by a backslash, it looses
its special function. Placing a # in front of an otherwise
valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
- out" that line.
+ out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
- The actions files and default.filter
+ The actions files and filter files
can use Perl style
@@ -970,923 +1788,1520 @@ must find a better place for this paragraph
-
-The Main Configuration File
+
+
+
+ &config;
+
-
- 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:
-
-
-
-
-
- confdir /etc/privoxy
-
-
-
+
-
- Assigns the value /etc/privoxy to the option
- confdir and thus indicates that the configuration
- directory is named /etc/privoxy/
.
-
-
- All options in the config file except for confdir and
- logdir are optional. Watch out in the below description
- for what happens if you leave them unset.
-
-
- The main config file controls all aspects of Privoxy 's
- operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter
- where you may be surfing).
-
+
+Actions Files
-
+
+ The actions files are used to define what actions
+ Privoxy takes for which URLs, and thus determines
+ how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
+ transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
+ There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
+ Each action does something a little different.
+ These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
+ our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
+ their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
+
+
+ There
+ are three action files included with Privoxy with
+ differing purposes:
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ default.action - is the primary action file
+ that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to
+ provide a base level of functionality for
+ Privoxy's array of features. So it is
+ a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well as-is for most users.
+ This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and 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
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
-Configuration and Log File Locations
+
+
+
- Privoxy can (and normally does) use a number of
- other files for additional configuration, help and logging.
- This section of the configuration file tells Privoxy
- where to find those other files.
-
+ The 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.
+
- The user running Privoxy, must have read permission for all
- configuration files, and write permission to any files that would
- be modified, such as log files.
+ An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
+ aliases
in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
+ 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.
-confdir
+
+ 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
-
-
- Specifies:
-
- The directory where the other configuration files are located
-
-
-
- Type of value:
-
- Path name
-
-
-
- Default value:
-
- /etc/privoxy (Unix) or Privoxy installation dir (Windows)
-
-
-
- Effect if unset:
-
- Mandatory
-
-
- Notes:
-
-
- No trailing /
, please
-
-
- When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
- per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of confdir
.
- For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
- confdir/templates , where the HTML templates for CGI
- output reside (e.g. Privoxy's 404 error page).
-
-
-
-
-
+Finding the Right Mix
+
+ Note that some aggressive
your default settings (in the top section of the
+ actions file) are, the more exceptions for trusted
sites you
+ will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
+ default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
+ regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
+ your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
+
+
+
+ We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
+ distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
+ things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
+ Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
+
+
+
+
+
+How to Edit
+
+ The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
+ using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from http://config.privoxy.org/show-status .
+ The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single feature on a
+ per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults like
+ Cautious
, Medium
or Advanced
.
+ Warning: the Advanced
setting is more aggressive, and
+ will be more likely to cause problems for some sites. Experienced users only!
+
+
+
+ If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
+ the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
+ default.action which is richly commented with many
+ good examples.
+
+
+
+
+
+How Actions are Applied to Requests
+
+ Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
+ like the
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.
+
+
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
+ 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 {
+ + ,
+ then later another one with just {
+ + , resulting
+ in both actions to apply. And there may well be
+ cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
+ might look like:
+
+
+
+
+ { +handle-as-image +block }
+ # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
+ banners.example.com
+ media.example.com/.*banners
+ .example.com/images/ads/
+
+
+
+ You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info .
+
+
+ Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix,
+
-logdir
+
+
+Patterns
+
+ As mentioned, Privoxy uses patterns
+ to determine what actions might apply to which sites and
+ pages your browser attempts to access. These patterns
use wild
+ card type pattern matching to achieve a high degree of
+ flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
+ against many similar patterns.
+
+
+
+ Generally, a 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!
+
+
+ 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)
- Specifies:
+ www.example.com/
- The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where logfile and
- jarfile are located)
+ 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.
- Type of value:
-
- Path name
-
-
-
- Default value:
-
- /var/log/privoxy (Unix) or Privoxy installation dir (Windows)
-
-
-
- Effect if unset:
-
- Mandatory
-
-
- Notes:
+ www.example.com
- No trailing /
, please
+ means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing / may
+ be omitted.
-
-
-actionsfile
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Specifies:
+ www.example.com/index.html
- The /index.html
+ on www.example.com .
- Type of value:
-
- File name, relative to confdir , without the .action suffix
-
-
-
- Default value:
-
-
-
- standard # Internal purposes, no editing recommended
-
- default # Main actions file
-
- user # User customizations
-
-
-
-
- Effect if unset:
+ /index.html
- No actions are taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
+ matches the document /index.html , regardless of the domain,
+ i.e. on any web server anywhere.
- Notes:
+ index.html
- Multiple actionsfile lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended!
-
-
- The default values include standard.action, which is used for internal
- purposes and should be loaded, default.action, which is the
- main
actions file maintained by the developers, and
- user.action , where you can make your personal additions.
-
-
- Actions files are where all the per site and per URL configuration is done for
- ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc.
- There is no point in using Privoxy without at
- least one actions file.
+ matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
+ there is no top-level domain called .html . So its
+ a mistake.
- filterfile
-
+
+
+The Domain Pattern
+
+
+ The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
+ domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
+ For example:
+
+
- Specifies:
+ .example.com
- The ENDS in
+ .example.com
- Type of value:
-
- File name, relative to confdir
-
-
-
- Default value:
-
- default.filter (Unix) or default.filter.txt (Windows)
-
-
-
- Effect if unset:
+ www.
- No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
- +filter{name }
- actions in the actions files are turned neutral.
+ matches any domain that STARTS with
+ www.
- Notes:
+ .example.
- The default.filter
file contains content modification rules
- that use regular expressions
. These rules permit powerful
- changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable your favorite
- JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some
- fun replacing Microsoft
with MicroSuck
wherever
- it appears on a Web page.
+ 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.
-logfile
+
+ 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
.*
),
+ ?
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:
+
- Specifies:
+ ad*.example.com
- The log file to use
+ matches adserver.example.com
,
+ ads.example.com
, etc but not sfads.example.com
- Type of value:
-
- File name, relative to logdir
-
-
-
- Default value:
+ *ad*.example.com
- logfile (Unix) or privoxy.log (Windows)
+
+ matches all of the above, and then some.
+
- Effect if unset:
+ .?pix.com
- No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (stderr ).
+ matches www.ipix.com ,
+ pictures.epix.com , a.b.c.d.e.upix.com etc.
- Notes:
+ www[1-9a-ez].example.c*
- The windows version will additionally log to the console.
-
-
- The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
- of detail and number of messages are set with the debug
- option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
- Privoxy (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you
- think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it.
-
-
- Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
- periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
- (see man cron
). For Red Hat, a logrotate
- script has been included.
-
-
- On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like /var/log/privoxy.*
- +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup
in /etc/logfiles , with
- the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the
- log, when it exceeds 1M size.
-
-
- Any log files must be writable by whatever user Privoxy
- is being run as (default on UNIX, user id is privoxy
).
+ matches www1.example.com ,
+ www4.example.cc , wwwd.example.cy ,
+ wwwz.example.com etc., but not
+ wwww.example.com .
+
+
+ While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
+
+
jarfile
+
+
+
+
+The Path Pattern
+
+
+ Privoxy uses Perl compatible (PCRE)
+ Regular
+ Expression
PCRE library) for
+ matching the path portion (after the slash), and is thus more flexible.
+
+
+
+ There is an http://www.pcre.org/man.txt .
+ You might also find the Perl man page on regular expressions (man perlre )
+ useful, which is available on-line at http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html .
+
+
+
+ Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the /
,
+ i.e. it matches as if it would start with a ^
(regular expression speak
+ for the beginning of a line).
+
+
+
+ Please also note that matching in the path is CASE INSENSITIVE
+ by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
+ (?-i)
switch: www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.* will match
+ only documents whose path starts with PaTtErN in
+ exactly this capitalization.
+
- Specifies:
-
-
- The file to store intercepted cookies in
-
-
-
-
- Type of value:
-
- File name, relative to logdir
-
-
-
- Default value:
-
- jarfile (Unix) or privoxy.jar (Windows)
-
-
-
- Effect if unset:
+ .example.com/.*
- Intercepted cookies are not stored at all.
+ Is equivalent to just .example.com
, since any documents
+ within that domain are matched with or without the .*
+ regular expression. This is redundant
- Notes:
+ .example.com/.*/index.html
- The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
+ 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 .
.
-
-trustfile
-
- Specifies:
+ .example.com/(.*/)?index\.html
- The trust file to use
+ 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!).
- Type of value:
-
- File name, relative to confdir
-
-
-
- Default value:
-
- Unset (commented out) . When activated: trust (Unix) or trust.txt (Windows)
-
-
- Effect if unset:
+ .example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)
- The whole trust mechanism is turned off.
+ 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.
- Notes:
+ .example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$
- The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should
- be used with care. It is NOT recommended for the casual user.
-
-
- If you specify a trust file, Privoxy will only allow
- access to sites that are named in the trustfile.
- You can also mark sites as trusted referrers (with + ), 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
.
- Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
-
-
- If you use + operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over time.
+ This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
+ .jpg
, .jpeg
, .gif
or .png
. So this
+ one is limited to common image formats.
+
+
+ There are many, many good examples to be found in default.action ,
+ and more tutorials below in
+
The Tag Pattern
+
+
+ Tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
+ request's tags. Tags can be created with either the
+
+
+
+ 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).
+
+
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
+ Sections can contain URL and tag patterns at the same time,
+ but tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
+ always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
+
+
+
+ Once a new tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
+ of the tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
+ tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
+ taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
+
+
+
+ For example you could tag client requests which use the POST method,
+ 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.
+
+
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
-Local Set-up Documentation
+
+Actions
+
+ All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
+ somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
+ +
, and turned off if preceded with a -
. So a
+ +action means do that action
, e.g.
+ +block means please block URLs that match the
+ following patterns
, and -block means don't
+ block URLs that match the following patterns, even if +block
+ previously applied.
+
+
+
+
+ Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
+ separated by whitespace, like in
+ {+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}} ,
+ followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
+ Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
+ of the actions file.
+
+
+
+ Actions fall into three categories:
+
+
+
+
+
+ Boolean, i.e the action can only be enabled
or
+ disabled
. Syntax:
+
- If you intend to operate Privoxy for more users
- that just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach
- you, what you block and why you do that, your policies etc.
-
+
+ +name # enable action name
+ -name # disable action name
+
+
+ Example: +block
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
+ Syntax:
+
+
+
+ +name {param } # enable action and set parameter to param ,
+ # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
+ -name # disable action. The parameter can be omitted
+
+
+ Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
+ the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
+
+
+ Example: +hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }
+
+
+
+
+
+ Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
+ but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
+ same URL, but with different parameters, all the parameters
+ from all matches are remembered. This is used for actions
+ that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
+ headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
+
+
+
+ +name {param } # enable action and add param to the list of parameters
+ -name {param } # remove the parameter param from the list of parameters
+ # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
+ -name # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list
+
+
+ Examples: +add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text} and
+ +filter{html-annoyances}
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ If nothing is specified in any actions file, no actions
are
+ taken. So in this case Privoxy would just be a
+ normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
+ privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
+ files will give a good starting point).
+
+
+
+ Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
+ to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
+ in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
+ as user.action ). For multi-valued actions, the actions
+ are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
+ the order they are defined in config (the default
+ installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
+ URL 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.
+
+
+
+
+ The list of valid Privoxy actions are:
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
-
-
-Debugging
-
-
- These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem.
- Note that you might also want to invoke
- Privoxy with the --no-daemon
- command line option when debugging.
-
-
-debug
+
+
+content-type-overwrite
- Specifies:
+ Typical use:
-
- Key values that determine what information gets logged.
-
+ Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode
+
- Type of value:
+ Effect:
- Integer values
+
+ Replaces the Content-Type:
HTTP server header.
+
+
- Default value:
+ Type:
+
- 12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)
+ Parameterized.
+
- Effect if unset:
+ Parameter:
- Nothing gets logged.
-
+ Any string.
+
+
Notes:
- The available debug levels are:
+ 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.
-
- debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
- debug 2 # show each connection status
- debug 4 # show I/O status
- debug 8 # show header parsing
- debug 16 # log all data into the logfile
- debug 32 # debug force feature
- debug 64 # debug regular expression filter
- debug 128 # debug fast redirects
- debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
- debug 512 # Common Log Format
- debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
- debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
- debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
-
+ 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.
- To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use
- multiple debug lines.
+ 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.
- A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request
- as it happens. 1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended
- so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are probably
- only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce
- a hell of an output (especially 16).
-
+ 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
+
- The reporting of fatal errors (i.e. ones which crash
- Privoxy ) is always on and cannot be disabled.
+ Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
+
- If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set debug
- 512
ONLY and not enable anything else.
+ 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
+
-single-threaded
+
+
+
-
-
-
-Access Control and Security
-
-
- This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
- of Privoxy 's configuration.
-
-
-listen-address
-
+
+crunch-if-none-match
+
- Specifies:
+ Typical use:
-
- The IP address and TCP port on which Privoxy will
- listen for client requests.
-
+ Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.
+
- Type of value:
+ Effect:
- [IP-Address ]:Port
+
+ Deletes the If-None-Match:
HTTP client header.
+
- Default value:
+ Type:
+
- 127.0.0.1:8118
+ Boolean.
+
- Effect if unset:
+ Parameter:
- Bind to 127.0.0.1 (localhost), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended for
- home users who run Privoxy on the same machine as
- their browser.
-
+ N/A
+
+
Notes:
- You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
+ 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.
- If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
- serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
- will need to override the default.
+ It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
+ replacement.
- If you leave out the IP address, Privoxy will
- bind to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable
- from the Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (ACL's)
- (see ACLs
below), or a firewall.
+ 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
+
+
- Example:
+ Example usage (section):
-
- Suppose you are running Privoxy on
- a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network
- (192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address.
- You want it to serve requests from inside only:
-
-
-
- listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
-
+
+ # Let the browser revalidate cached documents without being tracked across sessions
+{ +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
+ +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
+ +crunch-if-none-match}
+/
-toggle
+
+
+
+crunch-incoming-cookies
- Specifies:
+ Typical use:
- Initial state of "toggle" status
+ Prevent the web server from setting any cookies on your system
+
- Type of value:
+ Effect:
- 1 or 0
+
+ Deletes any Set-Cookie:
HTTP headers from server replies.
+
+
- Default value:
+ Type:
+
- 1
+ Boolean.
+
- Effect if unset:
+ Parameter:
- Act as if toggled on
+ N/A
+
Notes:
- If set to 0, Privoxy will start in
- toggled off
mode, i.e. behave like a normal, content-neutral
- proxy. See enable-remote-toggle
- below. This is not really useful anymore, since toggling is much easier
- via the web
- interface than via editing the conf file.
+ This action is only concerned with incoming cookies. For
+ outgoing cookies, use
+ both to disable cookies completely.
+
+
+ It makes no sense at all to use this action in conjunction
+ with the
+
+
+
+
+ Example usage:
+
- The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
- if this option is present.
+ +crunch-incoming-cookies
@@ -1894,56 +3309,80 @@ actionsfile
-enable-remote-toggle
+
+
-enable-edit-actions
+
+
+crunch-outgoing-cookies
+
- Specifies:
+ Typical use:
- Whether or not the web-based actions
- file editor may be used
+ Prevent the web server from reading any cookies from your system
+
- Type of value:
+ Effect:
- 0 or 1
+
+ Deletes any Cookie:
HTTP headers from client requests.
+
+
- Default value:
+ Type:
+
- 1
+ Boolean.
+
- Effect if unset:
+ Parameter:
- The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
+ N/A
+
Notes:
- For the time being, access to the editor can not be
- controlled separately by ACLs
or HTTP authentication,
- so that everybody who can access Privoxy (see
- ACLs
and listen-address above) can
- modify its configuration for all users. So this option is not
- recommended for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
+ This action is only concerned with outgoing cookies. For
+ incoming cookies, use
+ both to disable cookies completely.
+
+
+ It makes no sense at all to use this action in conjunction
+ with the
+
+
+
+
+ Example usage:
+
- Note that you must have compiled Privoxy with
- support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
+ +crunch-outgoing-cookies
+
-
-ACLs: permit-access and deny-access
-
-
+
+
+
+deanimate-gifs
- Specifies:
+ Typical use:
-
- Who can access what.
-
+ Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.
+
- Type of value:
+ Effect:
- src_addr [/src_masklen ]
- [dst_addr [/dst_masklen ]]
-
-
- Where src_addr and
- dst_addr are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
- DNS names, and src_masklen and
- dst_masklen are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
- values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
- destination part are optional.
+ De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
+
- Default value:
+ Type:
+
- Unset Parameterized.
+
- Effect if unset:
+ Parameter:
- Don't restrict access further than implied by listen-address
+ last
or first
+
Notes:
- Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
- administrators, and are not usually needed by individual users .
- For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
- Privoxy only listens on the localhost
- (127.0.0.1) or internal (home) network address by means of the
- listen-address option.
-
-
- Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute
- for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security
- weaknesses.
-
-
- Multiple ACL lines are OK.
- If any ACLs are specified, then the Privoxy
- talks only to IP addresses that match at least one permit-access line
- and don't match any subsequent deny-access line. In other words, the
- last match wins, with the default being deny-access .
-
-
- If Privoxy is using a forwarder (see forward below)
- for a particular destination URL, the dst_addr
- that is examined is the address of the forwarder and NOT the address
- of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
- Privoxy to determine the IP address of the
- ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
-
-
- You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
- time. All DNS names must resolve! You can not use domain patterns
- like *.org
or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
- IP addresses, only the first one is used.
+ 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).
- Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
- if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
+ 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.
+
- Examples:
+ Example usage:
-
- Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
- listen-address are set: localhost
- is OK. The absence of a dst_addr implies that
- all destination addresses are OK:
-
-
-
- permit-access localhost
-
-
-
- Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
- nothing but www.example.com:
-
-
-
- permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
-
-
-
- Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
- with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
-
-
-
- permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
- deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
-
-
+
+ +deanimate-gifs{last}
+
-buffer-limit
+
+
+downgrade-http-version
- Specifies:
+ Typical use:
-
- Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
-
+ Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1
+
- Type of value:
+ Effect:
- Size in Kbytes
+
+ Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
+
+
- Default value:
+ Type:
+
- 4096
+ Boolean.
+
- Effect if unset:
+ Parameter:
- Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
+ N/A
-
+
+
Notes:
- For content filtering, i.e. the +filter and
- +deanimate-gif actions, it is necessary that
- Privoxy buffers the entire document body.
- This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
- data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
- Hence this option.
-
-
- When a document buffer size reaches the buffer-limit , it is
- flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
- filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
- running, which might require up to buffer-limit Kbytes
- each , unless you have enabled single-threaded
- above.
+ 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
-
-Forwarding
-
-
- This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
- multiple proxies.
- It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
- accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains
- through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm )
- Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
- proxy may be necessary because the machine that Privoxy
- runs on has no direct Internet access.
-
-
-
- Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. Privoxy
- supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols.
-
-
-forward
- Specifies:
+ Typical use:
-
- To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
-
+ Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.
+
- Type of value:
+ Effect:
- target_domain [:port ]
- http_parent [/port ]
-
-
- Where target_domain is a domain name pattern (see the
- chapter on domain matching in the default.action file),
- http_parent is the address of the parent HTTP proxy
- as an IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or as a valid DNS name (or .
to denote
- no forwarding
, and the optional
- port parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer
- values from 1 to 64535
+ Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
+ the redirection server first.
+
- Default value:
+ Type:
+
- Unset Parameterized.
+
- Effect if unset:
+ Parameter:
-
- Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
-
+
+
+
+ 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/
.
+
- If http_parent is .
, then requests are not
- forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
-
-
- Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
+ 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.
-
-
-
- Examples:
-
- Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
+ 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:
-
- forward .* anon-proxy.example.org:8080
- forward :443 .
-
+ 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.
- Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
- to that ISP's sites:
+ 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
-
- forward .*. caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
- forward .example-isp.net .
-
+ 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
+
+
+
+
-forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a
-
-
+
+
+
+filter
- Specifies:
+ Typical use:
-
- Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
-
+ Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
+ do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.
+
- Type of value:
+ Effect:
- target_domain [:port ]
- socks_proxy [/port ]
- http_parent [/port ]
-
-
- Where target_domain is a domain name pattern (see the
- chapter on domain matching in the default.action file),
- http_parent and socks_proxy
- are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (http_parent
- may be .
to denote no HTTP forwarding
), and the optional
- port parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
+ 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.)
+
- Default value:
+ Type:
+
- Unset Parameterized.
+
- Effect if unset:
+ Parameter:
- Don't use SOCKS proxies.
+ The name of a content filter, as defined in the 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:
- Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
+ 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
HTML
action
is not available.
+
+
+ The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
+
+
+ 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.
- The difference between forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a
- is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
- server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
+ 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 http_parent is .
, then requests are not
- forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
- a SOCKS proxy.
+ 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 filter .
+
+
+ Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
+
+
+
+
+ The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
+ predefined filter. There are
+
- Examples:
+ Example usage (with filters from the distribution default.filter file).
+ See
- From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
- internal
domains, but everything outbound goes through
- their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
- the Internet.
+
+ +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)
-
- forward-socks4a .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
- forward .example.com .
-
+
+ +filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse
- A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
+
+ +filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content
-
- forward-socks4 .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
-
+
+ +filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand setups)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ +filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective
+
+
+
+ +filter{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
-Advanced Forwarding Examples
-
-
- If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
- only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple Privoxies
- which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
- your users can see the internal content of all ISPs.
-
-
-
- Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
- isp-b.net. Both run Privoxy . Their forwarding
- configuration can look like this:
-
-
-
- host-a:
-
-
-
-
- forward .*. .
- forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
-
-
-
- host-b:
-
+
+
+force-text-mode
+
+
+
+ Typical use:
+
+ Force Privoxy to treat a document as if it was in some kind of text format.
+
+
-
-
- forward .*. .
- forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
-
-
+
+ Effect:
+
+
+ Declares a document as text, even if the Content-Type:
isn't detected as such.
+
+
+
-
- Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
- host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
- of both isp-a and isp-b.
-
+
+ Type:
+
+
+ Boolean.
+
+
-
- If you intend to chain Privoxy and
- squid locally, then chain as
- browser -> squid -> privoxy is the recommended way.
-
+
+ Parameter:
+
+
+ N/A
+
+
+
-
- Assuming that Privoxy and squid
- run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this:
-
+
+ Notes:
+
+
+ As explained Privoxy tries to only filter files that are
+ in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
+ 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
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
-
- # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
- cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
- # Define ACL for protocol FTP
- acl ftp proto FTP
+
+
+forward-override
+
+
+
+ Typical use:
+
+ Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin
+
+
- # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
- always_direct allow ftp
+
+ Effect:
+
+
+ Overrules the forward directives in the configuration files.
+
+
+
- # Forward all the rest to Privoxy
- never_direct allow all
-
+
+ Type:
+
+
+ Multi-value.
+
+
-
- You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to squid 's address and port.
- Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult http_port in squid.conf .
-
+
+ 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
+
+
+
+ Please read the description for the
+
+ 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$
+
+
+
+
+
-
-
-
-
-
-Windows GUI Options
-
- Privoxy has a number of options specific to the
- Windows GUI interface:
-
-
-
-
- If activity-animation
is set to 1, the
- Privoxy icon will animate when
- Privoxy
is active. To turn off, set to 0.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- activity-animation 1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- If log-messages
is set to 1,
- Privoxy will log messages to the console
- window:
-
-
-
-
-
-
- log-messages 1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- If log-buffer-size
is set to 1, the size of the log buffer,
- i.e. the amount of memory used for the log messages displayed in the
- console window, will be limited to log-max-lines
(see below).
-
-
-
- Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and
- eat up all your memory!
-
-
-
-
-
-
- log-buffer-size 1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- log-max-lines is the maximum number of lines held
- in the log buffer. See above.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- log-max-lines 200
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- If log-highlight-messages
is set to 1,
- Privoxy will highlight portions of the log
- messages with a bold-faced font:
-
-
-
-
-
-
- log-highlight-messages 1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- The font used in the console window:
-
-
-
-
-
-
- log-font-name Comic Sans MS
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Font size used in the console window:
-
-
-
-
-
-
- log-font-size 8
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- show-on-task-bar
controls whether or not
- Privoxy will appear as a button on the Task bar
- when minimized:
-
-
-
-
-
-
- show-on-task-bar 0
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- If close-button-minimizes
is set to 1, the Windows close
- button will minimize Privoxy instead of closing
- the program (close with the exit option on the File menu).
-
-
-
-
-
-
- close-button-minimizes 1
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- The hide-console
option is specific to the MS-Win console
- version of Privoxy . If this option is used,
- Privoxy will disconnect from and hide the
- command console.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- #hide-console
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Actions Files
-
-
- The actions files are used to define what actions
- Privoxy takes for which URLs, and thus determine
- how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
- transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). There
- are three such files included with Privoxy (as of
- version 2.9.15), with differing purposes:
-
-
-
-
-
-
- standard.action - is used by the web based editor,
- to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section
- in default.action . These have increasing levels of
- aggressiveness and have no influence on your browsing unless
- you select them explicitly in the editor . It is not recommend
- to edit this file.
-
-
-
-
- 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 for users everywhere.
- This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and making
- available to users.
-
-
-
-
- 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.
-
-
-
-
-
-
- The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
- file, and are processed in the order they are defined. The content of these
- can all be viewed and edited from http://config.privoxy.org/show-status .
-
-
-
- An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
- aliases
in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
- very careful with using such a
- universal set in user.action or any other actions file after
- default.action , because it will override the result
- from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
- exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
- user.action as an appendix to default.action ,
- with the advantage that is a separate file, which makes preserving your
- personal settings across Privoxy upgrades easier.
-
-
-
- Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
- just some obnoxious URL that you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
- or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
- written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
- fooled, and much more. See below for a
-
-
-
-Finding the Right Mix
-
- Note that some 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 kill popup windows per
- default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
- regularly use and that require popups for actually useful content, like maybe
- your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
-
-
-
- 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
-
- 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
.
-
-
-
- If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
- the actions files. Look at default.action which is richly
- commented.
-
-
-
-
-
-How Actions are Applied to URLs
-
- Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
- like the
sections which will be discussed later. For now
- let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a heading line (often split
- up to multiple lines for readability) which consist of a list of actions,
- separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces. Below that, there
- is a list of URL patterns, each on a separate line.
-
-
-
- To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
- compared to all patterns in each action file file. Every time it matches, the list of
- applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated, using the heading
- of the section in which the pattern is located. If multiple matches for
- the same URL set the same action differently, the last match wins. If not,
- the effects are aggregated (e.g. a URL might match both the
- +handle-as-image
+block
-
-
- You can trace this process for any given URL by visiting http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info .
-
-
-
- More detail on this is provided in the Appendix,
-
-
-
-
-Patterns
-
- Generally, a pattern has the form <domain>/<path> ,
- where both the <domain> and <path>
- are optional. (This is why the pattern / matches all URLs).
-
-
+
+handle-as-empty-document
+
- www.example.com/ Typical use:
-
- is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to www.example.com ,
- regardless of which document on that server is requested.
-
+ Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents if they get blocked
+
- www.example.com Effect:
- means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing / may
- be omitted.
+ This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
+ If the 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.
+
+
+
- www.example.com/index.html Parameter:
- matches only the single document /index.html
- on www.example.com .
+ N/A
+
- /index.html Notes:
- matches the document /index.html , regardless of the domain,
- i.e. on any web server.
+ 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
+
+
- index.html Example usage:
- matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
- there is no top-level domain called .html .
+ # 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$
+
+
-The Domain Pattern
-
-
- The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the
- domain starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
- For example:
-
+
+handle-as-image
- .example.com Typical use:
-
- matches any domain that ENDS in
- .example.com
-
+ Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images if they do get blocked , rather than HTML pages)
+
- www. Effect:
- matches any domain that STARTS with
- www.
+ This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
+ If the also applies ,
+ the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML blocked
+ page, or a replacement image (as determined by the
+
- .example. Type:
+
-
- matches any domain that CONTAINS .example.
- (Correctly speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains example as a domain.)
-
+ Boolean.
-
-
- Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
- themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wild-cards: *
- stands for zero or more arbitrary characters, ?
stands for
- any single character, you can define character classes in square
- brackets and all of that can be freely mixed:
-
-
-
- ad*.example.com Parameter:
- matches adserver.example.com
,
- ads.example.com
, etc but not sfads.example.com
+ N/A
+
- *ad*.example.com Notes:
- matches all of the above, and then some.
+ 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.
-
-
-
- .?pix.com
- matches www.ipix.com ,
- pictures.epix.com , a.b.c.d.e.upix.com etc.
+ Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
+
+
+ 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.
+
- www[1-9a-ez].example.c* Example usage (sections):
- matches www1.example.com ,
- www4.example.cc , wwwd.example.cy ,
- wwwz.example.com etc., but not
- wwww.example.com .
+ # 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
+
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-The Path Pattern
-
-
- Privoxy uses Perl compatible regular expressions
- (through the PCRE library) for
- matching the path.
-
-
-
- There is an 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://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html .
-
-
-
- Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the /
,
- i.e. it matches as if it would start with a ^
(regular expression speak
- for the beginning of a line).
-
-
-
- Please also note that matching in the path is case
- INSENSITIVE by default, but you can switch to case
- sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
- (?-i)
switch:
- www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.* will match only
- documents whose path starts with PaTtErN in
- exactly this capitalization.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Actions
-
- All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
- somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
- +
, and turned off if preceded with a -
. So a
- +action means do that action
, e.g.
- +block means please block URLs that match the
- following patterns
, and -block means don't
- block URLs that match the following patterns, even if +block
- previously applied.
-
-
-
-
- Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
- separated by whitespace, like in
- {+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}} ,
- followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
- Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
- of the actions file.
-
-
-
- There are three classes of actions:
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Boolean, i.e the action can only be enabled
or
- disabled
. Syntax:
-
-
-
- +name # enable action name
- -name # disable action name
-
-
- Example: +block
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
- Syntax:
-
-
-
- +name {param } # enable action and set parameter to param ,
- # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
- -name # disable action. The parameter can be omitted
-
-
- Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
- the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
-
-
- Example: +hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }
-
-
-
-
-
- Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
- but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
- same URL, but with different parameters, all the parameters
- from all matches are remembered. This is used for actions
- that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
- headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
-
-
-
- +name {param } # enable action and add param to the list of parameters
- -name {param } # remove the parameter param from the list of parameters
- # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
- -name # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list
-
-
- Examples: +add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text} and
- +filter{html-annoyances}
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- If nothing is specified in any actions file, no actions
are
- taken. So in this case Privoxy would just be a
- normal, non-blocking, non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the
- privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
- files will give a good starting point).
-
-
-
- Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. So exceptions
- to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
- in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files). For
- multi-valued actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified.
- Actions files are processed in the order they are defined in
- config (the default installation has three actions
- files). It also quite possible for any given URL pattern to match more than
- one pattern and thus more than one set of actions!
-
-
-
-
- The list of valid Privoxy actions are:
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
+
+
+
+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 = +
+
+
+
+ ...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 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
+
+
+
+After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
+section from the above
+
+
+
+##########################################################################
+# Aliases
+##########################################################################
+{{alias}}
+
+ # These aliases just save typing later:
+ # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
+ #
+ +crunch-all-cookies = +
+
+
+
+ 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
+ default
section will
+ be applied to all requests as a start . It can be partly or
+ wholly overridden by later matches further down this file, or in user.action,
+ but it will still be largely responsible for your overall browsing
+ experience.
+
+
+
+ Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
+ no real need to disable any actions here, but we will do that nonetheless,
+ to have a complete listing for your reference. (Remember: a +
+ preceding the action name enables the action, a -
disables!).
+ Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
+ multiple lines with line continuation.
+
+
+
+
+##########################################################################
+# "Defaults" section:
+##########################################################################
+ { \
+ -
+
+
+
+ The default behavior is now set. Note that some actions, like not hiding
+ the user agent, are part of a general policy
that applies
+ universally and won't get any exceptions defined later. Other choices,
+ like not blocking (which is understandably the
+ default!) need exceptions, i.e. we need to specify explicitly what we
+ want to block in later sections.
+
+
+
+ The first of our specialized sections is concerned with fragile
+ sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
+ very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
+ make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will simply use
+ our pre-defined fragile alias instead of stating the list
+ of actions explicitly:
+
+
+
+
+##########################################################################
+# Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
+##########################################################################
+
+# "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
+#
+{ fragile }
+.office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
+.windowsupdate.microsoft.com
+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:
+
+
+
+
+# Shopping sites:
+#
+{ shop }
+.quietpc.com
+.worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
+.jungle.com
+.scan.co.uk
+
+
+
+
+
+ The
+
+
+
+{ -
+
+
+
+ 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
+
+
+
+##########################################################################
+# Images:
+##########################################################################
+
+# Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
+# blocked further down this file:
+#
+{ +
+
+
+
+ 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 + here.)
+ Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
+ +
+ 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
+
+ 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:
+##########################################################################
+{
+
+
+
+ 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
+ ads l.some-provider.net.
So here come some
+ well-known exceptions to the +
+ 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 .*ads. , an exception to the
+ general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
+ .*loads. , where again further down) it ends up
+ with no
+
+
+
+##########################################################################
+# Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
+##########################################################################
+
+# By domain:
+#
+{ -
+
+
+
+ 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
+ -
+ disables all filters in one fell swoop!
+
+
+
+
+# Don't filter code!
+#
+{ -
+
+
+
+ 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 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 = -
+
+
+
+
+ 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:
+
+
+
+
+{ -
+
+
+
+ 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 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:
+
+
+
+
+{ +
+
+
+
+ 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 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:
+
+
+
+
+{ +
+
+
+
+ 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
+ - ,
+ - , and
+ - 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:
+
+
+
+
+{ +
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+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:
+
+
+
+ &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
+
+
+
+
+ Multiple filter files can be defined through the 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 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
+ +name }
+
+
+ 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
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 (\ ).
+
+
+
+ Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <script.*
+ enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and *
+ means: Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself
, this
+ matches <script
, followed by any text, i.e.
+ it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
+
+
+
+ That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: document\.referrer
+ matches only the exact string document.referrer
. The dot needed to
+ be escaped , i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
+ special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
+ Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
+ the text document.referrer
, if both are present
+ in the page (and appear in that order).
+
+
+
+ But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
+ is .*</script> . You already know what .*
+ means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
+ tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
+ document.referrer
appears somewhere in between.
+
+
+
+ This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
+ The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
+ remembered and be available through the variables $1, $2, ... in
+ the substitute. The U option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
+ that the first .* in the pattern will only eat up
all
+ text in between <script
and the first occurrence
+ of document.referrer
, and that the second .* will
+ only span the text up to the first </script>
+ tag. Furthermore, the s option says that the match may span
+ multiple lines in the page, and the g option again means that the
+ substitution is global.
+
+
+
+ So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
+ document.referrer
. Remember the parts of the script from
+ (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
+ document.referrer
as $1 , and the part following
+ that string, up to and including the closing tag, as $2 .
+
+
+
+ Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
+ lets look at the substitute: $1"Not Your Business!"$2 is
+ easy to read: The text remembered as $1 , followed by
+ "Not Your Business!" (including
+ the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as $2 .
+ This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
+ (the document.referrer
) replaced by "Not Your
+ Business!" .
+
+
+
+ The whole job now reads: Replace document.referrer
by
+ "Not Your Business!" wherever it appears inside a
+ <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
+ since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
+ string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
+ information anymore.
+
+
+
+ We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
+ this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
+
+
+
+
+# The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
+#
+s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig
+
+
+
+ \s stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
+ carriage return, form feed), so that \s* means: zero
+ or more whitespace
. The ? in .*?
+ makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the U
+ option is not set). The ['"] construct means: a single
+ or a double quote
. Finally, \1 is
+ a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like $1 above,
+ with the difference that in the pattern , a backslash indicates
+ a back-reference, whereas in the substitute , it's the dollar.
+
+
+
+ So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
+ strings to the window.status
object with a dummy assignment
+ (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
+ real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
+ descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
+ you move your mouse over links.
+
+
+
+
+# Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
+#
+s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU
+
+
+
+ Including the
+ OnUnload
+ event binding in the HTML DOM was a CRIME .
+ When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
+ This job replaces the onunload
attribute in
+ <body>
tags with the dummy word never .
+ Note that the i option makes the pattern matching
+ case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
+ a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use [^>]*
+ instead of .* to prevent the match from exceeding the
+ <body> tag if it doesn't contain OnUnload
, but the page's
+ content does.
+
+
+
+ The last example is from the fun department:
+
+
+
+
+FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
+
+# Spice the daily news:
+#
+s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig
+
+
+
+ Note the (?!\.com) part (a so-called negative lookahead)
+ in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
+ .com
appears directly following microsoft
+ in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
+ still replacing the word everywhere else.
+
+
+
+
+# Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
+#
+s* industry[ -]leading \
+| cutting[ -]edge \
+| customer[ -]focused \
+| market[ -]driven \
+| award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
+| high[ -]performance \
+| solutions[ -]based \
+| unmatched \
+| unparalleled \
+| unrivalled \
+*<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
+*igx
+
+
+
+ The x option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
+ e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
+
+
+
+ You get the idea?
+
+The Pre-defined Filters
+
+
+
+
+The distribution default.filter file contains a selection of
+pre-defined filters for your convenience:
+
+
+
+
+ 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
+
+
+
+ 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.
- Example usage (disabling):
-
-
- {-session-cookies-only}
- .example.com
-
-
-
-
-
- Notes:
+ js-events
- If websites set cookies, +session-cookies-only
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. This is generally turned on for all
- sites, and is the recommended setting.
+ 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!
- +prevent-*-cookies
actions should be turned off as well (see
- below), for +session-cookies-only
to work. Or, else no cookies
- will get through at all. For, persistent
cookies that survive
- across browser sessions, see below as well.
+ 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).
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<emphasis>+prevent-reading-cookies</emphasis>
-
-
-
- Type:
-
+
+ html-annoyances
- Boolean.
+
+ 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.
+
- Typical uses:
+ content-cookies
- Explicitly prevent the web server from reading any cookies on your
- system.
+ Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
+ by the
+
+
+ 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.
- Possible values:
+ refresh tags
- N/A
+ 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.
-
-
- Example usage:
-
-
- {+prevent-reading-cookies}
- .example.com
-
-
-
- Notes:
+ unsolicited-popups
- Often used in conjunction with +prevent-setting-cookies
to
- disable cookies completely. Note that
- +session-cookies-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.
- For persistent
cookies to work (i.e. they survive across browser
- sessions and reboots), all three cookie settings should be off
- for the specified sites.
+ 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.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<emphasis>+prevent-setting-cookies</emphasis>
-
-
- Type:
-
+ all-popups
- Boolean.
+
+ 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.
+
- Typical uses:
+ img-reorder
- Explicitly block the web server from storing cookies on your
- system.
+ 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.
- Possible values:
+ banners-by-size
- N/A
+ 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.
-
-
-
-
- Example usage:
-
-
- {+prevent-setting-cookies}
- .example.com
-
- Notes:
+ banners-by-link
- Often used in conjunction with +prevent-reading-cookies
to
- disable cookies completely (see above).
+ 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.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<emphasis>+send-vanilla-wafer</emphasis>
-
-
-
- Type:
-
-
- Boolean.
- Typical uses:
+ demoronizer
- Sends a cookie for every site stating that you do not accept any copyright
- on cookies sent to you, and asking them not to track you.
+ 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.
+
- Possible values:
+ shockwave-flash
- N/A
+ 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.
+
+
-
-
-
-
- Example usage:
-
-
- {+send-vanilla-wafer}
- .example.com
-
- Notes:
+ quicktime-kioskmode
- This action only applies if you are using a jarfile
- for saving cookies. Of course, this is a (relatively) unique header and
- could conceivably be used to track you.
+ Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
+ prevents saving, is disabled.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<emphasis>+send-wafer</emphasis>
-
-
- Type:
-
+ fun
- Multi-value.
+
+ Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
+ Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
+
- Typical uses:
+ crude-parental
- This allows you to send an arbitrary, user definable cookie.
+ A demonstration-only filter that shows how Privoxy
+ can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
- Possible values:
+ ie-exploits
- User specified cookie name and corresponding value.
+ 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.
-
-
-
-
- Example usage:
-
-
- {+send-wafer{name=value}}
- .example.com
-
- Notes:
+ site-specifics
- This can be specified multiple times in order to add as many cookies as you
- like.
+ Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
+ anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
+
+
+ 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.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-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
-
-
-
-
-
-Sample Actions Files
-
- Remember that the meaning of any of the above references is reversed by preceding
- the action with a -
, in place of the +
. Also,
- that some actions are turned on in the default section of the actions file,
- and require little to no additional configuration. These are just on
.
-
-
-
- But, other actions that are turned on in the default section do
- typically require exceptions to be listed in the latter sections of
- one of our actions file. For instance, by default no URLs are
- blocked
(i.e. in the default definitions of
- default.action ). We need exceptions to this in order to
- enable ad blocking in the lower sections. But we need to
- be very selective about what we do block. Thus, the default is off
- for blocking.
-
-
-
- Below is a liberally commented sample default.action file
- to demonstrate how all the pieces come together. And to show how exceptions
- to the default policies can be handled. This is followed by a brief
- user.action with similar examples.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-# Sample default.action file <developers@privoxy.org>
-
-# Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
-{{settings}}
-for-privoxy-version=3.0
-
-
-##########################################################################
-# Aliases must be defined *before* they are used. These are
-# easier to remember, and can combine several actions into one. Once
-# defined they can be used just like any built-in action -- but within
-# this file only! Aliases do not require a + or - sign.
-##########################################################################
-
-# Some useful aliases.
-# Alias to turn off cookie handling, ie allow all cookies unmolested.
- -prevent-cookies = -prevent-setting-cookies -prevent-reading-cookies \
- -session-cookies-only
-
-# Alias to both block and treat as if an image for ad blocking
-# purposes.
- +imageblock = +block +handle-as-image
-
-# Fragile sites should have the minimum changes:
- fragile = -block -deanimate-gifs -fast-redirects -filter -hide-referer \
- -prevent-cookies -kill-popups
-
-# Shops should be allowed to set persistent cookies
- shop = -filter -prevent-cookies -session-cookies-only
-
-
-##########################################################################
-# Begin default action settings. Anything in this section will match
-# all URLs -- UNLESS we have exceptions that also match, defined below this
-# section. We will show all potential actions here whether they are on
-# or off. We could omit any disabled action if we wanted, since all
-# actions are 'off' by default anyway. Shown for completeness only.
-# Actions are enabled if preceded by a '+', otherwise they are disabled
-# (unless an alias has been defined without this).
-##########################################################################
- { \
- -add-header \
- -block \
- -deanimate-gifs \
- -downgrade-http-version \
- +fast-redirects \
- +filter{html-annoyances} \
- +filter{js-annoyances} \
- -filter{content-cookies} \
- -filter{popups} \
- +filter{webbugs} \
- -filter{refresh-tags} \
- -filter{fun} \
- +filter{nimda} \
- +filter{banners-by-size} \
- -filter{shockwave-flash} \
- -filter{crude-prental} \
- +hide-forwarded-for-headers \
- +hide-from-header{block} \
- -hide-referrer \
- -hide-user-agent \
- -handle-as-image \
- +set-image-blocker{pattern} \
- -limit-connect \
- +prevent-compression \
- -session-cookies-only \
- -prevent-reading-cookies \
- -prevent-setting-cookies \
- -kill-popups \
- -send-vanilla-wafer \
- -send-wafer \
- }
- / # forward slash will match *all* potential URL patterns.
-
-##########################################################################
-# Default behavior is now set. Now we will define some exceptions to our
-# default action policies.
-##########################################################################
-
-# These sites are very complex and require very minimal interference.
-# We'll disable most actions with our 'fragile' alias:
- { fragile }
- .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
- .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
-
-
-# Shopping sites - not as fragile but require some special
-# handling. We still want to block ads, and we will allow
-# persistant cookies via the 'shop' alias:
- { shop }
- .quietpc.com
- .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
- .jungle.com
- .scan.co.uk
-
-
-# These sites require pop-ups too :( We'll combine our 'shop'
-# alias with two other actions into one rule to allow all popups.
- { shop -kill-popups -filter{popups} }
- .dabs.com
- .overclockers.co.uk
-
-
-# The 'Fast-redirects' action breaks some sites. Disable this action
-# for these known sensitive sites:
- { -fast-redirects }
- login.yahoo.com
- edit.europe.yahoo.com
- .google.com
- .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
- .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
- .nytimes.com
-
-
-# Define which file types will be treated as images. Important
-# for ad blocking.
- { +handle-as-image }
- /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)
-
-
-# Now lets list some domains that are known ad generators. And
-# our alias that we use here will block these as well as force
-# them to be treated as images. This combination of actions is
-# important for ad blocking. What the browser will show instead is
-# determined by the setting of +set-image-blocker
+block }
- ad*.
- .*ads.
- banner?.
- count*.
- /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
- /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
- .hitbox.com
-
-
-# The above block section will probably inadvertantly catch some
-# sites we DO NOT want blocked via the wildcards and regular expressions.
-# Now let's set exceptions to the exceptions so the good guys get better
-# treatment. Disable block action:
- { -block }
- advogato.org
- adsl.
- ad[ud]*.
- advice.
-# Let's just trust all .edu top level domains.
- .edu
- www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv
-# We'll need to access to path names containing 'download'
- .*downloads.
- /downloads/
-# 'adv' is for globalintersec and means advanced, not advertisement
- www.globalintersec.com/adv
-
-
-# Don't filter *anything* from our friends at sourceforge.
-# Notice we don't have to name the individual filter
-# identifiers -- we just turn them all off in one fell swoop.
-# Disable all filters for this one site:
- { -filter }
- .sourceforge.net
-
-
-
-
-
-
- So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies.
- The above would be a reasonable starting point for many situations. Now,
- we want to be more specific and have customized rules that are more suitable
- to our 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 should not be clobbered by upgrades. So any settings here,
- will have the last word and over-ride any previously defined actions.
-
-
-
- Now a few examples of some things that one might do with a
- user.action file.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-# Sample user.action file.
-
-# Any aliases you want to use need to be re-defined here.
-# Alias to turn off cookie handling, ie allow all cookies unmolested.
- -prevent-cookies = -prevent-setting-cookies -prevent-reading-cookies \
- -session-cookies-only
-
-# Fragile sites should have the minimum changes:
- fragile = -block -deanimate-gifs -fast-redirects -filter -hide-referer \
- -prevent-cookies -kill-popups
-
-# Allow persistent cookies for a few regular sites that we
-# trust via our above alias. These will be saved from one browser session
-# to the next. We are explicity turning off any and all cookie handling,
-# even though the prevent-*-cookie settings were disabled in our above
-# default.action anyway. So cookies from these domains will come through
-# unmolested.
- { -prevent-cookies }
- .sun.com
- .yahoo.com
- .msdn.microsoft.com
- .redhat.com
-
-
-# My ISP uses obnoxious self promoting images on many pages.
-# Nuke them :) Note that +handle-as-image
+block }
- www.my-isp-example.com/logo[0-9].gif
-
-
-# Say the site where you do your homebanking needs to open
-# popup windows, but you have chosen to kill popups by
-# default. This will allow it for your-example-bank.com:
-#
- { -filter{popups} -kill-popups }
- .my-example-bank.com
-
-
-# This site is delicate, and requires kid-glove
-# treatment.
- { fragile }
- .forbes.com
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-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 other actions in the
- actions file! And there can only be one set of aliases
- defined per file. Each actions file may have its own aliases, but they are
- only visible within that file. Aliases do not requir a +
or
- -
sign in front, since they are merely expanded.
-
-
-
- Now let's define a few aliases:
-
-
-
-
-
-
- # Useful custom aliases we can use later. These must come first!
- {{alias}}
- +prevent-cookies = +prevent-setting-cookies +prevent-reading-cookies
- -prevent-cookies = -prevent-setting-cookies -prevent-reading-cookies
- fragile = -block -prevent-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referer -kill-popups
- shop = -prevent-cookies -filter -fast-redirects
- +imageblock = +block +handle-as-image
-
- # Aliases defined from other aliases, for people who don't like to type
- # too much: ;-)
- c0 = +prevent-cookies
- c1 = -prevent-cookies
- #... etc. Customize to your heart's content.
-
-
-
-
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
-
- Some examples using our shop
and fragile
- aliases from above. These would appear in the lower sections of an
- actions file as exceptions to the default actions (as defined in the
- upper section):
-
+
+ msn
+
+ Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
+ tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
+
+
+
-
-
-
-
- # These sites are very complex and require
- # minimal interference.
- {fragile}
- .office.microsoft.com
- .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
- .nytimes.com
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
- # Shopping sites - but we still want to block ads.
- {shop}
- .quietpc.com
- .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
- .scan.co.uk
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
- # These shops require pop-ups also
- {shop -kill-popups}
- .dabs.com
- .overclockers.co.uk
-
-
-
-
+
+ no-ping
+
+ Removes the non-standard ping attribute from
+ anchor and area HTML tags.
+
+
+
-
- The shop
and fragile
aliases are often used for
- problem
sites that require most actions to be disabled
- in order to function properly.
+
+ 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.
+
+
+
-
+
+
@@ -4859,160 +7669,87 @@ for-privoxy-version=3.0
-
-
-
-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
- oddly enough 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 pageBLOCKED
+ pageweb-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 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
-
- s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig
+
+<!-- @if-unstable-start -->
- # Buzzword Bingo:
- #
- s/industry-leading|cutting-edge|award-winning/<font color=red><b>BINGO!</b></font>/ig
-
-
-
-
+ ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
-
- Kill those pesky little web-bugs:
+<!-- if-unstable-end@ -->
-
-
-
- # 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
-
-
-
+ 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:
-
-
-
-The <emphasis>+filter</emphasis> Action
- Filters are enabled with the +filter
+filter
requires one parameter, which
- should match one of the section identifiers in the filter file itself. Example:
+ <!-- -->
-
- +filter{html-annoyances}
-
-
- This would activate that particular filter. Similarly, +filter
- can be turned off for selected sites as:
- -filter{html-annoyances}
. Remember too, all actions are off by
- default, unless they are explicity enabled in one of the actions files.
+ 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 ;-)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-Templates
- When Privoxy displays one of its internal
- pages, such as a 404 Not Found error page
- (Privoxy must be running for link to work as
- intended), 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).
+ All templates refer to a style located at
+ http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet Privoxy
+ and the source for it can be found and edited in the
+ cgi-style.css template.
-
- The default
-Blocked
-(Privoxy needs to be running for page to display)
- banner page with the bright red top
- banner, is called just blocked
. This
- may be customized or replaced with something else if desired.
-
@@ -5034,7 +7771,7 @@ Requests
-<application>Privoxy</application> Copyright, License and History
+Privoxy Copyright, License and History
©right;
@@ -5056,6 +7793,13 @@ Requests
&history;
+
+Authors
+
+ &p-authors;
+
+
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 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.
@@ -5163,7 +7910,7 @@ Requests
- [] - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
+ [ ] - 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]+
.
@@ -5172,7 +7919,7 @@ Requests
- () - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
+ ( ) - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
or multiple sub-expressions.
-
- s/string1/string2/g - This is used to rewrite strings of text.
- string1
is replaced by string2
in this
- example. There must of course be a match on string1
first.
-
-
These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
Privoxy , and is a long way from a definitive
@@ -5222,7 +7961,7 @@ Requests
- A now something a little more complex:
+ And now something a little more complex:
@@ -5260,7 +7999,7 @@ Requests
/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g) []
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
@@ -5285,16 +8024,6 @@ Requests
in the expression anywhere).
-
- s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i 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
@@ -5306,9 +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
@@ -5316,7 +8050,7 @@ Requests
-<application>Privoxy</application>'s Internal Pages
+Privoxy's Internal Pages
Since Privoxy proxies each requested
@@ -5351,9 +8085,9 @@ 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 )
@@ -5484,21 +8218,24 @@ Requests
url="javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y','ijbstatus','width=250,height=2,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());">Privoxy- View Status
-
+
+
+
+ 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.
@@ -5512,8 +8249,9 @@ Requests
Chain of Events
- Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is
- requested by your browser and Privoxy is on duty:
+ 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:
@@ -5529,20 +8267,23 @@ Requests
Privoxy traps any request for its own internal CGI
- pages (e.g http://p.p/) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
+ 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
+block
patterns. If
so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
- +handle-as-image
BLOCKED
page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match,
- an image is returned. The type of image depends on the setting of +set-image-blocker
+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).
@@ -5554,106 +8295,121 @@ Requests
- If the URL pattern matches the +fast-redirects
+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
+hide-user-agent
,
etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
their parameters.
- Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web page and related
- data).
+ 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 deterimed by the
- +prevent-setting-cookies
+session-cookies-only
+downgrade-http-version
+crunch-incoming-cookies
,
+ +session-cookies-only
,
+ and +downgrade-http-version
actions.
- If the +kill-popups
+kill-popups
action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript document, the popup-code in the
response is filtered on-the-fly as it is received.
- If a +filter
+deanimate-gifs
+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 ) are processed against the buffered
- content. Filters are applied in the order they are specified in the
- default.filter file. Animated GIFs, if present, are
- reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
+ default.filter and any other filter files) are
+ processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
+ they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
+ are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
Privoxy back to your browser.
- If neither +filter
+deanimate-gifs
+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 (probably filtered) page content, it
+ As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
- frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a new
- request. And each such request is in turn processed as above. Note that a
- complex web page may have many such embedded URLs.
+ 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
filters
see just what Privoxy is
doing. Especially, if something Privoxy is doing
is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
- regular expressions
whose consequences are not always
- so obvious.
+
One quick test to see if Privoxy is causing a problem
or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
step. See
+
+ 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.
@@ -5667,9 +8423,9 @@ Requests
First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
Privoxy will tell us
how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
- help with filtering effects (i.e. the +filter
default.filter file since this is handled very
+ 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
@@ -5682,75 +8438,138 @@ Requests
Let's try an example, google.com ,
- and look at it one section at a time:
+ and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
+ configuration may vary):
Matches for http://google.com:
---- File standard ---
-(no matches in this file)
-
---- File default ---
-
-{ -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs{last} -downgrade-http-version +fast-redirects
- -filter{popups} -filter{fun} -filter{shockwave-flash} -filter{crude-parental}
- +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{content-cookies}
- +filter{webbugs} +filter{refresh-tags} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
- +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block} +hide-referer{forge}
- -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{pattern} -limit-connect
- +prevent-compression +session-cookies-only -prevent-reading-cookies
- -prevent-setting-cookies -kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-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
---- File user ---
+In file: user.action [ View ] [ Edit ]
(no matches in this file)
- This tells us how we have defined our
- actions
google.com
. The first listing
- is any matches for the standard.action file. No hits at
- all here on standard
. Then next is default
, or
- 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 telling us how we have defined our
+ actions
, and
+ which ones match for our test case, google.com
.
+ Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
+ the + sign denotes on
. -
+ denotes off
. So some are on
here, but many
+ are off
. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
+ end result, depending on our configuration directives.
+
+
+ The first listing
+ is for our default.action file. The large, multi-line
+ listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
+ settings. If you look at your actions
file, this would be the
+ section just below the aliases
section near the top. This
+ will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
+ of the listing -- /
.
- But we can define additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
- rules, and then 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
off any
- +fast-redirects
.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
. So, apparently, we have these two actions
- defined somewhere in the lower part of our default.action
- file, and google.com
is referenced somewhere in these latter
- sections.
+ www.google.com
or mail.google.com
. But it would not
+ match www.google.de
! So, apparently, we have these two actions
+ defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
+ part of our default.action file, and
+ google.com
is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
Then, for our user.action file, we again have no hits.
+ So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
+ configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
+ previously processed files, such as default.action .
+ user.action typically has the last word. This is the
+ best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
@@ -5764,20 +8583,75 @@ Requests
Final results:
- -add-header -block +deanimate-gifs{last} -downgrade-http-version -fast-redirects
- -filter{popups} -filter{fun} -filter{shockwave-flash} -filter{crude-parental}
- +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{content-cookies}
- +filter{webbugs} +filter{refresh-tags} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size}
- +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block} +hide-referer{forge}
- -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{pattern} -limit-connect
- +prevent-compression -session-cookies-only -prevent-reading-cookies
- -prevent-setting-cookies -kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-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
.
+ fast-redirects
and session-cookies-only
,
+ which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
+ and thus show in the Final Results
.
@@ -5787,23 +8661,24 @@ Requests
- { +block +handle-as-image }
- .ad.doubleclick.net
-
- { +block +handle-as-image }
+ { +block }
ad*.
+ { +block }
+ .ad.
+
{ +block +handle-as-image }
- .doubleclick.net
+ .[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 +handle-as-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
+block-as-image
. (Aliases
are defined in
the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
than one action.)
@@ -5814,32 +8689,85 @@ 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
+block
and an
- +handle-as-image
+imageblock
just simplifies the process and make
- it more readable.
+ +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-http-version +fast-redirects
- +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{kill-popups}
- +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} +filter{hal}
- +filter{fun} +hide-forwarded-for-headers +hide-from-header{block}
- +hide-referer{forge} -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image-blocker{blank}
- +prevent-compression +session-cookies-only -prevent-setting-cookies
- -prevent-reading-cookies +kill-popups -send-vanilla-wafer -send-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 +handle-as-image }
@@ -5848,11 +8776,17 @@ Requests
- 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 explicitly does not
- block ({-block}
) paths 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:
@@ -5864,8 +8798,10 @@ Requests
- 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 .
@@ -5882,18 +8818,21 @@ Requests
- 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
@@ -5903,8 +8842,8 @@ Requests
- {shop}
is an alias
that expands to
- { -filter -session-cookies-only }
.
+ { shop }
is an alias
that expands to
+ { -filter -session-cookies-only }
.
Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
@@ -5912,21 +8851,55 @@ Requests
- {-filter}
+ { -filter }
+ # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
.forbes.com
+ developer.ibm.com
+ localhost
- This would probably be most appropriately put in user.action ,
- for local site exceptions.
+ 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.
@@ -5950,10 +8923,302 @@ 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
+ 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