There are many improvements and new features since Privoxy 3.0.6, the last stable release:
Privoxy 3.0.16 is a stable release. + The changes since 3.0.15 beta are:
Header filtering can be done with dedicated header filters now. As a result - the actions "filter-client-headers" and "filter-server-headers" - that were introduced with Privoxy 3.0.5 to apply - the content filters to the headers as, well have been removed again. +> 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. +
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:
Added IPv6 support. Thanks to Petr Pisar who not only provided + the initial patch but also helped a lot with the integration. +
Added client-side keep-alive support. +
The connection sharing code is only used if the connection-sharing + option is enabled. +
The latency is taken into account when evaluating whether or not to + reuse a connection. This should significantly reduce the number of + connections problems several users reported. +
The max-client-connections option has been added to restrict + the number of client connections below a value enforced by + the operating system. +
If the server doesn't specify how long the connection stays alive, + Privoxy errs on the safe side of caution and assumes it's only a second. +
Setting keep-alive-timeout to 0 disables keep-alive support. Previously + Privoxy would claim to allow persistence but not reuse the connection. +
Pipelined requests are less likely to be mistaken for the request + body of the previous request. Note that Privoxy still has no real + pipeline support and will either serialize pipelined requests or + drop them in which case the client has to resent them. +
Fixed a crash on some Windows versions when header randomization + is enabled and the date couldn't be parsed. +
Privoxy's keep-alive timeout for the current connection is reduced + to the one specified in the client's Keep-Alive header. +
For HTTP/1.1 requests, Privoxy implies keep-alive support by not + setting any Connection header instead of using 'Connection: keep-alive'. +
If the socket isn't reusable, Privoxy doesn't temporarily waste + a socket slot to remember the connection. +
If keep-alive support is disabled but compiled in, the client's + Keep-Alive header is removed. +
Fixed a bug on mingw32 where downloading large files failed if + keep-alive support was enabled. +
Fixed a bug that (at least theoretically) could cause log + timestamps to be occasionally off by about a second. +
The configure script respects the $PATH variable when searching + for groups and id. +
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. +
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. +
Error messages in case of connection timeouts use the right + HTTP status code. +
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. +
The error messages in case of server-connection timeouts or + prematurely closed server connections are now template-based. +
If zlib support isn't compiled in, Privoxy no longer tries to + filter compressed content unless explicitly asked to do so. +
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.
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. +
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. +
- Some installers may remove earlier versions completely, including - configuration files. Save any important configuration files! + Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely, + including configuration files, therefore you should really save + any important configuration files!
- On the other hand, other installers may not overwrite any existing configuration - files, thinking you will want to do that. You may want to manually check - your saved files against the newer versions to see if the improvements have - merit, or whether there are new options that you may want to consider. - There are a number of new features, but most won't be available unless - these features are incorporated into your configuration somehow. + On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration + files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
Logging is off by default now. If you need logging, it can be turned on - in the config file. -
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 version is working + as expected. +