Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Privoxy Developers
-$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.61.2.5 2002/07/26 15:22:58 oes Exp $
+$Id: faq.sgml,v 1.61.2.11 2002/08/06 08:54:03 oes Exp $
This FAQ gives quick answers to frequently asked questions about Privoxy . It
2.5. What is the proxy address of Privoxy?
2.6. I just installed Privoxy, and nothing is happening. All the ads are
there. What's wrong?
+ 2.7. In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
+ uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient
+ privileges to empty the trash.
3. Configuration
5.4. After installing Privoxy, I have to log in every time I start IE. What
gives?
5.5. I cannot connect to any FTP sites. Privoxy seems to be blocking me.
+ 5.6. In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use
+ Privoxy as the HTTP proxy.
6. Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
inside out, upside down, and then reassembled it, adding many new features
along the way.
-The result of this is Privoxy, whose first stable release, 3.0, is due in June
-2002.
+The result of this is Privoxy, whose first stable release, 3.0, is due late
+summer or early fall 2002.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.2. Why "Privoxy"? Why a name change at all?
2.2. Which operating systems are supported?
At present, Privoxy is known to run on Windows(95, 98, ME, 2000, XP), Linux
-(RedHat, SuSE, Debian, Conectiva), Mac OSX, OS/2, AmigaOS, BeOS, FreeBSD,
-NetBSD, Solaris, and many more flavors of Unix.
+(RedHat, SuSE, Debian, Conectiva, Gentoo), Mac OSX, OS/2, AmigaOS, BeOS,
+FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris, and many more flavors of Unix.
But any operating system that runs TCP/IP, can conceivably take advantage of
Privoxy in a networked situation where Privoxy would run as a server on a LAN
good to go. If you receive a page saying "Privoxy is not running", then the
browser is not set up to use your Privoxy installation. If you receive anything
else (probably nothing at all), it could either be that the browser is not set
-up correctly, or that Privoxy is not running at all. Check the log file.
+up correctly, or that Privoxy is not running at all. Check the log file.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+2.7. In Mac OSX, I dragged the Privoxy folder to the trash in order to
+uninstall it. Now the finder tells me I don't have sufficient privileges to
+empty the trash.
+
+Privoxy is installed with root permissions. When you drag the Privoxy folder to
+the trash, the general user does not have (as the Finder says) sufficient
+privileges to delete it. Unfortunately, the finder does not offer a way to
+enter the administrator password in order to prove you do in fact own this
+computer. To fix this situation, open the Terminal application and carefully
+enter the following commands:
+
+ cd ~
+ cd .Trash
+ sudo rm -rf Privoxy
+
+The trash may still appear full after this command; emptying the trash from the
+desktop should make it appear empty again.
+
++-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+| Warning |
++-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+|Be extra-sure to enter the commands EXACTLY as shown above. Removing files |
+|recusively with administrator priviledges (as happens with sudo rm -rf is |
+|serious business and even small typos can have devasting effects! |
++-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Configuration
configuration file. Look for the listen-address option, which may be commented
out with a "#" symbol. Make sure it is uncommented, and assign it the address
of the LAN gateway interface, and port number to use. Assuming your LAN address
-is 192.168.1.1 and you wish to run Privoxy on port 8118, this line schould look
+is 192.168.1.1 and you wish to run Privoxy on port 8118, this line should look
like:
listen-address 192.168.1.1:8118
Note that the built-in URLs from earlier versions of Junkbuster / Privoxy,
http://example.com/show-proxy-args and http://i.j.b/, are no longer supported.
If you still use such an old version, you should really consider upgrading to
-2.9.16.
+2.9.18.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.4. Do you still maintain the blocklists?
HTTP or HTTPS.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+5.6. In Mac OSX, I can't configure Microsoft Internet Explorer to use Privoxy
+as the HTTP proxy.
+
+Microsoft Internet Explorer (in versions like 5.1) respects system-wide network
+settings. In order to change the HTTP proxy, open System Preferences, and click
+on the Network icon. In the settings pane that comes up, click on the Proxies
+tab. Ensure the "Web Proxy (HTTP)" checkbox is checked and enter 127.0.0.1 in
+the entry field. Enter 8118 in the Port field. The next time you start IE, it
+should reflect these values.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
6. Contacting the developers, Bug Reporting and Feature Requests
We value your feedback. In fact, we rely on it to improve Privoxy and its
inside out, upside down, and then reassembled it, adding many new features
along the way.
-The result of this is Privoxy, whose first stable release, 3.0, is due in June
-2002.
+The result of this is Privoxy, whose first stable release, 3.0, is due late
+summer or early fall 2002.
-Privoxy 2.9.16 User Manual
+Privoxy 2.9.18 User Manual
Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Privoxy Developers
-$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.123.2.11 2002/07/26 15:20:31 oes Exp $
+$Id: user-manual.sgml,v 1.123.2.14 2002/08/06 09:16:13 oes Exp $
The User Manual gives users information on how to install, configure and use
2.1.5. OS/2
2.1.6. Mac OSX
2.1.7. AmigaOS
+ 2.1.8. Gentoo
2.2. Building from Source
5.6. OS/2
5.7. Mac OSX
5.8. AmigaOS
- 5.9. Command Line Options
+ 5.9. Gentoo
+ 5.10. Command Line Options
6. Privoxy Configuration
1. Introduction
This documentation is included with the current beta version of Privoxy,
-v.2.9.16, and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference
+v.2.9.18, 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
2.1.1. Red Hat, SuSE and Conectiva RPMs
-RPMs can be installed with rpm -Uvh privoxy-2.9.16-1.rpm, and will use /etc/
+RPMs can be installed with rpm -Uvh privoxy-2.9.18-1.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.
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-2.9.16-1.src.rpm. This will use your locally installed
+--rebuild privoxy-2.9.18-1.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
2.1.2. Debian
-DEBs can be installed with dpkg -i privoxy_2.9.16-1.deb, and will use /etc/
+DEBs can be installed with dpkg -i privoxy_2.9.18-1.deb, and will use /etc/
privoxy for the location of configuration files.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
log files. To uninstall, just remove this directory.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+2.1.8. Gentoo
+
+Gentoo source packages (Ebuilds) for Privoxy are contained in the Gentoo
+Portage Tree (they are not on the download page, but there is a Gentoo section,
+where you can see when a new Privoxy Version is added to the Portage Tree).
+
+Before installing Privoxy under Gentoo just do first emerge rsync to get the
+latest changes from the Portage tree. With emerge privoxy you install the
+latest version.
+
+Configuration files are in /etc/privoxy, the documentation is in /usr/share/doc
+/privoxy-2.9.18 and the Log directory is in /var/log/privoxy.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
2.2. Building from Source
The most convenient way to obtain the Privoxy sources is to download the source
When building from a source tarball (either release version or nightly CVS
tarball), first unpack the source:
- tar xzvf privoxy-2.9.16-beta-src* [.tgz or .tar.gz]
- cd privoxy-2.9.16-beta
+ tar xzvf privoxy-2.9.18-beta-src* [.tgz or .tar.gz]
+ cd privoxy-2.9.18-beta
For retrieving the current CVS sources, you'll need CVS installed. Note that
sources from CVS are development quality, and may not be stable, or well
2.3. Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date
As user feedback comes in and development continues, we will make updated
-versions of both the software and the main actions file (default.action)
-available for download.
+versions of both the main actions file (as a separate package) and the software
+itself (including the actions file) available for download.
If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
Privoxy or the actions file, subscribe to our announce mailing list,
ijbswa-announce@lists.sourceforge.net.
-Both can be downloaded from the files section on SourceForge.
-
In order not to loose your personal changes and adjustments when updating to
the latest default.action file we strongly recommend that you use user.action
for your customization of Privoxy. See the Chapter on actions files for
may display that Privoxy is still running).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-5.9. Command Line Options
+5.9. Gentoo
+
+A script is again used. It will use the file /etc/privoxy/config as its main
+configuration file.
+
+ /etc/init.d/privoxy start
+
+
+Note that Privoxy is not automatically started at boot time by default. You can
+change this with the rc-update command.
+
+ rc-update add privoxy default
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+5.10. Command Line Options
Privoxy may be invoked with the following command-line options:
Unix, in local filesystem:
- user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-2.9.16/user-manual/
+ user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-2.9.18/user-manual/
Any platform, on local webserver (called "local-webserver"):
debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
debug 512 # Common Log Format
debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
+ debug 2048 # CGI user interface
debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
Type of value:
- target_domain[:port] http_parent[/port]
+ target_pattern 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
+ where target_pattern is a URL pattern that specifies to which requests
+ (i.e. URLs) this forward rule shall apply. Use / to denote "all URLs".
+ http_parent[:port] is the DNS name or IP address of the parent HTTP proxy
+ through which the requests should be forwarded, optionally followed by its
+ listening port (default: 8080). Use a single dot (.) to denote "no
+ forwarding".
Default value:
Unset
Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443
(which it doesn't handle):
- forward .* anon-proxy.example.org:8080
+ 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 / caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
forward .example-isp.net .
requests should be routed.
Type of value:
- target_domain[:port] socks_proxy[/port] http_parent[/port]
+ target_pattern 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
+ where target_pattern is a URL pattern that specifies to which requests
+ (i.e. URLs) this forward rule shall apply. Use / to denote "all URLs".
+ 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
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-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 .
+ forward-socks4 / socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
host-a:
- forward .*. .
+ forward / .
forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
host-b:
- forward .*. .
+ 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
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 for 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
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.6. Windows GUI Options
inside out, upside down, and then reassembled it, adding many new features
along the way.
-The result of this is Privoxy, whose first stable release, 3.0, is due in June
-2002.
+The result of this is Privoxy, whose first stable release, 3.0, is due late
+summer or early fall 2002.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12.3. Authors
Current Project Contributors:
Rodrigo Barbosa (RPM specfiles)
+ Moritz Barsnick
Hal Burgiss (docs)
Alexander Lazic
Gábor Lipták
Guy
Haroon Rafique
Roland Rosenfeld
+ Georg Sauthoff
David Schmidt (OS/2, Mac OSX ports)
Joerg Strohmayer
Sarantis Paskalis
projects / privoxy.git / commitdiff