X-Git-Url: http://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?p=privoxy.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Ftext%2Fuser-manual.txt;h=f1bb81fadadf8ca2cc18c02f8284ae7a5a3b31eb;hp=ae15c9c1d61c8d17301d966193ae7706aca2f942;hb=27a052b25644badeb56a764c6e3b5f40bf33d973;hpb=243ea876cd206ac86ba2f96a7a0be55a02dc5727 diff --git a/doc/text/user-manual.txt b/doc/text/user-manual.txt index ae15c9c1..f1bb81fa 100644 --- a/doc/text/user-manual.txt +++ b/doc/text/user-manual.txt @@ -1,1603 +1,3451 @@ +Privoxy User Manual -Junkbuster User Manual - - By: Junkbuster Developers - - $Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.20 2001/10/24 23:58:25 hal9 Exp $ - - The user manual gives the users information on how to install and - configure Internet Junkbuster. Internet Junkbuster is an application - that provides privacy and security to users of the World Wide Web. - - You can find the latest version of the user manual at - [1]http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/. - - Feel free to send a note to the developers at - <[2]ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net>. - _________________________________________________________________ - - Table of Contents - 1. [3]Introduction - - 1.1. [4]New Features - - 2. [5]Installation - - 2.1. [6]Source - 2.2. [7]Red Hat - 2.3. [8]SuSE - 2.4. [9]OS/2 - 2.5. [10]Windows - 2.6. [11]Other - - 3. [12]Junkbuster Configuration - - 3.1. [13]The Main Configuration File - 3.2. [14]The Actions File - 3.3. [15]The Filter File - - 4. [16]Quickstart to Using Junkbuster - 5. [17]Contact the Developers - 6. [18]Copyright and History - - 6.1. [19]License - 6.2. [20]History - - 7. [21]See also - 8. [22]Appendix - - 8.1. [23]Regular Expressions - -1. Introduction +By: Privoxy Developers + +$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.95 2002/04/26 17:23:29 swa Exp $ + +The user manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use +Privoxy. + +Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting +privacy, filtering web page content, managing cookies, controlling access, and +removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a +very flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and +tastes. Privoxy has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user +networks. - Internet Junkbuster is a web proxy with advanced filtering - capabilities for protecting privacy, filtering web page content, - managing cookies, controlling access, and removing ads, banners, - pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet Junk. Junkbuster has a very - flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs - and tastes. Internet Junkbuster has application for both stand-alone - systems and multi-user networks. - - This documentation is included with the current development version of - Internet Junkbuster and is incomplete at this point. The most up to - date reference for the time being is still the comments in the source - files and in the individual configuration files. Development of - version 3.0 is currently underway, and includes many significant - changes and enhancements over earlier verions. The target release date - for stable v3.0 is December 2001. - - Since this is a development version, some features are in the process - of being implemented. This documentation may be slightly out of sync - as a result. And there are bugs, though hopefully not many! - _________________________________________________________________ - -1.1. New Features - - In addition to Junkbuster's traditional features of ad and banner - blocking and cookie management, this is a list of new features - currently under development: - - * A browser based configuration utility (WIP at [24]http://i.j.b). - * Modularized configuration that will allow for system wide - settings, and individual user settings. (not implemented yet) - * Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows (previously available - as a patch). - * Support for HTTP/1.1 (partially implemented at this point). - * Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the - configuration files, and generally a more sophisticated - configuration syntax over previous versions. - * Web page content filtering. - * Multi-threaded. +Privoxy is based on Internet Junkbuster (tm). + +You can find the latest version of the user manual at http://www.privoxy.org/ +user-manual/. Please see the Contact section on how to contact the developers. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +Table of Contents + +1. Introduction + + 1.1. Features + +3. Installation + + 3.1. Red Hat and SuSE RPMs + 3.2. Debian + 3.3. Windows + 3.4. Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, HP-UX + 3.5. OS/2 + 3.6. Max OSX + 3.7. AmigaOS + +4. Note to Upgraders +5. Quickstart to Using Privoxy +6. Starting Privoxy + + 6.1. Command Line Options + +7. Privoxy Configuration + + 7.1. Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser + 7.2. Configuration Files Overview + 7.3. The Main Configuration File + + 7.3.1. Configuration and Log File Locations + + 7.3.1.1. confdir + 7.3.1.2. logdir + 7.3.1.3. actionsfile + 7.3.1.4. filterfile + 7.3.1.5. logfile + 7.3.1.6. jarfile + 7.3.1.7. trustfile + + 7.3.2. Local Set-up Documentation + + 7.3.2.1. trust-info-url + 7.3.2.2. admin-address + 7.3.2.3. proxy-info-url + + 7.3.3. Debugging + + 7.3.3.1. debug + 7.3.3.2. single-threaded + + 7.3.4. Access Control and Security + + 7.3.4.1. listen-address + 7.3.4.2. toggle + 7.3.4.3. enable-remote-toggle + 7.3.4.4. enable-edit-actions + 7.3.4.5. ACLs: permit-access and deny-access + 7.3.4.6. buffer-limit + + 7.3.5. Forwarding + + 7.3.5.1. forward + 7.3.5.2. forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a + 7.3.5.3. Advanced Forwarding Examples + + 7.3.6. Windows GUI Options - In addition, the configuration is more versatile overall. - _________________________________________________________________ + 7.4. Actions Files + + 7.4.1. Finding the Right Mix + 7.4.2. How to Edit + 7.4.3. How Actions are Applied to URLs + 7.4.4. Patterns + + 7.4.4.1. The Domain Pattern + 7.4.4.2. The Path Pattern + + 7.4.5. Actions + + 7.4.5.1. +add-header + 7.4.5.2. +block + 7.4.5.3. +deanimate-gifs + 7.4.5.4. +downgrade-http-version + 7.4.5.5. +fast-redirects + 7.4.5.6. +filter + 7.4.5.7. +hide-forwarded-for-headers + 7.4.5.8. +hide-from-header + 7.4.5.9. +hide-referer + 7.4.5.10. +hide-user-agent + 7.4.5.11. +handle-as-image + 7.4.5.12. +set-image-blocker + 7.4.5.13. +limit-connect + 7.4.5.14. +prevent-compression + 7.4.5.15. +session-cookies-only + 7.4.5.16. +prevent-reading-cookies + 7.4.5.17. +prevent-setting-cookies + 7.4.5.18. +kill-popups + 7.4.5.19. +send-vanilla-wafer + 7.4.5.20. +send-wafer + 7.4.5.21. Actions Examples + + 7.4.6. Aliases + + 7.5. The Filter File + + 7.5.1. The +filter Action + + 7.6. Templates -2. Installation - - Junkbuster is available as raw source code, or pre-compiled binaries. - See the [25]Junkbuster Home Page for current release info. Junkbuster - is also available via [26]CVS. This is the recommended approach at - this time. But please be aware that CVS is constantly changing, and it - may break in mysterious ways. - _________________________________________________________________ +8. Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests -2.1. Source - - For gzipped tar archives, unpack the source: + 8.1. Get Support + 8.2. Report bugs + 8.3. Request new features + 8.4. Report ads or other filter problems + 8.5. Other - tar zxvf ijb_source_2.9* - cd ijb_source_2.9* - - For retrieving the current CVS sources, you'll need the CVS package - installed first. To download CVS source: +9. Copyright and History - cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa login - cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ijbswa.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ijbswa co cu -rrent - cd current - - This will create a directory named current/, which will contain the - source tree. + 9.1. Copyright + 9.2. History - Then, in either case, to build from source: +10. See Also +11. Appendix - autoconf #recommended for CVS source - ./configure - make - su - make install - - For Redhat and SuSE Linux RPM packages, see below. - _________________________________________________________________ + 11.1. Regular Expressions + 11.2. Privoxy's Internal Pages + + 11.2.1. Bookmarklets + + 11.3. Chain of Events + 11.4. Anatomy of an Action -2.2. Red Hat +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - To build Redhat RPM packages, install source as above. Then: - - autoconf #recommended for CVS source - ./configure - make redhat-dist +1. Introduction + +This documentation is included with the current beta version of Privoxy, +v.2.9.14, and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference +for the time being is still the comments in the source files and in the +individual configuration files. Development of version 3.0 is currently nearing +completion, and includes many significant changes and enhancements over earlier +versions. The target release date for stable v3.0 is "soon" ;-). + +Since this is a beta version, not all new features are well tested. This +documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with CVS +sources). And there may be bugs, though hopefully not many! + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - This will create both binary and src RPMs in the usual places. - Example: +1.1. Features + +In addition to Internet Junkbuster's traditional features of ad and banner +blocking and cookie management, Privoxy provides new features, some of them +currently under development: + + * FIXME: complete the list of features. change the order: most important + features to the top of the list. prefix new features with "NEW". + + * Integrated browser based configuration and control utility at http:// + config.privoxy.org/ (shortcut: http://p.p/). Browser-based tracing of rule + and filter effects. Remote toggling. + + * Blocking of annoying pop-up browser windows. + + * HTTP/1.1 compliant (but not all optional 1.1 features are supported). + + * Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files, + and generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over + previous versions. + + * GIF de-animation. + + * Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size, invisible + "web-bugs", JavaScript and HTML annoyances, pop-ups, etc.) - /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686/junkbuster-2.9.8-1.i686.rpm + * Bypass many click-tracking scripts (avoids script redirection). - /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS/junkbuster-2.9.9-1.src.rpm + * Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads). - To install, of course: + * Auto-detection and re-reading of config file changes. - rpm -Uvv /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686/junkbuster-2.9.9-1.i686.rpm + * User-customizable HTML templates (e.g. 404 error page). + + * Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies). + + * Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix). + + * Every feature now controllable on a per-site or per-location basis, + configuration more powerful and versatile over-all. + + * Many smaller new features added, limitations and bugs removed, and security + holes fixed. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +3. Installation + +Privoxy is available both in convenient pre-compiled packages for a wide range +of operating systems, and as raw source code. For most users, we recommend +using the packages, which can be downloaded from our Privoxy Project Page. For +installing and compiling the source code, please look into our Developer +Manual. + +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 tarball. +Again, we refer you to the Developer Manual. + +At present, Privoxy is known to run on Windows(95, 98, ME, 2000, XP), Linux +(RedHat, Suse, Debian), Mac OSX, OS/2, AmigaOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, BeOS, and many +more flavors of Unix. + +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 note to upgraders section below. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +3.1. Red Hat and SuSE RPMs + +RPMs can be installed with rpm -Uvh privoxy-2.9.14-1.rpm, and will use /etc/ +privoxy for the location of configuration files. + +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. + +If you have problems with failed dependencies, try rebuilding the SRC RPM: rpm +--rebuild privoxy-2.9.14-1.src.rpm;. This will use your locally installed +libraries and RPM version. + +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. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +3.2. Debian + +FIXME. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +3.3. Windows + +Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through the installation +process. You will find the configuration files in the same directory as you +installed Privoxy in. We do not use the registry of Windows. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - This will place the Junkbuster configuration files in - /etc/junkbuster/, and log files in /var/log/junkbuster/. - _________________________________________________________________ +3.4. Solaris, NetBSD, FreeBSD, 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. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +3.5. OS/2 + +First, make sure that no previous installations of Junkbuster and / or Privoxy +are left on your system. You can do this by + +Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will guide +you through the installation process. A shadow of the Privoxy executable will +be placed in your startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 +starts. + +The directory you choose to install Privoxy into will contain all of the +configuration files. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +3.6. 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. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +3.7. AmigaOS + +Copy and then unpack the lha archive to a suitable location. All necessary +files will be installed into Privoxy directory, including all configuration and +log files. To uninstall, just remove this directory. + +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). + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +4. Note to Upgraders + +There are very significant changes from older versions of Junkbuster to the +current Privoxy. Configuration is substantially changed. Junkbuster 2.0.x and +earlier configuration files will not migrate. The functionality of the old +blockfile, cookiefile and imagelist, are now combined into the "actions files". +default.action, is the main actions file. Local exceptions should best be put +into user.action. + +A "filter file" (typically 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. + +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. + +A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading: + + * The default listening port is now 8118 due to a conflict with another + service (NAS). + + * Some installers may remove earlier versions completely. Save any important + configuration files! + + * 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. + + * 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. + + * Some installers may not automatically start Privoxy after installation. -2.3. SuSE +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - To build SuSE RPM packages, install source as above. Then: +5. Quickstart to Using Privoxy + + * Install Privoxy. See the section Installing. + + * Start Privoxy. See the section Starting Privoxy. + + * Change your browser's configuration to use the proxy localhost on port + 8118. See the section Starting Privoxy. + + * Enjoy surfing with enhanced comfort and privacy. Please see the section + Contacting the Developers on how to report bugs or problems with websites + or to get help. You may want to change the file user.action to further + tweak your new browsing experience. - autoconf #recommended for CVS source - ./configure - make suse-dist +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +6. Starting Privoxy + +Before launching Privoxy for the first time, you will want to configure your +browser(s) to use Privoxy as a HTTP and HTTPS proxy. The default is localhost +for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions used port 8000). This is +the one configuration step that must be done! + +With Netscape (and Mozilla), this can be set under Edit -> Preferences -> +Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy. For Internet Explorer: Tools -> Internet +Properties -> Connections -> LAN Setting. Then, check "Use Proxy" and fill in +the appropriate info (Address: localhost, Port: 8118). Include if HTTPS proxy +support too. + +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! - This will create both binary and src RPMs in the usual places. - Example: +Privoxy is typically started by specifying the main configuration file to be +used on the command line. Example Unix startup command: + + # /usr/sbin/privoxy /etc/privoxy/config + +See below for other command line options. + +An init script is provided for SuSE and Red Hat. + +For for SuSE: rcprivoxy start + +For Red Hat and Debian: /etc/rc.d/init.d/privoxy start + +If no configuration file is specified on the command line, Privoxy will look +for a file named config in the current directory. Except on Win32 where it will +try config.txt. If no file is specified on the command line and no default +configuration file can be found, Privoxy will fail to start. + +The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting +point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the "actions" files. These +are where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other +aspects of Privoxy configuration. There are several such files included, with +varying levels of aggressiveness. + +You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer +persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By +default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser session +(aka "session cookies"), unless you add them to the configuration. If you want +the browser to handle this instead, you will need to edit user.action (or +through the web based interface) and disable this feature. If you use more than +one browser, it would make more sense to let Privoxy handle this. In which +case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies. + +Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted +sites is the popup-killing (through the +popup and +filter{popups} actions), +because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need popups +(explained below). + +Privoxy is HTTP/1.1 compliant, but not all of the optional 1.1 features are as +yet supported. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems +with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default (like Mozilla or recent versions of +I.E.), you might try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under +Edit -> Preferences -> Debug -> Networking. Alternatively, set the +"+downgrade-http-version" config option in default.action which will downgrade +your browser's HTTP requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them. + +After running Privoxy for a while, you can start to fine tune the configuration +to suit your personal, or site, preferences and requirements. There are many, +many aspects that can be customized. "Actions" can be adjusted by pointing your +browser to http://config.privoxy.org/ (shortcut: http://p.p/), and then follow +the link to "View & Change the Current Configuration". (This is an internal +page and does not require Internet access.) + +In fact, various aspects of Privoxy configuration can be viewed from this page, +including current configuration parameters, source code version numbers, the +browser's request headers, and "actions" that apply to a given URL. In addition +to the actions file editor mentioned above, Privoxy can also be turned "on" and +"off" (toggled) from this page. + +If you encounter problems, try loading the page without Privoxy. If that helps, +enter the URL where you have the problems into the browser based rule tracing +utility. See which rules apply and why, and then try turning them off for that +site one after the other, until the problem is gone. When you have found the +culprit, you might want to turn the rest on again. + +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 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" below. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +6.1. Command Line Options + +Privoxy may be invoked with the following command-line options: + + * --version + + Print version info and exit. Unix only. + + * --help + + Print short usage info and exit. Unix only. + + * --no-daemon + + Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group leader, and + don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only. - /usr/src/suse/RPMS/i686/junkbuster-2.9.9-1.i686.rpm + * --pidfile FILE - /usr/src/suse/SRPMS/junkbuster-2.9.9-1.src.rpm + On startup, write the process ID to FILE. Delete the FILE on exit. Failure + to create or delete the FILE is non-fatal. If no FILE option is given, no + PID file will be used. Unix only. - To install, of course: + * --user USER[.GROUP] - rpm -Uvv /usr/src/suse/RPMS/i686/junkbuster-2.9.9-1.i686.rpm + After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of USER, and if + included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the privileges are not sufficient to do + so. Unix only. + + * configfile + + If no configfile is included on the command line, Privoxy will look for a + file named "config" in the current directory (except on Win32 where it will + look for "config.txt" instead). Specify full path to avoid confusion. If no + config file is found, Privoxy will fail to start. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7. Privoxy Configuration + +All Privoxy configuration is stored in text files. These files can be edited +with a text editor. Many important aspects of Privoxy can also be controlled +easily with a web browser. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.1. Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser + +Privoxy's user interface can be reached through the special URL http:// +config.privoxy.org/ (shortcut: http://p.p/), which is a built-in page and works +without Internet access. You will see the following section: - This will place the Junkbuster configuration files in - /etc/junkbuster/, and log files in /var/log/junkbuster/. - _________________________________________________________________ + Privoxy Menu + ? View & change the current configuration + ? View the source code version numbers + ? View the request headers. + ? Look up which actions apply to a URL and why + ? Toggle Privoxy on or off + + +This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the +"actions list", which is where the ad, banner, cookie, and URL blocking magic +is configured as well as other advanced features of Privoxy. This is an easy +way to adjust various aspects of Privoxy configuration. The actions file, and +other configuration files, are explained in detail below. + +"Toggle Privoxy On or Off" is handy for sites that might have problems with +your current actions and filters. You can in fact use it as a test to see +whether it is Privoxy causing the problem or not. Privoxy continues to run as a +proxy in this case, but all filtering is disabled. There is even a toggle +Bookmarklet offered, so that you can toggle Privoxy with one click from your +browser. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.2. Configuration Files Overview + +For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in /etc/privoxy/ +by default. For MS Windows, OS/2, and AmigaOS these are all in the same +directory as the Privoxy executable. The name and number of configuration files +has changed from previous versions, and is subject to change as development +progresses. + +The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though some +settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the principle +configuration files are: + + * The main configuration file is named config on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and + AmigaOS and config.txt on Windows. This is a required file. + + * default.action (the main actions file) is used to define the default + settings for various "actions" relating to images, banners, pop-ups, access + restrictions, banners and cookies. + + 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 are + probably best applied in user.action, which should be preserved across + upgrades. standard.action is also included. This is mostly for Privoxy's + internal use. + + There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from http:// + config.privoxy.org/show-status/ (Shortcut: http://p.p/show-status/) for the + various actions files. + + * default.filter (the filter file) can be used to re-write the raw page + content, including viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, + and whatever else lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only + pre-defined here; whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files. + +All files use the "#" character to denote a comment (the rest of the line will +be ignored) angd understand line continuation through placing a backslash ("\") +as the very last character in a line. If the # is preceded by a backslash, it +looses its special function. Placing a # in front of an otherwise valid +configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting +out" that line. + +The actions files and default.filter can use Perl style regular expressions for +maximum flexibility. + +After making any changes, there is no need to restart Privoxy in order for the +changes to take effect. Privoxy detects such changes automatically. Note, +however, that it may take one or two additional requests for the change to take +effect. When changing the listening address of Privoxy, these "wake up" +requests must obviously be sent to the old listening address. + +While under development, the configuration content is subject to change. The +below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this. Also, what +constitutes a "default" setting, may change, so please check all your +configuration files on important issues. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3. The Main Configuration File + +Again, the main configuration file is named config on Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, +and config.txt on Windows. Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword +followed by a list of values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces +or tabs). For example: + + confdir /etc/privoxy -2.4. OS/2 - The OS/2 version of Junkbuster requires the EMX runtime library to be - installed. The EMX runtime library is available on the hobbes OS/2 - archive, among many other locations: - [27]http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?sh=1&button=Search&key=emx - rt.zip&stype=all&sort=type&dir=%2Fpub%2Fos2%2Fdev%2Femx%2Fv0.9d +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). + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.1. Configuration and Log File Locations + +Privoxy can (and normally does) use a number of other files for additional +configuration and logging. This section of the configuration file tells Privoxy +where to find those other files. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.1.1. confdir + +Specifies: - Junkbuster is packaged in a WarpIN self- installing archive. The - self-installing program will be named depending on the release - version, something like: ijbos123.exe. In order to install it, simply - run this executable or double-click on its icon and follow the WarpIN - installation panels. A shadow of the Junkbuster executable will be - placed in your startup folder so it will start automatically whenever - OS/2 starts. + The directory where the other configuration files are located - The directory you choose to install Junkbuster into will contain all - of the configuration files. +Type of value: - If you would like to build binary images on OS/2 yourself, you will - need a working EMX/GCC environment, plus several Unix-like tools. The - Hobbes OS/2 archive is a good place to start when building such an - environment. A set of Unix-like tools named gnupack is located here: - [28]http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?sh=1&key=gnupack&stype=all - &sort=type&dir=%2Fpub%2Fos2%2Fapps + Path name - Once you have the source code unpacked as above, you can build the - binaries from the current/ directory: +Default value: - autoconf - sh configure - make - _________________________________________________________________ + /etc/privoxy (Unix) or Privoxy installation dir (Windows) -2.5. Windows - - Click-click. (I need help on this. Not a clue here. Also for - configuration section below. HB.) - _________________________________________________________________ +Effect if unset: + + Mandatory -2.6. Other +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). + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.1.2. logdir - Some quick notes on other Operating Systems. +Specifies: + + The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where logfile and jarfile + are located) + +Type of value: + + Path name + +Default value: - For FreeBSD (and other *BSDs?), the build will need gmake instead of - the included make. gmake is available from [29]http://www.gnu.org. The - rest should be the same as above for Linux/Unix. - _________________________________________________________________ + /var/log/privoxy (Unix) or Privoxy installation dir (Windows) -3. Junkbuster Configuration +Effect if unset: + + Mandatory + +Notes: + + No trailing "/", please + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuraton files are located in - /etc/junkbuster/ by default. For MS Windows and OS/2, these are all in - the same directory as the Junkbuster executable. The name and number - of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is - subject to change as development progresses. +7.3.1.3. actionsfile + +Specifies: - The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point. For the - time being, there are only three default configuration files (this - will change in time): + The actions file(s) to use - * The main configuration file is named config on Linux, Unix, BSD, - and OS/2, and junkbustr.txt on Windows. On Amiga, it is - AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/config. - * The actionsfile file is used to define various "actions" relating - to images, banners, pop-ups, access restrictions, banners and - cookies. There is a CGI based editor for this file that can be - accessed via [30]http://i.j.b./. This is the easiest method of - configuring actions. (Still under active development.) - * The re_filterfile file can be used to rewrite the raw page - content, including text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript. - - actionsfile and re_filterfile can use Perl style regular expressions - for maximum flexibility. All files use the "#" character to denote a - comment. Such lines are not processed by Junkbuster. After making any - changes, restart Junkbuster in order for the changes to take effect. +Type of value: + + File name, relative to confdir + +Default value: - While under development, the configuration content is subject to - change. The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you - read this. Also, what constitutes a "default" setting, may change, so - please check all your configuration files on important issues. - _________________________________________________________________ + standard # Internal purposes, recommended not editing + + default # Main actions file + + user # User customizations -3.1. The Main Configuration File +Effect if unset: + + No actions are taken at all. Simple neutral proxying. + +Notes: + + Multiple actionsfile lines are OK 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. + + There is no point in using Privoxy without an actions file. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Again, the main configuration file is named config on Linux/Unix/BSD - and OS/2, and junkbustr.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: +7.3.1.4. filterfile + +Specifies: + + The filter file to use - blockfile blocklist.ini +Type of value: - Indicates that the blockfile is named "blocklist.ini". + File name, relative to confdir - A "#" indicates a comment. Any part of a line following a "#" is - ignored, except if the "#" is preceded by a "\". +Default value: - Thus, by placing a "#" at the start of an existing configuration line, - you can make it a comment and it will be treated as if it weren't - there. This is called "commenting out" an option and can be useful to - turn off features: If you comment out the "logfile" line, junkbuster - will not log to a file at all. Watch for the "default:" section in - each explanation to see what happens if the option is left unset (or - commented out). + default.filter (Unix) or default.filter.txt (Windows) - Long lines can be continued on the next line by using a "\" as the - very last character. +Effect if unset: - There are various aspects of Junkbuster behavior that can be tuned. - _________________________________________________________________ + No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all +filter{name} actions in + the actions files are turned off -3.1.1. Defining Other Configuration Files +Notes: + + 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. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Junkbuster can use a number of other files to tell it what ads to - block, what cookies to accept, etc. This section of the configuration - file tells Junkbuster where to find all those other files. +7.3.1.5. logfile + +Specifies: + + The log file to use - On Windows, Junkbuster looks for these files in the same directory as - the executable. On Unix and OS/2, Junkbuster looks for these files in - the current working directory. In either case, an absolute path name - can be used to avoid problems. +Type of value: - When development goes modular and multiuser, the blocker, filter, and - per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of "confdir". For - now, only confdir/templates is used for storing HTML templates for CGI - results. + File name, relative to logdir - The location of the configuration files: +Default value: - confdir /etc/junkbuster # No trailing /, please. + logfile (Unix) or privoxy.log (Windows) - The directory where all logging (i.e. logfile and jarfile) takes - place. No trailing "/", please: +Effect if unset: - logdir /var/log/junkbuster + No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (stderr). - Note that all file specifications below are relative to the above two - directories! +Notes: - The "actionsfile" contains patterns to specify the actions to apply to - requests for each site. Default: Cookies to and from all destinations - are filtered. Popups are disabled for all sites. All sites are - filtered if re_filterfile specified. No sites are blocked. An empty - image is displayed for filtered ads and other images (formerly - "tinygif"). The syntax of this file is explained in detail [31]below. + The windows version will additionally log to the console. - actionsfile actionsfile + 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. - The "re_filterfile" file contains content modification rules. These - rules permit powerful changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you - could disable your favourite JavaScript annoyances, rewrite the actual - content, or just have some fun replacing "Microsoft" with "MicroSuck" - wherever it appears on a Web page. Default: No content modification, - or whatever the developers are playing with :-/ + 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. - re_filterfile re_filterfile + 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. - The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The - logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with Junkbuster - (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you think it should block) but in most - cases you probably will never look at it. +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.1.6. jarfile + +Specifies: - Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to - periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron - job (see "man cron"). For Redhat, a logrotate script has been - included. + The file to store intercepted cookies in - On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like - "/var/log/junkbuster.* +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup" in /etc/logfiles, - with the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and - empty the log, when it exceeds 1M size. - - Default: Log to the a file named logfile. Comment out to disable - logging. - - logfile logfile +Type of value: - The "jarfile" defines where Junkbuster stores the cookies it - intercepts. Note that if you use a "jarfile", it may grow quite large. - Default: Don't store intercepted cookies. + File name, relative to logdir - #jarfile jarfile +Default value: - If you specify a "trustfile", Junkbuster will only allow access to - sites that are named in the trustfile. You can also mark sites as - trusted referrers, with the effect that access to untrusted sites will - be granted, if a link from a trusted referrer was used. The link - target will then be added to the "trustfile". This is a very - restrictive feature that typical users most propably want to leave - disabled. Default: Disabled, don't use the trust mechanism. + jarfile (Unix) or privoxy.jar (Windows) - #trustfile trust +Effect if unset: - If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some - online documentation about your blocking policy and to specify the - URL(s) here. They will appear on the page that your users receive when - they try to access untrusted content. Use multiple times for multiple - URLs. Default: Don't display links on the "untrusted" info page. + Intercepted cookies are not stored at all. - trust-info-url http://www.your-site.com/why_we_block.html - trust-info-url http://www.your-site.com/what_we_allow.html - _________________________________________________________________ +Notes: -3.1.2. Other Configuration Options + The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.1.7. trustfile - This part of the configuration file contains options that control how - Junkbuster operates. +Specifies: + + The trust file to use + +Type of value: + + File name, relative to confdir + +Default value: + + Unset (commented out). When activated: trust (Unix) or trust.txt (Windows) + +Effect if unset: + + The whole trust mechanism is turned off. + +Notes: - "Admin-address" should be set to the email address of the proxy - administrator. It is used in many of the proxy-generated pages. - Default: fill@me.in.please. + 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. - #admin-address fill@me.in.please - - "Proxy-info-url" can be set to a URL that contains more info about - this Junkbuster installation, it's configuration and policies. It is - used in many of the proxy-generated pages and its use is highly - recommended in multi-user installations, since your users will want to - know why certain content is blocked or modified. Default: Don't show a - link to online documentation. + 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. - proxy-info-url http://www.your-site.com/proxy.html - - "Listen-address" specifies the address and port where Junkbuster will - listen for connections from your Web browser. The default is to listen - on the localhost port 8000, and this is suitable for most users. (In - your web browser, under proxy configuration, list the proxy server as - "localhost" and the port as "8000"). - - If you already have another service running on port 8000, or if you - want to serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local - network) as well, you will need to override the default. The syntax is - "listen-address []:". If you leave out the IP - address, junkbuster will bind to all interfaces (addresses) on your - machine and may become reachable from the Internet. In that case, - consider using access control lists (acl's) (see "aclfile" above), or - a firewall. - - For example, suppose you are running Junkbuster on a machine which has - the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network (192.168.0.0) - and has another outside connection with a different address. You want - it to serve requests from inside only: - - listen-address 192.168.0.1:8000 - - If you want it to listen on all addresses (including the outside - connection): - - listen-address :8000 - - If you do this, consider using ACLs (see "aclfile" above). Note: you - will need to point your browser(s) to the address and port that you - have configured here. Default: localhost:8000 (127.0.0.1:8000). - - The debug option sets the level of debugging information to log in the - logfile (and to the console in the Windows version). A debug level of - 1 is informative because it will show you each request as it happens. - Higher levels of debug are probably only of interest to developers. - - debug 1 # GPC = show each GET/POST/CONNECT request - debug 2 # CONN = show each connection status - debug 4 # IO = show I/O status - debug 8 # HDR = show header parsing - debug 16 # LOG = log all data into the logfile - debug 32 # FRC = debug force feature - debug 64 # REF = debug regular expression filter - debug 128 # = debug fast redirects - debug 256 # = debug GIF deanimation - debug 512 # CLF = Common Log Format - debug 1024 # = debug kill popups - debug 4096 # INFO = Startup banner and warnings. - debug 8192 # ERROR = Non-fatal errors - - It is highly recommended that you enable ERROR reporting (debug 8192), - at least until the next stable release. + If you use + operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over + time. - The reporting of FATAL errors (i.e. ones which crash JunkBuster) is - always on and cannot be disabled. +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.2. Local Set-up Documentation + +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. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.2.1. trust-info-url + +Specifies: + + A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an + untrusted page is denied. - If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set "debug 512" - ONLY, do not enable anything else. +Type of value: - Multiple "debug" directives, are OK - they're logical-OR'd together. + URL - debug 15 # same as setting the first 4 listed above +Default value: - Default: + Two example URL are provided - debug 1 # URLs - debug 4096 # Info - debug 8192 # Errors - *we highly recommended enabling this* +Effect if unset: - Junkbuster normally uses "multi-threading", a software technique that - permits it to handle many different requests simultaneously. In some - cases you may wish to disable this -- particularly if you're trying to - debug a problem. The "single-threaded" option forces Junkbuster to - handle requests sequentially. Default: Multi-threaded mode. + No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page. - #single-threaded +Notes: - "toggle" allows you to temporarily disable all Junkbuster's filtering. - Just set "toggle 0". + The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism + has been activated. (See trustfile above.) - The Windows version of Junkbuster puts an icon in the system tray, - which also allows you to change this option. If you right-click on - that icon (or select the "Options" menu), one choice is "Enable". - Clicking on enable toggles Junkbuster on and off. This is useful if - you want to temporarily disable Junkbuster, e.g., to access a site - that requires cookies which you normally have blocked. This can also - be toggled via a web browser at the Junkbuster internal address of - [32]http://i.j.b./ on any platform. + If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line + documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here. Use + multiple times for multiple URLs. - "toggle 1" means Junkbuster runs normally, "toggle 0" means that - Junkbuster becomes a non-anonymizing non-blocking proxy. Default: 1 - (on). + The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up + locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first + place! - toggle 1 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.2.2. admin-address + +Specifies: - For content filtering, i.e. the "+filter" and "+deanimate-gif" - actions, it is neccessary that Junkbuster buffers the entire document - body. This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just - keep sending data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust. With - nasty consequences. + An email address to reach the proxy administrator. - The buffer-limit option lets you set the maximum size in Kbytes that - each buffer may use. When the documents buffer exceeds this size, it - is flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to filter - the rest of it is made. Remember that there may multiple threads - running, which might require increasing the "buffer-limit" Kbytes - each, unless you have enabled "single-threaded" above. +Type of value: - buffer-limit 4069 + Email address - To enable the web-based actionsfile editor set enable-edit-actions to - 1, or 0 to disable. Note that you must have compiled JunkBuster with - support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect. This - internal page can be reached at [33]http://i.j.b./. +Default value: - Security note: If this is enabled, anyone who can use the proxy can - edit the actions file, and their changes will affect all users. For - shared proxies, you probably want to disable this. Default: enabled. + Unset - enable-edit-actions 1 +Effect if unset: - Allow JunkBuster to be toggled on and off remotely, using your web - browser. Set "enable-remote-toggle"to 1 to enable, and 0 to disable. - Note that you must have compiled JunkBuster with support for this - feature, otherwise this option has no effect. + No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface. - Security note: If this is enabled, anyone who can use the proxy can - toggle it on or off (see [34]http://i.j.b./), and their changes will - affect all users. For shared proxies, you probably want to disable - this. Default: enabled. +Notes: - enable-remote-toggle 1 - _________________________________________________________________ + If both admin-address and proxy-info-url are unset, the whole "Local + Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will not be shown. -3.1.3. Access Control List (ACL) +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Access controls are included at the request of some ISPs and systems - administrators, and are not usually needed by individual users. Please - note the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a - substitute for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing - basic security weaknesses. +7.3.2.3. proxy-info-url + +Specifies: + + A URL to documentation about the local Privoxy setup, configuration or + policies. + +Type of value: + + URL - If no access settings are specified, the proxy talks to anyone that - connects. If any access settings file are specified, then the proxy - talks only to IP addresses permitted somewhere in this file and not - denied later in this file. +Default value: - Summary -- if using an ACL: + Unset - Client must have permission to receive service. +Effect if unset: - LAST match in ACL wins. + No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user + interface. - Default behavior is to deny service. +Notes: + + If both admin-address and proxy-info-url are unset, the whole "Local + Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will not be shown. + + This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-) + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.3. Debugging + +These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem. Note that you might +also want to invoke Privoxy with the --no-daemon command line option when +debugging. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.3.1. debug + +Specifies: - The syntax for an entry in the Access Control List is: + Key values that determine what information gets logged. - ACTION SRC_ADDR[/SRC_MASKLEN] [ DST_ADDR[/DST_MASKLEN] ] +Type of value: - Where the individual fields are: + Integer values - ACTION = "permit-access" or "deny-access" - SRC_ADDR = client hostname or dotted IP address - SRC_MASKLEN = number of bits in the subnet mask for the source - DST_ADDR = server or forwarder hostname or dotted IP address - DST_MASKLEN = number of bits in the subnet mask for the target +Default value: - The field separator (FS) is whitespace (space or tab). + 12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages) - IMPORTANT NOTE: If the junkbuster is using a forwarder (see below) or - a gateway for a particular destination URL, the DST_ADDR that is - examined is the address of the forwarder or the gateway and NOT the - address of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be - impossible for the local Junkbuster to determine the address of the - ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for). +Effect if unset: - Here are a few examples to show how the ACL features work: + Nothing gets logged. - "localhost" is OK -- no DST_ADDR implies that ALL destination - addresses are OK: +Notes: - permit-access localhost + The available debug levels are: - A silly example to illustrate permitting any host on the class-C - subnet with Junkbuster to go anywhere: + 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 - permit-access www.junkbusters.com/24 + To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use multiple + debug lines. - Except deny one particular IP address from using it at all: + 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). - deny-access ident.junkbusters.com + The reporting of fatal errors (i.e. ones which crash Privoxy) is always on + and cannot be disabled. - You can also specify an explicit network address and subnet mask. - Explicit addresses do not have to be resolved to be used. + If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set "debug 512" ONLY + and not enable anything else. - permit-access 207.153.200.0/24 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.3.2. single-threaded + +Specifies: - A subnet mask of 0 matches anything, so the next line permits - everyone. + Whether to run only one server thread - permit-access 0.0.0.0/0 +Type of value: - Note, you cannot say: + None - permit-access .org +Default value: - to allow all *.org domains. Every IP address listed must resolve - fully. + Unset - An ISP may want to provide a Junkbuster that is accessible by "the - world" and yet restrict use of some of their private content to hosts - on its internal network (i.e. its own subscribers). Say, for instance - the ISP owns the Class-B IP address block 123.124.0.0 (a 16 bit - netmask). This is how they could do it: +Effect if unset: - permit-access 0.0.0.0/0 0.0.0.0/0 # other clients can go anywhere - # with the following exceptions - : + Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability + to serve multiple requests simultaneously. - deny-access 0.0.0.0/0 123.124.0.0/16 # block all external request - s for - # sites on the ISP's network - permit 0.0.0.0/0 www.my_isp.com # except for the ISP's main - # web site - permit 123.124.0.0/16 0.0.0.0/0 # the ISP's clients can go - # anywhere +Notes: - Note that if some hostnames are listed with multiple IP addresses, the - primary value returned by DNS (via gethostbyname()) is used. Default: - Anyone can access the proxy. - _________________________________________________________________ + This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never need to + use it. It will drastically reduce performance. -3.1.4. Forwarding +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.4. Access Control and Security + +This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects of +Privoxy's configuration. - This feature allows chaining of HTTP requests via multiple proxies. It - can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when - accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains to a - special purpose filtering proxy such as lpwa.com. Or to use a caching - proxy to speed up browsing. +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.4.1. listen-address + +Specifies: + + The IP address and TCP port on which Privoxy will listen for client + requests. + +Type of value: + + [IP-Address]:Port + +Default value: + + localhost:8118 + +Effect if unset: - It can also be used in an environment with multiple networks to route - requests via multiple gateways allowing transparent access to multiple - networks without having to modify browser configurations. + Bind to localhost (127.0.0.1), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended + for home users who run Privoxy on the same machine as their browser. - Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. Junkbuster SOCKS 4 and SOCKS - 4A. The difference is that SOCKS 4A will resolve the target hostname - using DNS on the SOCKS server, not our local DNS client. +Notes: - The syntax of each line is: + You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port. - forward target_domain[:port] http_proxy_host[:port] - forward-socks4 target_domain[:port] socks_proxy_host[:port] - http_proxy_host[:port] - forward-socks4a target_domain[:port] socks_proxy_host[:port] - http_proxy_host[:port] + If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to + serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, + you will need to override the default. - If http_proxy_host is ".", then requests are not forwarded to a HTTP - proxy but are made directly to the web servers. + 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. - Lines are checked in sequence, and the last match wins. +Example: - There is an implicit line equivalent to the following, which specifies - that anything not finding a match on the list is to go out without - forwarding or gateway protocol, like so: + 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: - forward .* . # implicit + listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118 - In the following common configuration, everything goes to Lucent's - LPWA, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle): +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.4.2. toggle + +Specifies: + + Initial state of "toggle" status + +Type of value: - forward .* lpwa.com:8000 - forward :443 . + 1 or 0 - See the FAQ for instructions on how to automate the login procedure - for LPWA. Some users have reported difficulties related to LPWA's use - of "." as the last element of the domain, and have said that this can - be fixed with this: +Default value: - forward lpwa. lpwa.com:8000 + 1 - (NOTE: the syntax for specifiying target_domain has changed since the - previous paragraph was written -- it will not work now. More - information is welcome.) +Effect if unset: - In this fictitious example, everything goes via an ISP's caching - proxy, except requests to that ISP: + Act as if toggled on - forward .* caching.myisp.net:8000 - forward myisp.net . +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 + then via editing the conf file. + + The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray if + this option is present. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.4.3. enable-remote-toggle + +Specifies: - For the @home network, we're told the forwarding configuration is - this: + Whether or not the web-based toggle feature may be used - forward .* proxy:8080 +Type of value: - Also, we're told they insist on getting cookies and JavaScript, so you - need to add home.com to the cookie file. We consider JavaScript a - security risk. Java need not be enabled. + 0 or 1 - In this example direct connections are made to all "internal" domains, - but everything else goes through Lucent's LPWA by way of the company's - SOCKS gateway to the Internet. +Default value: - forward_socks4 .* lpwa.com:8000 firewall.my_company.com:1080 - forward my_company.com . + 1 - This is how you could set up a site that always uses SOCKS but no - forwarders: +Effect if unset: - forward_socks4a .* . firewall.my_company.com:1080 + The web-based toggle feature is disabled. - An advanced example for network administrators: +Notes: - If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special - content to their subscribers, you can configure forwarding to pass - requests to the specific host that's connected to that ISP so that - everybody can see all of the content on all of the ISPs. + When toggled off, Privoxy acts like a normal, content-neutral proxy, i.e. + it acts as if none of the actions applied to any URL. - This is a bit tricky, but here's an example: + For the time being, access to the toggle feature can not be controlled + separately by "ACLs" or HTTP authentication, so that everybody who can + access Privoxy (see "ACLs" and listen-address above) can toggle it for all + users. So this option is not recommended for multi-user environments with + untrusted users. - host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.com. And host-b has a PPP - connection to isp-b.com. host-a can run a Junkbuster proxy with - forwarding like this: + Note that you must have compiled Privoxy with support for this feature, + otherwise this option has no effect. - forward .* . - forward isp-b.com host-b:8000 +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.4.4. enable-edit-actions + +Specifies: - host-b can run a Junkbuster proxy with forwarding like this: + Whether or not the web-based actions file editor may be used - forward .* . - forward isp-a.com host-a:8000 +Type of value: - Now, anyone on the Internet (including users on host-a and host-b) can - set their browser's proxy to either host-a or host-b and be able to - browse the content on isp-a or isp-b. + 0 or 1 - Here's another practical example, for University of Kent at Canterbury - students with a network connection in their room, who need to use the - University's Squid web cache. +Default value: - forward *. ssbcache.ukc.ac.uk:3128 # Use the proxy, except for: - forward .ukc.ac.uk . # Anything on the same domain as us - forward * . # Host with no domain specified - forward 129.12.*.* . # A dotted IP on our /16 network. - forward 127.*.*.* . # Loopback address - forward localhost.localdomain . # Loopback address - forward www.ukc.mirror.ac.uk . # Specific host + 1 - If you intend to chain Junkbuster and squid locally, then chain as - browser -> squid -> junkbuster is the recommended way. +Effect if unset: - Your squid configuration could then look like this: + The web-based actions file editor is disabled. - # Define junkbuster as parent cache +Notes: - cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8000 0 no-query + 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. - # Define ACL for protocol FTP - acl FTP proto FTP - # Do not forward ACL FTP to junkbuster - always_direct allow FTP - # Do not forward ACL CONNECT (https) to junkbuster - always_direct allow CONNECT - # Forward the rest to junkbuster - never_direct allow all - _________________________________________________________________ + Note that you must have compiled Privoxy with support for this feature, + otherwise this option has no effect. -3.1.5. Windows GUI Options +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.4.5. ACLs: permit-access and deny-access - Junkbuster has a number of options specific to the Windows GUI - interface: +Specifies: - If "activity-animation" is set to 1, the Junkbuster icon will animate - when "Junkbuster" is active. To turn off, set to 0. + Who can access what. - activity-animation 1 +Type of value: - If "log-messages" is set to 1, Junkbuster will log messages to the - console window: + src_addr[/src_masklen] [dst_addr[/dst_masklen]] - log-messages 1 + 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. - 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). +Default value: - Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow - infinitely and eat up all your memory! + Unset - log-buffer-size 1 +Effect if unset: - log-max-lines is the maximum number of lines held in the log buffer. - See above. + Don't restrict access further than implied by listen-address - log-max-lines 200 +Notes: - If "log-highlight-messages" is set to 1, Junkbuster will highlight - portions of the log messages with a bold-faced font: + 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 or internal (home) network address by means of the + listen-address option. - log-highlight-messages 1 + 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. - The font used in the console window: + 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. - log-font-name Comic Sans MS + 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). - Font size used in the console window: + 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. - log-font-size 8 + 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. - "show-on-task-bar" controls whether or not Junkbuster will appear as a - button on the Task bar when minimized: +Examples: - show-on-task-bar 0 + 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: - If "close-button-minimizes" is set to 1, the Windows close button will - minimize Junkbuster instead of closing the program (close with the - exit option on the File menu). + permit-access localhost - close-button-minimizes 1 + Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to + nothing but www.example.com: - The "hide-console" option is specific to the MS-Win console version of - JunkBuster. If this option is used, Junkbuster will disconnect from - and hide the command console. + permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32 - #hide-console - _________________________________________________________________ + 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: -3.2. The Actions File + permit-access 192.168.45.64/26 + deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.4.6. buffer-limit - The "actionsfile" is used to define what actions Junkbuster takes, and - thus determines how images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP - content and transactions are handled. Images can be anything you want, - including ads, banners, or just some obnoxious image that you would - rather not see. Cookies can be accepted or rejected. The default file - is in fact named actionsfile. +Specifies: - To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request - is compared to all patterns in this file. Every time it matches, the - list of applicable actions for the URL is incrementally updated. You - can trace this process by visiting [35]http://i.j.b/show-url-info. + Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering. - The actions file can be edited with a browser by loading - [36]http://i.j.b, and then select "Edit Actions". +Type of value: - There are four types of lines in this file: comments (begin with a "#" - character), actions, aliases and patterns, all of which are explained - below, as well as the configuration file syntax that Junkbuster - understands. - _________________________________________________________________ + Size in Kbytes -3.2.1. URL Domain and Path Syntax - - Generally, a pattern has the form /, where both the - and part are optional. If you only specify a domain - part, the "/" can be left out: +Default value: + + 4096 - www.example.com - is a domain only pattern and will match any request - to "www.example.com". +Effect if unset: - www.example.com/ - means exactly the same. + Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit. - www.example.com/index.html - matches only the single document - "/index.html" on "www.example.com". +Notes: - /index.html - matches the document "/index.html", regardless of the - domain. + 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. - index.html - matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a - domain name and there is no top-level domain called ".html". + 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. - 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: +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.5. Forwarding + +This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of multiple +proxies. It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when +accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains through an +anonymous public proxy (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. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.5.1. forward + +Specifies: + + To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed. + +Type of value: - .example.com - matches any domain that ENDS in ".example.com". + target_domain[:port] http_parent[/port] - www. - matches any domain that STARTS with "www". + 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 - Additionally, there are wildcards that you can use in the domain names - themselves. They work pretty similar to shell wildcards: "*" stands - for zero or more arbitrary characters, "?" stands for any single - character. And you can define charachter classes in square brackets - and they can be freely mixed: +Default value: - ad*.example.com - matches "adserver.example.com", "ads.example.com", - etc but not "sfads.example.com". + Unset - *ad*.example.com - matches all of the above, and then some. +Effect if unset: - .?pix.com - matches "www.ipix.com", "pictures.epix.com", - "a.b.c.d.e.upix.com", etc. + Don't use parent HTTP proxies. - www[1-9a-ez].example.com - matches "www1.example.com", - "www4.example.com", "wwwd.example.com", "wwwz.example.com", etc., but - not "wwww.example.com". +Notes: - If Junkbuster was compiled with "pcre" support (default), Perl - compatible regular expressions can be used. See the pcre/docs/ - direcory or "man perlre" (also available on - [37]http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html) for details. A - brief discussion of regular expressions is in the [38]Appendix. For - instance: + If http_parent is ".", then requests are not forwarded to another HTTP + proxy but are made directly to the web servers. - /.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpe?g - would match a URL from any domain, with any - path that includes "advert" followed immediately by one or more - digits, then a "." and ending in either "jpeg" or "jpg". So we match - "example.com/ads/advert2.jpg", and - "www.example.com/ads/banners/advert39.jpeg", but not - "www.example.com/ads/banners/advert39.gif" (no gifs in the example - pattern). + Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match + wins. - Please note that matching in the path is case INSENSITIVE by default, - but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by - using the "(?-i)" switch: +Examples: - www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.* - will match only documents whose path - starts with "PaTtErN" in exactly this capitalization. - _________________________________________________________________ + Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 + (which it doesn't handle): -3.2.2. Actions + forward .* anon-proxy.example.org:8080 + forward :443 . + + Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests to + that ISP's sites: + + forward .*. caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000 + forward .example-isp.net . + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.5.2. forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a - Actions are enabled if preceded with a "+", and disabled if preceded - with a "-". Actions are invoked by enclosing the action name in curly - braces (e.g. {+some_action}), followed by a list of URLs to which the - action applies. There are three classes of actions: +Specifies: - * Boolean (e.g. "+/-block"): - {+name} # enable this action - {-name} # disable this action - - * Parameterized (e.g. "+/-hide-user-agent"): - {+name{param}} # enable action and set parameter to "param" - {-name} # disable action - - * Multi-value (e.g. "{+/-add-header{Name: value}}", - "{+/-wafer{name=value}}"): - {+name{param}} # enable action and add parameter "param" - {-name{param}} # remove the parameter "param" - {-name} # disable this action totally - - If nothing is specified in this file, no "actions" are taken. So in - this case JunkBuster would just be a normal, non-blocking, - non-anonymizing proxy. You must specifically enable the privacy and - blocking features you need (although the provided default actionsfile - file will give a good starting point). + Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific + requests should be routed. - Later defined actions always over-ride earlier ones. For multi-valued - actions, the actions are applied in the order they are specified. +Type of value: - The list of valid Junkbuster "actions" are: + target_domain[:port] socks_proxy[/port] http_parent[/port] - * Add the specified HTTP header, which is not checked for validity. - You may specify this many times to specify many different headers: - +add-header{Name: value} - - * Block this URL totally. - +block - - * De-animate all animated GIF images, i.e. reduce them to their last - frame. This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, - not pixels!). If the option "first" is given, the first frame of - the animation is used as the replacement. If "last" is given, the - last frame of the animation is used instead, which propably makes - more sense for most banner animations, but also has the risk of - not showing the entire last frame (if it is only a delta to an - earlier frame). - +deanimate-gifs{last} - +deanimate-gifs{first} - - * "+downgrade" will downgrade HTTP/1.1 client requests to HTTP/1.0 - and downgrade the responses as well. Use this action for servers - that use HTTP/1.1 protocol features that Junkbuster doesn't handle - well yet. HTTP/1.1 is only partially implemented. Default is not - to downgrade requests. - +downgrade - - * Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. - Instead, they will link to some script on their own server, giving - the destination as a parameter, which will then redirect you to - the final target. URLs resulting from this scheme typically look - like: http://some.place/some_script?http://some.where-else. - Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded - in the URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browing - more traceable, since the server from which you follow such a link - can see where you go to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and - time is wasted, while your browser ask the server for one redirect - after the other. Plus, it feeds the advertisers. - The "+fast-redirects" option enables interception of these - requests by Junkbuster, who will cut off all but the last valid - URL in the request and send a local redirect back to your browser - without contacting the remote site. - +fast-redirects - - * Filter the website through the re_filterfile: - +filter{filename} - - * Block any existing X-Forwarded-for header, and do not add a new - one: - +hide-forwarded - - * If the browser sends a "From:" header containing your e-mail - address, this either completely removes the header ("block"), or - changes it to the specified e-mail address. - +hide-from{block} - +hide-from{spam@sittingduck.xqq} - - * Don't send the "Referer:" (sic) header to the web site. You can - block it, forge a URL to the same server as the request (which is - preferred because some sites will not send images otherwise) or - set it to a constant string of your choice. - +hide-referer{block} - +hide-referer{forge} - +hide-referer{http://nowhere.com} - - * Alternative spelling of "+hide-referer". It has the same - parameters, and can be freely mixed with, "+hide-referer". - ("referrer" is the correct English spelling, however the HTTP - specification has a bug - it requires it to be spelled "referer".) - +hide-referrer{...} - - * Change the "User-Agent:" header so web servers can't tell your - browser type. Warning! This breaks many web sites. Specify the - user-agent value you want. Example, pretend to be using Netscape - on Linux: - +hide-user-agent{Mozilla (X11; I; Linux 2.0.32 i586)} - - * Treat this URL as an image. This only matters if it's also - "+block"ed, in which case a "blocked" image can be sent rather - than a HTML page. See "+image-blocker{}" below for the control - over what is actually sent. - +image - - * Decides what to do with URLs that end up tagged with "{+block - +image}". There are 4 options. "-image-blocker" will send a HTML - "blocked" page, usually resulting in a "broken image" icon. - "+image-blocker{logo}" will send a "JunkBuster" image. - "+image-blocker{blank}" will send a 1x1 transparent GIF image. And - finally, "+image-blocker{http://xyz.com}" will send a HTTP - temporary redirect to the specified image. This has the advantage - of the icon being being cached by the browser, which will speed up - the display. - +image-blocker{logo} - +image-blocker{blank} - +image-blocker{http://i.j.b/send-banner} + 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 + +Default value: + + Unset + +Effect if unset: + + Don't use SOCKS proxies. + +Notes: + + Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match + wins. + + The difference between forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a is that in the + SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the + SOCKS server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally. + + If http_parent is ".", then requests are not forwarded to another HTTP + proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through + a SOCKS proxy. + +Examples: + + From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all "internal" + domains, but everything outbound goes through their ISP's proxy by way of + example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to the Internet. + + forward-socks4a .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080 + forward .example.com . + + A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent + looks like this: + + forward-socks4 .*. socks-gw.example.com:1080 . + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.5.3. Advanced Forwarding Examples + +If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content only to +their subscribers, you can configure multiple Privoxies which have connections +to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that your users +can see the internal content of all ISPs. + +Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP +connection to isp-b.net. Both run Privoxy. Their forwarding configuration can +look like this: + +host-a: + + forward .*. . + forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118 + +host-b: + + forward .*. . + forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118 + +Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either host-a or host-b +and be able to browse the internal content of both isp-a and isp-b. + +If you intend to chain Privoxy and squid locally, then chain as browser -> +squid -> privoxy is the recommended way. + +Assuming that Privoxy and squid run on the same box, your squid configuration +could then look like this: + + # Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP) + cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query + + # Define ACL for protocol FTP + acl ftp proto FTP + + # Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy + always_direct allow ftp + + # Forward all the rest to Privoxy + never_direct allow all + +You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to squid's address +and port. Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult http_port in +squid.conf. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.3.6. Windows GUI Options + +Privoxy has a number of options specific to the Windows GUI interface: + +If "activity-animation" is set to 1, the Privoxy icon will animate when +"Privoxy" is active. To turn off, set to 0. + + activity-animation 1 + + +If "log-messages" is set to 1, Privoxy will log messages to the console window: + + log-messages 1 + + +If "log-buffer-size" is set to 1, the size of the log buffer, i.e. the amount +of memory used for the log messages displayed in the console window, will be +limited to "log-max-lines" (see below). + +Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and eat +up all your memory! + + log-buffer-size 1 + + +log-max-lines is the maximum number of lines held in the log buffer. See above. + + log-max-lines 200 + + +If "log-highlight-messages" is set to 1, Privoxy will highlight portions of the +log messages with a bold-faced font: + + log-highlight-messages 1 + + +The font used in the console window: + + log-font-name Comic Sans MS + + +Font size used in the console window: + + log-font-size 8 + + +"show-on-task-bar" controls whether or not Privoxy will appear as a button on +the Task bar when minimized: + + show-on-task-bar 0 + + +If "close-button-minimizes" is set to 1, the Windows close button will minimize +Privoxy instead of closing the program (close with the exit option on the File +menu). + + close-button-minimizes 1 + + +The "hide-console" option is specific to the MS-Win console version of Privoxy. +If this option is used, Privoxy will disconnect from and hide the command +console. + + #hide-console + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4. 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 three such files included with Privoxy, with slightly +different purposes. default.action sets the default policies. standard.action +is used by Privoxy and the web based editor to set pre-defined values (and +normally should not be edited). Local exceptions are best done in user.action. +The content of these can all be viewed and edited from http:// +config.privoxy.org/show-status. + +Anything you want can be blocked, including ads, banners, or just some +obnoxious URL that you would rather not see is done here. Cookies can be +accepted or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. +not written to disk), content can be modified, JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking +fooled, and much more. See below for a complete list of available actions. + +An actions file typically has sections. Near the top, "aliases" are optionally +defined (discussed below), then the default set of rules which will apply +universally to all sites and pages. And then below that, exceptions to the +defined universal policies. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.1. Finding the Right Mix + +Note that some actions like cookie suppression or script disabling may render +some sites unusable, which rely on these techniques to work properly. Finding +the right mix of actions is not easy and certainly a matter of personal taste. +In general, it can be said that the more "aggressive" your default settings (in +the top section of the actions file) are, the more exceptions for "trusted" +sites you will have to make later. If, for example, you want to 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 +:). + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.2. How to Edit + +The easiest way to edit the "actions" files is with a browser by using our +browser-based editor, which can be reached from http://config.privoxy.org/ +show-status. + +If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit +the the actions files. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.3. How Actions are Applied to URLs + +Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections, like the " +alias" sections which will be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on +regular sections: They have a heading line (often split up to multiple lines +for readability) which consist of a list of actions, separated by whitespace +and enclosed in curly braces. Below that, there is a list of URL patterns, each +on a separate line. + +To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is +compared to all patterns in this 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" and "+block" +actions). + +You can trace this process by visiting http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info. + +More detail on this is provided in the Appendix, Anatomy of an Action. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.4. Patterns + +Generally, a pattern has the form /, where both the and + are optional. (This is why the pattern / matches all URLs). + +www.example.com/ + + is a domain-only pattern and will match any request to www.example.com, + regardless of which document on that server is requested. + +www.example.com + + means exactly the same. For domain-only patterns, the trailing / may be + omitted. + +www.example.com/index.html + + matches only the single document /index.html on www.example.com. + +/index.html + + matches the document /index.html, regardless of the domain, i.e. on any web + server. + +index.html + + matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and there + is no top-level domain called .html. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.4.1. The Domain Pattern + +The matching of the domain part offers some flexible options: if the domain +starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end. For example: + +.example.com + + matches any domain that ENDS in .example.com + +www. + + matches any domain that STARTS with www. + +.example. + + matches any domain that CONTAINS .example. (Correctly speaking: It matches + any FQDN that contains example as a domain.) + +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 + + matches "adserver.example.com", "ads.example.com", etc but not + "sfads.example.com" + +*ad*.example.com + + matches all of the above, and then some. + +.?pix.com + + matches www.ipix.com, pictures.epix.com, a.b.c.d.e.upix.com etc. + +www[1-9a-ez].example.c* + + matches www1.example.com, www4.example.cc, wwwd.example.cy, + wwwz.example.com etc., but not wwww.example.com. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.4.2. The Path Pattern + +Privoxy uses Perl compatible regular expressions (through the PCRE library) for +matching the path. + +There is an Appendix with a brief quick-start into regular expressions, and +full (very technical) documentation on PCRE regex syntax is available on-line +at http://www.pcre.org/man.txt. You might also find the Perl man page on +regular expressions (man perlre) useful, which is available on-line at http:// +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. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5. Actions + +All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled +somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a "+", and +turned off if preceded with a "-". So a "+action" means "do that action", e.g. +"+block" means please "block the following URL patterns". + +Actions are invoked by enclosing the action name in curly braces (e.g. +{+some_action}), followed by a list of URLs (or patterns that match URLs) to +which the action applies. There are three classes of actions: + + * Boolean, i.e the action can only be "on" or "off". Examples: + + {+name} # enable this action + {-name} # disable this action + + + * Parameterized, e.g. "+/-hide-user-agent{ Mozilla 1.0 }", where some value + is required in order to enable this type of action. Examples: + + {+name{param}} # enable action and set parameter to "param" + {-name} # disable action ("parameter") can be omitted + + + * Multi-value, e.g. "{+/-add-header{Name: value}}" or "{+/-send-wafer{name= + value}}"), where some value needs to be defined in addition to simply + enabling the action. Examples: + + {+name{param=value}} # enable action and set "param" to "value" + {-name{param=value}} # remove the parameter "param" completely + {-name} # disable this action totally and remove param too + + +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 action! + +The list of valid Privoxy "actions" are: + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.1. +add-header + +Type: + + Multi-value. + +Typical uses: + + Send a user defined HTTP header to the web server. + +Possible values: + + Any value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked. + +Example usage: + + {+add-header{X-User-Tracking: sucks}} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple + headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what + "HTTP headers" are, you definitely don't need to worry about this one. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.2. +block + +Type: + + Boolean. + +Typical uses: + + Used to block a URL from reaching your browser. The URL may be anything, + but is typically used to block ads or other obnoxious content. + +Possible values: + + N/A + +Example usage: + + {+block} + .banners.example.com + .ads.r.us + + +Notes: + + If a URL matches one of the blocked patterns, Privoxy will intercept the + URL and display its special "BLOCKED" page instead. If there is sufficient + space, a large red banner will appear with a friendly message about why the + page was blocked, and a way to go there anyway. If there is insufficient + space a smaller "BLOCKED" page will appear without the red banner. Click + here to view the default blocked HTML page (Privoxy must be running for + this to work as intended!). + + A very important exception is if the URL matches both "+block" and + "+handle-as-image", then it will be handled by "+set-image-blocker" (see + below). It is important to understand this process, in order to understand + how Privoxy is able to deal with ads and other objectionable content. + + The "+filter" action can also perform some of the same functionality as + "+block", but by virtue of very different programming techniques, and is + most often used for different reasons. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.3. +deanimate-gifs + +Type: + + Parameterized. + +Typical uses: + + To stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images. + +Possible values: + + "last" or "first" + +Example usage: + + {+deanimate-gifs{last}} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + De-animate all animated GIF images, i.e. reduce them to their last frame. + This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If + the option "first" is given, the first frame of the animation is used as + the replacement. If "last" is given, the last frame of the animation is + used instead, which probably makes more sense for most banner animations, + but also has the risk of not showing the entire last frame (if it is only a + delta to an earlier frame). + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.4. +downgrade-http-version + +Type: + + Boolean. + +Typical uses: + + "+downgrade-http-version" will downgrade HTTP/1.1 client requests to HTTP/ + 1.0 and downgrade the responses as well. + +Possible values: + + N/A + +Example usage: + + {+downgrade-http-version} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + Use this action for servers that use HTTP/1.1 protocol features that + Privoxy doesn't handle well yet. HTTP/1.1 is only partially implemented. + Default is not to downgrade requests. This is an infrequently needed + action, and is used to help with rare problem sites only. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.5. +fast-redirects + +Type: + + Boolean. + +Typical uses: + + The "+fast-redirects" action enables interception of "redirect" requests + from one server to another, which are used to track users.Privoxy can cut + off all but the last valid URL in a redirect request and send a local + redirect back to your browser without contacting the intermediate site(s). + +Possible values: + + N/A + +Example usage: + + {+fast-redirects} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they + will link to some script on their own server, giving the destination as a + parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs resulting + from this scheme typically look like: http://some.place/some_script?http:// + some.where-else. + + Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the + URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable, + since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go to. + Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your browser + ask the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds the + advertisers. + + This is a normally "on" feature, and often requires exceptions for sites + that are sensitive to defeating this mechanism. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.6. +filter + +Type: + + Parameterized. + +Typical uses: + + Apply page filtering as defined by named sections of the default.filter + file to the specified site(s). "Filtering" can be any modification of the + raw page content, including re-writing or deletion of content. + +Possible values: + + "+filter" must include the name of one of the section identifiers from + default.filter (or whatever filterfile is specified in config). + +Example usage (from the current default.filter): + + +filter{html-annoyances}: Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse. + + +filter{js-annoyances}: Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse + + +filter{content-cookies}: Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content + + +filter{popups}: Kill all popups in JS and HTML + + +filter{frameset-borders}: Give frames a border and make them resizable + + +filter{webbugs}: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user + tracking) + + +filter{refresh-tags}: Kill automatic refresh tags (for dial-on-demand + setups) + + +filter{fun}: Text replacements for subversive browsing fun! + + +filter{nimda}: Remove Nimda (virus) code. + + +filter{banners-by-size}: Kill banners by size (very efficient!) + + +filter{shockwave-flash}: Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects + + +filter{crude-parental}: Kill all web pages that contain the words "sex" or + "warez" + +Notes: + + This is potentially a very powerful feature! And requires a knowledge of + regular expressions if you want to "roll your own". Filtering operates on a + line by line basis throughout the entire page. + + 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. + + Filtering can achieve some of the effects as the "+block" action, i.e. it + can be used to block ads and banners. In the overall scheme of things, + filtering is one of the first things "Privoxy" does with a web page. So + other most other actions are applied to the already "filtered" page. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.7. +hide-forwarded-for-headers + +Type: + + Boolean. + +Typical uses: + + Block any existing X-Forwarded-for HTTP header, and do not add a new one. + +Possible values: + + N/A + +Example usage: + + {+hide-forwarded-for-headers} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + It is fairly safe to leave this on. It does not seem to break many sites. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.8. +hide-from-header + +Type: + + Parameterized. + +Typical uses: + + To block the browser from sending your email address in a "From:" header. + +Possible values: + + Keyword: "block", or any user defined value. + +Example usage: + + {+hide-from-header{block}} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + The keyword "block" will completely remove the header (not to be confused + with the "+block" action). Alternately, you can specify any value you + prefer to send to the web server. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.9. +hide-referer + +Type: + + Parameterized. + +Typical uses: + + Don't send the "Referer:" (sic) HTTP header to the web site. Or, + alternately send a forged header instead. + +Possible values: + + Prevent the header from being sent with the keyword, "block". Or, "forge" a + URL to one from the same server as the request. Or, set to user defined + value of your choice. + +Example usage: + + {+hide-referer{forge}} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + "forge" is the preferred option here, since some servers will not send + images back otherwise. + + "+hide-referrer" is an alternate spelling of "+hide-referer". It has the + exact same parameters, and can be freely mixed with, "+hide-referer". + ("referrer" is the correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification + has a bug - it requires it to be spelled as "referer".) + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.10. +hide-user-agent + +Type: + + Parameterized. + +Typical uses: + + To change the "User-Agent:" header so web servers can't tell your browser + type. Who's business is it anyway? + +Possible values: + + Any user defined string. + +Example usage: + + {+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}} + .msn.com + + +Notes: + + Warning! This breaks many web sites that depend on this in order to + determine how the target browser will respond to various requests. Use with + caution. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.11. +handle-as-image + +Type: + + Boolean. + +Typical uses: + + To define what Privoxy should treat automatically as an image, and is an + important ingredient of how ads are handled. + +Possible values: + + N/A + +Example usage: + + {+handle-as-image} + /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico) + + +Notes: + + This only has meaning if the URL (or pattern) also is "+block"ed, in which + case a user definable image can be sent rather than a HTML page. This is + integral to the whole concept of ad blocking: the URL must match both a + "+block" rule, and "+handle-as-image". (See "+set-image-blocker" below for + control over what will actually be displayed by the browser.) + + There is little reason to change the default definition for this action. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.12. +set-image-blocker + +Type: + + Parameterized. + +Typical uses: + + Decide what to do with URLs that end up tagged with both "+block" and + "+handle-as-image", e.g an advertisement. + +Possible values: + + There are four available options: "-set-image-blocker" will send a HTML + "blocked" page, usually resulting in a "broken image" icon. + "+set-image-blocker{blank}" will send a 1x1 transparent GIF image. + "+set-image-blocker{pattern}" will send a checkerboard type pattern (the + default). And finally, "+set-image-blocker{http://xyz.com}" will send a + HTTP temporary redirect to the specified image. This has the advantage of + the icon being being cached by the browser, which will speed up the + display. + +Example usage: + + {+set-image-blocker{blank}} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + If you want invisible ads, they need to meet criteria as matching both + images and blocked actions. And then, "image-blocker" should be set to + "blank" for invisibility. Note you cannot treat HTML pages as images in + most cases. For instance, frames require an HTML page to display. So a + frame that is an ad, typically cannot be treated as an image. Forcing an + "image" in this situation just will not work reliably. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.13. +limit-connect + +Type: + + Parameterized. + +Typical uses: + + By default, Privoxy only allows HTTP CONNECT requests to port 443 (the + standard, secure HTTPS port). Use "+limit-connect" to disable this + altogether, or to allow more ports. + +Possible values: + + Any valid port number, or port number range. + +Example usages: + + +limit-connect{443} # + This is the default and need not be specified. + +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK. + +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # + Port less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK. + + +Notes: + + The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites + (https:// URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: the proxy connects + to the server on the specified port, and then short-circuits its + connections to the client and to the remote proxy. This can be a big + security hole, since CONNECT-enabled proxies can be abused as TCP relays + very easily. + + If you want to allow CONNECT for more ports than this, or want to forbid + CONNECT altogether, you can specify a comma separated list of ports and + port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum defaulting to 0 and + max to 65K). + + If you don't know what any of this means, there probably is no reason to + change this one. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.14. +prevent-compression + +Type: + + Boolean. + +Typical uses: + + Prevent the specified websites from compressing HTTP data. + +Possible values: + + N/A + +Example usage: + + {+prevent-compression} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + Some websites do this, which can be a problem for Privoxy, since "+filter", + "+kill-popups" and "+gif-deanimate" will not work on compressed data. This + will slow down connections to those websites, though. Default typically is + to turn "prevent-compression" on. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.15. +session-cookies-only + +Type: + + Boolean. + +Typical uses: + + Allow cookies for the current browser session only. + +Possible values: + + N/A + +Example usage (disabling): + + {-session-cookies-only} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + 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. + + "+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. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.16. +prevent-reading-cookies + +Type: + + Boolean. + +Typical uses: + + Explicitly prevent the web server from reading any cookies on your system. + +Possible values: + + N/A + +Example usage: + + {+prevent-reading-cookies} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + Often used in conjunction with "+prevent-setting-cookies" to disable + cookies completely. Note that "+session-cookies-only" requires these to + both be disabled (or else it never gets any cookies to cache). + + 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. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.17. +prevent-setting-cookies + +Type: + + Boolean. + +Typical uses: + + Explicitly block the web server from storing cookies on your system. + +Possible values: + + N/A + +Example usage: + + {+prevent-setting-cookies} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + Often used in conjunction with "+prevent-reading-cookies" to disable + cookies completely (see above). + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.18. +kill-popups + +Type: + + Boolean. + +Typical uses: + + Stop those annoying JavaScript pop-up windows! + +Possible values: + + N/A + +Example usage: + + {+kill-popups} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + "+kill-popups" uses a built in filter to disable pop-ups that use the + window.open() function, etc. This is one of the first actions processed by + Privoxy as it contacts the remote web server. This action is not always + 100% reliable, and is supplemented by "+filter{popups}". + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.19. +send-vanilla-wafer + +Type: + + Boolean. + +Typical uses: + + 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. + +Possible values: + + N/A + +Example usage: + + {+send-vanilla-wafer} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + 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. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.20. +send-wafer + +Type: + + Multi-value. + +Typical uses: + + This allows you to send an arbitrary, user definable cookie. + +Possible values: + + User specified cookie name and corresponding value. + +Example usage: + + {+send-wafer{name=value}} + .example.com + + +Notes: + + This can be specified multiple times in order to add as many cookies as you + like. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.5.21. Actions Examples + +Note that the meaning of any of the above examples 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 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. + +Below is a liberally commented default.action file to demonstrate the pieces +all come together. And to show how exceptions to the default policies can be +handled. This is followed by a user.action with similar examples. + + +########################################################################## +# Aliases must be defined *before* they are used. These are +# easier to remember, and combine several actions into one: +########################################################################## + +# Some useful aliases. + +prevent-cookies = +prevent-setting-cookies +prevent-reading-cookies + -prevent-cookies = -prevent-setting-cookies -prevent-reading-cookies + +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 -prevent-keeping-cookies + + +########################################################################## +# Begin default action settings. Anything in this section will match +# all URLs -- UNLESS we have exceptions 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. +########################################################################## + { \ + -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 URLs patterns. + +########################################################################## +# Default behavior is now set. Time for some exceptions to our +# default actions. +########################################################################## + +# These sites are very complex and require very minimal interference. +# We'll disable most actions with our 'fragile' alias. + {fragile} + .office.microsoft.com + .windowsupdate.microsoft.com + + +# Shopping sites - not as fragile. We still want to block ads. + {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 -no-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} + www.ukc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wac\.cgi\? + 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 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" + {+imageblock} + ar.atwola.com + .ad.doubleclick.net + .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$ + .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$ + bs*.gsanet.com + bs*.einets.com + .qkimg.net + ad.*.doubleclick.net + + +# These will just simply be blocked. They will generate the BLOCKED +# banner page, if matched. Heavy use of wildcards and regular +# expressions in this example. + {+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 catch some sites we DO NOT want +# blocked via wildcards and regular expressions. Now set exceptions +# to the exceptions so the good guys get better treatment. + {-block} + advogato.org + adsl. + ad[ud]*. + advice. +# Let's just trust universities + .edu + www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv +# We'll need to access to path names containing 'download' + .*downloads. + /downloads/ +# 'adv' is for globalintersec 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. + {-filter} + .sourceforge.net + + + +Some examples: + +Turn off cookies by default, then allow a few through for specified sites +(showing an excerpt from the "default" section of an actions file ONLY): + + # Excerpt only: + # Allow cookies to and from the server, but + # for this browser session ONLY + { + # other actions normally listed here... + -prevent-setting-cookies \ + -prevent-reading-cookies \ + +session-cookies-only \ + } + / # match all URLs + + # Exceptions to the above, sites that benefit from persistent cookies + # that are saved from one browser session to the next. + { -session-cookies-only } + .javasoft.com + .sun.com + .yahoo.com + .msdn.microsoft.com + .redhat.com + + + +Now turn off "fast redirects", and then we allow two exceptions: + + # Turn them off (excerpt only)! + { + # other actions normally listed here... + +fast-redirects + } + / # match all URLs + + # Reverse it for these two sites, which don't work right without it. + {-fast-redirects} + www.ukc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wac\.cgi\? + login.yahoo.com + + +Turn on page filtering according to rules in the defined sections of +default.filter, and make one exception for Sourceforge: + + # Run everything through the filter file, using only certain + # specified sections: + { + # other actions normally listed here... + +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoyances} +filter{kill-popups}\ + +filter{webbugs} +filter{nimda} +filter{banners-by-size} + } + / #match all URLs + + # Then disable filtering of code from all sourceforge domains! + {-filter} + .sourceforge.net + + +Now some URLs that we want "blocked" (normally generates the "blocked" banner). +Typically, the "block" action is off by default in the upper section of an +actions file, then enabled against certain URLs and patterns in the lower part +of the file. Many of these use regular expressions that will expand to match +multiple URLs: + + # Blocklist: + {+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 + /.*/(ng)?adclient\.cgi + /.*/(plain|live|rotate)[-_.]?ads?/ + /.*/abanners/ + /autoads/ + + +Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to +misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways a site +designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header content, and other +criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard and fast rules for all +sites. See the Appendix for a brief example on troubleshooting actions. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.4.6. Aliases + +Custom "actions", known to Privoxy as "aliases", can be defined by combining +other "actions". These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in "actions". +Currently, an alias 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. + +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. + + +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): + + # These sites are very complex and require + # minimal interference. + {fragile} + .office.microsoft.com + .windowsupdate.microsoft.com + .nytimes.com + + # Shopping sites - but we still want to block ads. + {shop} + .quietpc.com + .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com + .scan.co.uk + + # These shops require pop-ups also + {shop -kill-popups} + .dabs.com + .overclockers.co.uk + + +The "shop" and "fragile" aliases are often used for "problem" sites that +require most actions to be disabled in order to function properly. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.5. The Filter File + +Any web page can be dynamically modified with the filter file. This +modification can be removal, or re-writing, of any web page content, including +tags and non-visible content. The default filter file is default.filter, +located in the config directory. + +This is potentially a very powerful feature, and requires knowledge of both +"regular expression" and HTML in order create custom filters. But, there are a +number of useful filters included with Privoxy for many common situations. + +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". + +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: + +Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by deleting +such references: + + 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 tag was a crime! + # + s*|**ig + + # Is this evil? + # + #s/framespacing="?(no|0)"?//ig + #s/margin(height|width)=[0-9]*//gi + + +Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of "Microsoft" with "MicroSuck", and +have a little fun with topical buzzwords: + + FILTER: fun + + s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig + + # Buzzword Bingo: + # + s/industry-leading|cutting-edge|award-winning/BINGO!/ig + + +Kill those pesky little web-bugs: + + # webbugs: Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking) + FILTER: webbugs + + s/]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1\D[^>]*?(width|height)\s*=\s*['"]?1 +(\D[^>]*?)?>//sig + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.5.1. The +filter Action + +Filters are enabled with the "+filter" action from within one of the actions +files. "+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, all actions +are off by default, unless they are explicity enabled in one of the actions +files. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +7.6. Templates + +When Privoxy displays one of its internal pages, such as a 404 Not Found error +page, it uses the appropriate template. On Linux, BSD, and Unix, these are +located in /etc/privoxy/templates by default. These may be customized, if +desired. cgi-style.css is used to control the HTML attributes (fonts, etc). + +The default "Blocked" banner page with the bright red top banner, is called +just "blocked". This may be customized or replaced with something else if +desired. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +8. Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests + +We value your feedback. However, to provide you with the best support, please +note the following sections. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +8.1. Get Support + +To get support, use the Sourceforge Support Forum: + + http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=211118 + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +8.2. Report bugs + +To submit bugs, use the Sourceforge Bug Forum: + + http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=111118. + + +Make sure that the bug has not already been submitted. Please try to verify +that it is a Privoxy bug, and not a browser or site bug first. If you are using +your own custom configuration, please try the stock configs to see if the +problem is a configuration related bug. And if not using the latest development +snapshot, please try the latest one. Or even better, CVS sources. Please be +sure to include the Privoxy version, platform, browser, any pertinent log data, +any other relevant details (please be specific) and, if possible, some way to +reproduce the bug. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +8.3. Request new features + +To submit ideas on new features, use the Sourceforge feature request forum: + + http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=361118&group_id=11118&func=browse. + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +8.4. Report ads or other filter problems + +You can also send feedback on websites that Privoxy has problems with. Please +bookmark the following link: "Privoxy - Submit Filter Feedback". Once you surf +to a page with problems, use the bookmark to send us feedback. We will look +into the issue as soon as possible. + +New, improved default.action files will occasionally be made available based on +your feedback. These will be announced on the ijbswa-announce list. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +8.5. Other + +For any other issues, feel free to use the mailing lists: + + http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=11118. + + +Anyone interested in actively participating in development and related +discussions can also join the appropriate mailing list. Archives are available, +too. See the page on Sourceforge. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +9. Copyright and History + +9.1. Copyright + +Privoxy is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the +terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software +Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later +version. + +This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY +WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details, which +is available from the Free Software Foundation, Inc, 59 Temple Place - Suite +330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. + +You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with +this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple +Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +9.2. History + +Privoxy is evolved, and derived from, the Internet Junkbuster, with many +improvments and enhancements over the original. + +Junkbuster was originally written by Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters +Corporation, and was released as free open-source software under the GNU GPL. +Stefan Waldherr made many improvements, and started the SourceForge project +Privoxy to rekindle development. There are now several active developers +contributing. The last stable release of Junkbuster was v2.0.2, which has now +grown whiskers ;-). + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +10. See Also + +Other references and sites of interest to Privoxy users: + +http://www.privoxy.org/, The Privoxy Home page. + +http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa, the Project Page for Privoxy on +Sourceforge. + +http://p.p/, access Privoxy from your browser. Alternately, http:// +config.privoxy.org may work in some situations where the first does not. + +http://p.p/, and select "actions file feedback system" to submit "misses" to +the developers. + +http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html + +http://www.waldherr.org/junkbuster/ + +http://privacy.net/analyze/ + +http://www.squid-cache.org/ + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +11. Appendix + +11.1. 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. + +If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what "regular +expressions" are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief +introduction only. A full explanation would require a book ;-) + +"Regular expressions" is a way of matching one character expression against +another to see if it matches or not. One of the "expressions" is a literal +string of readable characters (letter, numbers, etc), and the other is a +complex string of literal characters combined with wild-cards, and other +special characters, called meta-characters. The "meta-characters" have special +meanings and are used to build the complex pattern to be matched against. Perl +Compatible Regular Expressions is an enhanced form of the regular expression +language with backward compatibility. + +To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card +characters when listing files with the dir command in DOS. *.* matches all +filenames. The "special" character here is the asterisk which matches any and +all characters. We can be more specific and use ? to match just individual +characters. So "dir file?.text" would match "file1.txt", "file2.txt", etc. We +are pattern matching, using a similar technique to "regular expressions"! + +Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more +powerful. There are many more "special characters" and ways of building complex +patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones, and then some +examples: + +. - Matches any single character, e.g. "a", "A", "4", ":", or "@". + +? - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE times. Either/ +or. + ++ - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE times. + +* - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE times. + +\ - The "escape" character denotes that the following character should be taken +literally. This is used where one of the special characters (e.g. ".") needs to +be taken literally and not as a special meta-character. Example: "example +\.com", makes sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded +to its meta-character meaning of any single character). + +[] - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if any of the enclosed +characters are encountered. For instance, "[0-9]" matches any numeric digit +(zero through nine). As an example, we can combine this with "+" to match any +digit one of more times: "[0-9]+". + +() - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression, or multiple +sub-expressions. + +| - The "bar" character works like an "or" conditional statement. A match is +successful if the sub-expression on either side of "|" matches. As an example: +"/(this|that) example/" uses grouping and the bar character and would match +either "this example" or "that example", and nothing else. + +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 list. This is enough to get us +started with a few simple examples which may be more illuminating: + +/.*/banners/.* - A simple example that uses the common combination of "." and " +*" to denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at +all. So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression +pattern (".*") another literal forward slash, the string "banners", another +forward slash, and lastly another ".*". We are building a directory path here. +This will match any file with the path that has a directory named "banners" in +it. The ".*" matches any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward +slashes, so it might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this +could match: "/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif", or just "/ +banners/annoying.html", or almost an infinite number of other possible +combinations, just so it has "banners" in the path somewhere. + +A now something a little more complex: + +/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/ - We have several literal forward +slashes again ("/"), so we are building another expression that is a file path +statement. We have another ".*", so we are matching against any conceivable +sub-path, just so it matches our expression. The only true literal that must +match our pattern is adv, together with the forward slashes. What comes after +the "adv" string is the interesting part. + +Remember the "?" means the preceding expression (either a literal character or +anything grouped with "(...)" in this case) can exist or not, since this means +either zero or one match. So "((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))" is optional, as +are the individual sub-expressions: "(er)", "(ing|ements?)", and the "s". The " +|" means "or". We have two of those. For instance, "(ing|ements?)", can expand +to match either "ing" OR "ements?". What is being done here, is an attempt at +matching as many variations of "advertisement", and similar, as possible. So +this would expand to match just "adv", or "advert", or "adverts", or +"advertising", or "advertisement", or "advertisements". You get the idea. But +it would not match "advertizements" (with a "z"). We could fix that by changing +our regular expression to: "/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/", which +would then match either spelling. + +/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g) - Again another path statement with forward +slashes. Anything in the square brackets "[]" can be matched. This is using +"0-9" as a shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the +same as saying "0123456789". So any digit matches. The "+" means one or more of +the preceding expression must be included. The preceding expression here is +what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit one through nine. +Then, at the end, we have a grouping: "(gif|jpe?g)". This includes a "|", so +this needs to match the expression on either side of that bar character also. A +simple "gif" on one side, and the other side will in turn match either "jpeg" +or "jpg", since the "?" means the letter "e" is optional and can be matched +once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to match image GIF or +JPEG type image file. It must include the literal string "advert", then one or +more digits, and a "." (which is now a literal, and not a special character, +since it is escaped with "\"), and lastly either "gif", or "jpeg", or "jpg". +Some possible matches would include: "//advert1.jpg", "/nasty/ads/ +advert1234.gif", "/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg". It would not match +"advert1.gif" (no leading slash), or "/adverts232.jpg" (the expression does not +include an "s"), or "/advert1.jsp" ("jsp" is not in the expression anywhere). + +s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i - This is a substitution. "MicroSuck" will +replace any occurrence of "microsoft". The "i" at the end of the expression +means ignore case. The "(?!.com)" means the match should fail if "microsoft" is +followed by ".com". In other words, this acts like a "NOT" modifier. In case +this is a hyperlink, we don't want to break it ;-). + +We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you +can understand the default Privoxy configuration files, and maybe use this +knowledge to customize your own installation. There is much, much more that can +be done with regular expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you +can learn more on your own :/ + +More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions: http://www.perldoc.com/ +perl5.6/pod/perlre.html + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +11.2. Privoxy's Internal Pages + +Since Privoxy proxies each requested web page, it is easy for Privoxy to trap +certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to Privoxy, and see how +it is configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these rules and +other configuration options, and even turn Privoxy's filtering off, all with a +web browser. + +The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access to Privoxy. +Of course, Privoxy must be running to access these. If not, you will get a +friendly error message. Internet access is not necessary either. + + * Privoxy main page: + + http://config.privoxy.org/ - * By default (i.e. in the absence of a "+limit-connect" action), - Junkbuster will only allow CONNECT requests to port 443, which is - the standard port for https as a precaution. - The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure - websites (https:// URLs) through proxies. It works very simply: - the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then - short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote - proxy. This can be a big security hole, since CONNECT-enabled - proxies can be abused as TCP relays very easily. - If you want to allow CONNECT for more ports than this, or want to - forbid CONNECT altogether, you can specify a comma separated list - of ports and port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the - minimum defaulting to 0 and max to 65K): - +limit-connect{443} # This is the default and need no be - specified. - +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK. - +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Port less than 3, 7, 20 to - 100 - #and above 500 are OK. + Alternately, this may be reached at http://p.p/, but this variation may not + work as reliably as the above in some configurations. + + * Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and + editing of actions files: + + http://config.privoxy.org/show-status - * "+no-compression" prevents the website from compressing the data. - Some websites do this, which can be a problem for Junkbuster, - since "+filter", "+no-popup" and "+gif-deanimate" will not work on - compressed data. This will slow down connections to those - websites, though. Default is "nocompression" is turned on. - +nocompression + * Show the source code version numbers: + + http://config.privoxy.org/show-version - * Prevent the website from reading cookies: - +no-cookies-read + * Show the browser's request headers: + + http://config.privoxy.org/show-request - * Prevent the website from setting cookies: - +no-cookies-set + * Show which actions apply to a URL and why: + + http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info - * Filter the website through a built-in filter to disable those - obnoxious JavaScript pop-up windows via window.open(), etc. The - two alternative spellings are equivalent. - +no-popup - +no-popups + * Toggle Privoxy on or off. In this case, "Privoxy" continues to run, but + only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place: + + http://config.privoxy.org/toggle - * This action only applies if you are using a jarfile for saving - cookies. It sends a cookie to every site stating that you do not - accept any copyright on cookies sent to you, and asking them not - to track you. Of course, this is a (relatively) unique header they - could use to track you. - +vanilla-wafer + Short cuts. Turn off, then on: + + http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable - * This allows you to add an arbitrary cookie. It can be specified - multiple times in order to add as many cookies as you like. - +wafer{name=value} + http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable - The meaning of any of the above is reversed by preceding the action - with a "-", in place of the "+". - - Some examples: - - Turn off cookies by default, then allow a few through for specified - sites: - - # Turn off all cookies - { +no-cookies-read } - { +no-cookies-set } - # Execeptions to the above, sites that need cookies - { -no-cookies-read } - { -no-cookies-set } - .javasoft.com - .sun.com - .yahoo.com - .msdn.microsoft.com - .redhat.com - # Alternative way of saying the same thing - {-no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read} - .sourceforge.net - .sf.net - - Now turn off "fast redirects", and then we allow two exceptions: - - # Turn them off! - {+fast-redirects} - - # Reverse it for these two sites, which don't work right without it. - {-fast-redirects} - www.ukc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wac\.cgi\? - login.yahoo.com - - Turn on page filtering, with one exception for sourceforge: - - # Run everything through the default filter file (re_filterfile): - {+filter} - - # But please don't re_filter code from sourceforge! - {-filter} - .cvs.sourceforge.net - - Now some URLs that we want "blocked", ie we won't see them. Many of - these use regular expressions that will expand to match multiple URLs: - - # Blocklist: - {+block} - /.*/(.*[-_.])?ads?[0-9]?(/|[-_.].*|\.(gif|jpe?g)) - /.*/(.*[-_.])?count(er)?(\.cgi|\.dll|\.exe|[?/]) - /.*/(ng)?adclient\.cgi - /.*/(plain|live|rotate)[-_.]?ads?/ - /.*/(sponsor)s?[0-9]?/ - /.*/_?(plain|live)?ads?(-banners)?/ - /.*/abanners/ - /.*/ad(sdna_image|gifs?)/ - /.*/ad(server|stream|juggler)\.(cgi|pl|dll|exe) - /.*/adbanners/ - /.*/adserver - /.*/adstream\.cgi - /.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/ - /.*/banner_?ads/ - /.*/banners?/ - /.*/banners?\.cgi/ - /.*/cgi-bin/centralad/getimage - /.*/images/addver\.gif - /.*/images/marketing/.*\.(gif|jpe?g) - /.*/popupads/ - /.*/siteads/ - /.*/sponsor.*\.gif - /.*/sponsors?[0-9]?/ - /.*/advert[0-9]+\.jpg - /Media/Images/Adds/ - /ad_images/ - /adimages/ - /.*/ads/ - /bannerfarm/ - /grafikk/annonse/ - /graphics/defaultAd/ - /image\.ng/AdType - /image\.ng/transactionID - /images/.*/.*_anim\.gif # alvin brattli - /ip_img/.*\.(gif|jpe?g) - /rotateads/ - /rotations/ - /worldnet/ad\.cgi - /cgi-bin/nph-adclick.exe/ - /.*/Image/BannerAdvertising/ - /.*/ad-bin/ - /.*/adlib/server\.cgi - /autoads/ - _________________________________________________________________ - -3.2.3. Aliases - - Custom "actions", known to Junkbuster as "aliases", can be defined by - combining other "actions". These can in turn be invoked just like the - built-in "actions". Currently, an alias can contain any character - except space, tab, "=", "{" or "}". But please use only "a"- "z", - "0"-"9", "+", and "-". Alias names are not case sensitive, and must be - defined before anything else in actionsfile! And there can only be one - set of "aliases" defined. - - Now let's define a few aliases: - - # Useful customer aliases we can use later. These must come first! - {{alias}} - +no-cookies = +no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read - -no-cookies = -no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read - fragile = -block -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-refere - r -no-popups - shop = -no-cookies -filter -fast-redirects - +imageblock = +block +image - #For people who don't like to type too much: ;-) - c0 = +no-cookies - c1 = -no-cookies - c2 = -no-cookies-set +no-cookies-read - c3 = +no-cookies-set -no-cookies-read - #... etc. Customize to your heart's content. - - Some examples using our "shop" and "fragile" aliases from above: - - # These sites are very complex and require - # minimal interference. - {fragile} - .office.microsoft.com - .windowsupdate.microsoft.com - .nytimes.com - # Shopping sites - still want to block ads. - {shop} - .quietpc.com - .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com - .jungle.com - .scan.co.uk - # These shops require pop-ups - {shop -no-popups} - .dabs.com - .overclockers.co.uk - _________________________________________________________________ - -3.3. The Filter File - - The filter file defines what filtering of web pages Junkbuster does. - The default filter file is re_filterfile, located in the config - directory. In this file, any document content, whether viewable text - or embedded non-visible content, can be changed. - - This file uses regular expressions to alter or remove any string in - the target page. Some examples from the included default - re_filterfile: - - Stop web pages from displaying annoying messages in the status bar by - deleting such references: - - # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless buzzwo - rds. - # Again, check it out on http://www.airport-cgn.de/. - s/status='.*?';*//ig - - Just for kicks, replace any occurrence of "Microsoft" with - "MicroSuck": - - s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/ig - - Kill those auto-refresh tags: - - # Kill refresh tags. I like to refresh myself. Manually. - # check it out on http://www.airport-cgn.de/ and go to the arrivals p - age. - # - s/]*http-equiv[^>]*refresh.*URL=([^>]*?)"?>//i - s/]*http-equiv="?page-enter"?[^>]*content=[^>]*>//i - _________________________________________________________________ - -4. Quickstart to Using Junkbuster - - Install package, then run and enjoy! Junbuster accepts only one - command line option -- the configuration file to be used. Example Unix - startup command: - - - # /usr/sbin/junkbuster /etc/junkbuster/config & - - - If no configuration file is specified on the command line, Junkbuster - will look for a file named config in the current directory. Except on - Amiga where it will look for AmiTCP:db/junkbuster/config and Win32 - where it will try junkbstr.txt. If no file is specified on the command - line and no default configuration file can be found, Junkbuster will - fail to start. - - Be sure your browser is set to use the proxy which is by default at - localhost, port 8000. With Netscape (and Mozilla), this can be set - under Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies -> HTTP Proxy. For - Internet Explorer: Tools > Internet Properties -> Connections -> LAN - Setting. Then, check "Use Proxy" and fill in the appropriate info - (Address: localhost, Port: 8000). Include if HTTPS proxy support too. - - The included default configuration files should give a reasonable - starting point, though may be somewhat aggressive in blocking junk. - You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites that require - cookies, and add these to actionsfile as needed. By default, most of - these will be blocked until you add them to the configuration. If you - want the browser to handle this instead, you will need to edit - actionsfile and disable this feature. If you use more than one - browser, it would make more sense to let Junkbuster handle this. In - which case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies. - - If a particular site shows problems loading properly, try adding it to - the {fragile} section of actionsfile. This will turn off most actions - for this site. - - HTTP/1.1 support is not fully implemented. If browsers that support - HTTP/1.1 (like Mozilla or recent versions of I.E.) experience - problems, you might try to force HTTP/1.0 compatiblity. For Mozilla, - look under Edit -> Preferences -> Debug -> Networking. Or set the - "+downgrade" config option in actionsfile. - - After running Junkbuster for a while, you can start to fine tune the - configuration to suit your personal, or site, preferences and - requirements. There are many, many aspects that can be customized. - "Actions" (from actionsfile) can be adjusted by pointing your browser - to [39]http://i.j.b./, and then follow the link to "edit the actions - list". (This is an internal page and does not require Internet - access.) - - In fact, various aspects of Junkbuster configuration can be viewed - from this page, including current configuration parameters, source - code version numbers, the browser's request headers, and "actions" - that apply to a given URL. In addition to the actionsfile editor - mentioned above, Junkbuster can also be turned "on" and "off" from - this page. - - If you encounter problems, please verify it is a Junkbuster bug, by - disabling Junkbuster, and then trying the same page. Also, try another - browser if possible to eliminate browser or site problems. Before - reporting it as a bug, see if there is not a configuration option that - is enabled that is causing the page not to load. You can then add an - exception for that page or site. If a bug, please report it to the - developers (see below). - _________________________________________________________________ - -5. Contact the Developers - - Feature requests and other questions should be posted to the - [40]Feature request page at SourceForge. There is also an archive - there. - - Anyone interested in actively participating in development and related - discussions can join the appropriate mailing list [41]here. Archives - are available here too. - - Please report bugs, using the form at [42]Sourceforge. Please try to - verify that it is a Junkbuster bug, and not a browser or site bug - first. Also, check to make sure this is not already a known bug. - _________________________________________________________________ - -6. Copyright and History - -6.1. License - - Internet Junkbuster is free software; you can redistribute it and/or - modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as - published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the - License, or (at your option) any later version. - - This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but - WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of - MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU - General Public License for more details, which is available from - [43]the Free Software Foundation, Inc, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, - Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. - _________________________________________________________________ - -6.2. History - - Junkbuster was originally written by Anonymous Coders and - [44]JunkBusters Corporation, and was released as free open-source - software under the GNU GPL. [45]Stefan Waldherr made many - improvements, and started the [46]SourceForge project to rekindle - development. The last stable release was v2.0.2, which has now grown - whiskers ;-). - _________________________________________________________________ - -7. See also - - [47]http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa - - [48]http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/ - - [49]http://i.j.b./ - - [50]http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html - - [51]http://www.waldherr.org/junkbuster/ - - [52]http://privacy.net/analyze/ - - [53]http://www.squid-cache.org/ - _________________________________________________________________ - -8. Appendix - -8.1. Regular Expressions - - Junkbuster can use "regular expressions" in various config files. - Assuming support for "pcre" (Perl Compatible Regular Expressions) is - compiled in, which is the default. Such configuration directives do - not require regular expressions, but they can be used to increase - flexibility by matching a pattern with wildcards against URLs. - - If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what "regular - expressions" are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief - introduction only. A full explanation would require a book ;-) - - "Regular expressions" is a way of matching one character expression - against another to see if it matches or not. One of the "expressions" - is a literal string of readable characters (letter, numbers, etc), and - the other is a complex string of literal characters combined with - wildcards, and other special characters, called metacharacters. The - "metacharacters" 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. - - To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wildcard - characters when listing files with the dir command in DOS. *.* matches - all filenames. The "special" character here is the asterik which - matches any and all characters. We can be more specific and use ? to - match just individual characters. So "dir file?.text" would match - "file1.txt", "file2.txt", etc. We are pattern matching, using a - similar technique to "regular expressions"! - - Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much - more powerful. There are many more "special characters" and ways of - building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common - ones, and then some examples: - - . - Matches any single character, e.g. "a", "A", "4", ":", or "@". - - ? - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE - times. Either/or. - - + - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE - times. - - * - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE - times. - - \ - The "escape" character denotes that the following character should - be taken literally. This is used where one of the special characters - (e.g. ".") needs to be taken literally and not as a special - metacharacter. - - [] - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if any of the - enclosed characters are encountered. - - () - Pararentheses are used to group a sub-expression, or multiple - sub-expressions. - - | - The "bar" character works like an "or" conditional statement. A - match is successful if the sub-expression on either side of "|" - matches. - - s/string1/string2/g - This is used to rewrite strings of text. - "string1" is replaced by "string2" in this example. - - These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching - URLs with Junkbuster, and is a long way from a definitive list. This - is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may be - more illuminating: - - /.*/banners/.* - A simple example that uses the common combination of - "." and "*" to denote any character, zero or more times. In other - words, any string at all. So we start with a literal forward slash, - then our regular expression pattern (".*") another literal forward - slash, the string "banners", another forward slash, and lastly another - ".*". We are building a directory path here. This will match any file - with the path that has a directory named "banners" in it. The ".*" - matches any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward - slashes, so it might expand into a much longer looking path. For - example, this could match: - "/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif", or just - "/banners/annoying.html", or almost an infinite number of other - possible combinations, just so it has "banners" in the path somewhere. - - A now something a little more complex: - - /.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/ - We have several literal - forward slashes again ("/"), so we are building another expression - that is a file path statement. We have another ".*", so we are - matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so it matches our - expression. The only true literal that must match our pattern is adv, - together with the forward slashes. What comes after the "adv" string - is the interesting part. - - Remember the "?" means the preceding expression (either a literal - character or anything grouped with "(...)" in this case) can exist or - not, since this means either zero or one match. So - "((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))" is optional, as are the individual - sub-expressions: "(er)", "(ing|ements?)", and the "s". The "|" means - "or". We have two of those. For instance, "(ing|ements?)", can expand - to match either "ing" OR "ements?". What is being done here, is an - attempt at matching as many variations of "advertisement", and - similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just "adv", or - "advert", or "adverts", or "advertising", or "advertisement", or - "advertisements". You get the idea. But it would not match - "advertizements" (with a "z"). We could fix that by changing our - regular expression to: "/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/", - which would then match either spelling. - - /.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g) - Again another path statement with - forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets "[]" can be matched. - This is using "0-9" as a shorthand expression to mean any digit one - through nine. It is the same as saying "0123456789". So any digit - matches. The "+" means one or more of the preceding expression must be - included. The preceding expression here is what is in the square - brackets -- in this case, any digit one through nine. Then, at the - end, we have a grouping: "(gif|jpe?g)". This includes a "|", so this - needs to match the expression on either side of that bar character - also. A simple "gif" on one side, and the other side will in turn - match either "jpeg" or "jpg", since the "?" means the letter "e" is - optional and can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an - expression here to match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must - include the literal string "advert", then one or more digits, and a - "." (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is - escaped with "\"), and lastly either "gif", or "jpeg", or "jpg". Some - possible matches would include: "//advert1.jpg", - "/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif", "/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg". It - would not match "advert1.gif" (no leading slash), or "/adverts232.jpg" - (the expression does not include an "s"), or "/advert1.jsp" ("jsp" is - not in the expression anywhere). - - s/microsoft(?!.com)/MicroSuck/i - This is a substitution. "MicroSuck" - will replace any occurence of "microsoft". The "i" at the end of the - expression means ignore case. The "(?!.com)" means the match should - fail if "microsoft" is followed by ".com". In other words, this acts - like a "NOT" modifier. In case this is a hyperlink, we don't want to - break it ;-). - - We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so - that you can understand the default Junkbuster configuration files, - and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own installation. There - is much, much more that can be done with regular expressions. Now that - you know enough to get started, you can learn more on your own :/ - - More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions: - [54]http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html - -References - - 1. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/user-manual/ - 2. mailto:ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net - 3. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#INTRODUCTION - 4. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN27 - 5. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#INSTALLATION - 6. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#INSTALLATION-SOURCE - 7. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#INSTALLATION-RH - 8. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#INSTALLATION-SUSE - 9. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#INSTALLATION-OS2 - 10. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#INSTALLATION-WIN - 11. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#INSTALLATION-OTHER - 12. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#CONFIGURATION - 13. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN158 - 14. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#ACTIONSFILE - 15. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#FILTERFILE - 16. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#QUICKSTART - 17. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#CONTACT - 18. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#COPYRIGHT - 19. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN1161 - 20. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#AEN1167 - 21. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#SEEALSO - 22. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#APPENDIX - 23. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#REGEX - 24. http://i.j.b/ - 25. http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/ - 26. http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/ijbswa/current/ - 27. http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?sh=1&button=Search&key=emxrt.zip&stype=all&sort=type&dir=%2Fpub%2Fos2%2Fdev%2Femx%2Fv0.9d - 28. http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/cgi-bin/h-search?sh=1&key=gnupack&stype=all&sort=type&dir=%2Fpub%2Fos2%2Fapps - 29. http://www.gnu.org/ - 30. http://i.j.b/ - 31. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#ACTIONSFILE - 32. http://i.j.b/ - 33. http://i.j.b/ - 34. http://i.j.b/ - 35. http://i.j.b/show-url-info - 36. http://i.j.b/ - 37. http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html - 38. file://localhost/home/swa/sf/current/doc/source/tmp.html#REGEX - 39. http://i.j.b/ - 40. http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=361118&group_id=11118&func=browse - 41. http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=11118 - 42. http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=111118 - 43. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html - 44. http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/ijbfaq.html - 45. http://www.waldherr.org/junkbuster/ - 46. http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/ - 47. http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa - 48. http://ijbswa.sourceforge.net/ - 49. http://i.j.b/ - 50. http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html - 51. http://www.waldherr.org/junkbuster/ - 52. http://privacy.net/analyze/ - 53. http://www.squid-cache.org/ - 54. http://www.perldoc.com/perl5.6/pod/perlre.html +These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +11.2.1. Bookmarklets + +Below are some "bookmarklets" to allow you to easily access a "mini" version of +some of Privoxy's special pages. They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, +but should work equally well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which +support JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks - not +by clicking the links below (although that should work for testing). + +To save them, right-click the link and choose "Add to Favorites" (IE) or "Add +Bookmark" (Netscape). You will get a warning that the bookmark "may not be +safe" - just click OK. Then you can run the Bookmarklet directly from your +favorites/bookmarks. For even faster access, you can put them on the "Links" +bar (IE) or the "Personal Toolbar" (Netscape), and run them with a single +click. + + * Privoxy - Enable + + * Privoxy - Disable + + * Privoxy - Toggle Privoxy (Toggles between enabled and disabled) + + * Privoxy- View Status + + * Privoxy - Submit Filter Feedback + +Credit: The site which gave me the general idea for these bookmarklets is +www.bookmarklets.com. They have more information about bookmarklets. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +11.3. Chain of Events + +Let's take a quick look at the basic sequence of events when a web page is +requested by your browser and Privoxy is on duty: + + * First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send the + request to Privoxy, which will in turn, relay the request to the remote web + server after passing the following tests: + + * Privoxy traps any request for its own internal CGI pages (e.g http://p.p/) + and sends the CGI page back to the browser. + + * Next, Privoxy checks to see if the URL matches any "+block" patterns. If + so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be + contacted. "+handle-as-image" is then checked and if it does not match, an + HTML "BLOCKED" page is sent back. Otherwise, if it does match, an image is + returned. The type of image depends on the setting of "+set-image-blocker" + (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere). + + * Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the trust file, then + that is done. + + * If the URL pattern matches the "+fast-redirects" action, it is then + processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped. + + * Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any + of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. "+hide-user-agent", etc.), + headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and their + parameters. + + * Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web + page and related data). + + * First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other + things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then + filtered as deterimed by the "+prevent-setting-cookies", + "+session-cookies-only", and "+downgrade-http-version" actions. + + * If the "+kill-popups" action applies, and it is an HTML or JavaScript + document, the popup-code in the response is filtered on-the-fly as it is + received. + + * If a "+filter" or "+deanimate-gifs" action applies (and the document type + fits the action), the rest of the page is read into memory (up to a + configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from default.filter) 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 + setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by Privoxy + back to your browser. + + If neither "+filter" or "+deanimate-gifs" matches, then Privoxy passes the + raw data through to the client browser as it becomes available. + + * As the browser receives the now (probably 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. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +11.4. Anatomy of an Action + +The way Privoxy applies "actions" and "filters" to any given URL can be +complex, and not always so easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes +we need to be able to see just what Privoxy is doing. Especially, if something +Privoxy is doing is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little +daunting to look at the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend +to be filled with "regular expressions" whose consequences are not always so +obvious. + +One quick test to see if Privoxy is causing a problem or not, is to disable it +temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting step. See the +Bookmarklets section on a quick and easy way to do this (be sure to flush +caches afterward!). + +Privoxy also provides the http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info page that can +show us very specifically how actions are being applied to any given URL. This +is a big help for troubleshooting. + +First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then Privoxy will tell +us how the current configuration will handle it. This will not help with +filtering effects (i.e. the "+filter" action) from the default.filter file +since this is handled very differently and not so easy to trap! It also will +not tell you about any other URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are +testing. For instance, images such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw +page source of HTML pages. So you will only get info for the actual URL that is +pasted into the prompt area -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about +embedded URLs like ads, you will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use +your browser's "View Page Source" option for this. Or right click on the ad, +and grab the URL. + +Let's try an example, google.com, and look at it one section at a time: + + 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 } +/ + + { -session-cookies-only } + .google.com + + { -fast-redirects } + .google.com + +--- File user --- +(no matches in this file) + +This tells us how we have defined our "actions", and which ones match for our +example, "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 -- "/". + +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" (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent +cookies for google. 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. + +Then, for our user.action file, we again have no hits. + +And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how +Privoxy is applying all its "actions" to "google.com": + + Final results: + -add-header -block +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 + +Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to "fast-redirects" +and "session-cookies-only". + +Now another example, "ad.doubleclick.net": + + { +block +handle-as-image } + .ad.doubleclick.net + + { +block +handle-as-image } + ad*. + + { +block +handle-as-image } + .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", which is the +expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as: "+imageblock". ( +"Aliases" are defined in the first section of the actions file and typically +used to combine more than one action.) + +Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted +image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively would +also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys though ;-) +Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious URL to be invisible, it should be +defined as "ad.doubleclick.net" is done here -- as both a "+block" and an +"+handle-as-image". The custom alias "+imageblock" 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... + + 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 } + / + + { +block +handle-as-image } + /ads + +Ooops, the "/adsl/" is matching "/ads"! But we did not want this at all! Now we +see why we get the blank page. We could now add a new action below this that +explicitly does not block ("{-block}") paths with "adsl". There are various +ways to handle such exceptions. Example: + + { -block } + /adsl + +Now the page displays ;-) Be sure to flush your browser's caches when making +such changes. Or, try using Shift+Reload. + +But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like we did +with: + + { +block +handle-as-image } + /ads + +That actually was very telling 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": + + {shop} + .quietpc.com + .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com + .jungle.com + .scan.co.uk + .forbes.com + +"{shop}" is an "alias" that expands to "{ -filter -session-cookies-only }". Or +you could do your own exception to negate filtering: + + {-filter} + .forbes.com + +This would probably be most appropriately put in user.action, for local site +exceptions. + +"{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. +