X-Git-Url: http://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?p=privoxy.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fwebserver%2Fuser-manual%2Factions-file.html;h=8c00ca93b28d73ed5192e80600c5483f1ffe5657;hp=ab76a8e871ae7b5f880dda33d509199aaa9437f8;hb=d1c39df48bd2a8953ceb49fdbb370b20f3d89422;hpb=d0194faafeb1b286783e649b0628e51bc81840d5 diff --git a/doc/webserver/user-manual/actions-file.html b/doc/webserver/user-manual/actions-file.html index ab76a8e8..8c00ca93 100644 --- a/doc/webserver/user-manual/actions-file.html +++ b/doc/webserver/user-manual/actions-file.html @@ -1,2268 +1,1312 @@ - -
The actions files are used to define what actions - Privoxy takes for which URLs, and thus determines - how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and - transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof). - There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality. - Each action does something a little different. - These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert - our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that - their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
There - are three action files included with Privoxy with - differing purposes: -
default.action - is the primary action file - that sets the initial values for all actions. It is intended to - provide a base level of functionality for - Privoxy's array of features. So it is - a set of broad rules that should work reasonably well as-is for most users. - This is the file that the developers are keeping updated, and making available to users. - The user's preferences as set in standard.action, - e.g. either Cautious (the default), - Medium, or Advanced (see - below). -
user.action - is intended to be for local site - preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank - has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of - thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded. -
standard.action - is used only by the web based editor - at http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default, - to set various pre-defined sets of rules for the default actions section - in default.action. -
Edit Set to Cautious Set to Medium Set to Advanced -
These have increasing levels of aggressiveness and have no - influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the - editor. A default installation should be pre-set to - Cautious (versions prior to 3.0.5 were set to - Medium). New users should try this for a while before - adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive - the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites - not working as they should. -
The Edit button allows you to turn each - action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The Cautious - button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate - ad blocking and a minimal set of Privoxy's features, and subsequently - there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The - Medium button sets the list to a medium level of - other features and a low level set of privacy features. The - Advanced button sets the list to a high level of - ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter - three buttons over-ride any changes via with the - Edit button. More fine-tuning can be done in the - lower sections of this internal page. -
It is not recommend to edit the standard.action file - itself. -
The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in - standard.action are: -
Table 1. Default Configurations
Feature | Cautious | Medium | Advanced |
---|---|---|---|
Ad-blocking Aggressiveness | medium | high | high |
Ad-filtering by size | no | yes | yes |
Ad-filtering by link | no | no | yes |
Pop-up killing | blocks only | blocks only | blocks only |
Privacy Features | low | medium | medium/high |
Cookie handling | none | session-only | kill |
Referer forging | no | yes | yes |
GIF de-animation | no | yes | yes |
Fast redirects | no | no | yes |
HTML taming | no | no | yes |
JavaScript taming | no | no | yes |
Web-bug killing | no | yes | yes |
Image tag reordering | no | yes | yes |
The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration - file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g. - default.action is typically processed before - user.action). The content of these can all be viewed and - edited from http://config.privoxy.org/show-status. - The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that - matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first - (defined in default.action), - followed by any exceptions (typically also in - default.action), which are then followed lastly by any - local preferences (typically in user.action). - Generally, user.action has the last word. -
An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use - "aliases" in an actions file, you have to place the (optional) - alias section at the top of that file. - Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all - sites and pages (be very careful with using such a - universal set in user.action or any other actions file after - default.action, because it will override the result - from consulting any previous file). And then below that, - exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard - user.action as an appendix to default.action, - with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your - personal settings across Privoxy upgrades easier.
- Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or - just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted - or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not - written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking - fooled, and much more. See below for a complete list - of actions.
Note that some actions, like cookie suppression - or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these - techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and - certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring - refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more - "aggressive" your default settings (in the top section of the - actions file) are, the more exceptions for "trusted" sites you - will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per - default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you - regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe - your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the - distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these - things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing. - Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
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. - Note: the config file option enable-edit-actions must be enabled for - this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single - feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults - like "Cautious", "Medium" or - "Advanced". Warning: the "Advanced" setting is more - aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites. - Experienced users only! -
If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the - the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at - default.action which is richly commented with many - good examples.
Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections, - like the "alias" sections which will - be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a - heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist - of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces. - Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is - compared to all URL patterns in each "action file". - Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is - incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the - pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
If multiple applying sections set the same action differently, - the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated. - E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of { - +handle-as-image }, - then later another one with just { - +block }, resulting - in both actions to apply. And there may well be - cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then - might look like:
{ +handle-as-image +block{Banner ads.} } + + + + + |
+
Note that allow-ads has been aliased to + -block, -filter{banners-by-size}, + and -filter{banners-by-link} + above.
+ +Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type + application/x-sh which typically would open + a download type dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell + script, and then I can save it should I choose to.
+ +
+ +{ handle-as-text } + /.*\.sh$ ++ |
+
user.action is generally the best place + to define exceptions and additions to the default policies of + default.action. Some actions are safe to + have their default policies set here though. So let's set a default + policy to have a "blank" image as opposed + to the checkerboard pattern for ALL sites. "/" of + course matches all URL paths and patterns:
+ +
+ +{ +set-image-blocker{blank} } +/ # ALL sites ++ |
+