There are many improvements and new features since Privoxy 3.0.3, the last stable release:
Privoxy 3.0.16 is a stable release. + The changes since 3.0.15 beta are:
Multiple filter files can now be specified in config. This allows for - locally defined filters that can be maintained separately from the filters as - supplied by the developers, i.e. default.filter. +> Added the config file option handle-as-empty-doc-returns-ok to + work around Firefox bug #492459, which causes Firefox to hang + if JavaScripts are blocked in certain situations. The option is + enabled in the default config file.
- There are a number of new actions: -
Added the config option default-server-timeout to control the + assumed default server timeout. Since Privoxy no longer returns + an error message for connection resets on reused client connections, + assuming larger server timeout values appears to actually work + pretty well as long as connections aren't shared. +Added optional support for FreeBSD's accf_http(9). Use the + configure option --enable-accept-filter to enable it. +
Added fancier Privoxy icons for win32. Contributed by Jeff H. +
In daemon mode, fd 0, 1 and 2 are bound to /dev/null. +
Resolve localhost using whatever address family the operating + system feels like. Previous betas would try to use IPv4 as this + is what most users expect, but this didn't work reliable on + GNU/Linux systems. +
In the action lists on CGI pages, actions and their parameters are + no longer separated with a space. The action file parser doesn't + actually allow this and will throw an invalid syntax error if actions + and parameters in the action files are separated. Not adding the + spaces means copy and pasting CGI output into the action files works. +
The default keep-alive timeout has been reduced to 5 seconds to work + around hangs in clients that treat the proxy like any other host and + stop allowing any new connections if the "maximum number of + connections per host" is reached. +
Several webbug URLs that look like they are leading to images are now + blocked as image instead of empty documents. Doing the latter causes + WebKit-based clients to show a "missing image" icon which may mess up + the layout. +
Accepts quoted expiration dates even though RFC 2109 10.1.2 + doesn't seem to allow them. Reported anonymously. +
Don't try to forget connections if connection sharing is disabled. + This wasn't a real problem but caused an unnecessary log message. +
The still undocumented --enable-extended-host-patterns configure + option has a better description. +
Fixed an error message that would claim a write to the server + failed when actually writing to the client failed. +
Log the crunch reason before trying to write to the client. + The log is easier to read that way. +
Several log messages about client connections also mention + the socket number. +
handle-as-empty-document no longer depends on the image blocking + code being enabled. +
Privoxy-Log-Parser is roughly 40% faster in highlighting mode. +
uagen, a Firefox User-Agent generator for Privoxy and Mozilla + browsers has been imported and is available in the tarballs + tools directory. +
The scripts in the tools directory treat unknown parameters + as fatal errors. +
If you missed the previous two beta versions, you may also be + interested in the additional changes since 3.0.12, the + last stable release:
redirect -
Fixed a bug on mingw32 where downloading large files failed if + keep-alive support was enabled. +In addition, fast-redirects - has been significantly improved with enhanced syntax. -
The configure script respects the $PATH variable when searching + for groups and id. +And hide-referrer - has a new option, conditional block. +> Compressed content with extra fields couldn't be decompressed + and would get passed to the client unfiltered. This problem + has only be detected through statical analysis with clang as + nobody seems to be using extra fields anyway.
MS-Windows versions can now be - installed and - started as a Windows service. +> If the server resets the Connection after sending only the headers + Privoxy forwards what it got to the client. Previously Privoxy + would deliver an error message instead.
config has two new options: - enable-remote-http-toggle, - and forwarded-connect-retries. +> Error messages in case of connection timeouts use the right + HTTP status code.
And there is improved handling of the user-manual - option, for placing documentation and help files on the local system. +> If spawning a child to handle a request fails, the client + gets an error message and Privoxy continues to listen for + new requests right away.
There are six new filters. +> The error messages in case of server-connection timeouts or + prematurely closed server connections are now template-based.
Actions files problems and suggestions are now being directed to: - http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288. - Please use this to report such configuration related problems as missed - ads, sites that don't function properly due to one action or another, - innocent images being blocked, etc. +> If zlib support isn't compiled in, Privoxy no longer tries to + filter compressed content unless explicitly asked to do so.
In addition, there are numerous bug fixes and significant enhancements, - including error pages should no longer be cached if the problem is fixed, - much better DNS error handling, various logging improvements, and - configuration updates for better ad blocking and junk elimination. +> In case of connections that are denied based on ACL directives, + the memory used for the client IP is no longer leaked. +
Fixed another small memory leak if the client request times out + while waiting for client headers other than the request line. +
The client socket is kept open until the server socket has + been marked as unused. This should increase the chances that + the still-open connection will be reused for the client's next + request to the same destination. Note that this only matters + if connection-sharing is enabled. +
A TODO list has been added to the source tarballs to give potential + volunteers a better idea of what the current goals are. Donations + are still welcome too: http://www.privoxy.org/faq/general.html#DONATE +
In case of missing server data, no error message is send to the + client if the request arrived on a reused connection. The client + is then supposed to silently retry the request without bothering + the user. This should significantly reduce the frequency of the + "No server or forwarder data received" error message many users + reported. +
More reliable detection of prematurely closed client sockets + with keep-alive enabled. +
FEATURE_CONNECTION_KEEP_ALIVE is decoupled from + FEATURE_CONNECTION_SHARING and now available on + all platforms. +
Improved handling of POST requests on reused connections. + Should fix problems with stalled connections after submitting + form data with some browser configurations. +
Fixed various latency calculation issues. +
Allows the client to pass NTLM authentication requests to a + forwarding proxy. This was already assumed and hinted to work + in 3.0.13 beta but actually didn't. Now it's confirmed to work + with IE, Firefox and Chrome. + Thanks to Francois Botha and Wan-Teh Chang +
Fixed a calculation problem if receiving the server headers + takes more than two reads, that could cause Privoxy to terminate + the connection prematurely. Reported by Oliver. +
Compiles again on platforms such as OpenBSD and systems + using earlier glibc version that don't support AI_ADDRCONFIG. + Anonymously submitted in #2872591. +
A bunch of MS VC project files and Suse and Redhat RPM spec + files have been removed as they were no longer maintained for + quite some time. +
Overly long action lines are properly rejected with a proper + error message. Previously they would be either rejected as + invalid or cause a core dump through abort(). +
Already timed-out connections are no longer temporarily remembered. + They weren't reused anyway, but wasted a socket slot. +
len refers to the number of bytes actually read which might + differ from the ones received. Adjust log messages accordingly. +
The optional JavaScript on the CGI page uses encodeURIComponent() + instead of escape() which doesn't encode all characters that matter. + Anonymously reported in #2832722. +
Fix gcc45 warnings in decompress_iob(). +
Various log message improvements. +
Privoxy-Regression-Test supports redirect tests. +
Privoxy-Log-Parser can gather some connection statistics.
A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
versions of
- Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including
- configuration files. Save any important configuration files!
+> The recommended way to upgrade Privoxy is to backup your old
+ configuration files, install the new ones, verify that Privoxy
+ is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
+ diff and maybe patch.
- On the other hand, other installers may not overwrite any existing configuration
- files, thinking you will want to do that. You may want to manually check
- your saved files against the newer versions to see if the improvements have
- merit, or whether there are new options that you may want to consider.
- There are a number of new features, but most won't be available unless
- these features are incorporated into your configuration somehow.
+> There are a number of new features in each Privoxy release and
+ most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
+ files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
+ to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
+ Privoxy isn't always possible anyway.
See the full documentation on
- fast-redirects
- which has changed syntax, and will require adjustments to local configs,
- such as user.action. You must reference the new
- syntax:
- { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
- .example.com
- mybank.com
- .google.
The jarfile, - cookie logger, is off by default now. -
+ Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely, + including configuration files, therefore you should really save + any important configuration files! +- What constitutes a "default" configuration has changed, - and you may want to review which actions are "on" by - default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features - you may have been used to, may now be "off" by default. - There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to - consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default - settings as yet (see above). + On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration + files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
The default actions setting is now Cautious. Previous - releases had a default setting of Medium. Experienced - users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by Privoxy - standards and past practices. See http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default. New users - should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume. -
The default setting has filtering turned off, which - subsequently means that compression is on. Remember - that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to - use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example: -
{ +filter{google} +prevent-compression }
- .google. |
Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want - to turn off compression for all sites in - default.action (or - + user.action). -
Also, session-cookies-only is - off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want - to turn it back on in standard.action has been merged into + the user.action now. +>default.action file.
- Some installers may not automatically start - In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now. + You can change that in the debug section + of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose + logging until you verified that the new Privoxy after installation. +> version is working + as expected.
Three other config file settings are now off by default: + enable-remote-toggle, + enable-remote-http-toggle, + and enable-edit-actions. + If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and + be aware of the security issues involved. +