X-Git-Url: http://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?p=privoxy.git;a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fwebserver%2Fuser-manual%2Fconfig.html;h=b9b4ef3becc25e535c2bd540c0bcddb9bb15a4aa;hp=c51c4ea43f90b9bacfc5ea024792f7faa7fa21b7;hb=d9813d602eb59d009d10e6d3861cd99821a6db70;hpb=2d6b5d2e894f920d7e376a9dc4fa436a8dbefcec diff --git a/doc/webserver/user-manual/config.html b/doc/webserver/user-manual/config.html index c51c4ea4..b9b4ef3b 100644 --- a/doc/webserver/user-manual/config.html +++ b/doc/webserver/user-manual/config.html @@ -1,2939 +1,2424 @@ -
Again, the main configuration file is named config on - Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, and config.txt on Windows. - Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of - values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For - example:
confdir /etc/privoxy
-Assigns the value /etc/privoxy to the option - confdir and thus indicates that the configuration - directory is named "/etc/privoxy/".
All options in the config file except for confdir and - logdir are optional. Watch out in the below description - for what happens if you leave them unset.
The main config file controls all aspects of Privoxy's - operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter - where you may be surfing).
Privoxy can (and normally does) use a number of - other files for additional configuration, help and logging. - This section of the configuration file tells Privoxy - where to find those other files.
The user running Privoxy, must have read permission for all - configuration files, and write permission to any files that would - be modified, such as log files.
The directory where the other configuration files are located
Path name
/etc/privoxy (Unix) or Privoxy installation dir (Windows)
Mandatory
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). -
The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where logfile and - jarfile are located) -
Path name
/var/log/privoxy (Unix) or Privoxy installation dir (Windows)
Mandatory
No trailing "/", please -
The actions file(s) to use -
File name, relative to confdir, without the .action suffix
standard # Internal purposes, no editing recommended - |
default # Main actions file - |
user # User customizations - |
No actions are taken at all. Simple neutral proxying. -
Multiple actionsfile lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended! -
- The default values include standard.action, which is used for internal - purposes and should be loaded, default.action, which is the - "main" actions file maintained by the developers, and - user.action, where you can make your personal additions. -
- Actions files are where all the per site and per URL configuration is done for - ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc. - There is no point in using Privoxy without at - least one actions file. -
The filter file to use -
File name, relative to confdir
default.filter (Unix) or default.filter.txt (Windows)
No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all - +filter{name} - actions in the actions files are turned neutral. -
The 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. -
The - +filter{name} - actions rely on the relevant filter (name) - to be defined in the filter file! -
A pre-defined filter file called default.filter that contains - a bunch of handy filters for common problems is included in the distribution. - See the section on the filter - action for a list. -
The log file to use -
File name, relative to logdir
logfile (Unix) or privoxy.log (Windows)
No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (stderr). -
The windows version will additionally log to the console. -
The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level - of detail and number of messages are set with the debug - option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with - Privoxy (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you - think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it. -
Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to - periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job - (see "man cron"). For Red Hat, a logrotate - script has been included. -
On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like "/var/log/privoxy.* - +1024k 644 nobody.nogroup" in /etc/logfiles, with - the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the - log, when it exceeds 1M size. -
Any log files must be writable by whatever user Privoxy - is being run as (default on UNIX, user id is "privoxy"). -
The file to store intercepted cookies in -
File name, relative to logdir
jarfile (Unix) or privoxy.jar (Windows)
Intercepted cookies are not stored at all. -
The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time. -
The trust file to use -
File name, relative to confdir
Unset (commented out). When activated: trust (Unix) or trust.txt (Windows)
The whole trust mechanism is turned off. -
The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should - be used with care. It is NOT recommended for the casual user. -
If you specify a trust file, Privoxy will only allow - access to sites that are named in the trustfile. - You can also mark sites as trusted referrers (with +), with - the effect that access to untrusted sites will be granted, if a link from a - trusted referrer was used. - The link target will then be added to the "trustfile". - Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children. -
If you use + operator in the trust file, it may grow considerably over time. -
If you intend to operate Privoxy for more users - than 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. -
Location of the Privoxy User Manual. -
A fully qualified URI
Unset
http://www.privoxy.org/version/user-manual/ - will be used, where version is the Privoxy version. -
The User Manual URI is used for help links from some of the internal CGI pages. - The manual itself is normally packaged with the binary distributions, so you probably want - to set this to a locally installed copy. For multi-user setups, you could provide a copy on - a local webserver for all your users and use the corresponding URL here. -
Examples: -
Unix, in local filesystem: -
user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-2.9.15/user-manual/ |
Any platform, on local webserver (called "local-webserver"): -
user-manual http://local-webserver/privoxy-user-manual/ |
Warning |
If set, this option should be the first option in the config file, because - it is used while the config file is being read. - |
A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied. -
URL
Two example URL are provided
No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page. -
The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been - activated. (See trustfile above.) -
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. -
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! -
An email address to reach the proxy administrator. -
Email address
Unset
No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface. -
If both admin-address and proxy-info-url - are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will - not be shown. -
A URL to documentation about the local Privoxy setup, - configuration or policies. -
URL
Unset
No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface. -
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 ;-) -
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. -
Key values that determine what information gets logged to the - logfile. -
Integer values
12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)
Nothing gets logged. -
The available debug levels are: -
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 |
To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use - multiple debug lines. -
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). - -
The reporting of fatal errors (i.e. ones which crash - Privoxy) is always on and cannot be disabled. -
If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set "debug - 512" ONLY and not enable anything else. -
Whether to run only one server thread -
None
Unset
Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability to - serve multiple requests simultaneously. -
This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never - need to use it. It will drastically reduce performance. -
This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects - of Privoxy's configuration. -
The IP address and TCP port on which Privoxy will - listen for client requests. -
[IP-Address]:Port
127.0.0.1:8118
Bind to 127.0.0.1 (localhost), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended for - home users who run Privoxy on the same machine as - their browser. -
You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and 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 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. -
Suppose you are running Privoxy on - a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network - (192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address. - You want it to serve requests from inside only: -
listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118 |
Initial state of "toggle" status -
1 or 0
1
Act as if toggled on -
If set to 0, Privoxy will start in - "toggled off" mode, i.e. behave like a normal, content-neutral - proxy where all ad blocking, filtering, etc are disabled. See - enable-remote-toggle below. This is not really useful - anymore, since toggling is much easier via the web interface than via - editing the conf file. -
The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray - if this option is present. -
Whether or not the web-based toggle - feature may be used -
0 or 1
1
The web-based toggle feature is disabled. -
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. -
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. -
Note that you must have compiled Privoxy with - support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect. -
Whether or not the web-based actions - file editor may be used -
0 or 1
1
The web-based actions file editor is disabled. -
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. -
Note that you must have compiled Privoxy with - support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect. -
Who can access what. -
src_addr[/src_masklen] - [dst_addr[/dst_masklen]] -
Where src_addr and - dst_addr are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid - DNS names, and src_masklen and - dst_masklen are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer - values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole - destination part are optional. -
Unset
Don't restrict access further than implied by listen-address -
Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems - administrators, and are not usually needed by individual users. - For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that - Privoxy only listens on the localhost - (127.0.0.1) or internal (home) network address by means of the - listen-address - option. -
Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute - for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security - weaknesses. -
Multiple ACL lines are OK. - If any ACLs are specified, then the Privoxy - talks only to IP addresses that match at least one permit-access line - and don't match any subsequent deny-access line. In other words, the - last match wins, with the default being deny-access. -
If Privoxy is using a forwarder (see forward below) - for a particular destination URL, the dst_addr - that is examined is the address of the forwarder and NOT the address - of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local - Privoxy to determine the IP address of the - ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for). -
You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take - time. All DNS names must resolve! You can not use domain patterns - like "*.org" or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple - IP addresses, only the first one is used. -
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. -
Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and - listen-address are set: "localhost" - is OK. The absence of a dst_addr implies that - all destination addresses are OK: -
permit-access localhost |
Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to - nothing but www.example.com: -
permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32 |
Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere, - with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com: -
permit-access 192.168.45.64/26 - deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com |
Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering. -
Size in Kbytes
4096
Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit. -
For content filtering, i.e. the +filter and - +deanimate-gif actions, it is necessary that - Privoxy buffers the entire document body. - This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending - data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences. - Hence this option. -
When a document buffer size reaches the buffer-limit, it is - flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to - filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads - running, which might require up to buffer-limit Kbytes - each, unless you have enabled "single-threaded" - above. -
This 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.
To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed. -
target_domain[:port] - http_parent[/port] -
Where target_domain is a domain name pattern (see the - chapter on domain matching in the default.action file), - http_parent is the address of the parent HTTP proxy - as an IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or as a valid DNS name (or "." to denote - "no forwarding", and the optional - port parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer - values from 1 to 64535 -
Unset
Don't use parent HTTP proxies. -
If http_parent is ".", then requests are not - forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers. -
Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins. -
Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle): -
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 . |
Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed. -
target_domain[:port] - socks_proxy[/port] - http_parent[/port] -
Where target_domain is a domain name pattern (see the - chapter on domain matching in the default.action file), - http_parent and socks_proxy - are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (http_parent - may be "." to denote "no HTTP forwarding"), and the optional - port parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535 -
Unset
Don't use SOCKS proxies. -
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. -
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 . |
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 + + + ++ |
+
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.
+You could just as well decide to only forward requests you suspect of leading to Windows executables through + a virus-scanning parent proxy, say, on antivir.example.com, port 8010:
+
+ forward / . + forward /.*\.(exe|com|dll|zip)$ antivir.example.com:8010+ |
+
How often Privoxy retries if a forwarded connection request fails.
+Number of retries.
+0
+Connections forwarded through other proxies are treated like direct connections and no retry attempts + are made.
+forwarded-connect-retries is mainly interesting for socks4a + connections, where Privoxy can't detect why the connections failed. The + connection might have failed because of a DNS timeout in which case a retry makes sense, but it might + also have failed because the server doesn't exist or isn't reachable. In this case the retry will just + delay the appearance of Privoxy's error message.
+Note that in the context of this option, "forwarded connections" includes + all connections that Privoxy forwards through other proxies. This option is not limited to the HTTP + CONNECT method.
+Only use this option, if you are getting lots of forwarding-related error messages that go away when + you try again manually. Start with a small value and check Privoxy's logfile from time to time, to see + how many retries are usually needed.
+forwarded-connect-retries 1
+Whether intercepted requests should be treated as valid.
+0 or 1
+0
+Only proxy requests are accepted, intercepted requests are treated as invalid.
+If you don't trust your clients and want to force them to use Privoxy, enable this option and configure your packet filter to redirect outgoing + HTTP connections into Privoxy.
+Note that intercepting encrypted connections (HTTPS) isn't supported.
+Make sure that Privoxy's own requests aren't redirected as well. + Additionally take care that Privoxy can't intentionally connect to + itself, otherwise you could run into redirection loops if Privoxy's + listening port is reachable by the outside or an attacker has access to the pages you visit.
+If you are running Privoxy as intercepting proxy without being able to intercept all client requests + you may want to adjust the CGI templates to make sure they don't reference content from + config.privoxy.org.
+accept-intercepted-requests 1
+Whether requests to Privoxy's CGI pages can be blocked or + redirected.
+0 or 1
+0
+Privoxy ignores block and redirect actions for its CGI pages.
+By default Privoxy ignores block or redirect actions for its CGI + pages. Intercepting these requests can be useful in multi-user setups to implement fine-grained access + control, but it can also render the complete web interface useless and make debugging problems painful if + done without care.
+Don't enable this option unless you're sure that you really need it.
+allow-cgi-request-crunching 1
+Whether the CGI interface should stay compatible with broken HTTP clients.
+0 or 1
+0
+The CGI form generate long GET URLs.
+Privoxy's CGI forms can lead to rather long URLs. This isn't a + problem as far as the HTTP standard is concerned, but it can confuse clients with arbitrary URL length + limitations.
+Enabling split-large-forms causes Privoxy to divide big forms into + smaller ones to keep the URL length down. It makes editing a lot less convenient and you can no longer + submit all changes at once, but at least it works around this browser bug.
+If you don't notice any editing problems, there is no reason to enable this option, but if one of the + submit buttons appears to be broken, you should give it a try.
+split-large-forms 1
+Number of seconds after which an open connection will no longer be reused.
+Time in seconds.
+None
+Connections are not kept alive.
+This option allows clients to keep the connection to Privoxy alive. + If the server supports it, Privoxy will keep the connection to the + server alive as well. Under certain circumstances this may result in speed-ups.
+By default, Privoxy will close the connection to the server if the + client connection gets closed, or if the specified timeout has been reached without a new request coming + in. This behaviour can be changed with the connection-sharing option.
+This option has no effect if Privoxy has been compiled without + keep-alive support.
+Note that a timeout of five seconds as used in the default configuration file significantly decreases + the number of connections that will be reused. The value is used because some browsers limit the number + of connections they open to a single host and apply the same limit to proxies. This can result in a + single website "grabbing" all the connections the browser allows, which means + connections to other websites can't be opened until the connections currently in use time out.
+Several users have reported this as a Privoxy bug, so the default value has been reduced. Consider + increasing it to 300 seconds or even more if you think your browser can handle it. If your browser + appears to be hanging, it probably can't.
+keep-alive-timeout 300
+Whether or not pipelined requests should be served.
+0 or 1.
+None
+If Privoxy receives more than one request at once, it terminates the client connection after serving + the first one.
+Privoxy currently doesn't pipeline outgoing requests, thus allowing + pipelining on the client connection is not guaranteed to improve the performance.
+By default Privoxy tries to discourage clients from pipelining by + discarding aggressively pipelined requests, which forces the client to resend them through a new + connection.
+This option lets Privoxy tolerate pipelining. Whether or not that + improves performance mainly depends on the client configuration.
+If you are seeing problems with pages not properly loading, disabling this option could work around + the problem.
+tolerate-pipelining 1
+Assumed server-side keep-alive timeout if not specified by the server.
+Time in seconds.
+None
+Connections for which the server didn't specify the keep-alive timeout are not reused.
+Enabling this option significantly increases the number of connections that are reused, provided the + keep-alive-timeout option is also enabled.
+While it also increases the number of connections problems when Privoxy tries to reuse a connection that already has been closed on the server side, + or is closed while Privoxy is trying to reuse it, this should only be a + problem if it happens for the first request sent by the client. If it happens for requests on reused + client connections, Privoxy will simply close the connection and the + client is supposed to retry the request without bothering the user.
+Enabling this option is therefore only recommended if the connection-sharing option is disabled.
+It is an error to specify a value larger than the keep-alive-timeout value.
+This option has no effect if Privoxy has been compiled without + keep-alive support.
+default-server-timeout 60
+Whether or not outgoing connections that have been kept alive should be shared between different + incoming connections.
+0 or 1
+None
+Connections are not shared.
+This option has no effect if Privoxy has been compiled without + keep-alive support, or if it's disabled.
+Note that reusing connections doesn't necessary cause speedups. There are also a few privacy + implications you should be aware of.
+If this option is effective, outgoing connections are shared between clients (if there are more than + one) and closing the browser that initiated the outgoing connection does no longer affect the connection + between Privoxy and the server unless the client's request hasn't been + completed yet.
+If the outgoing connection is idle, it will not be closed until either Privoxy's or the server's timeout is reached. While it's open, the server knows that + the system running Privoxy is still there.
+If there are more than one client (maybe even belonging to multiple users), they will be able to reuse + each others connections. This is potentially dangerous in case of authentication schemes like NTLM where + only the connection is authenticated, instead of requiring authentication for each request.
+If there is only a single client, and if said client can keep connections alive on its own, enabling + this option has next to no effect. If the client doesn't support connection keep-alive, enabling this + option may make sense as it allows Privoxy to keep outgoing connections + alive even if the client itself doesn't support it.
+You should also be aware that enabling this option increases the likelihood of getting the "No server + or forwarder data" error message, especially if you are using a slow connection to the Internet.
+This option should only be used by experienced users who understand the risks and can weight them + against the benefits.
+connection-sharing 1
+Number of seconds after which a socket times out if no data is received.
+Time in seconds.
+None
+A default value of 300 seconds is used.
+The default is quite high and you probably want to reduce it. If you aren't using an occasionally slow + proxy like Tor, reducing it to a few seconds should be fine.
+socket-timeout 300
+Maximum number of client connections that will be served.
+Positive number.
+128
+Connections are served until a resource limit is reached.
+Privoxy creates one thread (or process) for every incoming client + connection that isn't rejected based on the access control settings.
+If the system is powerful enough, Privoxy can theoretically deal with + several hundred (or thousand) connections at the same time, but some operating systems enforce resource + limits by shutting down offending processes and their default limits may be below the ones Privoxy would require under heavy load.
+Configuring Privoxy to enforce a connection limit below the thread or + process limit used by the operating system makes sure this doesn't happen. Simply increasing the + operating system's limit would work too, but if Privoxy isn't the only + application running on the system, you may actually want to limit the resources used by Privoxy.
+If Privoxy is only used by a single trusted user, limiting the number + of client connections is probably unnecessary. If there are multiple possibly untrusted users you + probably still want to additionally use a packet filter to limit the maximal number of incoming + connections per client. Otherwise a malicious user could intentionally create a high number of + connections to prevent other users from using Privoxy.
+Obviously using this option only makes sense if you choose a limit below the one enforced by the + operating system.
+One most POSIX-compliant systems Privoxy can't properly deal with + more than FD_SETSIZE file descriptors at the same time and has to reject connections if the limit is + reached. This will likely change in a future version, but currently this limit can't be increased without + recompiling Privoxy with a different FD_SETSIZE limit.
+max-client-connections 256
+Connection queue length requested from the operating system.
+Number.
+128
+A connection queue length of 128 is requested from the operating system.
+Under high load incoming connection may queue up before Privoxy gets around to serve them. The queue + length is limitted by the operating system. Once the queue is full, additional connections are dropped + before Privoxy can accept and serve them.
+Increasing the queue length allows Privoxy to accept more incomming connections that arrive roughly at + the same time.
+Note that Privoxy can only request a certain queue length, whether or not the requested length is + actually used depends on the operating system which may use a different length instead.
+On many operating systems a limit of -1 can be specified to instruct the operating system to use the + maximum queue length allowed. Check the listen man page to see if your platform allows this.
+On some platforms you can use "netstat -Lan -p tcp" to see the effective queue length.
+Effectively using a value above 128 usually requires changing the system configuration as well. On + FreeBSD-based system the limit is controlled by the kern.ipc.soacceptqueue sysctl.
+listen-backlog 4096
+Whether or not Privoxy should use an accept filter
+0 or 1
+0
+No accept filter is enabled.
+Accept filters reduce the number of context switches by not passing sockets for new connections to + Privoxy until a complete HTTP request is available.
+As a result, Privoxy can process the whole request right away without having to wait for additional + data first.
+For this option to work, Privoxy has to be compiled with FEATURE_ACCEPT_FILTER and the operating + system has to support it (which may require loading a kernel module).
+Currently accept filters are only supported on FreeBSD-based systems. Check the accf_http(9) man page to learn + how to enable the support in the operating system.
+enable-accept-filter 1
+The status code Privoxy returns for pages blocked with +handle-as-empty-document.
+0 or 1
+0
+Privoxy returns a status 403(forbidden) for all blocked pages.
+Privoxy returns a status 200(OK) for pages blocked with +handle-as-empty-document and a status + 403(Forbidden) for all other blocked pages.
+This directive was added as a work-around for Firefox bug 492459: "Websites are no + longer rendered if SSL requests for JavaScripts are blocked by a proxy." (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=492459), the bug has been fixed for quite some + time, but this directive is also useful to make it harder for websites to detect whether or not resources + are being blocked.
+Whether or not buffered content is compressed before delivery.
+0 or 1
+0
+Privoxy does not compress buffered content.
+Privoxy compresses buffered content before delivering it to the client, provided the client supports + it.
+This directive is only supported if Privoxy has been compiled with FEATURE_COMPRESSION, which should + not to be confused with FEATURE_ZLIB.
+Compressing buffered content is mainly useful if Privoxy and the client are running on different + systems. If they are running on the same system, enabling compression is likely to slow things down. If + you didn't measure otherwise, you should assume that it does and keep this option disabled.
+Privoxy will not compress buffered content below a certain length.
+The compression level that is passed to the zlib library when compressing buffered content.
+Positive number ranging from 0 to 9.
+1
+Compressing the data more takes usually longer than compressing it less or not compressing it at all. + Which level is best depends on the connection between Privoxy and the client. If you can't be bothered to + benchmark it for yourself, you should stick with the default and keep compression disabled.
+If compression is disabled, the compression level is irrelevant.
+
+ # Best speed (compared to the other levels) + compression-level 1 + # Best compression + compression-level 9 + # No compression. Only useful for testing as the added header + # slightly increases the amount of data that has to be sent. + # If your benchmark shows that using this compression level + # is superior to using no compression at all, the benchmark + # is likely to be flawed. + compression-level 0 ++ |
+
The order in which client headers are sorted before forwarding them.
+Client header names delimited by spaces or tabs
+None
+By default Privoxy leaves the client headers in the order they were + sent by the client. Headers are modified in-place, new headers are added at the end of the already + existing headers.
+The header order can be used to fingerprint client requests independently of other headers like the + User-Agent.
+This directive allows to sort the headers differently to better mimic a different User-Agent. Client + headers will be emitted in the order given, headers whose name isn't explicitly specified are added at + the end.
+Note that sorting headers in an uncommon way will make fingerprinting actually easier. Encrypted + headers are not affected by this directive.
+The name of a tag that will always be set for clients that requested it through the webinterface.
+Tag name followed by a description that will be shown in the + webinterface
+None
+Warning | +
+ This is an experimental feature. The syntax is likely to change in future versions. + |
+
Client-specific tags allow Privoxy admins to create different profiles and let the users chose which + one they want without impacting other users.
+One use case is allowing users to circumvent certain blocks without having to allow them to circumvent + all blocks. This is not possible with the enable-remote-toggle + feature because it would bluntly disable all blocks for all users and also affect other actions like + filters. It also is set globally which renders it useless in most multi-user setups.
+After a client-specific tag has been defined with the client-specific-tag directive, action sections + can be activated based on the tag by using a CLIENT-TAG pattern. The CLIENT-TAG pattern is evaluated at the same priority as URL patterns, + as a result the last matching pattern wins. Tags that are created based on client or server headers are + evaluated later on and can overrule CLIENT-TAG and URL patterns!
+The tag is set for all requests that come from clients that requested it to be set. Note that + "clients" are differentiated by IP address, if the IP address changes the tag has to be requested + again.
+Clients can request tags to be set by using the CGI interface http://config.privoxy.org/client-tags. The + specific tag description is only used on the web page and should be phrased in away that the user + understand the effect of the tag.
+
+ # Define a couple of tags, the described effect requires action sections + # that are enabled based on CLIENT-TAG patterns. + client-specific-tag circumvent-blocks Overrule blocks but do not affect other actions + disable-content-filters Disable content-filters but do not affect other actions ++ |
+
How long a temporarily enabled tag remains enabled.
+Time in seconds.
+60
+Warning | +
+ This is an experimental feature. The syntax is likely to change in future versions. + |
+
In case of some tags users may not want to enable them permanently, but only for a short amount of + time, for example to circumvent a block that is the result of an overly-broad URL pattern.
+The CGI interface http://config.privoxy.org/client-tags therefore provides a "enable this tag temporarily" + option. If it is used, the tag will be set until the client-tag-lifetime is over.
+
+ # Increase the time to life for temporarily enabled tags to 3 minutes + client-tag-lifetime 180 ++ |
+
Whether or not Privoxy should use IP addresses specified with the X-Forwarded-For header
+0 or one
+0
+Warning | +
+ This is an experimental feature. The syntax is likely to change in future versions. + |
+
If clients reach Privoxy through another proxy, for example a load balancer, Privoxy can't tell the + client's IP address from the connection. If multiple clients use the same proxy, they will share the same + client tag settings which is usually not desired.
+This option lets Privoxy use the X-Forwarded-For header value as client IP address. If the proxy sets + the header, multiple clients using the same proxy do not share the same client tag settings.
+This option should only be enabled if Privoxy can only be reached through a proxy and if the proxy can + be trusted to set the header correctly. It is recommended that ACL are used to make sure only trusted + systems can reach Privoxy.
+If access to Privoxy isn't limited to trusted systems, this option would allow malicious clients to + change the client tags for other clients or increase Privoxy's memory requirements by registering lots of + client tag settings for clients that don't exist.
+
+ # Allow systems that can reach Privoxy to provide the client + # IP address with a X-Forwarded-For header. + trust-x-forwarded-for 1 ++ |
+
The size of the buffer Privoxy uses to receive data from the server.
+Size in bytes
+5000
+Increasing the receive-buffer-size increases Privoxy's memory usage but can lower the number of + context switches and thereby reduce the cpu usage and potentially increase the throughput.
+This is mostly relevant for fast network connections and large downloads that don't require + filtering.
+Reducing the buffer size reduces the amount of memory Privoxy needs to handle the request but + increases the number of systemcalls and may reduce the throughput.
+A dtrace command like: "sudo dtrace -n 'syscall::read:return /execname == + "privoxy"/ { @[execname] = llquantize(arg0, 10, 0, 5, 20); @m = max(arg0)}'" can be used to + properly tune the receive-buffer-size. On systems without dtrace, strace or truss may be used as less + convenient alternatives.
+If the buffer is too large it will increase Privoxy's memory footprint without any benefit. As the + memory is (currently) cleared before using it, a buffer that is too large can actually reduce the + throughput.
+
+ # Increase the receive buffer size + receive-buffer-size 32768 ++ |
+
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 copies log + messages to the console window. The log detail depends on the debug + directive.
+ 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
+