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6 <!entity seealso SYSTEM "seealso.sgml">
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10 <!entity copyright SYSTEM "copyright.sgml">
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16 <!entity changelog SYSTEM "changelog.sgml">
17 <!entity p-version "3.0.29">
18 <!entity p-status "UNRELEASED">
19 <!entity % p-authors-formal "INCLUDE"> <!-- include additional text, etc -->
20 <!entity % p-not-stable "INCLUDE">
21 <!entity % p-stable "IGNORE">
22 <!entity % p-text "IGNORE"> <!-- define we are not a text only doc -->
23 <!entity % p-doc "INCLUDE"> <!-- and we are a formal doc -->
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25 <!entity % user-man "IGNORE">
26 <!entity % config-file "IGNORE">
27 <!entity % p-supp-userman "IGNORE"> <!-- Omit some from supported.sgml -->
28 <!entity my-copy "©"> <!-- kludge for docbook2man -->
29 <!entity % draft "IGNORE"> <!-- WIP stuff -->
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31 <!entity my-app "<application>Privoxy</application>">
34 File : doc/source/user-manual.sgml
38 Copyright (C) 2001-2020 Privoxy Developers https://www.privoxy.org/
41 ========================================================================
42 NOTE: Please read developer-manual/documentation.html before touching
43 anything in this, or other Privoxy documentation.
44 ========================================================================
51 <title>Privoxy &p-version; User Manual</title>
55 <!-- Completely the wrong markup, but very little is allowed -->
56 <!-- in this part of an article. FIXME -->
57 <link linkend="copyright">Copyright</link> &my-copy; 2001-2020 by
58 <ulink url="https://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy Developers</ulink>
64 Note: the following should generate a separate page, and a live link to it,
65 all nicely done. But it doesn't for some mysterious reason. Please leave
66 commented unless it can be fixed proper. For the time being, the
67 copyright/license declarations will be in their own sgml.
80 This is here to keep vim syntax file from breaking :/
81 If I knew enough to fix it, I would.
82 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE! HB: hal@foobox.net
88 The <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> gives users information on how to
89 install, configure and use <ulink
90 url="https://www.privoxy.org/">Privoxy</ulink>.
93 <!-- Include privoxy.sgml boilerplate: -->
95 <!-- end privoxy.sgml -->
98 You can find the latest version of the <citetitle>Privoxy User Manual</citetitle> at <ulink
99 url="https://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/">https://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</ulink>.
100 Please see the <link linkend="contact">Contact section</link> on how to
101 contact the developers.
108 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
109 <sect1 label="1" id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
111 This documentation is included with the current &p-status; version of
112 <application>Privoxy</application>, &p-version;<![%p-not-stable;[,
113 and is mostly complete at this point. The most up to date reference for the
114 time being is still the comments in the source files and in the individual
115 configuration files. Development of a new version is currently nearing
116 completion, and includes significant changes and enhancements over
120 <!-- include only in non-stable versions -->
123 Since this is a &p-status; version, not all new features are well tested. This
124 documentation may be slightly out of sync as a result (especially with
125 <ulink url="https://www.privoxy.org/gitweb/?p=privoxy.git;a=summary">git sources</ulink>).
126 And there <emphasis>may be</emphasis> bugs, though hopefully
131 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
132 <sect2 id="features"><title>Features</title>
134 In addition to the core
135 features of ad blocking and
136 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookie</ulink> management,
137 <application>Privoxy</application> provides many supplemental
138 features<![%p-not-stable;[, some of them currently under development]]>,
139 that give the end-user more control, more privacy and more freedom:
141 <!-- Include newfeatures.sgml boilerplate here: -->
143 <!-- end boilerplate -->
148 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
151 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
152 <sect1 id="installation"><title>Installation</title>
155 <application>Privoxy</application> is available both in convenient pre-compiled
156 packages for a wide range of operating systems, and as raw source code.
157 For most users, we recommend using the packages, which can be downloaded from our
158 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/">Privoxy Project
164 On some platforms, the installer may remove previously installed versions, if
165 found. (See below for your platform). In any case <emphasis>be sure to backup
166 your old configuration if it is valuable to you.</emphasis> See the <link
167 linkend="upgradersnote">note to upgraders</link> section below.
170 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
171 <sect2 id="installation-packages"><title>Binary Packages</title>
173 How to install the binary packages depends on your operating system:
176 <!-- XXX: The installation sections should be sorted -->
178 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
179 <sect3 id="installation-deb"><title>Debian and Ubuntu</title>
181 DEBs can be installed with <literal>apt-get install privoxy</literal>,
182 and will use <filename>/etc/privoxy</filename> for the location of
187 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
188 <sect3 id="installation-pack-win"><title>Windows</title>
191 Just double-click the installer, which will guide you through
192 the installation process. You will find the configuration files
193 in the same directory as you installed <application>Privoxy</application> in.
196 Version 3.0.5 beta introduced full <application>Windows</application> service
197 functionality. On Windows only, the <application>Privoxy</application>
198 program has two new command line arguments to install and uninstall
199 <application>Privoxy</application> as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>.
203 <term>Arguments:</term>
206 <replaceable class="parameter">--install</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
209 <replaceable class="parameter">--uninstall</replaceable>[:<replaceable class="parameter">service_name</replaceable>]
215 After invoking <application>Privoxy</application> with
216 <command>--install</command>, you will need to bring up the
217 <application>Windows</application> service console to assign the user you
218 want <application>Privoxy</application> to run under, and whether or not you
219 want it to run whenever the system starts. You can start the
220 <application>Windows</application> services console with the following
221 command: <command>services.msc</command>. If you do not take the manual step
222 of modifying <application>Privoxy's</application> service settings, it will
223 not start. Note too that you will need to give Privoxy a user account that
224 actually exists, or it will not be permitted to
225 write to its log and configuration files.
230 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
231 <sect3 id="installation-os2"><title>OS/2</title>
234 First, make sure that no previous installations of
235 <application>Junkbuster</application> and / or
236 <application>Privoxy</application> are left on your
237 system. Check that no <application>Junkbuster</application>
238 or <application>Privoxy</application> objects are in
243 Then, just double-click the WarpIN self-installing archive, which will
244 guide you through the installation process. A shadow of the
245 <application>Privoxy</application> executable will be placed in your
246 startup folder so it will start automatically whenever OS/2 starts.
250 The directory you choose to install <application>Privoxy</application>
251 into will contain all of the configuration files.
255 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
256 <sect3 id="installation-mac"><title>Mac OS X</title>
258 Installation instructions for the OS X platform depend upon whether
259 you downloaded a ready-built installation package (.pkg or .mpkg) or have
260 downloaded the source code.
263 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="OS-X-install-from-package">
264 <title>Installation from ready-built package</title>
266 The downloaded file will either be a .pkg (for OS X 10.5 upwards) or a bzipped
267 .mpkg file (for OS X 10.4). The former can be double-clicked as is and the
268 installation will start; double-clicking the latter will unzip the .mpkg file
269 which can then be double-clicked to commence the installation.
272 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful installation
273 (and thereafter every time your computer starts up) however you will need to
274 configure your web browser(s) to use it. To do so, configure them to use a
275 proxy for HTTP and HTTPS at the address 127.0.0.1:8118.
278 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your computer
279 starts up, remove or rename the file <literal>/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ijbswa.privoxy.plist</literal>
280 (on OS X 10.5 and higher) or the folder named
281 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal> (on OS X 10.4 'Tiger').
284 To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the scripts startPrivoxy.sh
285 and stopPrivoxy.sh supplied in /Applications/Privoxy. They must be run from an
286 administrator account, using sudo.
289 To uninstall, run /Applications/Privoxy/uninstall.command as sudo from an
290 administrator account.
293 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="OS-X-install-from-source">
294 <title>Installation from source</title>
296 To build and install the Privoxy source code on OS X you will need to obtain
297 the macsetup module from the Privoxy Sourceforge CVS repository (refer to
298 Sourceforge help for details of how to set up a CVS client to have read-only
299 access to the repository). This module contains scripts that leverage the usual
300 open-source tools (available as part of Apple's free of charge Xcode
301 distribution or via the usual open-source software package managers for OS X
302 (MacPorts, Homebrew, Fink etc.) to build and then install the privoxy binary
303 and associated files. The macsetup module's README file contains complete
304 instructions for its use.
307 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful installation
308 (and thereafter every time your computer starts up) however you will need to
309 configure your web browser(s) to use it. To do so, configure them to use a
310 proxy for HTTP and HTTPS at the address 127.0.0.1:8118.
313 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your computer
314 starts up, remove or rename the file <literal>/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ijbswa.privoxy.plist</literal>
315 (on OS X 10.5 and higher) or the folder named
316 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal> (on OS X 10.4 'Tiger').
319 To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the Privoxy Utility
320 for Mac OS X (also part of the macsetup module). This application can start
321 and stop the privoxy service and display its log and configuration files.
324 To uninstall, run the macsetup module's uninstall.sh as sudo from an
325 administrator account.
329 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
330 <sect3 id="installation-freebsd"><title>FreeBSD</title>
333 Privoxy is part of FreeBSD's Ports Collection, you can build and install
334 it with <literal>cd /usr/ports/www/privoxy; make install clean</literal>.
340 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
341 <sect2 id="installation-source"><title>Building from Source</title>
344 The most convenient way to obtain the <application>Privoxy</application> source
345 code is to download the source tarball from our
346 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/files/Sources/">
347 project download page</ulink>,
348 or you can get the up-to-the-minute, possibly unstable, development version from
349 <ulink url="https://www.privoxy.org/">https://www.privoxy.org/</ulink>.
352 <!-- include buildsource.sgml boilerplate: -->
354 <!-- end boilerplate -->
357 <sect3 id="WINBUILD-CYGWIN"><title>Windows</title>
359 <sect4 id="WINBUILD-SETUP"><title>Setup</title>
361 Install the Cygwin utilities needed to build <application>Privoxy</application>.
362 If you have a 64 bit CPU (which most people do by now), get the
363 Cygwin setup-x86_64.exe program <ulink url="https://cygwin.com/setup-x86_64.exe">here</ulink>
364 (the .sig file is <ulink url="https://cygwin.com/setup-x86_64.exe.sig">here</ulink>).
367 Run the setup program and from View / Category select:
379 mingw64-i686-gcc-core
384 libxslt: GNOME XSLT library (runtime)
400 If you haven't already downloaded the Privoxy source code, get it now:
405 git clone https://www.privoxy.org/git/privoxy.git
409 Get the source code (.zip or .tar.gz) for tidy from
410 <ulink url="https://github.com/htacg/tidy-html5/releases">
411 https://github.com/htacg/tidy-html5/releases</ulink>,
412 unzip into <root-dir> and build the software:
416 cd tidy-html5-x.y.z/build/cmake
417 cmake ../.. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBUILD_SHARED_LIB:BOOL=OFF -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local
422 If you want to be able to make a Windows release package, get the NSIS .zip file from
423 <!-- FIXME: which version(s) are known to work? -->
424 <ulink url="https://sourceforge.net/projects/nsis/files/NSIS%203/">
425 https://sourceforge.net/projects/nsis/files/NSIS%203/</ulink>
426 and extract the NSIS directory to <literal>privoxy/windows</literal>.
427 Then edit the windows/GNUmakefile to set the location of the NSIS executable - eg:
431 MAKENSIS = ./nsis/makensis.exe
436 <sect4 id="WINBUILD-BUILD"><title>Build</title>
439 To build just the Privoxy executable and not the whole installation package, do:
442 cd <root-dir>/privoxy
443 ./windows/MYconfigure && make
447 Privoxy uses the <ulink url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_build_system">GNU Autotools</ulink>
448 for building software, so the process is:
451 $ autoheader # creates config.h.in
452 $ autoconf # uses config.h.in to create the configure shell script
453 $ ./configure [options] # creates GNUmakefile
454 $ make [options] # builds the program
458 The usual <literal>configure</literal> options for building a native Windows application under cygwin are
461 <literallayout class="Monospaced">
462 --host=i686-w64-mingw32
465 --enable-static-linking
467 --disable-dynamic-pcre
471 You can set the <literal>CFLAGS</literal> and <literal>LDFLAGS</literal> envars before
472 running <literal>configure</literal> to set compiler and linker flags. For example:
476 $ export CFLAGS="-O2" # set gcc optimization level
477 $ export LDFLAGS="-Wl,--nxcompat" # Enable DEP
478 $ ./configure --host=i686-w64-mingw32 --enable-mingw32 --enable-zlib \
479 > --enable-static-linking --disable-pthread --disable-dynamic-pcre
480 $ make # build Privoxy
484 See the <ulink url="../developer-manual/newrelease.html#NEWRELEASE-WINDOWS">Developer's Manual</ulink>
485 for building a Windows release package.
493 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
494 <sect2 id="installation-keepupdated"><title>Keeping your Installation Up-to-Date</title>
497 If you wish to receive an email notification whenever we release updates of
498 <application>Privoxy</application> or the actions file, <ulink
499 url="https://lists.privoxy.org/mailman/listinfo/privoxy-announce">subscribe
500 to our announce mailing list</ulink>, privoxy-announce@lists.privoxy.org.
504 In order not to lose your personal changes and adjustments when updating
505 to the latest <literal>default.action</literal> file we <emphasis>strongly
506 recommend</emphasis> that you use <literal>user.action</literal> and
507 <literal>user.filter</literal> for your local
508 customizations of <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
509 linkend="actions-file">Chapter on actions files</link> for details.
517 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
519 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
520 <sect1 id="whatsnew">
521 <title>What's New in this Release</title>
525 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
527 <sect2 id="upgradersnote">
528 <title>Note to Upgraders</title>
531 A quick list of things to be aware of before upgrading from earlier
532 versions of <application>Privoxy</application>:
539 The recommended way to upgrade &my-app; is to backup your old
540 configuration files, install the new ones, verify that &my-app;
541 is working correctly and finally merge back your changes using
542 <application>diff</application> and maybe <application>patch</application>.
545 There are a number of new features in each &my-app; release and
546 most of them have to be explicitly enabled in the configuration
547 files. Old configuration files obviously don't do that and due
548 to syntax changes using old configuration files with a new
549 &my-app; isn't always possible anyway.
554 Note that some installers remove earlier versions completely,
555 including configuration files, therefore you should really save
556 any important configuration files!
561 On the other hand, other installers don't overwrite existing configuration
562 files, thinking you will want to do that yourself.
567 In the default configuration only fatal errors are logged now.
568 You can change that in the <link linkend="DEBUG">debug section</link>
569 of the configuration file. You may also want to enable more verbose
570 logging until you verified that the new &my-app; version is working
577 Three other config file settings are now off by default:
578 <link linkend="enable-remote-toggle">enable-remote-toggle</link>,
579 <link linkend="enable-remote-http-toggle">enable-remote-http-toggle</link>,
580 and <link linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link>.
581 If you use or want these, you will need to explicitly enable them, and
582 be aware of the security issues involved.
589 What constitutes a <quote>default</quote> configuration has changed,
590 and you may want to review which actions are <quote>on</quote> by
591 default. This is primarily a matter of emphasis, but some features
592 you may have been used to, may now be <quote>off</quote> by default.
593 There are also a number of new actions and filters you may want to
594 consider, most of which are not fully incorporated into the default
595 settings as yet (see above).
602 The default actions setting is now <literal>Cautious</literal>. Previous
603 releases had a default setting of <literal>Medium</literal>. Experienced
604 users may want to adjust this, as it is fairly conservative by &my-app;
605 standards and past practices. See <ulink
606 url="http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default">
607 http://config.privoxy.org/edit-actions-list?f=default</ulink>. New users
608 should try the default settings for a while before turning up the volume.
614 The default setting has filtering turned <emphasis>off</emphasis>, which
615 subsequently means that compression is <emphasis>on</emphasis>. Remember
616 that filtering does not work on compressed pages, so if you use, or want to
617 use, filtering, you will need to force compression off. Example:
620 { +<link linkend="filter">filter</link>{google} +<link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link> }
623 Or if you use a number of filters, or filter many sites, you may just want
624 to turn off compression for all sites in
625 <filename>default.action</filename> (or
626 <filename>user.action</filename>).
633 Also, <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> is
634 off by default now. If you've liked this feature in the past, you may want
635 to turn it back on in <filename>user.action</filename> now.
642 Some installers may not automatically start
643 <application>Privoxy</application> after installation.
653 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
654 <sect1 id="quickstart"><title>Quickstart to Using Privoxy</title>
660 Install <application>Privoxy</application>. See the <link
661 linkend="installation">Installation Section</link> below for platform specific
668 Advanced users and those who want to offer <application>Privoxy</application>
669 service to more than just their local machine should check the <link
670 linkend="config">main config file</link>, especially the <link
671 linkend="access-control">security-relevant</link> options. These are
678 Start <application>Privoxy</application>, if the installation program has
679 not done this already (may vary according to platform). See the section
680 <link linkend="startup">Starting <application>Privoxy</application></link>.
686 Set your browser to use <application>Privoxy</application> as HTTP and
687 HTTPS (SSL) <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>
688 by setting the proxy configuration for address of
689 <literal>127.0.0.1</literal> and port <literal>8118</literal>.
690 <emphasis>DO NOT</emphasis> activate proxying for <literal>FTP</literal> or
691 any protocols besides HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) unless you intend to prevent your
692 browser from using these protocols.
698 Flush your browser's disk and memory caches, to remove any cached ad images.
699 If using <application>Privoxy</application> to manage
700 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
701 you should remove any currently stored cookies too.
707 A default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for
708 most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the
709 configuration, but that can be dealt with as the need arises. Little
710 to no initial configuration is required in most cases, you may want
712 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">web-based action editor</ulink> though.
713 Be sure to read the warnings first.
716 See the <link linkend="configuration">Configuration section</link> for more
717 configuration options, and how to customize your installation.
718 You might also want to look at the <link
719 linkend="quickstart-ad-blocking">next section</link> for a quick
720 introduction to how <application>Privoxy</application> blocks ads and
727 If you experience ads that slip through, innocent images that are
728 blocked, or otherwise feel the need to fine-tune
729 <application>Privoxy's</application> behavior, take a look at the <link
730 linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>. As a quick start, you might
731 find the <link linkend="act-examples">richly commented examples</link>
732 helpful. You can also view and edit the actions files through the <ulink
733 url="http://config.privoxy.org">web-based user interface</ulink>. The
734 Appendix <quote><link linkend="actionsanat">Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an
735 Action</link></quote> has hints on how to understand and debug actions that
736 <quote>misbehave</quote>.
742 Please see the section <link linkend="contact">Contacting the
743 Developers</link> on how to report bugs, problems with websites or to get
750 Now enjoy surfing with enhanced control, comfort and privacy!
757 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
759 <sect2 id="quickstart-ad-blocking">
760 <title>Quickstart to Ad Blocking</title>
762 NOTE: This section is deliberately redundant for those that don't
763 want to read the whole thing (which is getting lengthy).
766 Ad blocking is but one of <application>Privoxy's</application>
767 array of features. Many of these features are for the technically minded advanced
768 user. But, ad and banner blocking is surely common ground for everybody.
771 This section will provide a quick summary of ad blocking so
772 you can get up to speed quickly without having to read the more extensive
773 information provided below, though this is highly recommended.
776 First a bit of a warning ... blocking ads is much like blocking SPAM: the
777 more aggressive you are about it, the more likely you are to block
778 things that were not intended. And the more likely that some things
779 may not work as intended. So there is a trade off here. If you want
780 extreme ad free browsing, be prepared to deal with more
781 <quote>problem</quote> sites, and to spend more time adjusting the
782 configuration to solve these unintended consequences. In short, there is
783 not an easy way to eliminate <emphasis>all</emphasis> ads. Either take
784 the easy way and settle for <emphasis>most</emphasis> ads blocked with the
785 default configuration, or jump in and tweak it for your personal surfing
786 habits and preferences.
789 Secondly, a brief explanation of <application>Privoxy's </application>
790 <quote>actions</quote>. <quote>Actions</quote> in this context, are
791 the directives we use to tell <application>Privoxy</application> to perform
792 some task relating to HTTP transactions (i.e. web browsing). We tell
793 <application>Privoxy</application> to take some <quote>action</quote>. Each
794 action has a unique name and function. While there are many potential
795 <application>actions</application> in <application>Privoxy's</application>
796 arsenal, only a few are used for ad blocking. <link
797 linkend="actions">Actions</link>, and <link linkend="actions-file">action
798 configuration files</link>, are explained in depth below.
801 Actions are specified in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
802 followed by one or more URLs to which the action should apply. URLs
803 can actually be URL type <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> that use
804 wildcards so they can apply potentially to a range of similar URLs. The
805 actions, together with the URL patterns are called a section.
808 When you connect to a website, the full URL will either match one or more
809 of the sections as defined in <application>Privoxy's</application> configuration,
810 or not. If so, then <application>Privoxy</application> will perform the
811 respective actions. If not, then nothing special happens. Furthermore, web
812 pages may contain embedded, secondary URLs that your web browser will
813 use to load additional components of the page, as it parses the
814 original page's HTML content. An ad image for instance, is just an URL
815 embedded in the page somewhere. The image itself may be on the same server,
816 or a server somewhere else on the Internet. Complex web pages will have many
817 such embedded URLs. &my-app; can deal with each URL individually, so, for
818 instance, the main page text is not touched, but images from such-and-such
823 The most important actions for basic ad blocking are: <literal><link
824 linkend="block">block</link></literal>, <literal><link
825 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
827 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal>,and
828 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>:
835 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> - this is perhaps
836 the single most used action, and is particularly important for ad blocking.
837 This action stops any contact between your browser and any URL patterns
838 that match this action's configuration. It can be used for blocking ads,
839 but also anything that is determined to be unwanted. By itself, it simply
840 stops any communication with the remote server and sends
841 <application>Privoxy</application>'s own built-in BLOCKED page instead to
842 let you now what has happened (with some exceptions, see below).
848 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> -
849 tells <application>Privoxy</application> to treat this URL as an image.
850 <application>Privoxy</application>'s default configuration already does this
851 for all common image types (e.g. GIF), but there are many situations where this
852 is not so easy to determine. So we'll force it in these cases. This is particularly
853 important for ad blocking, since only if we know that it's an image of
854 some kind, can we replace it with an image of our choosing, instead of the
855 <application>Privoxy</application> BLOCKED page (which would only result in
856 a <quote>broken image</quote> icon). There are some limitations to this
857 though. For instance, you can't just brute-force an image substitution for
858 an entire HTML page in most situations.
864 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> -
865 sends an empty document instead of <application>Privoxy's</application>
866 normal BLOCKED HTML page. This is useful for file types that are neither
867 HTML nor images, such as blocking JavaScript files.
874 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> - tells
875 <application>Privoxy</application> what to display in place of an ad image that
876 has hit a block rule. For this to come into play, the URL must match a
877 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action somewhere in the
878 configuration, <emphasis>and</emphasis>, it must also match an
879 <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action.
882 The configuration options on what to display instead of the ad are:
886 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> - a checkerboard pattern, so that an ad
887 replacement is obvious. This is the default.
892 <emphasis>blank</emphasis> - A very small empty GIF image is displayed.
893 This is the so-called <quote>invisible</quote> configuration option.
898 <emphasis>http://<URL></emphasis> - A redirect to any image anywhere
899 of the user's choosing (advanced usage).
907 Advanced users will eventually want to explore &my-app;
908 <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal> as well. Filters
909 are very different from <literal><link
910 linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>.
911 A <quote>block</quote> blocks a site, page, or unwanted contented. Filters
912 are a way of filtering or modifying what is actually on the page. An example
913 filter usage: a text replacement of <quote>no-no</quote> for
914 <quote>nasty-word</quote>. That is a very simple example. This process can be
915 used for ad blocking, but it is more in the realm of advanced usage and has
916 some pitfalls to be wary off.
920 The quickest way to adjust any of these settings is with your browser through
921 the special <application>Privoxy</application> editor at <ulink
922 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
923 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>). This
924 is an internal page, and does not require Internet access.
928 Note that as of <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta the
929 action editor is disabled by default. Check the
930 <ulink url="config.html#ENABLE-EDIT-ACTIONS">enable-edit-actions
931 section in the configuration file</ulink> to learn why and in which
932 cases it's safe to enable again.
936 If you decided to enable the action editor, select the appropriate
937 <quote>actions</quote> file, and click
938 <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>. It is best to put personal or
939 local preferences in <filename>user.action</filename> since this is not
940 meant to be overwritten during upgrades, and will over-ride the settings in
941 other files. Here you can insert new <quote>actions</quote>, and URLs for ad
942 blocking or other purposes, and make other adjustments to the configuration.
943 <application>Privoxy</application> will detect these changes automatically.
947 A quick and simple step by step example:
954 Right click on the ad image to be blocked, then select
955 <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote> from the
963 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
968 Find <filename>user.action</filename> in the top section, and click
969 on <quote><guibutton>Edit</guibutton></quote>:
972 <!-- image of editor and actions files selections -->
973 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Actions Files in Use</title>
976 <imagedata fileref="files-in-use.jpg" format="jpg">
979 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Actions Files in Use ]</phrase>
987 You should have a section with only
988 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> listed under
989 <quote>Actions:</quote>.
990 If not, click a <quote><guibutton>Insert new section below</guibutton></quote>
991 button, and in the new section that just appeared, click the
992 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button right under the word <quote>Actions:</quote>.
993 This will bring up a list of all actions. Find
994 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> near the top, and click
995 in the <quote>Enabled</quote> column, then <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote>
1001 Now, in the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> actions section,
1002 click the <quote><guibutton>Add</guibutton></quote> button, and paste the URL the
1003 browser got from <quote><guimenuitem>Copy Link Location</guimenuitem></quote>.
1004 Remove the <literal>http://</literal> at the beginning of the URL. Then, click
1005 <quote><guibutton>Submit</guibutton></quote> (or
1006 <quote><guibutton>OK</guibutton></quote> if in a pop-up window).
1011 Now go back to the original page, and press <keycap>SHIFT-Reload</keycap>
1012 (or flush all browser caches). The image should be gone now.
1019 This is a very crude and simple example. There might be good reasons to use a
1020 wildcard pattern match to include potentially similar images from the same
1021 site. For a more extensive explanation of <quote>patterns</quote>, and
1022 the entire actions concept, see <link linkend="actions-file">the Actions
1027 For advanced users who want to hand edit their config files, you might want
1028 to now go to the <link linkend="act-examples">Actions Files Tutorial</link>.
1029 The ideas explained therein also apply to the web-based editor.
1032 There are also various
1033 <link linkend="filter">filters</link> that can be used for ad blocking
1034 (filters are a special subset of actions). These
1035 fall into the <quote>advanced</quote> usage category, and are explained in
1036 depth in later sections.
1043 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1046 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1047 <sect1 id="startup">
1048 <title>Starting Privoxy</title>
1050 Before launching <application>Privoxy</application> for the first time, you
1051 will want to configure your browser(s) to use
1052 <application>Privoxy</application> as a HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)
1053 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server">proxy</ulink>. The default is
1054 127.0.0.1 (or localhost) for the proxy address, and port 8118 (earlier versions
1055 used port 8000). This is the one configuration step <emphasis>that must be done
1059 Please note that <application>Privoxy</application> can only proxy HTTP and
1060 HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.
1063 <!-- image of Mozilla Proxy configuration -->
1064 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1065 Mozilla/Netscape HTTP and HTTPS (SSL) Settings</title>
1068 <imagedata fileref="proxy_setup.jpg" format="jpg">
1071 <phrase>[ Screenshot of Mozilla Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1078 With <application>Firefox</application>, this is typically set under:
1082 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Network</guibutton> -><guibutton>Connection</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Settings</guibutton>
1086 Or optionally on some platforms:
1090 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>General</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connection Settings</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Manual Proxy Configuration</guibutton>
1095 With <application>Netscape</application> (and
1096 <application>Mozilla</application>), this can be set under:
1101 <!-- Mix ascii and gui art, something for everybody -->
1102 <!-- spacing on this is tricky -->
1103 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Preferences</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Proxies</guibutton> -> <guibutton>HTTP Proxy</guibutton>
1107 For <application>Internet Explorer v.5-7</application>:
1111 <guibutton>Tools</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Internet Options</guibutton> -> <guibutton>Connections</guibutton> -> <guibutton>LAN Settings</guibutton>
1115 Then, check <quote>Use Proxy</quote> and fill in the appropriate info
1116 (Address: 127.0.0.1, Port: 8118). Include HTTPS (SSL), if you want HTTPS
1117 proxy support too (sometimes labeled <quote>Secure</quote>). Make sure any
1118 checkboxes like <quote>Use the same proxy server for all protocols</quote> is
1119 <emphasis>UNCHECKED</emphasis>. You want only HTTP and HTTPS (SSL)!
1122 <!-- image of IE Proxy configuration -->
1123 <figure pgwide="0" float="0"><title>Proxy Configuration Showing
1124 Internet Explorer HTTP and HTTPS (Secure) Settings</title>
1127 <imagedata fileref="proxy2.jpg" format="jpg">
1130 <phrase>[ Screenshot of IE Proxy Configuration ]</phrase>
1137 After doing this, flush your browser's disk and memory caches to force a
1138 re-reading of all pages and to get rid of any ads that may be cached. Remove
1139 any <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_cookie">cookies</ulink>,
1140 if you want <application>Privoxy</application> to manage that. You are now
1141 ready to start enjoying the benefits of using
1142 <application>Privoxy</application>!
1146 <application>Privoxy</application> itself is typically started by specifying the
1147 main configuration file to be used on the command line. If no configuration
1148 file is specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application>
1149 will look for a file named <filename>config</filename> in the current
1150 directory. Except on Win32 where it will try <filename>config.txt</filename>.
1153 <sect2 id="start-debian">
1154 <title>Debian</title>
1156 We use a script. Note that Debian typically starts &my-app; upon booting per
1157 default. It will use the file
1158 <filename>/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main configuration
1162 # /etc/init.d/privoxy start
1166 <sect2 id="start-freebsd">
1167 <title>FreeBSD and ElectroBSD</title>
1169 To start <application>Privoxy</application> upon booting, add
1170 "privoxy_enable='YES'" to <filename>/etc/rc.conf</filename>.
1171 <application>Privoxy</application> will use
1172 <filename>/usr/local/etc/privoxy/config</filename> as its main
1176 If you installed <application>Privoxy</application> into a jail, the
1177 paths above are relative to the jail root.
1180 To start <application>Privoxy</application> manually, run:
1183 # service privoxy onestart
1187 <sect2 id="start-windows">
1188 <title>Windows</title>
1190 Click on the &my-app; Icon to start <application>Privoxy</application>. If no configuration file is
1191 specified on the command line, <application>Privoxy</application> will look
1192 for a file named <filename>config.txt</filename>. Note that Windows will
1193 automatically start &my-app; when the system starts if you chose that option
1197 <application>Privoxy</application> can run with full Windows service functionality.
1198 On Windows only, the &my-app; program has two new command line arguments
1199 to install and uninstall &my-app; as a service. See the
1200 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Windows Installation
1201 instructions</link> for details.
1205 <sect2 id="start-unices">
1206 <title>Generic instructions for Unix derivates (Solaris, NetBSD, HP-UX etc.)</title>
1208 Example Unix startup command:
1211 # /usr/sbin/privoxy --user privoxy /etc/privoxy/config
1214 Note that if you installed <application>Privoxy</application> through
1215 a package manager, the package will probably contain a platform-specific
1216 script or configuration file to start <application>Privoxy</application>
1221 <sect2 id="start-os2">
1224 During installation, <application>Privoxy</application> is configured to
1225 start automatically when the system restarts. You can start it manually by
1226 double-clicking on the <application>Privoxy</application> icon in the
1227 <application>Privoxy</application> folder.
1231 <sect2 id="start-macosx">
1232 <title>Mac OS X</title>
1234 The privoxy service will automatically start after a successful installation
1235 (and thereafter every time your computer starts up) however you will need to
1236 configure your web browser(s) to use it. To do so, configure them to use a
1237 proxy for HTTP and HTTPS at the address 127.0.0.1:8118.
1240 To prevent the privoxy service from automatically starting when your computer
1241 starts up, remove or rename the file <literal>/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.ijbswa.privoxy.plist</literal>
1242 (on OS X 10.5 and higher) or the folder named
1243 <literal>/Library/StartupItems/Privoxy</literal> (on OS X 10.4 'Tiger').
1246 To manually start or stop the privoxy service, use the scripts startPrivoxy.sh
1247 and stopPrivoxy.sh supplied in /Applications/Privoxy. They must be run from an
1248 administrator account, using sudo.
1256 See the section <link linkend="cmdoptions">Command line options</link> for
1260 must find a better place for this paragraph
1263 The included default configuration files should give a reasonable starting
1264 point. Most of the per site configuration is done in the
1265 <ulink url="actions-file.html"><quote>actions</quote></ulink> files. These are
1266 where various cookie actions are defined, ad and banner blocking, and other
1267 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. There are several
1268 such files included, with varying levels of aggressiveness.
1272 You will probably want to keep an eye out for sites for which you may prefer
1273 persistent cookies, and add these to your actions configuration as needed. By
1274 default, most of these will be accepted only during the current browser
1275 session (aka <quote>session cookies</quote>), unless you add them to the
1276 configuration. If you want the browser to handle this instead, you will need
1277 to edit <filename>user.action</filename> (or through the web based interface)
1278 and disable this feature. If you use more than one browser, it would make
1279 more sense to let <application>Privoxy</application> handle this. In which
1280 case, the browser(s) should be set to accept all cookies.
1284 Another feature where you will probably want to define exceptions for trusted
1285 sites is the popup-killing (through <ulink
1286 url="actions-file.html#FILTER-POPUPS"><quote>+filter{popups}</quote></ulink>),
1287 because your favorite shopping, banking, or leisure site may need
1288 popups (explained below).
1292 <application>Privoxy</application> does not support all of the optional HTTP/1.1
1293 features yet. In the unlikely event that you experience inexplicable problems
1294 with browsers that use HTTP/1.1 per default
1295 (like <application>Mozilla</application> or recent versions of I.E.), you might
1296 try to force HTTP/1.0 compatibility. For Mozilla, look under <literal>Edit ->
1297 Preferences -> Debug -> Networking</literal>.
1298 Alternatively, set the <quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote> config option in
1299 <filename>default.action</filename> which will downgrade your browser's HTTP
1300 requests from HTTP/1.1 to HTTP/1.0 before processing them.
1304 After running <application>Privoxy</application> for a while, you can
1305 start to fine tune the configuration to suit your personal, or site,
1306 preferences and requirements. There are many, many aspects that can
1307 be customized. <quote>Actions</quote>
1308 can be adjusted by pointing your browser to
1309 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1310 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1311 and then follow the link to <quote>View & Change the Current Configuration</quote>.
1312 (This is an internal page and does not require Internet access.)
1316 In fact, various aspects of <application>Privoxy</application>
1317 configuration can be viewed from this page, including
1318 current configuration parameters, source code version numbers,
1319 the browser's request headers, and <quote>actions</quote> that apply
1320 to a given URL. In addition to the actions file
1321 editor mentioned above, <application>Privoxy</application> can also
1322 be turned <quote>on</quote> and <quote>off</quote> (toggled) from this page.
1326 If you encounter problems, try loading the page without
1327 <application>Privoxy</application>. If that helps, enter the URL where
1328 you have the problems into <ulink url="http://p.p/show-url-info">the browser
1329 based rule tracing utility</ulink>. See which rules apply and why, and
1330 then try turning them off for that site one after the other, until the problem
1331 is gone. When you have found the culprit, you might want to turn the rest on
1336 If the above paragraph sounds gibberish to you, you might want to <link
1337 linkend="actions-file">read more about the actions concept</link>
1338 or even dive deep into the <link linkend="actionsanat">Appendix
1343 If you can't get rid of the problem at all, think you've found a bug in
1344 Privoxy, want to propose a new feature or smarter rules, please see the
1345 section <link linkend="contact"><quote>Contacting the
1346 Developers</quote></link> below.
1351 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1352 <sect2 id="cmdoptions">
1353 <title>Command Line Options</title>
1355 <application>Privoxy</application> may be invoked with the following
1356 command-line options:
1363 <emphasis>--config-test</emphasis>
1366 Exit after loading the configuration files before binding to
1367 the listen address. The exit code signals whether or not the
1368 configuration files have been successfully loaded.
1371 If the exit code is 1, at least one of the configuration files
1372 is invalid, if it is 0, all the configuration files have been
1373 successfully loaded (but may still contain errors that can
1374 currently only be detected at run time).
1377 This option doesn't affect the log setting, combination with
1378 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis> is recommended if a configured
1379 log file shouldn't be used.
1384 <emphasis>--version</emphasis>
1387 Print version info and exit. Unix only.
1392 <emphasis>--help</emphasis>
1395 Print short usage info and exit. Unix only.
1400 <emphasis>--no-daemon</emphasis>
1403 Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group
1404 leader, and don't detach from controlling tty. Unix only.
1409 <emphasis>--pidfile FILE</emphasis>
1412 On startup, write the process ID to <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>. Delete the
1413 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> on exit. Failure to create or delete the
1414 <emphasis>FILE</emphasis> is non-fatal. If no <emphasis>FILE</emphasis>
1415 option is given, no PID file will be used. Unix only.
1420 <emphasis>--user USER[.GROUP]</emphasis>
1423 After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
1424 <emphasis>USER</emphasis>, and if included the GID of GROUP. Exit if the
1425 privileges are not sufficient to do so. Unix only.
1430 <emphasis>--chroot</emphasis>
1433 Before changing to the user ID given in the <emphasis>--user</emphasis> option,
1434 chroot to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the &my-app;
1435 process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this can limit
1436 the impact of possible vulnerabilities in &my-app; to the files contained in that hierarchy.
1442 <emphasis>--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname</emphasis>
1445 Specifies a hostname (for example www.privoxy.org) to look up before doing a chroot.
1446 On some systems, initializing the resolver library involves reading config files from
1447 /etc and/or loading additional shared libraries from /lib.
1448 On these systems, doing a hostname lookup before the chroot reduces
1449 the number of files that must be copied into the chroot tree.
1452 For fastest startup speed, a good value is a hostname that is not in /etc/hosts but that
1453 your local name server (listed in /etc/resolv.conf) can resolve without recursion
1454 (that is, without having to ask any other name servers). The hostname need not exist,
1455 but if it doesn't, an error message (which can be ignored) will be output.
1461 <emphasis>configfile</emphasis>
1464 If no <emphasis>configfile</emphasis> is included on the command line,
1465 <application>Privoxy</application> will look for a file named
1466 <quote>config</quote> in the current directory (except on Win32
1467 where it will look for <quote>config.txt</quote> instead). Specify
1468 full path to avoid confusion. If no config file is found,
1469 <application>Privoxy</application> will fail to start.
1476 On <application>MS Windows</application> only there are two additional
1477 command-line options to allow <application>Privoxy</application> to install and
1478 run as a <emphasis>service</emphasis>. See the
1479 <link linkend="installation-pack-win">Window Installation section</link>
1487 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1490 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1491 <sect1 id="configuration"><title>Privoxy Configuration</title>
1493 All <application>Privoxy</application> configuration is stored
1494 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor.
1495 Many important aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> can
1496 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
1500 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1502 <sect2 id="control-with-webbrowser">
1503 <title>Controlling Privoxy with Your Web Browser</title>
1505 <application>Privoxy</application>'s user interface can be reached through the special
1506 URL <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
1507 (shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>),
1508 which is a built-in page and works without Internet access.
1509 You will see the following section:
1512 <!-- Needs to be put in a table and colorized -->
1513 <screen><!-- want the background color that goes with screen -->
1515 <bridgehead renderas="sect2"> Privoxy Menu</bridgehead>
1518 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">View & change the current configuration</ulink>
1521 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/client-tags">View or toggle the tags that can be set based on the clients address</ulink>
1524 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">View the request headers.</ulink>
1527 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</ulink>
1530 ▪ <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">Toggle Privoxy on or off</ulink>
1533 ▪ <ulink
1534 url="https://www.privoxy.org/&p-version;/user-manual/">Documentation</ulink>
1542 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an editor for the
1543 <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, which is where the ad, banner,
1544 cookie, and URL blocking magic is configured as well as other advanced features of
1545 <application>Privoxy</application>. This is an easy way to adjust various
1546 aspects of <application>Privoxy</application> configuration. The actions
1547 file, and other configuration files, are explained in detail below.
1551 <quote>Toggle Privoxy On or Off</quote> is handy for sites that might
1552 have problems with your current actions and filters. You can in fact use
1553 it as a test to see whether it is <application>Privoxy</application>
1554 causing the problem or not. <application>Privoxy</application> continues
1555 to run as a proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e.
1556 <application>Privoxy</application> acts like a normal forwarding proxy.
1560 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by default
1561 in <application>Privoxy</application> 3.0.7 beta and later.
1563 <ulink url="config.html">configuration file</ulink> to learn why
1564 and in which cases it's safe to enable them again.
1569 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1574 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1576 <sect2 id="confoverview">
1577 <title>Configuration Files Overview</title>
1579 For Unix, *BSD and GNU/Linux, all configuration files are located in
1580 <filename>/etc/privoxy/</filename> by default. For MS Windows and OS/2
1581 these are all in the same directory as the
1582 <application>Privoxy</application> executable. <![%p-not-stable;[ The name
1583 and number of configuration files has changed from previous versions, and is
1584 subject to change as development progresses.]]>
1588 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
1589 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time being, the
1590 principle configuration files are:
1597 The <link linkend="config">main configuration file</link> is named <filename>config</filename>
1598 on GNU/Linux, Unix, BSD, and OS/2, and <filename>config.txt</filename>
1599 on Windows. This is a required file.
1605 <filename>match-all.action</filename> is used to define which <quote>actions</quote>
1606 relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups, content modification, cookie handling
1607 etc should be applied by default. It should be the first actions file loaded.
1610 <filename>default.action</filename> defines many exceptions (both positive and negative)
1611 from the default set of actions that's configured in <filename>match-all.action</filename>.
1612 It should be the second actions file loaded and shouldn't be edited by the user.
1615 Multiple actions files may be defined in <filename>config</filename>. These
1616 are processed in the order they are defined. Local customizations and locally
1617 preferred exceptions to the default policies as defined in
1618 <filename>match-all.action</filename> (which you will most probably want
1619 to define sooner or later) are best applied in <filename>user.action</filename>,
1620 where you can preserve them across upgrades. The file isn't installed by all
1621 installers, but you can easily create it yourself with a text editor.
1624 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from
1626 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
1628 url="http://p.p/show-status">http://p.p/show-status</ulink>) for the
1629 various actions files.
1635 <quote>Filter files</quote> (the <link linkend="filter-file">filter
1636 file</link>) can be used to re-write the raw page content, including
1637 viewable text as well as embedded HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else
1638 lurks on any given web page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here;
1639 whether to apply them or not is up to the actions files.
1640 <filename>default.filter</filename> includes various filters made
1641 available for use by the developers. Some are much more intrusive than
1642 others, and all should be used with caution. You may define additional
1643 filter files in <filename>config</filename> as you can with
1644 actions files. We suggest <filename>user.filter</filename> for any
1645 locally defined filters or customizations.
1652 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between different
1653 Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost backwards compatibility.
1654 <!-- Add link to documentation-->
1658 All files use the <quote><literal>#</literal></quote> character to denote a
1659 comment (the rest of the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation
1660 through placing a backslash ("<literal>\</literal>") as the very last character
1661 in a line. If the <literal>#</literal> is preceded by a backslash, it looses
1662 its special function. Placing a <literal>#</literal> in front of an otherwise
1663 valid configuration line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
1664 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
1668 The actions files and filter files
1669 can use Perl style <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> for
1670 maximum flexibility.
1674 After making any changes, there is no need to restart
1675 <application>Privoxy</application> in order for the changes to take
1676 effect. <application>Privoxy</application> detects such changes
1677 automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two additional
1678 requests for the change to take effect. When changing the listening address
1679 of <application>Privoxy</application>, these <quote>wake up</quote> requests
1680 must obviously be sent to the <emphasis>old</emphasis> listening address.
1685 While under development, the configuration content is subject to change.
1686 The below documentation may not be accurate by the time you read this.
1687 Also, what constitutes a <quote>default</quote> setting, may change, so
1688 please check all your configuration files on important issues.
1694 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1697 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1699 <!-- **************************************************** -->
1700 <!-- Include config.sgml here -->
1701 <!-- This is where the entire config file is detailed. -->
1703 <!-- end include -->
1706 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
1710 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
1712 <sect1 id="actions-file"><title>Actions Files</title>
1716 XXX: similar descriptions are in the Configuration Files sections.
1717 We should only describe them at one place.
1720 The actions files are used to define what <emphasis>actions</emphasis>
1721 <application>Privoxy</application> takes for which URLs, and thus determines
1722 how ad images, cookies and various other aspects of HTTP content and
1723 transactions are handled, and on which sites (or even parts thereof).
1724 There are a number of such actions, with a wide range of functionality.
1725 Each action does something a little different.
1726 These actions give us a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert
1727 our control, preferences and independence. Actions can be combined so that
1728 their effects are aggregated when applied against a given set of URLs.
1732 are three action files included with <application>Privoxy</application> with
1738 <filename>match-all.action</filename> - is used to define which
1739 <quote>actions</quote> relating to banner-blocking, images, pop-ups,
1740 content modification, cookie handling etc should be applied by default.
1741 It should be the first actions file loaded
1746 <filename>default.action</filename> - defines many exceptions (both
1747 positive and negative) from the default set of actions that's configured
1748 in <filename>match-all.action</filename>. It is a set of rules that should
1749 work reasonably well as-is for most users. This file is only supposed to
1750 be edited by the developers. It should be the second actions file loaded.
1755 <filename>user.action</filename> - is intended to be for local site
1756 preferences and exceptions. As an example, if your ISP or your bank
1757 has specific requirements, and need special handling, this kind of
1758 thing should go here. This file will not be upgraded.
1763 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Cautious</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Medium</guibutton> <guibutton>Set to Advanced</guibutton>
1766 These have increasing levels of aggressiveness <emphasis>and have no
1767 influence on your browsing unless you select them explicitly in the
1768 editor</emphasis>. A default installation should be pre-set to
1769 <literal>Cautious</literal>. New users should try this for a while before
1770 adjusting the settings to more aggressive levels. The more aggressive
1771 the settings, then the more likelihood there is of problems such as sites
1772 not working as they should.
1775 The <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button allows you to turn each
1776 action on/off individually for fine-tuning. The <guibutton>Cautious</guibutton>
1777 button changes the actions list to low/safe settings which will activate
1778 ad blocking and a minimal set of &my-app;'s features, and subsequently
1779 there will be less of a chance for accidental problems. The
1780 <guibutton>Medium</guibutton> button sets the list to a medium level of
1781 other features and a low level set of privacy features. The
1782 <guibutton>Advanced</guibutton> button sets the list to a high level of
1783 ad blocking and medium level of privacy. See the chart below. The latter
1784 three buttons over-ride any changes via with the
1785 <guibutton>Edit</guibutton> button. More fine-tuning can be done in the
1786 lower sections of this internal page.
1789 While the actions file editor allows to enable these settings in all
1790 actions files, they are only supposed to be enabled in the first one
1791 to make sure you don't unintentionally overrule earlier rules.
1794 The default profiles, and their associated actions, as pre-defined in
1795 <filename>default.action</filename> are:
1797 <table frame=all><title>Default Configurations</title>
1798 <tgroup cols=4 align=left colsep=1 rowsep=1>
1799 <colspec colname=c1>
1800 <colspec colname=c2>
1801 <colspec colname=c3>
1802 <colspec colname=c4>
1805 <entry>Feature</entry>
1806 <entry>Cautious</entry>
1807 <entry>Medium</entry>
1808 <entry>Advanced</entry>
1813 <!-- <entry>f1</entry> -->
1814 <!-- <entry>f2</entry> -->
1815 <!-- <entry>f3</entry> -->
1816 <!-- <entry>f4</entry> -->
1822 <entry>Ad-blocking Aggressiveness</entry>
1823 <entry>medium</entry>
1829 <entry>Ad-filtering by size</entry>
1836 <entry>Ad-filtering by link</entry>
1842 <entry>Pop-up killing</entry>
1843 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1844 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1845 <entry>blocks only</entry>
1849 <entry>Privacy Features</entry>
1851 <entry>medium</entry>
1852 <entry>medium/high</entry>
1856 <entry>Cookie handling</entry>
1858 <entry>session-only</entry>
1863 <entry>Referer forging</entry>
1870 <entry>GIF de-animation</entry>
1877 <entry>Fast redirects</entry>
1884 <entry>HTML taming</entry>
1891 <entry>JavaScript taming</entry>
1898 <entry>Web-bug killing</entry>
1905 <entry>Image tag reordering</entry>
1919 The list of actions files to be used are defined in the main configuration
1920 file, and are processed in the order they are defined (e.g.
1921 <filename>default.action</filename> is typically processed before
1922 <filename>user.action</filename>). The content of these can all be viewed and
1924 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1925 The over-riding principle when applying actions, is that the last action that
1926 matches a given URL wins. The broadest, most general rules go first
1927 (defined in <filename>default.action</filename>),
1928 followed by any exceptions (typically also in
1929 <filename>default.action</filename>), which are then followed lastly by any
1930 local preferences (typically in <emphasis>user</emphasis><filename>.action</filename>).
1931 Generally, <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word.
1935 An actions file typically has multiple sections. If you want to use
1936 <quote>aliases</quote> in an actions file, you have to place the (optional)
1937 <link linkend="aliases">alias section</link> at the top of that file.
1938 Then comes the default set of rules which will apply universally to all
1939 sites and pages (be <emphasis>very careful</emphasis> with using such a
1940 universal set in <filename>user.action</filename> or any other actions file after
1941 <filename>default.action</filename>, because it will override the result
1942 from consulting any previous file). And then below that,
1943 exceptions to the defined universal policies. You can regard
1944 <filename>user.action</filename> as an appendix to <filename>default.action</filename>,
1945 with the advantage that it is a separate file, which makes preserving your
1946 personal settings across <application>Privoxy</application> upgrades easier.
1950 Actions can be used to block anything you want, including ads, banners, or
1951 just some obnoxious URL whose content you would rather not see. Cookies can be accepted
1952 or rejected, or accepted only during the current browser session (i.e. not
1953 written to disk), content can be modified, some JavaScripts tamed, user-tracking
1954 fooled, and much more. See below for a <link linkend="actions">complete list
1958 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1959 <sect2 id="right-mix">
1960 <title>Finding the Right Mix</title>
1962 Note that some <link linkend="actions">actions</link>, like cookie suppression
1963 or script disabling, may render some sites unusable that rely on these
1964 techniques to work properly. Finding the right mix of actions is not always easy and
1965 certainly a matter of personal taste. And, things can always change, requiring
1966 refinements in the configuration. In general, it can be said that the more
1967 <quote>aggressive</quote> your default settings (in the top section of the
1968 actions file) are, the more exceptions for <quote>trusted</quote> sites you
1969 will have to make later. If, for example, you want to crunch all cookies per
1970 default, you'll have to make exceptions from that rule for sites that you
1971 regularly use and that require cookies for actually useful purposes, like maybe
1972 your bank, favorite shop, or newspaper.
1976 We have tried to provide you with reasonable rules to start from in the
1977 distribution actions files. But there is no general rule of thumb on these
1978 things. There just are too many variables, and sites are constantly changing.
1979 Sooner or later you will want to change the rules (and read this chapter again :).
1983 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
1984 <sect2 id="how-to-edit">
1985 <title>How to Edit</title>
1987 The easiest way to edit the actions files is with a browser by
1988 using our browser-based editor, which can be reached from <ulink
1989 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>.
1990 Note: the config file option <link
1991 linkend="enable-edit-actions">enable-edit-actions</link> must be enabled for
1992 this to work. The editor allows both fine-grained control over every single
1993 feature on a per-URL basis, and easy choosing from wholesale sets of defaults
1994 like <quote>Cautious</quote>, <quote>Medium</quote> or
1995 <quote>Advanced</quote>. Warning: the <quote>Advanced</quote> setting is more
1996 aggressive, and will be more likely to cause problems for some sites.
1997 Experienced users only!
2001 If you prefer plain text editing to GUIs, you can of course also directly edit the
2002 the actions files with your favorite text editor. Look at
2003 <filename>default.action</filename> which is richly commented with many
2009 <sect2 id="actions-apply">
2010 <title>How Actions are Applied to Requests</title>
2012 Actions files are divided into sections. There are special sections,
2013 like the <quote><link linkend="aliases">alias</link></quote> sections which will
2014 be discussed later. For now let's concentrate on regular sections: They have a
2015 heading line (often split up to multiple lines for readability) which consist
2016 of a list of actions, separated by whitespace and enclosed in curly braces.
2017 Below that, there is a list of URL and tag patterns, each on a separate line.
2021 To determine which actions apply to a request, the URL of the request is
2022 compared to all URL patterns in each <quote>action file</quote>.
2023 Every time it matches, the list of applicable actions for the request is
2024 incrementally updated, using the heading of the section in which the
2025 pattern is located. The same is done again for tags and tag patterns later on.
2029 If multiple applying sections set the same action differently,
2030 the last match wins. If not, the effects are aggregated.
2031 E.g. a URL might match a regular section with a heading line of <literal>{
2032 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link> }</literal>,
2033 then later another one with just <literal>{
2034 +<link linkend="block">block</link> }</literal>, resulting
2035 in <emphasis>both</emphasis> actions to apply. And there may well be
2036 cases where you will want to combine actions together. Such a section then
2041 { +<literal>handle-as-image</literal> +<literal>block{Banner ads.}</literal> }
2042 # Block these as if they were images. Send no block page.
2044 media.example.com/.*banners
2045 .example.com/images/ads/</screen>
2048 You can trace this process for URL patterns and any given URL by visiting <ulink
2049 url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>.
2053 Examples and more detail on this is provided in the Appendix, <link linkend="ACTIONSANAT">
2054 Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</link> section.
2058 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2059 <sect2 id="af-patterns">
2060 <title>Patterns</title>
2062 As mentioned, <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>patterns</quote>
2063 to determine what <emphasis>actions</emphasis> might apply to which sites and
2064 pages your browser attempts to access. These <quote>patterns</quote> use wild
2065 card type <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matching to achieve a high degree of
2066 flexibility. This allows one expression to be expanded and potentially match
2067 against many similar patterns.
2071 Generally, an URL pattern has the form
2072 <literal><host><port>/<path></literal>, where the
2073 <literal><host></literal>, the <literal><port></literal>
2074 and the <literal><path></literal> are optional. (This is why the special
2075 <literal>/</literal> pattern matches all URLs). Note that the protocol
2076 portion of the URL pattern (e.g. <literal>http://</literal>) should
2077 <emphasis>not</emphasis> be included in the pattern. This is assumed already!
2080 The pattern matching syntax is different for the host and path parts of
2081 the URL. The host part uses a simple globbing type matching technique,
2082 while the path part uses more flexible
2083 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2084 Expressions</quote></ulink> (POSIX 1003.2).
2087 The port part of a pattern is a decimal port number preceded by a colon
2088 (<literal>:</literal>). If the host part contains a numerical IPv6 address,
2089 it has to be put into angle brackets
2090 (<literal><</literal>, <literal>></literal>).
2095 <term><literal>www.example.com/</literal></term>
2098 is a host-only pattern and will match any request to <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2099 regardless of which document on that server is requested. So ALL pages in
2100 this domain would be covered by the scope of this action. Note that a
2101 simple <literal>example.com</literal> is different and would NOT match.
2106 <term><literal>www.example.com</literal></term>
2109 means exactly the same. For host-only patterns, the trailing <literal>/</literal> may
2115 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html</literal></term>
2118 matches all the documents on <literal>www.example.com</literal>
2119 whose name starts with <literal>/index.html</literal>.
2124 <term><literal>www.example.com/index.html$</literal></term>
2127 matches only the single document <literal>/index.html</literal>
2128 on <literal>www.example.com</literal>.
2133 <term><literal>/index.html$</literal></term>
2136 matches the document <literal>/index.html</literal>, regardless of the domain,
2137 i.e. on <emphasis>any</emphasis> web server anywhere.
2142 <term><literal>/</literal></term>
2145 Matches any URL because there's no requirement for either the
2146 domain or the path to match anything.
2151 <term><literal>:8000/</literal></term>
2154 Matches any URL pointing to TCP port 8000.
2159 <term><literal>10.0.0.1/</literal></term>
2162 Matches any URL with the host address <literal>10.0.0.1</literal>.
2163 (Note that the real URL uses plain brackets, not angle brackets.)
2168 <term><literal><2001:db8::1>/</literal></term>
2171 Matches any URL with the host address <literal>2001:db8::1</literal>.
2172 (Note that the real URL uses plain brackets, not angle brackets.)
2177 <term><literal>index.html</literal></term>
2180 matches nothing, since it would be interpreted as a domain name and
2181 there is no top-level domain called <literal>.html</literal>. So its
2189 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2190 <sect3 id="host-pattern"><title>The Host Pattern</title>
2193 The matching of the host part offers some flexible options: if the
2194 host pattern starts or ends with a dot, it becomes unanchored at that end.
2195 The host pattern is often referred to as domain pattern as it is usually
2196 used to match domain names and not IP addresses.
2202 <term><literal>.example.com</literal></term>
2205 matches any domain with first-level domain <literal>com</literal>
2206 and second-level domain <literal>example</literal>.
2207 For example <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2208 <literal>example.com</literal> and <literal>foo.bar.baz.example.com</literal>.
2209 Note that it wouldn't match if the second-level domain was <literal>another-example</literal>.
2214 <term><literal>www.</literal></term>
2217 matches any domain that <emphasis>STARTS</emphasis> with
2218 <literal>www.</literal> (It also matches the domain
2219 <literal>www</literal> but most of the time that doesn't matter.)
2224 <term><literal>.example.</literal></term>
2227 matches any domain that <emphasis>CONTAINS</emphasis> <literal>.example.</literal>.
2228 And, by the way, also included would be any files or documents that exist
2229 within that domain since no path limitations are specified. (Correctly
2230 speaking: It matches any FQDN that contains <literal>example</literal> as
2231 a domain.) This might be <literal>www.example.com</literal>,
2232 <literal>news.example.de</literal>, or
2233 <literal>www.example.net/cgi/testing.pl</literal> for instance. All these
2241 Additionally, there are wild-cards that you can use in the domain names
2242 themselves. These work similarly to shell globbing type wild-cards:
2243 <quote>*</quote> represents zero or more arbitrary characters (this is
2245 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2246 Expression</quote></ulink> based syntax of <quote>.*</quote>),
2247 <quote>?</quote> represents any single character (this is equivalent to the
2248 regular expression syntax of a simple <quote>.</quote>), and you can define
2249 <quote>character classes</quote> in square brackets which is similar to
2250 the same regular expression technique. All of this can be freely mixed:
2255 <term><literal>ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2258 matches <quote>adserver.example.com</quote>,
2259 <quote>ads.example.com</quote>, etc but not <quote>sfads.example.com</quote>
2264 <term><literal>*ad*.example.com</literal></term>
2267 matches all of the above, and then some.
2272 <term><literal>.?pix.com</literal></term>
2275 matches <literal>www.ipix.com</literal>,
2276 <literal>pictures.epix.com</literal>, <literal>a.b.c.d.e.upix.com</literal> etc.
2281 <term><literal>www[1-9a-ez].example.c*</literal></term>
2284 matches <literal>www1.example.com</literal>,
2285 <literal>www4.example.cc</literal>, <literal>wwwd.example.cy</literal>,
2286 <literal>wwwz.example.com</literal> etc., but <emphasis>not</emphasis>
2287 <literal>wwww.example.com</literal>.
2294 While flexible, this is not the sophistication of full regular expression based syntax.
2299 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2302 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2303 <sect3 id="path-pattern"><title>The Path Pattern</title>
2306 <application>Privoxy</application> uses <quote>modern</quote> POSIX 1003.2
2307 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
2308 Expressions</quote></ulink> for matching the path portion (after the slash),
2309 and is thus more flexible.
2313 There is an <link linkend="regex">Appendix</link> with a brief quick-start into regular
2314 expressions, you also might want to have a look at your operating system's documentation
2315 on regular expressions (try <literal>man re_format</literal>).
2319 Note that the path pattern is automatically left-anchored at the <quote>/</quote>,
2320 i.e. it matches as if it would start with a <quote>^</quote> (regular expression speak
2321 for the beginning of a line).
2325 Please also note that matching in the path is <emphasis>CASE INSENSITIVE</emphasis>
2326 by default, but you can switch to case sensitive at any point in the pattern by using the
2327 <quote>(?-i)</quote> switch: <literal>www.example.com/(?-i)PaTtErN.*</literal> will match
2328 only documents whose path starts with <literal>PaTtErN</literal> in
2329 <emphasis>exactly</emphasis> this capitalization.
2334 <term><literal>.example.com/.*</literal></term>
2337 Is equivalent to just <quote>.example.com</quote>, since any documents
2338 within that domain are matched with or without the <quote>.*</quote>
2339 regular expression. This is redundant
2344 <term><literal>.example.com/.*/index.html$</literal></term>
2347 Will match any page in the domain of <quote>example.com</quote> that is
2348 named <quote>index.html</quote>, and that is part of some path. For
2349 example, it matches <quote>www.example.com/testing/index.html</quote> but
2350 NOT <quote>www.example.com/index.html</quote> because the regular
2351 expression called for at least two <quote>/'s</quote>, thus the path
2352 requirement. It also would match
2353 <quote>www.example.com/testing/index_html</quote>, because of the
2354 special meta-character <quote>.</quote>.
2359 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)?index\.html$</literal></term>
2362 This regular expression is conditional so it will match any page
2363 named <quote>index.html</quote> regardless of path which in this case can
2364 have one or more <quote>/'s</quote>. And this one must contain exactly
2365 <quote>.html</quote> (and end with that!).
2370 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)</literal></term>
2373 This regular expression will match any path of <quote>example.com</quote>
2374 that contains any of the words <quote>ads</quote>, <quote>banner</quote>,
2375 <quote>banners</quote> (because of the <quote>?</quote>) or <quote>junk</quote>.
2376 The path does not have to end in these words, just contain them.
2377 The path has to contain at least two slashes (including the one at the beginning).
2382 <term><literal>.example.com/(.*/)(ads|banners?|junk)/.*\.(jpe?g|gif|png)$</literal></term>
2385 This is very much the same as above, except now it must end in either
2386 <quote>.jpg</quote>, <quote>.jpeg</quote>, <quote>.gif</quote> or <quote>.png</quote>. So this
2387 one is limited to common image formats.
2394 There are many, many good examples to be found in <filename>default.action</filename>,
2395 and more tutorials below in <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>.
2400 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2403 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2404 <sect3 id="tag-pattern"><title>The Request Tag Pattern</title>
2407 Request tag patterns are used to change the applying actions based on the
2408 request's tags. Tags can be created based on HTTP headers with either
2409 the <link linkend="CLIENT-HEADER-TAGGER">client-header-tagger</link>
2410 or the <link linkend="SERVER-HEADER-TAGGER">server-header-tagger</link> action.
2414 Request tag patterns have to start with <quote>TAG:</quote>, so &my-app;
2415 can tell them apart from other patterns. Everything after the colon
2416 including white space, is interpreted as a regular expression with
2417 path pattern syntax, except that tag patterns aren't left-anchored
2418 automatically (&my-app; doesn't silently add a <quote>^</quote>,
2419 you have to do it yourself if you need it).
2423 To match all requests that are tagged with <quote>foo</quote>
2424 your pattern line should be <quote>TAG:^foo$</quote>,
2425 <quote>TAG:foo</quote> would work as well, but it would also
2426 match requests whose tags contain <quote>foo</quote> somewhere.
2427 <quote>TAG: foo</quote> wouldn't work as it requires white space.
2431 Sections can contain URL and request tag patterns at the same time,
2432 but request tag patterns are checked after the URL patterns and thus
2433 always overrule them, even if they are located before the URL patterns.
2437 Once a new request tag is added, Privoxy checks right away if it's matched by one
2438 of the request tag patterns and updates the action settings accordingly. As a result
2439 request tags can be used to activate other tagger actions, as long as these other
2440 taggers look for headers that haven't already be parsed.
2444 For example you could tag client requests which use the
2445 <literal>POST</literal> method,
2446 then use this tag to activate another tagger that adds a tag if cookies
2447 are sent, and then use a block action based on the cookie tag. This allows
2448 the outcome of one action, to be input into a subsequent action. However if
2449 you'd reverse the position of the described taggers, and activated the
2450 method tagger based on the cookie tagger, no method tags would be created.
2451 The method tagger would look for the request line, but at the time
2452 the cookie tag is created, the request line has already been parsed.
2456 While this is a limitation you should be aware of, this kind of
2457 indirection is seldom needed anyway and even the example doesn't
2458 make too much sense.
2463 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2464 <sect3 id="negative-tag-patterns"><title>The Negative Request Tag Patterns</title>
2467 To match requests that do not have a certain request tag, specify a negative tag pattern
2468 by prefixing the tag pattern line with either <quote>NO-REQUEST-TAG:</quote>
2469 or <quote>NO-RESPONSE-TAG:</quote> instead of <quote>TAG:</quote>.
2473 Negative request tag patterns created with <quote>NO-REQUEST-TAG:</quote> are checked
2474 after all client headers are scanned, the ones created with <quote>NO-RESPONSE-TAG:</quote>
2475 are checked after all server headers are scanned. In both cases all the created
2476 tags are considered.
2480 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2481 <sect3 id="client-tag-pattern"><title>The Client Tag Pattern</title>
2483 <!-- XXX: This section contains duplicates content from the
2484 client-specific-tag documentation. -->
2488 This is an experimental feature. The syntax is likely to change in future versions.
2493 Client tag patterns are not set based on HTTP headers but based on
2494 the client's IP address. Users can enable them themselves, but the
2495 Privoxy admin controls which tags are available and what their effect
2500 After a client-specific tag has been defined with the
2501 <link linkend="client-specific-tag">client-specific-tag</link>,
2502 directive, action sections can be activated based on the tag by using a
2503 CLIENT-TAG pattern. The CLIENT-TAG pattern is evaluated at the same priority
2504 as URL patterns, as a result the last matching pattern wins. Tags that
2505 are created based on client or server headers are evaluated later on
2506 and can overrule CLIENT-TAG and URL patterns!
2509 The tag is set for all requests that come from clients that requested
2510 it to be set. Note that "clients" are differentiated by IP address,
2511 if the IP address changes the tag has to be requested again.
2514 Clients can request tags to be set by using the CGI interface <ulink
2515 url="http://config.privoxy.org/client-tags">http://config.privoxy.org/client-tags</ulink>.
2523 # If the admin defined the client-specific-tag circumvent-blocks,
2524 # and the request comes from a client that previously requested
2525 # the tag to be set, overrule all previous +block actions that
2526 # are enabled based on URL to CLIENT-TAG patterns.
2528 CLIENT-TAG:^circumvent-blocks$
2530 # This section is not overruled because it's located after
2532 {+block{Nobody is supposed to request this.}}
2533 example.org/blocked-example-page</screen>
2539 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
2542 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2544 <sect2 id="actions">
2545 <title>Actions</title>
2547 All actions are disabled by default, until they are explicitly enabled
2548 somewhere in an actions file. Actions are turned on if preceded with a
2549 <quote>+</quote>, and turned off if preceded with a <quote>-</quote>. So a
2550 <literal>+action</literal> means <quote>do that action</quote>, e.g.
2551 <literal>+block</literal> means <quote>please block URLs that match the
2552 following patterns</quote>, and <literal>-block</literal> means <quote>don't
2553 block URLs that match the following patterns, even if <literal>+block</literal>
2554 previously applied.</quote>
2558 Again, actions are invoked by placing them on a line, enclosed in curly braces and
2559 separated by whitespace, like in
2560 <literal>{+some-action -some-other-action{some-parameter}}</literal>,
2561 followed by a list of URL patterns, one per line, to which they apply.
2562 Together, the actions line and the following pattern lines make up a section
2563 of the actions file.
2567 Actions fall into three categories:
2573 Boolean, i.e the action can only be <quote>enabled</quote> or
2574 <quote>disabled</quote>. Syntax:
2577 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # enable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
2578 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action <replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable></screen>
2580 Example: <literal>+handle-as-image</literal>
2587 Parameterized, where some value is required in order to enable this type of action.
2591 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and set parameter to <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>,
2592 # overwriting parameter from previous match if necessary
2593 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable> # disable action. The parameter can be omitted</screen>
2595 Note that if the URL matches multiple positive forms of a parameterized action,
2596 the last match wins, i.e. the params from earlier matches are simply ignored.
2599 Example: <literal>+hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070602 Firefox/2.0.0.4}</literal>
2605 Multi-value. These look exactly like parameterized actions,
2606 but they behave differently: If the action applies multiple times to the
2607 same URL, but with different parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> the parameters
2608 from <emphasis>all</emphasis> matches are remembered. This is used for actions
2609 that can be executed for the same request repeatedly, like adding multiple
2610 headers, or filtering through multiple filters. Syntax:
2613 +<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # enable action and add <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> to the list of parameters
2614 -<replaceable class="function">name</replaceable>{<replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable>} # remove the parameter <replaceable class="parameter">param</replaceable> from the list of parameters
2615 # If it was the last one left, disable the action.
2616 <replaceable class="parameter">-name</replaceable> # disable this action completely and remove all parameters from the list</screen>
2618 Examples: <literal>+add-header{X-Fun-Header: Some text}</literal> and
2619 <literal>+filter{html-annoyances}</literal>
2626 If nothing is specified in any actions file, no <quote>actions</quote> are
2627 taken. So in this case <application>Privoxy</application> would just be a
2628 normal, non-blocking, non-filtering proxy. You must specifically enable the
2629 privacy and blocking features you need (although the provided default actions
2630 files will give a good starting point).
2634 Later defined action sections always over-ride earlier ones of the same type.
2635 So exceptions to any rules you make, should come in the latter part of the file (or
2636 in a file that is processed later when using multiple actions files such
2637 as <filename>user.action</filename>). For multi-valued actions, the actions
2638 are applied in the order they are specified. Actions files are processed in
2639 the order they are defined in <filename>config</filename> (the default
2640 installation has three actions files). It also quite possible for any given
2641 URL to match more than one <quote>pattern</quote> (because of wildcards and
2642 regular expressions), and thus to trigger more than one set of actions! Last
2646 <!-- start actions listing -->
2648 The list of valid <application>Privoxy</application> actions are:
2652 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2653 <!-- Please note the below defined actions use id's that are -->
2654 <!-- probably linked from other places, so please don't change. -->
2656 <!-- ********************************************************** -->
2659 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2661 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="add-header">
2662 <title>add-header</title>
2666 <term>Typical use:</term>
2668 <para>Confuse log analysis, custom applications</para>
2673 <term>Effect:</term>
2676 Sends a user defined HTTP header to the web server.
2683 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2685 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2690 <term>Parameter:</term>
2693 Any string value is possible. Validity of the defined HTTP headers is not checked.
2694 It is recommended that you use the <quote><literal>X-</literal></quote> prefix
2704 This action may be specified multiple times, in order to define multiple
2705 headers. This is rarely needed for the typical user. If you don't know what
2706 <quote>HTTP headers</quote> are, you definitely don't need to worry about this
2710 Headers added by this action are not modified by other actions.
2716 <term>Example usage:</term>
2718 <screen># Add a DNT ("Do not track") header to all requests,
2719 # event to those that already have one.
2721 # This is just an example, not a recommendation.
2723 # There is no reason to believe that user-tracking websites care
2724 # about the DNT header and depending on the User-Agent, adding the
2725 # header may make user-tracking easier.
2726 {+add-header{DNT: 1}}
2734 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2735 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="block">
2736 <title>block</title>
2740 <term>Typical use:</term>
2742 <para>Block ads or other unwanted content</para>
2747 <term>Effect:</term>
2750 Requests for URLs to which this action applies are blocked, i.e. the
2751 requests are trapped by &my-app; and the requested URL is never retrieved,
2752 but is answered locally with a substitute page or image, as determined by
2754 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2756 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>, and
2758 linkend="handle-as-empty-document">handle-as-empty-document</link></literal> actions.
2766 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2768 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2773 <term>Parameter:</term>
2775 <para>A block reason that should be given to the user.</para>
2783 <application>Privoxy</application> sends a special <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page
2784 for requests to blocked pages. This page contains the block reason given as
2785 parameter, a link to find out why the block action applies, and a click-through
2786 to the blocked content (the latter only if the force feature is available and
2790 A very important exception occurs if <emphasis>both</emphasis>
2791 <literal>block</literal> and <literal><link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal>,
2792 apply to the same request: it will then be replaced by an image. If
2793 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
2794 (see below) also applies, the type of image will be determined by its parameter,
2795 if not, the standard checkerboard pattern is sent.
2798 It is important to understand this process, in order
2799 to understand how <application>Privoxy</application> deals with
2800 ads and other unwanted content. Blocking is a core feature, and one
2801 upon which various other features depend.
2804 The <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>
2805 action can perform a very similar task, by <quote>blocking</quote>
2806 banner images and other content through rewriting the relevant URLs in the
2807 document's HTML source, so they don't get requested in the first place.
2808 Note that this is a totally different technique, and it's easy to confuse the two.
2814 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2816 <screen>{+block{No nasty stuff for you.}}
2817 # Block and replace with "blocked" page
2818 .nasty-stuff.example.com
2820 {+block{Doubleclick banners.} +handle-as-image}
2821 # Block and replace with image
2825 {+block{Layered ads.} +handle-as-empty-document}
2826 # Block and then ignore
2827 adserver.example.net/.*\.js$</screen>
2836 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2837 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="change-x-forwarded-for">
2838 <title>change-x-forwarded-for</title>
2842 <term>Typical use:</term>
2844 <para>Improve privacy by not forwarding the source of the request in the HTTP headers.</para>
2849 <term>Effect:</term>
2852 Deletes the <quote>X-Forwarded-For:</quote> HTTP header from the client request,
2860 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
2862 <para>Parameterized.</para>
2867 <term>Parameter:</term>
2871 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header.</para>
2875 <quote>add</quote> to create the header (or append
2876 the client's IP address to an already existing one).
2887 It is safe and recommended to use <literal>block</literal>.
2890 Forwarding the source address of the request may make
2891 sense in some multi-user setups but is also a privacy risk.
2896 <term>Example usage:</term>
2898 <screen>+change-x-forwarded-for{block}</screen>
2904 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2905 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-filter">
2906 <title>client-header-filter</title>
2910 <term>Typical use:</term>
2913 Rewrite or remove single client headers.
2919 <term>Effect:</term>
2922 All client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
2923 the specified regular expression based substitutions.
2930 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
2932 <para>Multi-value.</para>
2937 <term>Parameter:</term>
2940 The name of a client-header filter, as defined in one of the
2941 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
2950 Client-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
2951 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
2952 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
2953 You can do that by using tags though.
2956 Client-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
2957 and use their output as input.
2960 If the request URI gets changed, &my-app; will detect that and use the new
2961 one. This can be used to rewrite the request destination behind the client's
2962 back, for example to specify a Tor exit relay for certain requests.
2965 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
2966 to learn which client-header filters are available by default, and how to
2974 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
2977 # Hide Tor exit notation in Host and Referer Headers
2978 {+client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}}
2988 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
2989 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="client-header-tagger">
2990 <title>client-header-tagger</title>
2994 <term>Typical use:</term>
2997 Block requests based on their headers.
3003 <term>Effect:</term>
3006 Client headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
3007 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
3015 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3017 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3022 <term>Parameter:</term>
3025 The name of a client-header tagger, as defined in one of the
3026 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
3035 Client-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
3036 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
3040 Client-header taggers are the first actions that are executed
3041 and their tags can be used to control every other action.
3047 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3050 # Tag every request with the User-Agent header
3051 {+client-header-tagger{user-agent}}
3054 # Tagging itself doesn't change the action
3055 # settings, sections with TAG patterns do:
3057 # If it's a download agent, use a different forwarding proxy,
3058 # show the real User-Agent and make sure resume works.
3059 {+forward-override{forward-socks5 10.0.0.2:2222 .} \
3060 -hide-if-modified-since \
3061 -overwrite-last-modified \
3066 TAG:^User-Agent: NetBSD-ftp/
3067 TAG:^User-Agent: Novell ZYPP Installer
3068 TAG:^User-Agent: RPM APT-HTTP/
3069 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/
3070 TAG:^User-Agent: Ubuntu APT-HTTP/
3071 TAG:^User-Agent: MPlayer/
3075 # Tag all requests with the Range header set
3076 {+client-header-tagger{range-requests}}
3079 # Disable filtering for the tagged requests.
3081 # With filtering enabled Privoxy would remove the Range headers
3082 # to be able to filter the whole response. The downside is that
3083 # it prevents clients from resuming downloads or skipping over
3084 # parts of multimedia files.
3085 {-filter -deanimate-gifs}
3090 # Tag all requests with the client IP address
3092 # (Technically the client IP address isn't included in the
3093 # client headers but client-header taggers can set it anyway.
3094 # For details see the tagger in default.filter)
3095 {+client-header-tagger{client-ip-address}}
3098 # Change forwarding settings for requests coming from address 10.0.0.1
3099 {+forward-override{forward-socks5 127.0.1.2:2222 .}}
3100 TAG:^IP-ADDRESS: 10\.0\.0\.1$
3109 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3110 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="content-type-overwrite">
3111 <title>content-type-overwrite</title>
3115 <term>Typical use:</term>
3117 <para>Stop useless download menus from popping up, or change the browser's rendering mode</para>
3122 <term>Effect:</term>
3125 Replaces the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header.
3132 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3134 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3139 <term>Parameter:</term>
3151 The <quote>Content-Type:</quote> HTTP server header is used by the
3152 browser to decide what to do with the document. The value of this
3153 header can cause the browser to open a download menu instead of
3154 displaying the document by itself, even if the document's format is
3155 supported by the browser.
3158 The declared content type can also affect which rendering mode
3159 the browser chooses. If XHTML is delivered as <quote>text/html</quote>,
3160 many browsers treat it as yet another broken HTML document.
3161 If it is send as <quote>application/xml</quote>, browsers with
3162 XHTML support will only display it, if the syntax is correct.
3165 If you see a web site that proudly uses XHTML buttons, but sets
3166 <quote>Content-Type: text/html</quote>, you can use &my-app;
3167 to overwrite it with <quote>application/xml</quote> and validate
3168 the web master's claim inside your XHTML-supporting browser.
3169 If the syntax is incorrect, the browser will complain loudly.
3172 You can also go the opposite direction: if your browser prints
3173 error messages instead of rendering a document falsely declared
3174 as XHTML, you can overwrite the content type with
3175 <quote>text/html</quote> and have it rendered as broken HTML document.
3178 By default <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal> only replaces
3179 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> headers that look like some kind of text.
3180 If you want to overwrite it unconditionally, you have to combine it with
3181 <literal><link linkend="force-text-mode">force-text-mode</link></literal>.
3182 This limitation exists for a reason, think twice before circumventing it.
3185 Most of the time it's easier to replace this action with a custom
3186 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3187 It allows you to activate it for every document of a certain site and it will still
3188 only replace the content types you aimed at.
3191 Of course you can apply <literal>content-type-overwrite</literal>
3192 to a whole site and then make URL based exceptions, but it's a lot
3193 more work to get the same precision.
3199 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
3201 <screen># Check if www.example.net/ really uses valid XHTML
3202 { +content-type-overwrite{application/xml} }
3205 # but leave the content type unmodified if the URL looks like a style sheet
3206 {-content-type-overwrite}
3207 www.example.net/.*\.css$
3208 www.example.net/.*style
3216 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3217 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-client-header">
3221 <title>crunch-client-header</title>
3225 <term>Typical use:</term>
3227 <para>Remove a client header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3232 <term>Effect:</term>
3235 Deletes every header sent by the client that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3242 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3244 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3249 <term>Parameter:</term>
3261 This action allows you to block client headers for which no dedicated
3262 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists.
3263 <application>Privoxy</application> will remove every client header that
3264 contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3267 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3268 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3269 they contain the same string.
3272 <literal>crunch-client-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3273 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3274 parts of them, you should use a
3275 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header filter</link></literal>.
3279 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3286 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3288 <screen># Block the non-existent "Privacy-Violation:" client header
3289 { +crunch-client-header{Privacy-Violation:} }
3298 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3299 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-if-none-match">
3300 <title>crunch-if-none-match</title>
3306 <term>Typical use:</term>
3308 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
3313 <term>Effect:</term>
3316 Deletes the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header.
3323 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3325 <para>Boolean.</para>
3330 <term>Parameter:</term>
3342 Removing the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> HTTP client header
3343 is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
3344 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote> which
3345 would cause the browser to use a cached copy of the page.
3348 It is also useful to make sure the header isn't used as a cookie
3349 replacement (unlikely but possible).
3352 Blocking the <quote>If-None-Match:</quote> header shouldn't cause any
3353 caching problems, as long as the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> header
3354 isn't blocked or missing as well.
3357 It is recommended to use this action together with
3358 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
3360 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>.
3366 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3368 <screen># Let the browser revalidate cached documents but don't
3369 # allow the server to use the revalidation headers for user tracking.
3370 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
3371 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
3372 +crunch-if-none-match}
3381 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3382 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-incoming-cookies">
3383 <title>crunch-incoming-cookies</title>
3387 <term>Typical use:</term>
3390 Prevent the web server from setting HTTP cookies on your system
3396 <term>Effect:</term>
3399 Deletes any <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from server replies.
3406 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3408 <para>Boolean.</para>
3413 <term>Parameter:</term>
3425 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3426 <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3427 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>.
3428 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3431 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3432 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3433 since it would prevent the session cookies from being set. See also
3434 <literal><link linkend="filter-content-cookies">filter-content-cookies</link></literal>.
3440 <term>Example usage:</term>
3442 <screen>+crunch-incoming-cookies</screen>
3449 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3450 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-server-header">
3451 <title>crunch-server-header</title>
3457 <term>Typical use:</term>
3459 <para>Remove a server header <application>Privoxy</application> has no dedicated action for.</para>
3464 <term>Effect:</term>
3467 Deletes every header sent by the server that contains the string the user supplied as parameter.
3474 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3476 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3481 <term>Parameter:</term>
3493 This action allows you to block server headers for which no dedicated
3494 <application>Privoxy</application> action exists. <application>Privoxy</application>
3495 will remove every server header that contains the string you supplied as parameter.
3498 Regular expressions are <emphasis>not supported</emphasis> and you can't
3499 use this action to block different headers in the same request, unless
3500 they contain the same string.
3503 <literal>crunch-server-header</literal> is only meant for quick tests.
3504 If you have to block several different headers, or only want to modify
3505 parts of them, you should use a custom
3506 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header filter</link></literal>.
3510 Don't block any header without understanding the consequences.
3517 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3519 <screen># Crunch server headers that try to prevent caching
3520 { +crunch-server-header{no-cache} }
3529 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3530 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="crunch-outgoing-cookies">
3531 <title>crunch-outgoing-cookies</title>
3535 <term>Typical use:</term>
3538 Prevent the web server from reading any HTTP cookies from your system
3544 <term>Effect:</term>
3547 Deletes any <quote>Cookie:</quote> HTTP headers from client requests.
3554 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
3556 <para>Boolean.</para>
3561 <term>Parameter:</term>
3573 This action is only concerned with <emphasis>outgoing</emphasis> HTTP cookies. For
3574 <emphasis>incoming</emphasis> HTTP cookies, use
3575 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>.
3576 Use <emphasis>both</emphasis> to disable HTTP cookies completely.
3579 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use this action in conjunction
3580 with the <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal> action,
3581 since it would prevent the session cookies from being read.
3587 <term>Example usage:</term>
3589 <screen>+crunch-outgoing-cookies</screen>
3597 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3598 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="deanimate-gifs">
3599 <title>deanimate-gifs</title>
3603 <term>Typical use:</term>
3605 <para>Stop those annoying, distracting animated GIF images.</para>
3610 <term>Effect:</term>
3613 De-animate GIF animations, i.e. reduce them to their first or last image.
3620 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3622 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3627 <term>Parameter:</term>
3630 <quote>last</quote> or <quote>first</quote>
3639 This will also shrink the images considerably (in bytes, not pixels!). If
3640 the option <quote>first</quote> is given, the first frame of the animation
3641 is used as the replacement. If <quote>last</quote> is given, the last
3642 frame of the animation is used instead, which probably makes more sense for
3643 most banner animations, but also has the risk of not showing the entire
3644 last frame (if it is only a delta to an earlier frame).
3647 You can safely use this action with patterns that will also match non-GIF
3648 objects, because no attempt will be made at anything that doesn't look like
3655 <term>Example usage:</term>
3657 <screen>+deanimate-gifs{last}</screen>
3664 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3665 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="delay-response">
3666 <title>delay-response</title>
3670 <term>Typical use:</term>
3672 <para>Delay responses to the client to reduce the load</para>
3677 <term>Effect:</term>
3680 Delays responses to the client by sending the response in ca. 10 byte chunks.
3687 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3689 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3694 <term>Parameter:</term>
3697 <quote>Number of milliseconds</quote>
3706 Sometimes when JavaScript code is used to fetch advertisements
3707 it doesn't respect Privoxy's blocks and retries to fetch the
3708 same resource again causing unnecessary load on the client.
3711 This action delays responses to the client and can be combined
3712 with <literal><link linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>
3713 to slow down the JavaScript code, thus reducing
3714 the load on the client.
3717 When used without <literal><link linkend="block">blocks</link></literal>
3718 the action can also be used to simulate a slow internet connection.
3724 <term>Example usage:</term>
3726 <screen>+delay-response{100}</screen>
3733 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3734 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="downgrade-http-version">
3735 <title>downgrade-http-version</title>
3739 <term>Typical use:</term>
3741 <para>Work around (very rare) problems with HTTP/1.1</para>
3746 <term>Effect:</term>
3749 Downgrades HTTP/1.1 client requests and server replies to HTTP/1.0.
3756 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3758 <para>Boolean.</para>
3763 <term>Parameter:</term>
3775 This is a left-over from the time when <application>Privoxy</application>
3776 didn't support important HTTP/1.1 features well. It is left here for the
3777 unlikely case that you experience HTTP/1.1-related problems with some server
3781 Note that enabling this action is only a workaround. It should not
3782 be enabled for sites that work without it. While it shouldn't break
3783 any pages, it has an (usually negative) performance impact.
3786 If you come across a site where enabling this action helps, please report it,
3787 so the cause of the problem can be analyzed. If the problem turns out to be
3788 caused by a bug in <application>Privoxy</application> it should be
3789 fixed so the following release works without the work around.
3795 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
3797 <screen>{+downgrade-http-version}
3798 problem-host.example.com</screen>
3806 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3807 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="external-filter">
3808 <title>external-filter</title>
3812 <term>Typical use:</term>
3814 <para>Modify content using a programming language of your choice.</para>
3819 <term>Effect:</term>
3822 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
3823 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified external
3825 By default plain text documents are exempted from filtering, because web
3826 servers often use the <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files
3827 whose type they don't know.)
3834 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3836 <para>Multi-value.</para>
3841 <term>Parameter:</term>
3844 The name of an external content filter, as defined in the
3845 <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
3846 External filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
3847 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
3848 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
3851 When used in its negative form,
3852 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering with external
3853 filters is completely disabled.
3862 External filters are scripts or programs that can modify the content in
3863 case common <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal>
3864 aren't powerful enough. With the exception that this action doesn't
3865 use pcrs-based filters, the notes in the
3866 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> section apply.
3870 Currently external filters are executed with &my-app;'s privileges.
3871 Only use external filters you understand and trust.
3875 This feature is experimental, the <literal><link
3876 linkend="external-filter-syntax">syntax</link></literal>
3877 may change in the future.
3884 <term>Example usage:</term>
3886 <screen>+external-filter{fancy-filter}</screen>
3892 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
3893 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="fast-redirects">
3894 <title>fast-redirects</title>
3898 <term>Typical use:</term>
3900 <para>Fool some click-tracking scripts and speed up indirect links.</para>
3905 <term>Effect:</term>
3908 Detects redirection URLs and redirects the browser without contacting
3909 the redirection server first.
3916 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
3918 <para>Parameterized.</para>
3923 <term>Parameter:</term>
3928 <quote>simple-check</quote> to just search for the string <quote>http://</quote>
3929 to detect redirection URLs.
3934 <quote>check-decoded-url</quote> to decode URLs (if necessary) before searching
3935 for redirection URLs.
3946 Many sites, like yahoo.com, don't just link to other sites. Instead, they
3947 will link to some script on their own servers, giving the destination as a
3948 parameter, which will then redirect you to the final target. URLs
3949 resulting from this scheme typically look like:
3950 <quote>http://www.example.org/click-tracker.cgi?target=http%3a//www.example.net/</quote>.
3953 Sometimes, there are even multiple consecutive redirects encoded in the
3954 URL. These redirections via scripts make your web browsing more traceable,
3955 since the server from which you follow such a link can see where you go
3956 to. Apart from that, valuable bandwidth and time is wasted, while your
3957 browser asks the server for one redirect after the other. Plus, it feeds
3961 This feature is currently not very smart and is scheduled for improvement.
3962 If it is enabled by default, you will have to create some exceptions to
3963 this action. It can lead to failures in several ways:
3966 Not every URLs with other URLs as parameters is evil.
3967 Some sites offer a real service that requires this information to work.
3968 For example a validation service needs to know, which document to validate.
3969 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> assumes that every URL parameter that
3970 looks like another URL is a redirection target, and will always redirect to
3971 the last one. Most of the time the assumption is correct, but if it isn't,
3972 the user gets redirected anyway.
3975 Another failure occurs if the URL contains other parameters after the URL parameter.
3977 <quote>http://www.example.org/?redirect=http%3a//www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3978 contains the redirection URL <quote>http://www.example.net/</quote>,
3979 followed by another parameter. <literal>fast-redirects</literal> doesn't know that
3980 and will cause a redirect to <quote>http://www.example.net/&foo=bar</quote>.
3981 Depending on the target server configuration, the parameter will be silently ignored
3982 or lead to a <quote>page not found</quote> error. You can prevent this problem by
3983 first using the <literal><link linkend="redirect">redirect</link></literal> action
3984 to remove the last part of the URL, but it requires a little effort.
3987 To detect a redirection URL, <literal>fast-redirects</literal> only
3988 looks for the string <quote>http://</quote>, either in plain text
3989 (invalid but often used) or encoded as <quote>http%3a//</quote>.
3990 Some sites use their own URL encoding scheme, encrypt the address
3991 of the target server or replace it with a database id. In these cases
3992 <literal>fast-redirects</literal> is fooled and the request reaches the
3993 redirection server where it probably gets logged.
3999 <term>Example usage:</term>
4002 { +fast-redirects{simple-check} }
4005 { +fast-redirects{check-decoded-url} }
4006 another.example.com/testing</screen>
4014 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4015 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="filter">
4016 <title>filter</title>
4020 <term>Typical use:</term>
4022 <para>Get rid of HTML and JavaScript annoyances, banner advertisements (by size),
4023 do fun text replacements, add personalized effects, etc.</para>
4028 <term>Effect:</term>
4031 All instances of text-based type, most notably HTML and JavaScript, to which
4032 this action applies, can be filtered on-the-fly through the specified regular
4033 expression based substitutions. (Note: as of version 3.0.3 plain text documents
4034 are exempted from filtering, because web servers often use the
4035 <literal>text/plain</literal> MIME type for all files whose type they don't know.)
4042 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
4044 <para>Multi-value.</para>
4049 <term>Parameter:</term>
4052 The name of a content filter, as defined in the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>.
4053 Filters can be defined in one or more files as defined by the
4054 <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
4055 option in the <link linkend="config">config file</link>.
4056 <filename>default.filter</filename> is the collection of filters
4057 supplied by the developers. Locally defined filters should go
4058 in their own file, such as <filename>user.filter</filename>.
4061 When used in its negative form,
4062 and without parameters, <emphasis>all</emphasis> filtering is completely disabled.
4071 For your convenience, there are a number of pre-defined filters available
4072 in the distribution filter file that you can use. See the examples below for
4076 Filtering requires buffering the page content, which may appear to
4077 slow down page rendering since nothing is displayed until all content has
4078 passed the filters. (The total time until the page is completely rendered
4079 doesn't change much, but it may be perceived as slower since the page is
4080 not incrementally displayed.)
4081 This effect will be more noticeable on slower connections.
4084 <quote>Rolling your own</quote>
4085 filters requires a knowledge of
4086 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
4087 Expressions</quote></ulink> and
4088 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html"><quote>HTML</quote></ulink>.
4089 This is very powerful feature, and potentially very intrusive.
4090 Filters should be used with caution, and where an equivalent
4091 <quote>action</quote> is not available.
4094 The amount of data that can be filtered is limited to the
4095 <literal><link linkend="buffer-limit">buffer-limit</link></literal>
4096 option in the main <link linkend="config">config file</link>. The
4097 default is 4096 KB (4 Megs). Once this limit is exceeded, the buffered
4098 data, and all pending data, is passed through unfiltered.
4101 Inappropriate MIME types, such as zipped files, are not filtered at all.
4102 (Again, only text-based types except plain text). Encrypted SSL data
4103 (from HTTPS servers) cannot be filtered either, since this would violate
4104 the integrity of the secure transaction. In some situations it might
4105 be necessary to protect certain text, like source code, from filtering
4106 by defining appropriate <literal>-filter</literal> exceptions.
4109 Compressed content can't be filtered either, but if &my-app;
4110 is compiled with zlib support and a supported compression algorithm
4111 is used (gzip or deflate), &my-app; can first decompress the content
4115 If you use a &my-app; version without zlib support, but want filtering to work on
4116 as much documents as possible, even those that would normally be sent compressed,
4117 you must use the <literal><link linkend="prevent-compression">prevent-compression</link></literal>
4118 action in conjunction with <literal>filter</literal>.
4121 Content filtering can achieve some of the same effects as the
4122 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4123 action, i.e. it can be used to block ads and banners. But the mechanism
4124 works quite differently. One effective use, is to block ad banners
4125 based on their size (see below), since many of these seem to be somewhat
4129 <link linkend="contact">Feedback</link> with suggestions for new or
4130 improved filters is particularly welcome!
4133 The below list has only the names and a one-line description of each
4134 predefined filter. There are <link linkend="predefined-filters">more
4135 verbose explanations</link> of what these filters do in the <link
4136 linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>.
4142 <term>Example usage (with filters from the distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file).
4143 See <link linkend="PREDEFINED-FILTERS">the Predefined Filters section</link> for
4144 more explanation on each:</term>
4147 <anchor id="filter-js-annoyances">
4149 <screen>+filter{js-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.</screen>
4151 <anchor id="filter-js-events">
4153 <screen>+filter{js-events} # Kill JavaScript event bindings and timers (Radically destructive! Only for extra nasty sites).</screen>
4155 <anchor id="filter-html-annoyances">
4157 <screen>+filter{html-annoyances} # Get rid of particularly annoying HTML abuse.</screen>
4159 <anchor id="filter-content-cookies">
4161 <screen>+filter{content-cookies} # Kill cookies that come in the HTML or JS content.</screen>
4163 <anchor id="filter-refresh-tags">
4165 <screen>+filter{refresh-tags} # Kill automatic refresh tags if refresh time is larger than 9 seconds.</screen>
4167 <anchor id="filter-unsolicited-popups">
4169 <screen>+filter{unsolicited-popups} # Disable only unsolicited pop-up windows.</screen>
4171 <anchor id="filter-all-popups">
4173 <screen>+filter{all-popups} # Kill all popups in JavaScript and HTML.</screen>
4175 <anchor id="filter-img-reorder">
4177 <screen>+filter{img-reorder} # Reorder attributes in <img> tags to make the banners-by-* filters more effective.</screen>
4179 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-size">
4181 <screen>+filter{banners-by-size} # Kill banners by size.</screen>
4183 <anchor id="filter-banners-by-link">
4185 <screen>+filter{banners-by-link} # Kill banners by their links to known clicktrackers.</screen>
4187 <anchor id="filter-webbugs">
4189 <screen>+filter{webbugs} # Squish WebBugs (1x1 invisible GIFs used for user tracking).</screen>
4191 <anchor id="filter-tiny-textforms">
4193 <screen>+filter{tiny-textforms} # Extend those tiny textareas up to 40x80 and kill the hard wrap.</screen>
4195 <anchor id="filter-jumping-windows">
4197 <screen>+filter{jumping-windows} # Prevent windows from resizing and moving themselves.</screen>
4199 <anchor id="filter-frameset-borders">
4201 <screen>+filter{frameset-borders} # Give frames a border and make them resizable.</screen>
4203 <anchor id="filter-iframes">
4205 <screen>+filter{iframes} # Removes all detected iframes. Should only be enabled for individual sites.</screen>
4207 <anchor id="filter-demoronizer">
4209 <screen>+filter{demoronizer} # Fix MS's non-standard use of standard charsets.</screen>
4211 <anchor id="filter-shockwave-flash">
4213 <screen>+filter{shockwave-flash} # Kill embedded Shockwave Flash objects.</screen>
4215 <anchor id="filter-quicktime-kioskmode">
4217 <screen>+filter{quicktime-kioskmode} # Make Quicktime movies saveable.</screen>
4219 <anchor id="filter-fun">
4221 <screen>+filter{fun} # Text replacements for subversive browsing fun!</screen>
4223 <anchor id="filter-crude-parental">
4225 <screen>+filter{crude-parental} # Crude parental filtering. Note that this filter doesn't work reliably.</screen>
4227 <anchor id="filter-ie-exploits">
4229 <screen>+filter{ie-exploits} # Disable some known Internet Explorer bug exploits.</screen>
4231 <anchor id="filter-site-specifics">
4233 <screen>+filter{site-specifics} # Cure for site-specific problems. Don't apply generally!</screen>
4235 <anchor id="filter-no-ping">
4237 <screen>+filter{no-ping} # Removes non-standard ping attributes in <a> and <area> tags.</screen>
4239 <anchor id="filter-google">
4241 <screen>+filter{google} # CSS-based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation and the toolbar advertisement.</screen>
4243 <anchor id="filter-yahoo">
4245 <screen>+filter{yahoo} # CSS-based block for Yahoo text ads. Also removes a width limitation.</screen>
4247 <anchor id="filter-msn">
4249 <screen>+filter{msn} # CSS-based block for MSN text ads. Also removes tracking URLs and a width limitation.</screen>
4251 <anchor id="filter-blogspot">
4253 <screen>+filter{blogspot} # Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this.</screen>
4260 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4261 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="force-text-mode">
4262 <title>force-text-mode</title>
4268 <term>Typical use:</term>
4270 <para>Force <application>Privoxy</application> to treat a document as if it was in some kind of <emphasis>text</emphasis> format. </para>
4275 <term>Effect:</term>
4278 Declares a document as text, even if the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> isn't detected as such.
4285 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4287 <para>Boolean.</para>
4292 <term>Parameter:</term>
4304 As explained <literal><link linkend="filter">above</link></literal>,
4305 <application>Privoxy</application> tries to only filter files that are
4306 in some kind of text format. The same restrictions apply to
4307 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite</link></literal>.
4308 <literal>force-text-mode</literal> declares a document as text,
4309 without looking at the <quote>Content-Type:</quote> first.
4313 Think twice before activating this action. Filtering binary data
4314 with regular expressions can cause file damage.
4321 <term>Example usage:</term>
4332 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4333 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="forward-override">
4334 <title>forward-override</title>
4340 <term>Typical use:</term>
4342 <para>Change the forwarding settings based on User-Agent or request origin</para>
4347 <term>Effect:</term>
4350 Overrules the forward directives in the configuration file.
4357 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4359 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4364 <term>Parameter:</term>
4368 <para><quote>forward .</quote> to use a direct connection without any additional proxies.</para>
4372 <quote>forward 127.0.0.1:8123</quote> to use the HTTP proxy listening at 127.0.0.1 port 8123.
4377 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 .</quote> to use the socks4a proxy listening at
4378 127.0.0.1 port 9050. Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote>
4379 to use a socks4 connection (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4380 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4385 <quote>forward-socks4a 127.0.0.1:9050 proxy.example.org:8000</quote> to use the socks4a proxy
4386 listening at 127.0.0.1 port 9050 to reach the HTTP proxy listening at proxy.example.org port 8000.
4387 Replace <quote>forward-socks4a</quote> with <quote>forward-socks4</quote> to use a socks4 connection
4388 (with local DNS resolution) instead, use <quote>forward-socks5</quote>
4389 for socks5 connections (with remote DNS resolution).
4394 <quote>forward-webserver 127.0.0.1:80</quote> to use the HTTP
4395 server listening at 127.0.0.1 port 80 without adjusting the
4399 This makes it more convenient to use Privoxy to make
4400 existing websites available as onion services as well.
4403 Many websites serve content with hardcoded URLs and
4404 can't be easily adjusted to change the domain based
4405 on the one used by the client.
4408 Putting Privoxy between Tor and the webserver (or an stunnel
4409 that forwards to the webserver) allows to rewrite headers and
4410 content to make client and server happy at the same time.
4413 Using Privoxy for webservers that are only reachable through
4414 onion addresses and whose location is supposed to be secret
4415 is not recommended and should not be necessary anyway.
4426 This action takes parameters similar to the
4427 <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives in the configuration
4428 file, but without the URL pattern. It can be used as replacement, but normally it's only
4429 used in cases where matching based on the request URL isn't sufficient.
4433 Please read the description for the <link linkend="forwarding">forward</link> directives before
4434 using this action. Forwarding to the wrong people will reduce your privacy and increase the
4435 chances of man-in-the-middle attacks.
4438 If the ports are missing or invalid, default values will be used. This might change
4439 in the future and you shouldn't rely on it. Otherwise incorrect syntax causes Privoxy
4440 to exit. Due to design limitations, invalid parameter syntax isn't detected until the
4441 action is used the first time.
4444 Use the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">show-url-info CGI page</ulink>
4445 to verify that your forward settings do what you thought the do.
4452 <term>Example usage:</term>
4455 # Use an ssh tunnel for requests previously tagged as
4456 # <quote>User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2.0</quote> and make sure
4457 # resuming downloads continues to work.
4459 # This way you can continue to use Tor for your normal browsing,
4460 # without overloading the Tor network with your FreeBSD ports updates
4461 # or downloads of bigger files like ISOs.
4463 # Note that HTTP headers are easy to fake and therefore their
4464 # values are as (un)trustworthy as your clients and users.
4465 {+forward-override{forward-socks5 10.0.0.2:2222 .} \
4466 -hide-if-modified-since \
4467 -overwrite-last-modified \
4469 TAG:^User-Agent: fetch libfetch/2\.0$
4477 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4478 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-empty-document">
4479 <title>handle-as-empty-document</title>
4485 <term>Typical use:</term>
4487 <para>Mark URLs that should be replaced by empty documents <emphasis>if they get blocked</emphasis></para>
4492 <term>Effect:</term>
4495 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs.
4496 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4497 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote>
4498 page, or an empty document will be sent to the client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4499 The <emphasis>empty</emphasis> document isn't literally empty, but actually contains a single space.
4506 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4508 <para>Boolean.</para>
4513 <term>Parameter:</term>
4525 Some browsers complain about syntax errors if JavaScript documents
4526 are blocked with <application>Privoxy's</application>
4527 default HTML page; this option can be used to silence them.
4528 And of course this action can also be used to eliminate the &my-app;
4529 BLOCKED message in frames.
4532 The content type for the empty document can be specified with
4533 <literal><link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{}</link></literal>,
4534 but usually this isn't necessary.
4540 <term>Example usage:</term>
4542 <screen># Block all documents on example.org that end with ".js",
4543 # but send an empty document instead of the usual HTML message.
4544 {+block{Blocked JavaScript} +handle-as-empty-document}
4553 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4554 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="handle-as-image">
4555 <title>handle-as-image</title>
4559 <term>Typical use:</term>
4561 <para>Mark URLs as belonging to images (so they'll be replaced by images <emphasis>if they do get blocked</emphasis>, rather than HTML pages)</para>
4566 <term>Effect:</term>
4569 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. It just marks URLs as images.
4570 If the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action <emphasis>also applies</emphasis>,
4571 the presence or absence of this mark decides whether an HTML <quote>blocked</quote>
4572 page, or a replacement image (as determined by the <literal><link
4573 linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal> action) will be sent to the
4574 client as a substitute for the blocked content.
4581 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4583 <para>Boolean.</para>
4588 <term>Parameter:</term>
4600 The below generic example section is actually part of <filename>default.action</filename>.
4601 It marks all URLs with well-known image file name extensions as images and should
4605 Users will probably only want to use the handle-as-image action in conjunction with
4606 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>, to block sources of banners, whose URLs don't
4607 reflect the file type, like in the second example section.
4610 Note that you cannot treat HTML pages as images in most cases. For instance, (in-line) ad
4611 frames require an HTML page to be sent, or they won't display properly.
4612 Forcing <literal>handle-as-image</literal> in this situation will not replace the
4613 ad frame with an image, but lead to error messages.
4619 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
4621 <screen># Generic image extensions:
4624 /.*\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png|bmp|ico)$
4626 # These don't look like images, but they're banners and should be
4627 # blocked as images:
4629 {+block{Nasty banners.} +handle-as-image}
4630 nasty-banner-server.example.com/junk.cgi\?output=trash
4638 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4639 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-accept-language">
4640 <title>hide-accept-language</title>
4646 <term>Typical use:</term>
4648 <para>Pretend to use different language settings.</para>
4653 <term>Effect:</term>
4656 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> HTTP header in client requests.
4663 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4665 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4670 <term>Parameter:</term>
4673 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4682 Faking the browser's language settings can be useful to make a
4683 foreign User-Agent set with
4684 <literal><link linkend="hide-user-agent">hide-user-agent</link></literal>
4688 However some sites with content in different languages check the
4689 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> to decide which one to take by default.
4690 Sometimes it isn't possible to later switch to another language without
4691 changing the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header first.
4694 Therefore it's a good idea to either only change the
4695 <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header to languages you understand,
4696 or to languages that aren't wide spread.
4699 Before setting the <quote>Accept-Language:</quote> header
4700 to a rare language, you should consider that it helps to
4701 make your requests unique and thus easier to trace.
4702 If you don't plan to change this header frequently,
4703 you should stick to a common language.
4709 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4711 <screen># Pretend to use Canadian language settings.
4712 {+hide-accept-language{en-ca} \
4713 +hide-user-agent{Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; OpenBSD i386; en-CA; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060628 Firefox/1.5.0.4} \
4723 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4724 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-content-disposition">
4725 <title>hide-content-disposition</title>
4731 <term>Typical use:</term>
4733 <para>Prevent download menus for content you prefer to view inside the browser.</para>
4738 <term>Effect:</term>
4741 Deletes or replaces the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header set by some servers.
4748 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4750 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4755 <term>Parameter:</term>
4758 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4767 Some servers set the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> HTTP header for
4768 documents they assume you want to save locally before viewing them.
4769 The <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header contains the file name
4770 the browser is supposed to use by default.
4773 In most browsers that understand this header, it makes it impossible to
4774 <emphasis>just view</emphasis> the document, without downloading it first,
4775 even if it's just a simple text file or an image.
4778 Removing the <quote>Content-Disposition:</quote> header helps
4779 to prevent this annoyance, but some browsers additionally check the
4780 <quote>Content-Type:</quote> header, before they decide if they can
4781 display a document without saving it first. In these cases, you have
4782 to change this header as well, before the browser stops displaying
4786 It is also possible to change the server's file name suggestion
4787 to another one, but in most cases it isn't worth the time to set
4791 This action will probably be removed in the future,
4792 use server-header filters instead.
4798 <term>Example usage:</term>
4800 <screen># Disarm the download link in Sourceforge's patch tracker
4802 +content-type-overwrite{text/plain}\
4803 +hide-content-disposition{block} }
4804 .sourceforge.net/tracker/download\.php</screen>
4811 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4812 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-if-modified-since">
4813 <title>hide-if-modified-since</title>
4819 <term>Typical use:</term>
4821 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
4826 <term>Effect:</term>
4829 Deletes the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> HTTP client header or modifies its value.
4836 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4838 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4843 <term>Parameter:</term>
4846 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or a user defined value that specifies a range of hours.
4855 Removing this header is useful for filter testing, where you want to force a real
4856 reload instead of getting status code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the
4857 browser to use a cached copy of the page.
4860 Instead of removing the header, <literal>hide-if-modified-since</literal> can
4861 also add or subtract a random amount of time to/from the header's value.
4862 You specify a range of minutes where the random factor should be chosen from and
4863 <application>Privoxy</application> does the rest. A negative value means
4864 subtracting, a positive value adding.
4867 Randomizing the value of the <quote>If-Modified-Since:</quote> makes
4868 it less likely that the server can use the time as a cookie replacement,
4869 but you will run into caching problems if the random range is too high.
4872 It is a good idea to only use a small negative value and let
4873 <literal><link linkend="overwrite-last-modified">overwrite-last-modified</link></literal>
4874 handle the greater changes.
4877 It is also recommended to use this action together with
4878 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>,
4879 otherwise it's more or less pointless.
4885 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
4887 <screen># Let the browser revalidate but make tracking based on the time less likely.
4888 {+hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
4889 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
4890 +crunch-if-none-match}
4898 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4899 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-from-header">
4900 <title>hide-from-header</title>
4904 <term>Typical use:</term>
4906 <para>Keep your (old and ill) browser from telling web servers your email address</para>
4911 <term>Effect:</term>
4914 Deletes any existing <quote>From:</quote> HTTP header, or replaces it with the
4922 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4924 <para>Parameterized.</para>
4929 <term>Parameter:</term>
4932 Keyword: <quote>block</quote>, or any user defined value.
4941 The keyword <quote>block</quote> will completely remove the header
4942 (not to be confused with the <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
4946 Alternately, you can specify any value you prefer to be sent to the web
4947 server. If you do, it is a matter of fairness not to use any address that
4948 is actually used by a real person.
4951 This action is rarely needed, as modern web browsers don't send
4952 <quote>From:</quote> headers anymore.
4958 <term>Example usage:</term>
4960 <screen>+hide-from-header{block}</screen>
4962 <screen>+hide-from-header{spam-me-senseless@sittingduck.example.com}</screen>
4969 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
4970 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-referrer">
4971 <title>hide-referrer</title>
4972 <anchor id="hide-referer">
4975 <term>Typical use:</term>
4977 <para>Conceal which link you followed to get to a particular site</para>
4982 <term>Effect:</term>
4985 Deletes the <quote>Referer:</quote> (sic) HTTP header from the client request,
4986 or replaces it with a forged one.
4993 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
4995 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5000 <term>Parameter:</term>
5004 <para><quote>conditional-block</quote> to delete the header completely if the host has changed.</para>
5007 <para><quote>conditional-forge</quote> to forge the header if the host has changed.</para>
5010 <para><quote>block</quote> to delete the header unconditionally.</para>
5013 <para><quote>forge</quote> to pretend to be coming from the homepage of the server we are talking to.</para>
5016 <para>Any other string to set a user defined referrer.</para>
5026 <literal>conditional-block</literal> is the only parameter,
5027 that isn't easily detected in the server's log file. If it blocks the
5028 referrer, the request will look like the visitor used a bookmark or
5029 typed in the address directly.
5032 Leaving the referrer unmodified for requests on the same host
5033 allows the server owner to see the visitor's <quote>click path</quote>,
5034 but in most cases she could also get that information by comparing
5035 other parts of the log file: for example the User-Agent if it isn't
5036 a very common one, or the user's IP address if it doesn't change between
5040 Always blocking the referrer, or using a custom one, can lead to
5041 failures on servers that check the referrer before they answer any
5042 requests, in an attempt to prevent their content from being
5043 embedded or linked to elsewhere.
5046 Both <literal>conditional-block</literal> and <literal>forge</literal>
5047 will work with referrer checks, as long as content and valid referring page
5048 are on the same host. Most of the time that's the case.
5051 <literal>hide-referer</literal> is an alternate spelling of
5052 <literal>hide-referrer</literal> and the two can be can be freely
5053 substituted with each other. (<quote>referrer</quote> is the
5054 correct English spelling, however the HTTP specification has a bug - it
5055 requires it to be spelled as <quote>referer</quote>.)
5061 <term>Example usage:</term>
5063 <screen>+hide-referrer{forge}</screen>
5065 <screen>+hide-referrer{http://www.yahoo.com/}</screen>
5072 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5073 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="hide-user-agent">
5074 <title>hide-user-agent</title>
5078 <term>Typical use:</term>
5080 <para>Try to conceal your type of browser and client operating system</para>
5085 <term>Effect:</term>
5088 Replaces the value of the <quote>User-Agent:</quote> HTTP header
5089 in client requests with the specified value.
5096 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5098 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5103 <term>Parameter:</term>
5106 Any user-defined string.
5116 This can lead to problems on web sites that depend on looking at this header in
5117 order to customize their content for different browsers (which, by the
5118 way, is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> the right thing to do: good web sites
5119 work browser-independently).
5123 Using this action in multi-user setups or wherever different types of
5124 browsers will access the same <application>Privoxy</application> is
5125 <emphasis>not recommended</emphasis>. In single-user, single-browser
5126 setups, you might use it to delete your OS version information from
5127 the headers, because it is an invitation to exploit known bugs for your
5128 OS. It is also occasionally useful to forge this in order to access
5129 sites that won't let you in otherwise (though there may be a good
5130 reason in some cases).
5133 More information on known user-agent strings can be found at
5134 <ulink url="http://www.user-agents.org/">http://www.user-agents.org/</ulink>
5136 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_agent</ulink>.
5142 <term>Example usage:</term>
5144 <screen>+hide-user-agent{Netscape 6.1 (X11; I; Linux 2.4.18 i686)}</screen>
5151 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5152 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="https-inspection">
5153 <title>https-inspection</title>
5157 <term>Typical use:</term>
5159 <para>Filter encrypted requests and responses</para>
5164 <term>Effect:</term>
5167 Encrypted requests are decrypted, filtered and forwarded encrypted.
5174 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5176 <para>Boolean.</para>
5181 <term>Parameter:</term>
5193 This action allows &my-app; to filter encrypted requests and responses.
5194 For this to work &my-app; has to generate a certificate and send it
5195 to the client which has to accept it.
5198 Before this works the directives in the
5199 <literal><ulink url="config.html#TLS">TLS section</ulink></literal>
5200 of the config file have to be configured.
5203 Note that the action has to be enabled based on the CONNECT
5204 request which doesn't contain a path. Enabling it based on
5205 a pattern with path doesn't work as the path is only seen
5206 by &my-app; if the action is already enabled.
5212 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5214 <screen>{+https-inspection}
5215 www.example.com</screen>
5223 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5224 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="ignore-certificate-errors">
5225 <title>ignore-certificate-errors</title>
5229 <term>Typical use:</term>
5231 <para>Filter encrypted requests and responses without verifying the certificate</para>
5236 <term>Effect:</term>
5239 Encrypted requests are forwarded to sites without verifying the certificate.
5246 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5248 <para>Boolean.</para>
5253 <term>Parameter:</term>
5266 <link linkend="HTTPS-INSPECTION"><quote>+https-inspection</quote></link>
5267 action is used &my-app; by default verifies that the remote site uses a valid
5271 If the certificate can't be validated by &my-app; the connection is aborted.
5274 This action disables the certificate check so requests to sites
5275 with certificates that can't be validated are allowed.
5278 Note that enabling this action allows Man-in-the-middle attacks.
5284 <term>Example usage:</term>
5287 {+ignore-certificate-errors}
5296 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5297 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-connect">
5298 <title>limit-connect</title>
5302 <term>Typical use:</term>
5304 <para>Prevent abuse of <application>Privoxy</application> as a TCP proxy relay or disable SSL for untrusted sites</para>
5309 <term>Effect:</term>
5312 Specifies to which ports HTTP CONNECT requests are allowable.
5319 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5321 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5326 <term>Parameter:</term>
5329 A comma-separated list of ports or port ranges (the latter using dashes, with the minimum
5330 defaulting to 0 and the maximum to 65K).
5339 By default, i.e. if no <literal>limit-connect</literal> action applies,
5340 <application>Privoxy</application> allows HTTP CONNECT requests to all
5341 ports. Use <literal>limit-connect</literal> if fine-grained control
5342 is desired for some or all destinations.
5345 The CONNECT methods exists in HTTP to allow access to secure websites
5346 (<quote>https://</quote> URLs) through proxies. It works very simply:
5347 the proxy connects to the server on the specified port, and then
5348 short-circuits its connections to the client and to the remote server.
5349 This means CONNECT-enabled proxies can be used as TCP relays very easily.
5352 <application>Privoxy</application> relays HTTPS traffic without seeing
5353 the decoded content. Websites can leverage this limitation to circumvent &my-app;'s
5354 filters. By specifying an invalid port range you can disable HTTPS entirely.
5360 <term>Example usages:</term>
5362 <!-- I had trouble getting the spacing to look right in my browser -->
5363 <!-- I probably have the wrong font setup, bollocks. -->
5364 <!-- Apparently the emphasis tag uses a proportional font no matter what -->
5365 <screen>+limit-connect{443} # Port 443 is OK.
5366 +limit-connect{80,443} # Ports 80 and 443 are OK.
5367 +limit-connect{-3, 7, 20-100, 500-} # Ports less than 3, 7, 20 to 100 and above 500 are OK.
5368 +limit-connect{-} # All ports are OK
5369 +limit-connect{,} # No HTTPS/SSL traffic is allowed</screen>
5376 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5377 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="limit-cookie-lifetime">
5378 <title>limit-cookie-lifetime</title>
5382 <term>Typical use:</term>
5384 <para>Limit the lifetime of HTTP cookies to a couple of minutes or hours.</para>
5389 <term>Effect:</term>
5392 Overwrites the expires field in Set-Cookie server headers if it's above the specified limit.
5399 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5401 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5406 <term>Parameter:</term>
5409 The lifetime limit in minutes, or 0.
5418 This action reduces the lifetime of HTTP cookies coming from the
5419 server to the specified number of minutes, starting from the time
5420 the cookie passes Privoxy.
5423 Cookies with a lifetime below the limit are not modified.
5424 The lifetime of session cookies is set to the specified limit.
5427 The effect of this action depends on the server.
5430 In case of servers which refresh their cookies with each response
5431 (or at least frequently), the lifetime limit set by this action
5433 Thus, a session associated with the cookie continues to work with
5434 this action enabled, as long as a new request is made before the
5435 last limit set is reached.
5438 However, some servers send their cookies once, with a lifetime of several
5439 years (the year 2037 is a popular choice), and do not refresh them
5440 until a certain event in the future, for example the user logging out.
5441 In this case this action may limit the absolute lifetime of the session,
5442 even if requests are made frequently.
5445 If the parameter is <quote>0</quote>, this action behaves like
5446 <literal><link linkend="session-cookies-only">session-cookies-only</link></literal>.
5452 <term>Example usages:</term>
5454 <screen>+limit-cookie-lifetime{60}</screen>
5460 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5461 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="prevent-compression">
5462 <title>prevent-compression</title>
5466 <term>Typical use:</term>
5469 Ensure that servers send the content uncompressed, so it can be
5470 passed through <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal>s.
5476 <term>Effect:</term>
5479 Removes the Accept-Encoding header which can be used to ask for compressed transfer.
5486 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5488 <para>Boolean.</para>
5493 <term>Parameter:</term>
5505 More and more websites send their content compressed by default, which
5506 is generally a good idea and saves bandwidth. But the <literal><link
5507 linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> and
5508 <literal><link linkend="deanimate-gifs">deanimate-gifs</link></literal>
5509 actions need access to the uncompressed data.
5512 When compiled with zlib support (available since &my-app; 3.0.7), content that should be
5513 filtered is decompressed on-the-fly and you don't have to worry about this action.
5514 If you are using an older &my-app; version, or one that hasn't been compiled with zlib
5515 support, this action can be used to convince the server to send the content uncompressed.
5518 Most text-based instances compress very well, the size is seldom decreased by less than 50%,
5519 for markup-heavy instances like news feeds saving more than 90% of the original size isn't
5523 Not using compression will therefore slow down the transfer, and you should only
5524 enable this action if you really need it. As of &my-app; 3.0.7 it's disabled in all
5525 predefined action settings.
5528 Note that some (rare) ill-configured sites don't handle requests for uncompressed
5529 documents correctly. Broken PHP applications tend to send an empty document body,
5530 some IIS versions only send the beginning of the content and some content delivery
5531 networks let the connection time out.
5532 If you enable <literal>prevent-compression</literal> per default, you might
5533 want to add exceptions for those sites. See the example for how to do that.
5539 <term>Example usage (sections):</term>
5542 # Selectively turn off compression, and enable a filter
5544 { +filter{tiny-textforms} +prevent-compression }
5545 # Match only these sites
5550 # Or instead, we could set a universal default:
5552 { +prevent-compression }
5555 # Then maybe make exceptions for broken sites:
5557 { -prevent-compression }
5558 .compusa.com/</screen>
5566 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5567 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="overwrite-last-modified">
5568 <title>overwrite-last-modified</title>
5574 <term>Typical use:</term>
5576 <para>Prevent yet another way to track the user's steps between sessions.</para>
5581 <term>Effect:</term>
5584 Deletes the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> HTTP server header or modifies its value.
5591 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5593 <para>Parameterized.</para>
5598 <term>Parameter:</term>
5601 One of the keywords: <quote>block</quote>, <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote>
5602 and <quote>randomize</quote>
5611 Removing the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header is useful for filter
5612 testing, where you want to force a real reload instead of getting status
5613 code <quote>304</quote>, which would cause the browser to reuse the old
5614 version of the page.
5617 The <quote>randomize</quote> option overwrites the value of the
5618 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with a randomly chosen time
5619 between the original value and the current time. In theory the server
5620 could send each document with a different <quote>Last-Modified:</quote>
5621 header to track visits without using cookies. <quote>Randomize</quote>
5622 makes it impossible and the browser can still revalidate cached documents.
5625 <quote>reset-to-request-time</quote> overwrites the value of the
5626 <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header with the current time. You could use
5627 this option together with
5628 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hide-if-modified-since</link></literal>
5629 to further customize your random range.
5632 The preferred parameter here is <quote>randomize</quote>. It is safe
5633 to use, as long as the time settings are more or less correct.
5634 If the server sets the <quote>Last-Modified:</quote> header to the time
5635 of the request, the random range becomes zero and the value stays the same.
5636 Therefore you should later randomize it a second time with
5637 <literal><link linkend="hide-if-modified-since">hided-if-modified-since</link></literal>,
5641 It is also recommended to use this action together with
5642 <literal><link linkend="crunch-if-none-match">crunch-if-none-match</link></literal>.
5648 <term>Example usage:</term>
5650 <screen># Let the browser revalidate without being tracked across sessions
5651 { +hide-if-modified-since{-60} \
5652 +overwrite-last-modified{randomize} \
5653 +crunch-if-none-match}
5661 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5662 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="redirect">
5663 <title>redirect</title>
5669 <term>Typical use:</term>
5672 Redirect requests to other sites.
5678 <term>Effect:</term>
5681 Convinces the browser that the requested document has been moved
5682 to another location and the browser should get it from there.
5689 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5691 <para>Parameterized</para>
5696 <term>Parameter:</term>
5699 An absolute URL or a single pcrs command.
5708 Requests to which this action applies are answered with a
5709 HTTP redirect to URLs of your choosing. The new URL is
5710 either provided as parameter, or derived by applying a
5711 single pcrs command to the original URL.
5714 The syntax for pcrs commands is documented in the
5715 <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link> section.
5718 Requests can't be blocked and redirected at the same time,
5719 applying this action together with
5720 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal>
5721 is a configuration error. Currently the request is blocked
5722 and an error message logged, the behavior may change in the
5723 future and result in Privoxy rejecting the action file.
5726 This action can be combined with
5727 <literal><link linkend="fast-redirects">fast-redirects{check-decoded-url}</link></literal>
5728 to redirect to a decoded version of a rewritten URL.
5731 Use this action carefully, make sure not to create redirection loops
5732 and be aware that using your own redirects might make it
5733 possible to fingerprint your requests.
5736 In case of problems with your redirects, or simply to watch
5737 them working, enable <link linkend="DEBUG">debug 128</link>.
5743 <term>Example usages:</term>
5745 <screen># Replace example.com's style sheet with another one
5746 { +redirect{http://localhost/css-replacements/example.com.css} }
5747 example.com/stylesheet\.css
5749 # Create a short, easy to remember nickname for a favorite site
5750 # (relies on the browser to accept and forward invalid URLs to &my-app;)
5751 { +redirect{https://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.html} }
5754 # Always use the expanded view for Undeadly.org articles
5755 # (Note the $ at the end of the URL pattern to make sure
5756 # the request for the rewritten URL isn't redirected as well)
5757 {+redirect{s@$@&mode=expanded@}}
5758 undeadly.org/cgi\?action=article&sid=\d*$
5760 # Redirect Google search requests to MSN
5761 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/search\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=$1@}}
5764 # Redirect MSN search requests to Yahoo
5765 {+redirect{s@^http://[^/]*/results\.aspx\?q=([^&]*).*@http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=$1@}}
5766 search.msn.com//results\.aspx\?q=
5768 # Redirect http://example.com/&bla=fasel&toChange=foo (and any other value but "bar")
5769 # to http://example.com/&bla=fasel&toChange=bar
5771 # The URL pattern makes sure that the following request isn't redirected again.
5772 {+redirect{s@toChange=[^&]+@toChange=bar@}}
5773 example.com/.*toChange=(?!bar)
5775 # Add a shortcut to look up illumos bugs
5776 {+redirect{s@^http://i([0-9]+)/.*@https://www.illumos.org/issues/$1@}}
5777 # Redirected URL = http://i4974/
5778 # Redirect Destination = https://www.illumos.org/issues/4974
5779 i[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]*/
5781 # Redirect remote requests for this manual
5782 # to the local version delivered by Privoxy
5783 {+redirect{s@^http://www@http://config@}}
5784 www.privoxy.org/user-manual/</screen>
5792 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5793 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-filter">
5794 <title>server-header-filter</title>
5798 <term>Typical use:</term>
5801 Rewrite or remove single server headers.
5807 <term>Effect:</term>
5810 All server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly
5811 through the specified regular expression based substitutions.
5818 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5820 <para>Multi-value.</para>
5825 <term>Parameter:</term>
5828 The name of a server-header filter, as defined in one of the
5829 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5838 Server-header filters are applied to each header on its own, not to
5839 all at once. This makes it easier to diagnose problems, but on the downside
5840 you can't write filters that only change header x if header y's value is z.
5841 You can do that by using tags though.
5844 Server-header filters are executed after the other header actions have finished
5845 and use their output as input.
5848 Please refer to the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file chapter</link>
5849 to learn which server-header filters are available by default, and how to
5856 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5859 {+server-header-filter{html-to-xml}}
5860 example.org/xml-instance-that-is-delivered-as-html
5862 {+server-header-filter{xml-to-html}}
5863 example.org/instance-that-is-delivered-as-xml-but-is-not
5872 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5873 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="server-header-tagger">
5874 <title>server-header-tagger</title>
5878 <term>Typical use:</term>
5881 Enable or disable filters based on the Content-Type header.
5887 <term>Effect:</term>
5890 Server headers to which this action applies are filtered on-the-fly through
5891 the specified regular expression based substitutions, the result is used as
5899 <!-- boolean, parameterized, Multi-value -->
5901 <para>Multi-value.</para>
5906 <term>Parameter:</term>
5909 The name of a server-header tagger, as defined in one of the
5910 <link linkend="filter-file">filter files</link>.
5919 Server-header taggers are applied to each header on its own,
5920 and as the header isn't modified, each tagger <quote>sees</quote>
5924 Server-header taggers are executed before all other header actions
5925 that modify server headers. Their tags can be used to control
5926 all of the other server-header actions, the content filters
5927 and the crunch actions (<link linkend="redirect">redirect</link>
5928 and <link linkend="block">block</link>).
5931 Obviously crunching based on tags created by server-header taggers
5932 doesn't prevent the request from showing up in the server's log file.
5939 <term>Example usage (section):</term>
5942 # Tag every request with the content type declared by the server
5943 {+server-header-tagger{content-type}}
5946 # If the response has a tag starting with 'image/' enable an external
5947 # filter that only applies to images.
5949 # Note that the filter is not available by default, it's just a
5950 # <literal><link linkend="external-filter-syntax">silly example</link></literal>.
5951 {+external-filter{rotate-image} +force-text-mode}
5961 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
5962 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="session-cookies-only">
5963 <title>session-cookies-only</title>
5967 <term>Typical use:</term>
5970 Allow only temporary <quote>session</quote> cookies (for the current
5971 browser session <emphasis>only</emphasis>).
5977 <term>Effect:</term>
5980 Deletes the <quote>expires</quote> field from <quote>Set-Cookie:</quote>
5981 server headers. Most browsers will not store such cookies permanently and
5982 forget them in between sessions.
5989 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
5991 <para>Boolean.</para>
5996 <term>Parameter:</term>
6008 This is less strict than <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> /
6009 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal> and allows you to browse
6010 websites that insist or rely on setting cookies, without compromising your privacy too badly.
6013 Most browsers will not permanently store cookies that have been processed by
6014 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal> and will forget about them between sessions.
6015 This makes profiling cookies useless, but won't break sites which require cookies so
6016 that you can log in for transactions. This is generally turned on for all
6017 sites, and is the recommended setting.
6020 It makes <emphasis>no sense at all</emphasis> to use <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>
6021 together with <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal> or
6022 <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>. If you do, cookies
6023 will be plainly killed.
6026 Note that it is up to the browser how it handles such cookies without an <quote>expires</quote>
6027 field. If you use an exotic browser, you might want to try it out to be sure.
6030 This setting also has no effect on cookies that may have been stored
6031 previously by the browser before starting <application>Privoxy</application>.
6032 These would have to be removed manually.
6035 <application>Privoxy</application> also uses
6036 the <link linkend="filter-content-cookies">content-cookies filter</link>
6037 to block some types of cookies. Content cookies are not effected by
6038 <literal>session-cookies-only</literal>.
6044 <term>Example usage:</term>
6046 <screen>+session-cookies-only</screen>
6053 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6054 <sect3 renderas="sect4" id="set-image-blocker">
6055 <title>set-image-blocker</title>
6059 <term>Typical use:</term>
6061 <para>Choose the replacement for blocked images</para>
6066 <term>Effect:</term>
6069 This action alone doesn't do anything noticeable. If <emphasis>both</emphasis>
6070 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> <emphasis>and</emphasis> <literal><link
6071 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> <emphasis>also</emphasis>
6072 apply, i.e. if the request is to be blocked as an image,
6073 <emphasis>then</emphasis> the parameter of this action decides what will be
6074 sent as a replacement.
6081 <!-- Boolean, Parameterized, Multi-value -->
6083 <para>Parameterized.</para>
6088 <term>Parameter:</term>
6093 <quote>pattern</quote> to send a built-in checkerboard pattern image. The image is visually
6094 decent, scales very well, and makes it obvious where banners were busted.
6099 <quote>blank</quote> to send a built-in transparent image. This makes banners disappear
6100 completely, but makes it hard to detect where <application>Privoxy</application> has blocked
6101 images on a given page and complicates troubleshooting if <application>Privoxy</application>
6102 has blocked innocent images, like navigation icons.
6107 <quote><replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable></quote> to
6108 send a redirect to <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>. You can redirect
6109 to any image anywhere, even in your local filesystem via <quote>file:///</quote> URL.
6110 (But note that not all browsers support redirecting to a local file system).
6113 A good application of redirects is to use special <application>Privoxy</application>-built-in
6114 URLs, which send the built-in images, as <replaceable class="parameter">target-url</replaceable>.
6115 This has the same visual effect as specifying <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote> in
6116 the first place, but enables your browser to cache the replacement image, instead of requesting
6117 it over and over again.
6128 The URLs for the built-in images are <quote>http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=<replaceable
6129 class="parameter">type</replaceable></quote>, where <replaceable class="parameter">type</replaceable> is
6130 either <quote>blank</quote> or <quote>pattern</quote>.
6133 There is a third (advanced) type, called <quote>auto</quote>. It is <emphasis>NOT</emphasis> to be
6134 used in <literal>set-image-blocker</literal>, but meant for use from <link linkend="filter-file">filters</link>.
6135 Auto will select the type of image that would have applied to the referring page, had it been an image.
6141 <term>Example usage:</term>
6146 <screen>+set-image-blocker{pattern}</screen>
6148 Redirect to the BSD daemon:
6150 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://www.freebsd.org/gifs/dae_up3.gif}</screen>
6152 Redirect to the built-in pattern for better caching:
6154 <screen>+set-image-blocker{http://config.privoxy.org/send-banner?type=pattern}</screen>
6161 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6162 <sect3 id="summary">
6163 <title>Summary</title>
6165 Note that many of these actions have the potential to cause a page to
6166 misbehave, possibly even not to display at all. There are many ways
6167 a site designer may choose to design his site, and what HTTP header
6168 content, and other criteria, he may depend on. There is no way to have hard
6169 and fast rules for all sites. See the <link
6170 linkend="ACTIONSANAT">Appendix</link> for a brief example on troubleshooting
6176 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6177 <sect2 id="aliases">
6178 <title>Aliases</title>
6180 Custom <quote>actions</quote>, known to <application>Privoxy</application>
6181 as <quote>aliases</quote>, can be defined by combining other actions.
6182 These can in turn be invoked just like the built-in actions.
6183 Currently, an alias name can contain any character except space, tab,
6185 <quote>{</quote> and <quote>}</quote>, but we <emphasis>strongly
6186 recommend</emphasis> that you only use <quote>a</quote> to <quote>z</quote>,
6187 <quote>0</quote> to <quote>9</quote>, <quote>+</quote>, and <quote>-</quote>.
6188 Alias names are not case sensitive, and are not required to start with a
6189 <quote>+</quote> or <quote>-</quote> sign, since they are merely textually
6193 Aliases can be used throughout the actions file, but they <emphasis>must be
6194 defined in a special section at the top of the file!</emphasis>
6195 And there can only be one such section per actions file. Each actions file may
6196 have its own alias section, and the aliases defined in it are only visible
6200 There are two main reasons to use aliases: One is to save typing for frequently
6201 used combinations of actions, the other one is a gain in flexibility: If you
6202 decide once how you want to handle shops by defining an alias called
6203 <quote>shop</quote>, you can later change your policy on shops in
6204 <emphasis>one</emphasis> place, and your changes will take effect everywhere
6205 in the actions file where the <quote>shop</quote> alias is used. Calling aliases
6206 by their purpose also makes your actions files more readable.
6209 Currently, there is one big drawback to using aliases, though:
6210 <application>Privoxy</application>'s built-in web-based action file
6211 editor honors aliases when reading the actions files, but it expands
6212 them before writing. So the effects of your aliases are of course preserved,
6213 but the aliases themselves are lost when you edit sections that use aliases
6218 Now let's define some aliases...
6222 # Useful custom aliases we can use later.
6224 # Note the (required!) section header line and that this section
6225 # must be at the top of the actions file!
6229 # These aliases just save typing later:
6230 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6232 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6233 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6234 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
6235 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6237 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6238 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6240 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link> -<link linkend="PREVENT-COMPRESSION">prevent-compression</link>
6242 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link>
6244 # Short names for other aliases, for really lazy people ;-)
6246 c0 = +crunch-all-cookies
6247 c1 = -crunch-all-cookies</screen>
6250 ...and put them to use. These sections would appear in the lower part of an
6251 actions file and define exceptions to the default actions (as specified further
6252 up for the <quote>/</quote> pattern):
6256 # These sites are either very complex or very keen on
6257 # user data and require minimal interference to work:
6260 .office.microsoft.com
6261 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6262 # Gmail is really mail.google.com, not gmail.com
6266 # Allow cookies (for setting and retrieving your customer data)
6270 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6273 # These shops require pop-ups:
6275 {-filter{all-popups} -filter{unsolicited-popups}}
6277 .overclockers.co.uk</screen>
6280 Aliases like <quote>shop</quote> and <quote>fragile</quote> are typically used for
6281 <quote>problem</quote> sites that require more than one action to be disabled
6282 in order to function properly.
6288 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
6289 <sect2 id="act-examples">
6290 <title>Actions Files Tutorial</title>
6292 The above chapters have shown <link linkend="actions-file">which actions files
6293 there are and how they are organized</link>, how actions are <link
6294 linkend="actions">specified</link> and <link linkend="actions-apply">applied
6295 to URLs</link>, how <link linkend="af-patterns">patterns</link> work, and how to
6296 define and use <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link>. Now, let's look at an
6297 example <filename>match-all.action</filename>, <filename>default.action</filename>
6298 and <filename>user.action</filename> file and see how all these pieces come together:
6301 <sect3 id="match-all">
6302 <title>match-all.action</title>
6304 Remember <emphasis>all actions are disabled when matching starts</emphasis>,
6305 so we have to explicitly enable the ones we want.
6309 While the <filename>match-all.action</filename> file only contains a
6310 single section, it is probably the most important one. It has only one
6311 pattern, <quote><literal>/</literal></quote>, but this pattern
6312 <link linkend="af-patterns">matches all URLs</link>. Therefore, the set of
6313 actions used in this <quote>default</quote> section <emphasis>will
6314 be applied to all requests as a start</emphasis>. It can be partly or
6315 wholly overridden by other actions files like <filename>default.action</filename>
6316 and <filename>user.action</filename>, but it will still be largely responsible
6317 for your overall browsing experience.
6321 Again, at the start of matching, all actions are disabled, so there is
6322 no need to disable any actions here. (Remember: a <quote>+</quote>
6323 preceding the action name enables the action, a <quote>-</quote> disables!).
6324 Also note how this long line has been made more readable by splitting it into
6325 multiple lines with line continuation.
6330 +<link linkend="CHANGE-X-FORWARDED-FOR">change-x-forwarded-for{block}</link> \
6331 +<link linkend="HIDE-FROM-HEADER">hide-from-header{block}</link> \
6332 +<link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER">set-image-blocker{pattern}</link> \
6338 The default behavior is now set.
6342 <sect3 id="default-action">
6343 <title>default.action</title>
6346 If you aren't a developer, there's no need for you to edit the
6347 <filename>default.action</filename> file. It is maintained by
6348 the &my-app; developers and if you disagree with some of the
6349 sections, you should overrule them in your <filename>user.action</filename>.
6353 Understanding the <filename>default.action</filename> file can
6354 help you with your <filename>user.action</filename>, though.
6358 The first section in this file is a special section for internal use
6359 that prevents older &my-app; versions from reading the file:
6363 ##########################################################################
6364 # Settings -- Don't change! For internal Privoxy use ONLY.
6365 ##########################################################################
6367 for-privoxy-version=3.0.11</screen>
6370 After that comes the (optional) alias section. We'll use the example
6371 section from the above <link linkend="aliases">chapter on aliases</link>,
6372 that also explains why and how aliases are used:
6376 ##########################################################################
6378 ##########################################################################
6381 # These aliases just save typing later:
6382 # (Note that some already use other aliases!)
6384 +crunch-all-cookies = +<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> +<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6385 -crunch-all-cookies = -<link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES">crunch-incoming-cookies</link> -<link linkend="CRUNCH-OUTGOING-COOKIES">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link>
6386 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked image.} +handle-as-image
6387 mercy-for-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY">session-cookies-only</link> -<link linkend="FILTER-CONTENT-COOKIES">filter{content-cookies}</link>
6389 # These aliases define combinations of actions
6390 # that are useful for certain types of sites:
6392 fragile = -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-REFERER">hide-referrer</link>
6393 shop = -crunch-all-cookies -<link linkend="FILTER-ALL-POPUPS">filter{all-popups}</link></screen>
6396 The first of our specialized sections is concerned with <quote>fragile</quote>
6397 sites, i.e. sites that require minimum interference, because they are either
6398 very complex or very keen on tracking you (and have mechanisms in place that
6399 make them unusable for people who avoid being tracked). We will use
6400 our pre-defined <literal>fragile</literal> alias instead of stating the list
6401 of actions explicitly:
6405 ##########################################################################
6406 # Exceptions for sites that'll break under the default action set:
6407 ##########################################################################
6409 # "Fragile" Use a minimum set of actions for these sites (see alias above):
6412 .office.microsoft.com # surprise, surprise!
6413 .windowsupdate.microsoft.com
6414 mail.google.com</screen>
6417 Shopping sites are not as fragile, but they typically
6418 require cookies to log in, and pop-up windows for shopping
6419 carts or item details. Again, we'll use a pre-defined alias:
6427 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
6429 .scan.co.uk</screen>
6432 The <literal><link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link></literal>
6433 action, which may have been enabled in <filename>match-all.action</filename>,
6434 breaks some sites. So disable it for popular sites where we know it misbehaves:
6438 { -<link linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS">fast-redirects</link> }
6442 .altavista.com/.*(like|url|link):http
6443 .altavista.com/trans.*urltext=http
6444 .nytimes.com</screen>
6447 It is important that <application>Privoxy</application> knows which
6448 URLs belong to images, so that <emphasis>if</emphasis> they are to
6449 be blocked, a substitute image can be sent, rather than an HTML page.
6450 Contacting the remote site to find out is not an option, since it
6451 would destroy the loading time advantage of banner blocking, and it
6452 would feed the advertisers information about you. We can mark any
6453 URL as an image with the <literal><link
6454 linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> action,
6455 and marking all URLs that end in a known image file extension is a
6460 ##########################################################################
6462 ##########################################################################
6464 # Define which file types will be treated as images, in case they get
6465 # blocked further down this file:
6467 { +<link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE">handle-as-image</link> }
6468 /.*\.(gif|jpe?g|png|bmp|ico)$</screen>
6471 And then there are known banner sources. They often use scripts to
6472 generate the banners, so it won't be visible from the URL that the
6473 request is for an image. Hence we block them <emphasis>and</emphasis>
6474 mark them as images in one go, with the help of our
6475 <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above. (We could of
6476 course just as well use <literal>+<link linkend="block">block</link>
6477 +<link linkend="handle-as-image">handle-as-image</link></literal> here.)
6478 Remember that the type of the replacement image is chosen by the
6479 <literal><link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link></literal>
6480 action. Since all URLs have matched the default section with its
6481 <literal>+<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker</link>{pattern}</literal>
6482 action before, it still applies and needn't be repeated:
6486 # Known ad generators:
6491 .ad.*.doubleclick.net
6492 .a.yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6493 .a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
6498 One of the most important jobs of <application>Privoxy</application>
6499 is to block banners. Many of these can be <quote>blocked</quote>
6500 by the <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{banners-by-size}</literal>
6501 action, which we enabled above, and which deletes the references to banner
6502 images from the pages while they are loaded, so the browser doesn't request
6503 them anymore, and hence they don't need to be blocked here. But this naturally
6504 doesn't catch all banners, and some people choose not to use filters, so we
6505 need a comprehensive list of patterns for banner URLs here, and apply the
6506 <literal><link linkend="block">block</link></literal> action to them.
6509 First comes many generic patterns, which do most of the work, by
6510 matching typical domain and path name components of banners. Then comes
6511 a list of individual patterns for specific sites, which is omitted here
6512 to keep the example short:
6516 ##########################################################################
6517 # Block these fine banners:
6518 ##########################################################################
6519 { <link linkend="BLOCK">+block{Banner ads.}</link> }
6527 /.*count(er)?\.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
6528 /(?:.*/)?(publicite|werbung|rekla(ma|me|am)|annonse|maino(kset|nta|s)?)/
6530 # Site-specific patterns (abbreviated):
6532 .hitbox.com</screen>
6535 It's quite remarkable how many advertisers actually call their banner
6536 servers ads.<replaceable>company</replaceable>.com, or call the directory
6537 in which the banners are stored literally <quote>banners</quote>. So the above
6538 generic patterns are surprisingly effective.
6541 But being very generic, they necessarily also catch URLs that we don't want
6542 to block. The pattern <literal>.*ads.</literal> e.g. catches
6543 <quote>nasty-<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.nasty-corp.com</quote> as intended,
6544 but also <quote>downlo<emphasis>ads</emphasis>.sourcefroge.net</quote> or
6545 <quote><emphasis>ads</emphasis>l.some-provider.net.</quote> So here come some
6546 well-known exceptions to the <literal>+<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6550 Note that these are exceptions to exceptions from the default! Consider the URL
6551 <quote>downloads.sourcefroge.net</quote>: Initially, all actions are deactivated,
6552 so it wouldn't get blocked. Then comes the defaults section, which matches the
6553 URL, but just deactivates the <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal>
6554 action once again. Then it matches <literal>.*ads.</literal>, an exception to the
6555 general non-blocking policy, and suddenly
6556 <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">+block</link></literal> applies. And now, it'll match
6557 <literal>.*loads.</literal>, where <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">-block</link></literal>
6558 applies, so (unless it matches <emphasis>again</emphasis> further down) it ends up
6559 with no <literal><link linkend="BLOCK">block</link></literal> action applying.
6563 ##########################################################################
6564 # Save some innocent victims of the above generic block patterns:
6565 ##########################################################################
6569 { -<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> }
6570 adv[io]*. # (for advogato.org and advice.*)
6571 adsl. # (has nothing to do with ads)
6572 adobe. # (has nothing to do with ads either)
6573 ad[ud]*. # (adult.* and add.*)
6574 .edu # (universities don't host banners (yet!))
6575 .*loads. # (downloads, uploads etc)
6583 www.globalintersec.com/adv # (adv = advanced)
6584 www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/adv</screen>
6587 Filtering source code can have nasty side effects,
6588 so make an exception for our friends at sourceforge.net,
6589 and all paths with <quote>cvs</quote> in them. Note that
6590 <literal>-<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link></literal>
6591 disables <emphasis>all</emphasis> filters in one fell swoop!
6595 # Don't filter code!
6597 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6602 .sourceforge.net</screen>
6605 The actual <filename>default.action</filename> is of course much more
6606 comprehensive, but we hope this example made clear how it works.
6611 <sect3 id="user-action"><title>user.action</title>
6614 So far we are painting with a broad brush by setting general policies,
6615 which would be a reasonable starting point for many people. Now,
6616 you might want to be more specific and have customized rules that
6617 are more suitable to your personal habits and preferences. These would
6618 be for narrowly defined situations like your ISP or your bank, and should
6619 be placed in <filename>user.action</filename>, which is parsed after all other
6620 actions files and hence has the last word, over-riding any previously
6621 defined actions. <filename>user.action</filename> is also a
6622 <emphasis>safe</emphasis> place for your personal settings, since
6623 <filename>default.action</filename> is actively maintained by the
6624 <application>Privoxy</application> developers and you'll probably want
6625 to install updated versions from time to time.
6629 So let's look at a few examples of things that one might typically do in
6630 <filename>user.action</filename>:
6634 <!-- brief sample user.action here -->
6637 # My user.action file. <fred@example.com></screen>
6640 As <link linkend="aliases">aliases</link> are local to the actions
6641 file that they are defined in, you can't use the ones from
6642 <filename>default.action</filename>, unless you repeat them here:
6646 # Aliases are local to the file they are defined in.
6647 # (Re-)define aliases for this file:
6651 # These aliases just save typing later, and the alias names should
6652 # be self explanatory.
6654 +crunch-all-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
6655 -crunch-all-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
6656 allow-all-cookies = -crunch-all-cookies -session-cookies-only
6657 allow-popups = -filter{all-popups}
6658 +block-as-image = +block{Blocked as image.} +handle-as-image
6659 -block-as-image = -block
6661 # These aliases define combinations of actions that are useful for
6662 # certain types of sites:
6664 fragile = -block -crunch-all-cookies -filter -fast-redirects -hide-referrer
6665 shop = -crunch-all-cookies allow-popups
6667 # Allow ads for selected useful free sites:
6669 allow-ads = -block -filter{banners-by-size} -filter{banners-by-link}
6671 # Alias for specific file types that are text, but might have conflicting
6672 # MIME types. We want the browser to force these to be text documents.
6673 handle-as-text = -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> +-<link linkend="content-type-overwrite">content-type-overwrite{text/plain}</link> +-<link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> -<link linkend="HIDE-CONTENT-DISPOSITION">hide-content-disposition</link></screen>
6676 Say you have accounts on some sites that you visit regularly, and
6677 you don't want to have to log in manually each time. So you'd like
6678 to allow persistent cookies for these sites. The
6679 <literal>allow-all-cookies</literal> alias defined above does exactly
6680 that, i.e. it disables crunching of cookies in any direction, and the
6681 processing of cookies to make them only temporary.
6685 { allow-all-cookies }
6689 .redhat.com</screen>
6692 Your bank is allergic to some filter, but you don't know which, so you disable them all:
6696 { -<link linkend="FILTER">filter</link> }
6697 .your-home-banking-site.com</screen>
6700 Some file types you may not want to filter for various reasons:
6704 # Technical documentation is likely to contain strings that might
6705 # erroneously get altered by the JavaScript-oriented filters:
6710 # And this stupid host sends streaming video with a wrong MIME type,
6711 # so that Privoxy thinks it is getting HTML and starts filtering:
6713 stupid-server.example.com/</screen>
6716 Example of a simple <link linkend="BLOCK">block</link> action. Say you've
6717 seen an ad on your favourite page on example.com that you want to get rid of.
6718 You have right-clicked the image, selected <quote>copy image location</quote>
6719 and pasted the URL below while removing the leading http://, into a
6720 <literal>{ +block{} }</literal> section. Note that <literal>{ +handle-as-image
6721 }</literal> need not be specified, since all URLs ending in
6722 <literal>.gif</literal> will be tagged as images by the general rules as set
6723 in default.action anyway:
6727 { +<link linkend="BLOCK">block</link>{Nasty ads.} }
6728 www.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor\.gif
6729 another.example.net/more/junk/here/</screen>
6732 The URLs of dynamically generated banners, especially from large banner
6733 farms, often don't use the well-known image file name extensions, which
6734 makes it impossible for <application>Privoxy</application> to guess
6735 the file type just by looking at the URL.
6736 You can use the <literal>+block-as-image</literal> alias defined above for
6738 Note that objects which match this rule but then turn out NOT to be an
6739 image are typically rendered as a <quote>broken image</quote> icon by the
6740 browser. Use cautiously.
6748 ar.atwola.com/</screen>
6751 Now you noticed that the default configuration breaks Forbes Magazine,
6752 but you were too lazy to find out which action is the culprit, and you
6753 were again too lazy to give <link linkend="contact">feedback</link>, so
6754 you just used the <literal>fragile</literal> alias on the site, and
6755 -- <emphasis>whoa!</emphasis> -- it worked. The <literal>fragile</literal>
6756 aliases disables those actions that are most likely to break a site. Also,
6757 good for testing purposes to see if it is <application>Privoxy</application>
6758 that is causing the problem or not. We later find other regular sites
6759 that misbehave, and add those to our personalized list of troublemakers:
6766 .mybank.com</screen>
6769 You like the <quote>fun</quote> text replacements in <filename>default.filter</filename>,
6770 but it is disabled in the distributed actions file.
6771 So you'd like to turn it on in your private,
6772 update-safe config, once and for all:
6776 { +<link linkend="filter-fun">filter{fun}</link> }
6777 / # For ALL sites!</screen>
6780 Note that the above is not really a good idea: There are exceptions
6781 to the filters in <filename>default.action</filename> for things that
6782 really shouldn't be filtered, like code on CVS->Web interfaces. Since
6783 <filename>user.action</filename> has the last word, these exceptions
6784 won't be valid for the <quote>fun</quote> filtering specified here.
6788 You might also worry about how your favourite free websites are
6789 funded, and find that they rely on displaying banner advertisements
6790 to survive. So you might want to specifically allow banners for those
6791 sites that you feel provide value to you:
6801 Note that <literal>allow-ads</literal> has been aliased to
6802 <literal>-<link linkend="block">block</link></literal>,
6803 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-size">filter{banners-by-size}</link></literal>, and
6804 <literal>-<link linkend="filter-banners-by-link">filter{banners-by-link}</link></literal> above.
6808 Invoke another alias here to force an over-ride of the MIME type <literal>
6809 application/x-sh</literal> which typically would open a download type
6810 dialog. In my case, I want to look at the shell script, and then I can save
6811 it should I choose to.
6819 <filename>user.action</filename> is generally the best place to define
6820 exceptions and additions to the default policies of
6821 <filename>default.action</filename>. Some actions are safe to have their
6822 default policies set here though. So let's set a default policy to have a
6823 <quote>blank</quote> image as opposed to the checkerboard pattern for
6824 <emphasis>ALL</emphasis> sites. <quote>/</quote> of course matches all URL
6829 { +<link linkend="set-image-blocker">set-image-blocker{blank}</link> }
6830 / # ALL sites</screen>
6835 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6839 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
6841 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
6843 <sect1 id="filter-file">
6844 <title>Filter Files</title>
6847 On-the-fly text substitutions need
6848 to be defined in a <quote>filter file</quote>. Once defined, they
6849 can then be invoked as an <quote>action</quote>.
6853 &my-app; supports three different pcrs-based filter actions:
6854 <literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link></literal> to
6855 rewrite the content that is send to the client,
6856 <literal><link linkend="client-header-filter">client-header-filter</link></literal>
6857 to rewrite headers that are send by the client, and
6858 <literal><link linkend="server-header-filter">server-header-filter</link></literal>
6859 to rewrite headers that are send by the server.
6863 &my-app; also supports two tagger actions:
6864 <literal><link linkend="client-header-tagger">client-header-tagger</link></literal>
6866 <literal><link linkend="server-header-tagger">server-header-tagger</link></literal>.
6867 Taggers and filters use the same syntax in the filter files, the difference
6868 is that taggers don't modify the text they are filtering, but use a rewritten
6869 version of the filtered text as tag. The tags can then be used to change the
6870 applying actions through sections with <link linkend="tag-pattern">tag-patterns</link>.
6874 Finally &my-app; supports the
6875 <literal><link linkend="external-filter">external-filter</link></literal> action
6876 to enable <literal><link linkend="external-filter-syntax">external filters</link></literal>
6877 written in proper programming languages.
6882 Multiple filter files can be defined through the <literal> <link
6883 linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal> config directive. The filters
6884 as supplied by the developers are located in
6885 <filename>default.filter</filename>. It is recommended that any locally
6886 defined or modified filters go in a separately defined file such as
6887 <filename>user.filter</filename>.
6891 Common tasks for content filters are to eliminate common annoyances in
6892 HTML and JavaScript, such as pop-up windows,
6893 exit consoles, crippled windows without navigation tools, the
6894 infamous <BLINK> tag etc, to suppress images with certain
6895 width and height attributes (standard banner sizes or web-bugs),
6896 or just to have fun.
6900 Enabled content filters are applied to any content whose
6901 <quote>Content Type</quote> header is recognised as a sign
6902 of text-based content, with the exception of <literal>text/plain</literal>.
6903 Use the <link linkend="FORCE-TEXT-MODE">force-text-mode</link> action
6904 to also filter other content.
6908 Substitutions are made at the source level, so if you want to <quote>roll
6909 your own</quote> filters, you should first be familiar with HTML syntax,
6910 and, of course, regular expressions.
6914 Just like the <link linkend="actions-file">actions files</link>, the
6915 filter file is organized in sections, which are called <emphasis>filters</emphasis>
6916 here. Each filter consists of a heading line, that starts with one of the
6917 <emphasis>keywords</emphasis> <literal>FILTER:</literal>,
6918 <literal>CLIENT-HEADER-FILTER:</literal> or <literal>SERVER-HEADER-FILTER:</literal>
6919 followed by the filter's <emphasis>name</emphasis>, and a short (one line)
6920 <emphasis>description</emphasis> of what it does. Below that line
6921 come the <emphasis>jobs</emphasis>, i.e. lines that define the actual
6922 text substitutions. By convention, the name of a filter
6923 should describe what the filter <emphasis>eliminates</emphasis>. The
6924 comment is used in the <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
6925 user interface</ulink>.
6929 Once a filter called <replaceable>name</replaceable> has been defined
6930 in the filter file, it can be invoked by using an action of the form
6931 +<literal><link linkend="filter">filter</link>{<replaceable>name</replaceable>}</literal>
6932 in any <link linkend="actions-file">actions file</link>.
6936 Filter definitions start with a header line that contains the filter
6937 type, the filter name and the filter description.
6938 A content filter header line for a filter called <quote>foo</quote> could look
6942 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"</screen>
6945 Below that line, and up to the next header line, come the jobs that
6946 define what text replacements the filter executes. They are specified
6947 in a syntax that imitates <ulink url="http://www.perl.org/">Perl</ulink>'s
6948 <literal>s///</literal> operator. If you are familiar with Perl, you
6949 will find this to be quite intuitive, and may want to look at the
6950 PCRS documentation for the subtle differences to Perl behaviour.
6954 Most notably, the non-standard option letter <literal>U</literal> is supported,
6955 which turns the default to ungreedy matching (add <literal>?</literal> to
6956 quantifiers to turn them greedy again).
6960 The non-standard option letter <literal>D</literal> (dynamic) allows
6961 to use the variables $host, $origin (the IP address the request came from),
6962 $path, $url and $listen-address (the address on which Privoxy accepted the
6963 client request. Example: 127.0.0.1:8118).
6964 They will be replaced with the value they refer to before the filter
6969 Note that '$' is a bad choice for a delimiter in a dynamic filter as you
6970 might end up with unintended variables if you use a variable name
6971 directly after the delimiter. Variables will be resolved without
6972 escaping anything, therefore you also have to be careful not to chose
6973 delimiters that appear in the replacement text. For example '<' should
6974 be save, while '?' will sooner or later cause conflicts with $url.
6978 The non-standard option letter <literal>T</literal> (trivial) prevents
6979 parsing for backreferences in the substitute. Use it if you want to include
6980 text like '$&' in your substitute without quoting.
6985 <ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expressions"><quote>Regular
6986 Expressions</quote></ulink>, you might want to take a look at
6987 the <link linkend="regex">Appendix on regular expressions</link>, and
6988 see the <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl
6990 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlop.html">the
6991 <literal>s///</literal> operator's syntax</ulink> and <ulink
6992 url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">Perl-style regular
6993 expressions</ulink> in general.
6994 The below examples might also help to get you started.
6998 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7000 <sect2 id="filter-file-tut"><title>Filter File Tutorial</title>
7002 Now, let's complete our <quote>foo</quote> content filter. We have already defined
7003 the heading, but the jobs are still missing. Since all it does is to replace
7004 <quote>foo</quote> with <quote>bar</quote>, there is only one (trivial) job
7008 <screen>s/foo/bar/</screen>
7011 But wait! Didn't the comment say that <emphasis>all</emphasis> occurrences
7012 of <quote>foo</quote> should be replaced? Our current job will only take
7013 care of the first <quote>foo</quote> on each page. For global substitution,
7014 we'll need to add the <literal>g</literal> option:
7017 <screen>s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7020 Our complete filter now looks like this:
7023 <screen>FILTER: foo Replace all "foo" with "bar"
7024 s/foo/bar/g</screen>
7027 Let's look at some real filters for more interesting examples. Here you see
7028 a filter that protects against some common annoyances that arise from JavaScript
7029 abuse. Let's look at its jobs one after the other:
7034 FILTER: js-annoyances Get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse
7036 # Get rid of JavaScript referrer tracking. Test page: http://www.randomoddness.com/untitled.htm
7038 s|(<script.*)document\.referrer(.*</script>)|$1"Not Your Business!"$2|Usg</screen>
7041 Following the header line and a comment, you see the job. Note that it uses
7042 <literal>|</literal> as the delimiter instead of <literal>/</literal>, because
7043 the pattern contains a forward slash, which would otherwise have to be escaped
7044 by a backslash (<literal>\</literal>).
7048 Now, let's examine the pattern: it starts with the text <literal><script.*</literal>
7049 enclosed in parentheses. Since the dot matches any character, and <literal>*</literal>
7050 means: <quote>Match an arbitrary number of the element left of myself</quote>, this
7051 matches <quote><script</quote>, followed by <emphasis>any</emphasis> text, i.e.
7052 it matches the whole page, from the start of the first <script> tag.
7056 That's more than we want, but the pattern continues: <literal>document\.referrer</literal>
7057 matches only the exact string <quote>document.referrer</quote>. The dot needed to
7058 be <emphasis>escaped</emphasis>, i.e. preceded by a backslash, to take away its
7059 special meaning as a joker, and make it just a regular dot. So far, the meaning is:
7060 Match from the start of the first <script> tag in a the page, up to, and including,
7061 the text <quote>document.referrer</quote>, if <emphasis>both</emphasis> are present
7062 in the page (and appear in that order).
7066 But there's still more pattern to go. The next element, again enclosed in parentheses,
7067 is <literal>.*</script></literal>. You already know what <literal>.*</literal>
7068 means, so the whole pattern translates to: Match from the start of the first <script>
7069 tag in a page to the end of the last <script> tag, provided that the text
7070 <quote>document.referrer</quote> appears somewhere in between.
7074 This is still not the whole story, since we have ignored the options and the parentheses:
7075 The portions of the page matched by sub-patterns that are enclosed in parentheses, will be
7076 remembered and be available through the variables <literal>$1, $2, ...</literal> in
7077 the substitute. The <literal>U</literal> option switches to ungreedy matching, which means
7078 that the first <literal>.*</literal> in the pattern will only <quote>eat up</quote> all
7079 text in between <quote><script</quote> and the <emphasis>first</emphasis> occurrence
7080 of <quote>document.referrer</quote>, and that the second <literal>.*</literal> will
7081 only span the text up to the <emphasis>first</emphasis> <quote></script></quote>
7082 tag. Furthermore, the <literal>s</literal> option says that the match may span
7083 multiple lines in the page, and the <literal>g</literal> option again means that the
7084 substitution is global.
7088 So, to summarize, the pattern means: Match all scripts that contain the text
7089 <quote>document.referrer</quote>. Remember the parts of the script from
7090 (and including) the start tag up to (and excluding) the string
7091 <quote>document.referrer</quote> as <literal>$1</literal>, and the part following
7092 that string, up to and including the closing tag, as <literal>$2</literal>.
7096 Now the pattern is deciphered, but wasn't this about substituting things? So
7097 lets look at the substitute: <literal>$1"Not Your Business!"$2</literal> is
7098 easy to read: The text remembered as <literal>$1</literal>, followed by
7099 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> (<emphasis>including</emphasis>
7100 the quotation marks!), followed by the text remembered as <literal>$2</literal>.
7101 This produces an exact copy of the original string, with the middle part
7102 (the <quote>document.referrer</quote>) replaced by <literal>"Not Your
7103 Business!"</literal>.
7107 The whole job now reads: Replace <quote>document.referrer</quote> by
7108 <literal>"Not Your Business!"</literal> wherever it appears inside a
7109 <script> tag. Note that this job won't break JavaScript syntax,
7110 since both the original and the replacement are syntactically valid
7111 string objects. The script just won't have access to the referrer
7112 information anymore.
7116 We'll show you two other jobs from the JavaScript taming department, but
7117 this time only point out the constructs of special interest:
7121 # The status bar is for displaying link targets, not pointless blahblah
7123 s/window\.status\s*=\s*(['"]).*?\1/dUmMy=1/ig</screen>
7126 <literal>\s</literal> stands for whitespace characters (space, tab, newline,
7127 carriage return, form feed), so that <literal>\s*</literal> means: <quote>zero
7128 or more whitespace</quote>. The <literal>?</literal> in <literal>.*?</literal>
7129 makes this matching of arbitrary text ungreedy. (Note that the <literal>U</literal>
7130 option is not set). The <literal>['"]</literal> construct means: <quote>a single
7131 <emphasis>or</emphasis> a double quote</quote>. Finally, <literal>\1</literal> is
7132 a back-reference to the first parenthesis just like <literal>$1</literal> above,
7133 with the difference that in the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, a backslash indicates
7134 a back-reference, whereas in the <emphasis>substitute</emphasis>, it's the dollar.
7138 So what does this job do? It replaces assignments of single- or double-quoted
7139 strings to the <quote>window.status</quote> object with a dummy assignment
7140 (using a variable name that is hopefully odd enough not to conflict with
7141 real variables in scripts). Thus, it catches many cases where e.g. pointless
7142 descriptions are displayed in the status bar instead of the link target when
7143 you move your mouse over links.
7147 # Kill OnUnload popups. Yummy. Test: http://www.zdnet.com/zdsubs/yahoo/tree/yfs.html
7149 s/(<body [^>]*)onunload(.*>)/$1never$2/iU</screen>
7153 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">OnUnload
7154 event binding</ulink> in the HTML DOM was a <emphasis>CRIME</emphasis>.
7155 When I close a browser window, I want it to close and die. Basta.
7156 This job replaces the <quote>onunload</quote> attribute in
7157 <quote><body></quote> tags with the dummy word <literal>never</literal>.
7158 Note that the <literal>i</literal> option makes the pattern matching
7159 case-insensitive. Also note that ungreedy matching alone doesn't always guarantee
7160 a minimal match: In the first parenthesis, we had to use <literal>[^>]*</literal>
7161 instead of <literal>.*</literal> to prevent the match from exceeding the
7162 <body> tag if it doesn't contain <quote>OnUnload</quote>, but the page's
7167 The last example is from the fun department:
7171 FILTER: fun Fun text replacements
7173 # Spice the daily news:
7175 s/microsoft(?!\.com)/MicroSuck/ig</screen>
7178 Note the <literal>(?!\.com)</literal> part (a so-called negative lookahead)
7179 in the job's pattern, which means: Don't match, if the string
7180 <quote>.com</quote> appears directly following <quote>microsoft</quote>
7181 in the page. This prevents links to microsoft.com from being trashed, while
7182 still replacing the word everywhere else.
7186 # Buzzword Bingo (example for extended regex syntax)
7188 s* industry[ -]leading \
7190 | customer[ -]focused \
7191 | market[ -]driven \
7192 | award[ -]winning # Comments are OK, too! \
7193 | high[ -]performance \
7194 | solutions[ -]based \
7198 *<font color="red"><b>BINGO!</b></font> \
7202 The <literal>x</literal> option in this job turns on extended syntax, and allows for
7203 e.g. the liberal use of (non-interpreted!) whitespace for nicer formatting.
7211 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7213 <sect2 id="predefined-filters"><title>The Pre-defined Filters</title>
7217 Note each filter is also listed in the +filter action section above. Please
7218 keep these listings in sync.
7223 The distribution <filename>default.filter</filename> file contains a selection of
7224 pre-defined filters for your convenience:
7229 <term><emphasis>js-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7232 The purpose of this filter is to get rid of particularly annoying JavaScript abuse.
7238 replaces JavaScript references to the browser's referrer information
7239 with the string "Not Your Business!". This compliments the <literal><link
7240 linkend="hide-referrer">hide-referrer</link></literal> action on the content level.
7245 removes the bindings to the DOM's
7246 <ulink url="http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Events-20001113/events.html#Events-eventgroupings-htmlevents">unload
7247 event</ulink> which we feel has no right to exist and is responsible for most <quote>exit consoles</quote>, i.e.
7248 nasty windows that pop up when you close another one.
7253 removes code that causes new windows to be opened with undesired properties, such as being
7254 full-screen, non-resizeable, without location, status or menu bar etc.
7259 Use with caution. This is an aggressive filter, and can break sites that
7260 rely heavily on JavaScript.
7266 <term><emphasis>js-events</emphasis></term>
7269 This is a very radical measure. It removes virtually all JavaScript event bindings, which
7270 means that scripts can not react to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, window
7271 resizing etc, anymore. Use with caution!
7274 We <emphasis>strongly discourage</emphasis> using this filter as a default since it breaks
7275 many legitimate scripts. It is meant for use only on extra-nasty sites (should you really
7282 <term><emphasis>html-annoyances</emphasis></term>
7285 This filter will undo many common instances of HTML based abuse.
7288 The <literal>BLINK</literal> and <literal>MARQUEE</literal> tags
7289 are neutralized (yeah baby!), and browser windows will be created as
7290 resizeable (as of course they should be!), and will have location,
7291 scroll and menu bars -- even if specified otherwise.
7297 <term><emphasis>content-cookies</emphasis></term>
7300 Most cookies are set in the HTTP dialog, where they can be intercepted
7302 <literal><link linkend="crunch-incoming-cookies">crunch-incoming-cookies</link></literal>
7303 and <literal><link linkend="crunch-outgoing-cookies">crunch-outgoing-cookies</link></literal>
7304 actions. But web sites increasingly make use of HTML meta tags and JavaScript
7305 to sneak cookies to the browser on the content level.
7308 This filter disables most HTML and JavaScript code that reads or sets
7309 cookies. It cannot detect all clever uses of these types of code, so it
7310 should not be relied on as an absolute fix. Use it wherever you would also
7311 use the cookie crunch actions.
7317 <term><emphasis>refresh-tags</emphasis></term>
7320 Disable any refresh tags if the interval is greater than nine seconds (so
7321 that redirections done via refresh tags are not destroyed). This is useful
7322 for dial-on-demand setups, or for those who find this HTML feature
7329 <term><emphasis>unsolicited-popups</emphasis></term>
7332 This filter attempts to prevent only <quote>unsolicited</quote> pop-up
7333 windows from opening, yet still allow pop-up windows that the user
7334 has explicitly chosen to open. It was added in version 3.0.1,
7335 as an improvement over earlier such filters.
7338 Technical note: The filter works by redefining the window.open JavaScript
7339 function to a dummy function, <literal>PrivoxyWindowOpen()</literal>,
7340 during the loading and rendering phase of each HTML page access, and
7341 restoring the function afterward.
7344 This is recommended only for browsers that cannot perform this function
7345 reliably themselves. And be aware that some sites require such windows
7346 in order to function normally. Use with caution.
7352 <term><emphasis>all-popups</emphasis></term>
7355 Attempt to prevent <emphasis>all</emphasis> pop-up windows from opening.
7356 Note this should be used with even more discretion than the above, since
7357 it is more likely to break some sites that require pop-ups for normal
7358 usage. Use with caution.
7364 <term><emphasis>img-reorder</emphasis></term>
7367 This is a helper filter that has no value if used alone. It makes the
7368 <literal>banners-by-size</literal> and <literal>banners-by-link</literal>
7369 (see below) filters more effective and should be enabled together with them.
7375 <term><emphasis>banners-by-size</emphasis></term>
7378 This filter removes image tags purely based on what size they are. Fortunately
7379 for us, many ads and banner images tend to conform to certain standardized
7380 sizes, which makes this filter quite effective for ad stripping purposes.
7383 Occasionally this filter will cause false positives on images that are not ads,
7384 but just happen to be of one of the standard banner sizes.
7387 Recommended only for those who require extreme ad blocking. The default
7388 block rules should catch 95+% of all ads <emphasis>without</emphasis> this filter enabled.
7394 <term><emphasis>banners-by-link</emphasis></term>
7397 This is an experimental filter that attempts to kill any banners if
7398 their URLs seem to point to known or suspected click trackers. It is currently
7399 not of much value and is not recommended for use by default.
7405 <term><emphasis>webbugs</emphasis></term>
7408 Webbugs are small, invisible images (technically 1X1 GIF images), that
7409 are used to track users across websites, and collect information on them.
7410 As an HTML page is loaded by the browser, an embedded image tag causes the
7411 browser to contact a third-party site, disclosing the tracking information
7412 through the requested URL and/or cookies for that third-party domain, without
7413 the user ever becoming aware of the interaction with the third-party site.
7414 HTML-ized spam also uses a similar technique to verify email addresses.
7417 This filter removes the HTML code that loads such <quote>webbugs</quote>.
7423 <term><emphasis>tiny-textforms</emphasis></term>
7426 A rather special-purpose filter that can be used to enlarge textareas (those
7427 multi-line text boxes in web forms) and turn off hard word wrap in them.
7428 It was written for the sourceforge.net tracker system where such boxes are
7429 a nuisance, but it can be handy on other sites, too.
7432 It is not recommended to use this filter as a default.
7438 <term><emphasis>jumping-windows</emphasis></term>
7441 Many consider windows that move, or resize themselves to be abusive. This filter
7442 neutralizes the related JavaScript code. Note that some sites might not display
7443 or behave as intended when using this filter. Use with caution.
7449 <term><emphasis>frameset-borders</emphasis></term>
7452 Some web designers seem to assume that everyone in the world will view their
7453 web sites using the same browser brand and version, screen resolution etc,
7454 because only that assumption could explain why they'd use static frame sizes,
7455 yet prevent their frames from being resized by the user, should they be too
7456 small to show their whole content.
7459 This filter removes the related HTML code. It should only be applied to sites
7466 <term><emphasis>demoronizer</emphasis></term>
7469 Many Microsoft products that generate HTML use non-standard extensions (read:
7470 violations) of the ISO 8859-1 aka Latin-1 character set. This can cause those
7471 HTML documents to display with errors on standard-compliant platforms.
7474 This filter translates the MS-only characters into Latin-1 equivalents.
7475 It is not necessary when using MS products, and will cause corruption of
7476 all documents that use 8-bit character sets other than Latin-1. It's mostly
7477 worthwhile for Europeans on non-MS platforms, if weird garbage characters
7478 sometimes appear on some pages, or user agents that don't correct for this on
7481 My version of Mozilla (ancient) shows little square boxes for quote
7482 characters, and apostrophes on moronized pages. So many pages have this, I
7483 can read them fine now. HB 08/27/06
7490 <term><emphasis>shockwave-flash</emphasis></term>
7493 A filter for shockwave haters. As the name suggests, this filter strips code
7494 out of web pages that is used to embed shockwave flash objects.
7502 <term><emphasis>quicktime-kioskmode</emphasis></term>
7505 Change HTML code that embeds Quicktime objects so that kioskmode, which
7506 prevents saving, is disabled.
7512 <term><emphasis>fun</emphasis></term>
7515 Text replacements for subversive browsing fun. Make fun of your favorite
7516 Monopolist or play buzzword bingo.
7522 <term><emphasis>crude-parental</emphasis></term>
7525 A demonstration-only filter that shows how <application>Privoxy</application>
7526 can be used to delete web content on a keyword basis.
7532 <term><emphasis>ie-exploits</emphasis></term>
7535 An experimental collection of text replacements to disable malicious HTML and JavaScript
7536 code that exploits known security holes in Internet Explorer.
7539 Presently, it only protects against Nimda and a cross-site scripting bug, and
7540 would need active maintenance to provide more substantial protection.
7546 <term><emphasis>site-specifics</emphasis></term>
7549 Some web sites have very specific problems, the cure for which doesn't apply
7550 anywhere else, or could even cause damage on other sites.
7553 This is a collection of such site-specific cures which should only be applied
7554 to the sites they were intended for, which is what the supplied
7555 <filename>default.action</filename> file does. Users shouldn't need to change
7556 anything regarding this filter.
7562 <term><emphasis>google</emphasis></term>
7565 A CSS based block for Google text ads. Also removes a width limitation
7566 and the toolbar advertisement.
7572 <term><emphasis>yahoo</emphasis></term>
7575 Another CSS based block, this time for Yahoo text ads. And removes
7576 a width limitation as well.
7582 <term><emphasis>msn</emphasis></term>
7585 Another CSS based block, this time for MSN text ads. And removes
7586 tracking URLs, as well as a width limitation.
7592 <term><emphasis>blogspot</emphasis></term>
7595 Cleans up some Blogspot blogs. Read the fine print before using this one!
7598 This filter also intentionally removes some navigation stuff and sets the
7599 page width to 100%. As a result, some rounded <quote>corners</quote> would
7600 appear to early or not at all and as fixing this would require a browser
7601 that understands background-size (CSS3), they are removed instead.
7607 <term><emphasis>xml-to-html</emphasis></term>
7610 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from xml to html.
7616 <term><emphasis>html-to-xml</emphasis></term>
7619 Server-header filter to change the Content-Type from html to xml.
7625 <term><emphasis>no-ping</emphasis></term>
7628 Removes the non-standard <literal>ping</literal> attribute from
7629 anchor and area HTML tags.
7635 <term><emphasis>hide-tor-exit-notation</emphasis></term>
7638 Client-header filter to remove the <command>Tor</command> exit node notation
7639 found in Host and Referer headers.
7642 If &my-app; and <command>Tor</command> are chained and &my-app;
7643 is configured to use socks4a, one can use <quote>http://www.example.org.foobar.exit/</quote>
7644 to access the host <quote>www.example.org</quote> through the
7645 <command>Tor</command> exit node <quote>foobar</quote>.
7648 As the HTTP client isn't aware of this notation, it treats the
7649 whole string <quote>www.example.org.foobar.exit</quote> as host and uses it
7650 for the <quote>Host</quote> and <quote>Referer</quote> headers. From the
7651 server's point of view the resulting headers are invalid and can cause problems.
7654 An invalid <quote>Referer</quote> header can trigger <quote>hot-linking</quote>
7655 protections, an invalid <quote>Host</quote> header will make it impossible for
7656 the server to find the right vhost (several domains hosted on the same IP address).
7659 This client-header filter removes the <quote>foo.exit</quote> part in those headers
7660 to prevent the mentioned problems. Note that it only modifies
7661 the HTTP headers, it doesn't make it impossible for the server
7662 to detect your <command>Tor</command> exit node based on the IP address
7663 the request is coming from.
7670 <term><emphasis> </emphasis></term>
7683 <!-- ~~~~~~~~ New section Header ~~~~~~~~~ -->
7684 <sect2 id="external-filter-syntax"><title>External filter syntax</title>
7686 External filters are scripts or programs that can modify the content in
7687 case common <literal><link linkend="filter">filters</link></literal>
7688 aren't powerful enough.
7691 External filters can be written in any language the platform &my-app; runs
7695 They are controlled with the
7696 <literal><link linkend="external-filter">external-filter</link></literal> action
7697 and have to be defined in the <literal><link linkend="filterfile">filterfile</link></literal>
7701 The header looks like any other filter, but instead of pcrs jobs, external
7702 filters contain a single job which can be a program or a shell script (which
7703 may call other scripts or programs).
7706 External filters read the content from STDIN and write the rewritten
7708 The environment variables PRIVOXY_URL, PRIVOXY_PATH, PRIVOXY_HOST,
7709 PRIVOXY_ORIGIN, PRIVOXY_LISTEN_ADDRESS can be used to get some details
7710 about the client request.
7713 &my-app; will temporary store the content to filter in the
7714 <literal><link linkend="temporary-directory">temporary-directory</link></literal>.
7718 EXTERNAL-FILTER: cat Pointless example filter that doesn't actually modify the content
7721 # Incorrect reimplementation of the filter above in POSIX shell.
7723 # Note that it's a single job that spans multiple lines, the line
7724 # breaks are not passed to the shell, thus the semicolons are required.
7726 # If the script isn't trivial, it is recommended to put it into an external file.
7728 # In general, writing external filters entirely in POSIX shell is not
7729 # considered a good idea.
7730 EXTERNAL-FILTER: cat2 Pointless example filter that despite its name may actually modify the content
7736 EXTERNAL-FILTER: rotate-image Rotate an image by 180 degree. Test filter with limited value.
7737 /usr/local/bin/convert - -rotate 180 -
7739 EXTERNAL-FILTER: citation-needed Adds a "[citation needed]" tag to an image. The coordinates may need adjustment.
7740 /usr/local/bin/convert - -pointsize 16 -fill white -annotate +17+418 "[citation needed]" -
7745 Currently external filters are executed with &my-app;'s privileges!
7746 Only use external filters you understand and trust.
7750 External filters are experimental and the syntax may change in the future.
7756 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7760 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7762 <sect1 id="templates">
7763 <title>Privoxy's Template Files</title>
7765 All <application>Privoxy</application> built-in pages, i.e. error pages such as the
7766 <ulink url="http://show-the-404-error.page"><quote>404 - No Such Domain</quote>
7767 error page</ulink>, the <ulink
7768 url="http://ads.bannerserver.example.com/nasty-ads/sponsor.html"><quote>BLOCKED</quote>
7770 and all pages of its <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">web-based
7771 user interface</ulink>, are generated from <emphasis>templates</emphasis>.
7772 (<application>Privoxy</application> must be running for the above links to work as
7777 These templates are stored in a subdirectory of the <link linkend="confdir">configuration
7778 directory</link> called <filename>templates</filename>. On Unixish platforms,
7780 <ulink url="file:///etc/privoxy/templates/"><filename>/etc/privoxy/templates/</filename></ulink>.
7784 The templates are basically normal HTML files, but with place-holders (called symbols
7785 or exports), which <application>Privoxy</application> fills at run time. It
7786 is possible to edit the templates with a normal text editor, should you want
7787 to customize them. (<emphasis>Not recommended for the casual
7788 user</emphasis>). Should you create your own custom templates, you should use
7789 the <filename>config</filename> setting <link linkend="templdir">templdir</link>
7790 to specify an alternate location, so your templates do not get overwritten
7794 Note that just like in configuration files, lines starting
7795 with <literal>#</literal> are ignored when the templates are filled in.
7799 The place-holders are of the form <literal>@name@</literal>, and you will
7800 find a list of available symbols, which vary from template to template,
7801 in the comments at the start of each file. Note that these comments are not
7802 always accurate, and that it's probably best to look at the existing HTML
7803 code to find out which symbols are supported and what they are filled in with.
7807 A special application of this substitution mechanism is to make whole
7808 blocks of HTML code disappear when a specific symbol is set. We use this
7809 for many purposes, one of them being to include the beta warning in all
7810 our user interface (CGI) pages when <application>Privoxy</application>
7811 is in an alpha or beta development stage:
7815 <!-- @if-unstable-start -->
7817 ... beta warning HTML code goes here ...
7819 <!-- if-unstable-end@ --></screen>
7822 If the "unstable" symbol is set, everything in between and including
7823 <literal>@if-unstable-start</literal> and <literal>if-unstable-end@</literal>
7824 will disappear, leaving nothing but an empty comment:
7827 <screen><!-- --></screen>
7830 There's also an if-then-else construct and an <literal>#include</literal>
7831 mechanism, but you'll sure find out if you are inclined to edit the
7836 All templates refer to a style located at
7837 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet"><literal>http://config.privoxy.org/send-stylesheet</literal></ulink>.
7838 This is, of course, locally served by <application>Privoxy</application>
7839 and the source for it can be found and edited in the
7840 <filename>cgi-style.css</filename> template.
7845 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7849 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7851 <sect1 id="contact"><title>Contacting the Developers, Bug Reporting and Feature
7854 <!-- Include contacting.sgml boilerplate: -->
7856 <!-- end boilerplate -->
7860 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7863 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7864 <sect1 id="copyright"><title>Privoxy Copyright, License and History</title>
7866 <!-- Include copyright.sgml: -->
7868 <!-- end copyright -->
7871 <application>Privoxy</application> is free software; you can
7872 redistribute and/or modify its source code under the terms
7873 of the <citetitle>GNU General Public License</citetitle>
7874 as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2
7875 of the license, or (at your option) any later version.
7879 The same is true for <application>Privoxy</application> binaries
7880 unless they are linked with
7881 <ulink url="https://tls.mbed.org/">mbed TLS</ulink> in which
7882 case you can redistribute them and/or modify them under the terms
7883 of the <citetitle>GNU General Public License</citetitle>
7884 as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3
7885 of the license, or (at your option) any later version.
7889 Both licenses are included in the next section.
7892 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7893 <sect2 id="license"><title>License</title>
7895 <sect3 id="gplv2"><title>GNU General Public License version 2</title>
7896 <screen><![ RCDATA [ &GPLv2; ]]></screen>
7899 <sect3 id="gplv3"><title>GNU General Public License version 3</title>
7900 <screen><![ RCDATA [ &GPLv3; ]]></screen>
7904 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7907 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7909 <sect2 id="history"><title>History</title>
7910 <!-- Include history.sgml: -->
7912 <!-- end history -->
7915 <sect2 id="authors"><title>Authors</title>
7916 <!-- Include p-authors.sgml: -->
7918 <!-- end authors -->
7923 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
7926 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7927 <sect1 id="seealso"><title>See Also</title>
7928 <!-- Include seealso.sgml: -->
7930 <!-- end seealso -->
7935 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7936 <sect1 id="appendix"><title>Appendix</title>
7939 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
7941 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
7943 <application>Privoxy</application> uses Perl-style <quote>regular
7944 expressions</quote> in its <link linkend="actions-file">actions
7945 files</link> and <link linkend="filter-file">filter file</link>,
7946 through the <ulink url="http://www.pcre.org/">PCRE</ulink> and
7949 <ulink url="http://www.oesterhelt.org/pcrs/">PCRS</ulink> libraries.
7951 <application>PCRS</application> libraries.
7955 If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what <quote>regular
7956 expressions</quote> are, or what they can do. So this will be a very brief
7957 introduction only. A full explanation would require a <ulink
7958 url="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/">book</ulink> ;-)
7962 Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can be
7963 run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if they
7964 match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes complex)
7965 strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and other special
7966 characters, called meta-characters. The <quote>meta-characters</quote> have
7967 special meanings and are used to build complex patterns to be matched against.
7968 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions are an especially convenient
7969 <quote>dialect</quote> of the regular expression language.
7973 To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use wild-card
7974 characters when listing files with the <command>dir</command> command in DOS.
7975 <literal>*.*</literal> matches all filenames. The <quote>special</quote>
7976 character here is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be
7977 more specific and use <literal>?</literal> to match just individual
7978 characters. So <quote>dir file?.text</quote> would match
7979 <quote>file1.txt</quote>, <quote>file2.txt</quote>, etc. We are pattern
7980 matching, using a similar technique to <quote>regular expressions</quote>!
7984 Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much, much more
7985 powerful. There are many more <quote>special characters</quote> and ways of
7986 building complex patterns however. Let's look at a few of the common ones,
7987 and then some examples:
7992 <emphasis>.</emphasis> - Matches any single character, e.g. <quote>a</quote>,
7993 <quote>A</quote>, <quote>4</quote>, <quote>:</quote>, or <quote>@</quote>.
7999 <emphasis>?</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE
8006 <emphasis>+</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ONE or MORE
8013 <emphasis>*</emphasis> - The preceding character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE
8020 <emphasis>\</emphasis> - The <quote>escape</quote> character denotes that
8021 the following character should be taken literally. This is used where one of the
8022 special characters (e.g. <quote>.</quote>) needs to be taken literally and
8023 not as a special meta-character. Example: <quote>example\.com</quote>, makes
8024 sure the period is recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
8025 meta-character meaning of any single character).
8031 <emphasis>[ ]</emphasis> - Characters enclosed in brackets will be matched if
8032 any of the enclosed characters are encountered. For instance, <quote>[0-9]</quote>
8033 matches any numeric digit (zero through nine). As an example, we can combine
8034 this with <quote>+</quote> to match any digit one of more times: <quote>[0-9]+</quote>.
8040 <emphasis>( )</emphasis> - parentheses are used to group a sub-expression,
8041 or multiple sub-expressions.
8047 <emphasis>|</emphasis> - The <quote>bar</quote> character works like an
8048 <quote>or</quote> conditional statement. A match is successful if the
8049 sub-expression on either side of <quote>|</quote> matches. As an example:
8050 <quote>/(this|that) example/</quote> uses grouping and the bar character
8051 and would match either <quote>this example</quote> or <quote>that
8052 example</quote>, and nothing else.
8057 These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching URLs with
8058 <application>Privoxy</application>, and is a long way from a definitive
8059 list. This is enough to get us started with a few simple examples which may
8060 be more illuminating:
8064 <emphasis><literal>/.*/banners/.*</literal></emphasis> - A simple example
8065 that uses the common combination of <quote>.</quote> and <quote>*</quote> to
8066 denote any character, zero or more times. In other words, any string at all.
8067 So we start with a literal forward slash, then our regular expression pattern
8068 (<quote>.*</quote>) another literal forward slash, the string
8069 <quote>banners</quote>, another forward slash, and lastly another
8070 <quote>.*</quote>. We are building
8071 a directory path here. This will match any file with the path that has a
8072 directory named <quote>banners</quote> in it. The <quote>.*</quote> matches
8073 any characters, and this could conceivably be more forward slashes, so it
8074 might expand into a much longer looking path. For example, this could match:
8075 <quote>/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif</quote>, or just
8076 <quote>/banners/annoying.html</quote>, or almost an infinite number of other
8077 possible combinations, just so it has <quote>banners</quote> in the path
8082 And now something a little more complex:
8086 <emphasis><literal>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</literal></emphasis> -
8087 We have several literal forward slashes again (<quote>/</quote>), so we are
8088 building another expression that is a file path statement. We have another
8089 <quote>.*</quote>, so we are matching against any conceivable sub-path, just so
8090 it matches our expression. The only true literal that <emphasis>must
8091 match</emphasis> our pattern is <application>adv</application>, together with
8092 the forward slashes. What comes after the <quote>adv</quote> string is the
8097 Remember the <quote>?</quote> means the preceding expression (either a
8098 literal character or anything grouped with <quote>(...)</quote> in this case)
8099 can exist or not, since this means either zero or one match. So
8100 <quote>((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))</quote> is optional, as are the
8101 individual sub-expressions: <quote>(er)</quote>,
8102 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, and the <quote>s</quote>. The <quote>|</quote>
8103 means <quote>or</quote>. We have two of those. For instance,
8104 <quote>(ing|ements?)</quote>, can expand to match either <quote>ing</quote>
8105 <emphasis>OR</emphasis> <quote>ements?</quote>. What is being done here, is an
8106 attempt at matching as many variations of <quote>advertisement</quote>, and
8107 similar, as possible. So this would expand to match just <quote>adv</quote>,
8108 or <quote>advert</quote>, or <quote>adverts</quote>, or
8109 <quote>advertising</quote>, or <quote>advertisement</quote>, or
8110 <quote>advertisements</quote>. You get the idea. But it would not match
8111 <quote>advertizements</quote> (with a <quote>z</quote>). We could fix that by
8112 changing our regular expression to:
8113 <quote>/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/</quote>, which would then match
8118 <emphasis><literal>/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</literal></emphasis> - Again
8119 another path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
8120 <quote>[ ]</quote> can be matched. This is using <quote>0-9</quote> as a
8121 shorthand expression to mean any digit one through nine. It is the same as
8122 saying <quote>0123456789</quote>. So any digit matches. The <quote>+</quote>
8123 means one or more of the preceding expression must be included. The preceding
8124 expression here is what is in the square brackets -- in this case, any digit
8125 one through nine. Then, at the end, we have a grouping: <quote>(gif|jpe?g)</quote>.
8126 This includes a <quote>|</quote>, so this needs to match the expression on
8127 either side of that bar character also. A simple <quote>gif</quote> on one side, and the other
8128 side will in turn match either <quote>jpeg</quote> or <quote>jpg</quote>,
8129 since the <quote>?</quote> means the letter <quote>e</quote> is optional and
8130 can be matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
8131 match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
8132 string <quote>advert</quote>, then one or more digits, and a <quote>.</quote>
8133 (which is now a literal, and not a special character, since it is escaped
8134 with <quote>\</quote>), and lastly either <quote>gif</quote>, or
8135 <quote>jpeg</quote>, or <quote>jpg</quote>. Some possible matches would
8136 include: <quote>//advert1.jpg</quote>,
8137 <quote>/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif</quote>,
8138 <quote>/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg</quote>. It would not match
8139 <quote>advert1.gif</quote> (no leading slash), or
8140 <quote>/adverts232.jpg</quote> (the expression does not include an
8141 <quote>s</quote>), or <quote>/advert1.jsp</quote> (<quote>jsp</quote> is not
8142 in the expression anywhere).
8146 We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so that you
8147 can understand the default <application>Privoxy</application>
8148 configuration files, and maybe use this knowledge to customize your own
8149 installation. There is much, much more that can be done with regular
8150 expressions. Now that you know enough to get started, you can learn more on
8155 More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions:
8156 <ulink url="http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</ulink>
8160 For information on regular expression based substitutions and their applications
8161 in filters, please see the <link linkend="filter-file">filter file tutorial</link>
8166 <!-- ~ End section ~ -->
8169 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8170 <sect2 id="internal-pages">
8171 <title>Privoxy's Internal Pages</title>
8174 Since <application>Privoxy</application> proxies each requested
8175 web page, it is easy for <application>Privoxy</application> to
8176 trap certain special URLs. In this way, we can talk directly to
8177 <application>Privoxy</application>, and see how it is
8178 configured, see how our rules are being applied, change these
8179 rules and other configuration options, and even turn
8180 <application>Privoxy's</application> filtering off, all with
8185 The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
8186 to <application>Privoxy</application>. Of course,
8187 <application>Privoxy</application> must be running to access these. If
8188 not, you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not
8200 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/">http://config.privoxy.org/</ulink>
8204 There is a shortcut: <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink> (But it
8205 doesn't provide a fall-back to a real page, in case the request is not
8206 sent through <application>Privoxy</application>)
8212 View and toggle client tags:
8216 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/client-tags">http://config.privoxy.org/client-tags</ulink>
8223 Show information about the current configuration, including viewing and
8224 editing of actions files:
8228 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</ulink>
8235 Show the browser's request headers:
8239 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</ulink>
8246 Show which actions apply to a URL and why:
8250 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8257 Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in the main
8258 <filename>config</filename> file. When toggled <quote>off</quote>, <quote>Privoxy</quote>
8259 continues to run, but only as a pass-through proxy, with no actions taking
8264 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</ulink>
8268 Short cuts. Turn off, then on:
8272 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</ulink>
8277 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</ulink>
8287 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8289 <title>Chain of Events</title>
8291 Let's take a quick look at how some of <application>Privoxy's</application>
8292 core features are triggered, and the ensuing sequence of events when a web
8293 page is requested by your browser:
8299 First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows to send
8300 the request to <application>Privoxy</application>, which will in turn,
8301 relay the request to the remote web server after passing the following
8307 <application>Privoxy</application> traps any request for its own internal CGI
8308 pages (e.g <ulink url="http://p.p/">http://p.p/</ulink>) and sends the CGI page back to the browser.
8313 Next, <application>Privoxy</application> checks to see if the URL
8315 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block</quote></link> patterns. If
8316 so, the URL is then blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted.
8317 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>
8319 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><quote>+handle-as-empty-document</quote></link>
8320 are then checked, and if there is no match, an
8321 HTML <quote>BLOCKED</quote> page is sent back to the browser. Otherwise, if
8322 it does match, an image is returned for the former, and an empty text
8323 document for the latter. The type of image would depend on the setting of
8324 <link linkend="SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><quote>+set-image-blocker</quote></link>
8325 (blank, checkerboard pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).
8330 Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
8331 <filename>trust</filename> file, then that is done.
8336 If the URL pattern matches the <link
8337 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link> action,
8338 it is then processed. Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.
8343 Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are processed. If any
8344 of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g. <link
8345 linkend="HIDE-USER-AGENT"><quote>+hide-user-agent</quote></link>,
8346 etc.), headers are suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and
8352 Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e. typically a web
8358 First, the server headers are read and processed to determine, among other
8359 things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The headers are then
8360 filtered as determined by the
8361 <link linkend="CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><quote>+crunch-incoming-cookies</quote></link>,
8362 <link linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>,
8363 and <link linkend="DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><quote>+downgrade-http-version</quote></link>
8369 If any <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8371 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8372 action applies (and the document type fits the action), the rest of the page is
8373 read into memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
8374 <filename>default.filter</filename> and any other filter files) are
8375 processed against the buffered content. Filters are applied in the order
8376 they are specified in one of the filter files. Animated GIFs, if present,
8377 are reduced to either the first or last frame, depending on the action
8378 setting.The entire page, which is now filtered, is then sent by
8379 <application>Privoxy</application> back to your browser.
8382 If neither a <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action
8384 linkend="DEANIMATE-GIFS"><quote>+deanimate-gifs</quote></link>
8385 matches, then <application>Privoxy</application> passes the raw data through
8386 to the client browser as it becomes available.
8391 As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page content, it
8392 reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded within the page
8393 source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript, other HTML documents (e.g.
8394 frames), sounds, etc. For each of these objects, the browser issues a
8395 separate request (this is easily viewable in <application>Privoxy's</application>
8396 logs). And each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
8397 complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
8398 secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a very
8399 differing set of actions is triggered.
8406 NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with each URL
8407 request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have focused on
8408 <application>Privoxy's</application> core features only.
8414 <!-- ~~~~~ New section ~~~~~ -->
8415 <sect2 id="actionsanat">
8416 <title>Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</title>
8419 The way <application>Privoxy</application> applies
8420 <link linkend="ACTIONS">actions</link> and <link linkend="FILTER">filters</link>
8421 to any given URL can be complex, and not always so
8422 easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes we need to be able to
8423 <emphasis>see</emphasis> just what <application>Privoxy</application> is
8424 doing. Especially, if something <application>Privoxy</application> is doing
8425 is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little daunting to look at
8426 the actions and filters files themselves, since they tend to be filled with
8427 <link linkend="regex">regular expressions</link> whose consequences are not
8432 One quick test to see if <application>Privoxy</application> is causing a problem
8433 or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be the first troubleshooting
8434 step (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking at the
8435 logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and logging are
8436 enabled via <filename>config</filename> file settings, and may need to be
8437 turned <quote>on</quote>.)
8440 Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
8441 customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
8442 defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get complaints
8443 about one thing or another, and the problem is more related to a customized
8444 configuration issue.
8448 <application>Privoxy</application> also provides the
8449 <ulink url="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</ulink>
8450 page that can show us very specifically how <application>actions</application>
8451 are being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for troubleshooting.
8455 First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
8456 <application>Privoxy</application> will tell us
8457 how the current configuration will handle it. This will not
8458 help with filtering effects (i.e. the <link
8459 linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> action) from
8460 one of the filter files since this is handled very
8461 differently and not so easy to trap! It also will not tell you about any other
8462 URLs that may be embedded within the URL you are testing. For instance, images
8463 such as ads are expressed as URLs within the raw page source of HTML pages. So
8464 you will only get info for the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area
8465 -- not any sub-URLs. If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you
8466 will have to dig those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <quote>View
8467 Page Source</quote> option for this. Or right click on the ad, and grab the
8472 Let's try an example, <ulink url="http://google.com">google.com</ulink>,
8473 and look at it one section at a time in a sample configuration (your real
8474 configuration may vary):
8478 Matches for http://www.google.com:
8480 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8482 {+change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8483 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8484 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8485 +filter {refresh-tags}
8486 +filter {img-reorder}
8487 +filter {banners-by-size}
8489 +filter {jumping-windows}
8490 +filter {ie-exploits}
8491 +hide-from-header {block}
8492 +hide-referrer {forge}
8493 +session-cookies-only
8494 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8497 { -session-cookies-only }
8503 In file: user.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8504 (no matches in this file)
8508 This is telling us how we have defined our
8509 <link linkend="ACTIONS"><quote>actions</quote></link>, and
8510 which ones match for our test case, <quote>google.com</quote>.
8511 Displayed is all the actions that are available to us. Remember,
8512 the <literal>+</literal> sign denotes <quote>on</quote>. <literal>-</literal>
8513 denotes <quote>off</quote>. So some are <quote>on</quote> here, but many
8514 are <quote>off</quote>. Each example we try may provide a slightly different
8515 end result, depending on our configuration directives.
8519 is for our <filename>default.action</filename> file. The large, multi-line
8520 listing, is how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
8521 settings. If you look at your <quote>actions</quote> file, this would be the
8522 section just below the <quote>aliases</quote> section near the top. This
8523 will apply to all URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end
8524 of the listing -- <quote> / </quote>.
8528 But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to these general
8529 rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that these exceptions
8530 would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then are two explicit
8531 matches for <quote>.google.com</quote>. The first is negating our previous
8532 cookie setting, which was for <link
8533 linkend="SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><quote>+session-cookies-only</quote></link>
8534 (i.e. not persistent). So we will allow persistent cookies for google, at
8535 least that is how it is in this example. The second turns
8536 <emphasis>off</emphasis> any <link
8537 linkend="FAST-REDIRECTS"><quote>+fast-redirects</quote></link>
8538 action, allowing this to take place unmolested. Note that there is a leading
8539 dot here -- <quote>.google.com</quote>. This will match any hosts and
8540 sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as
8541 <quote>www.google.com</quote> or <quote>mail.google.com</quote>. But it would not
8542 match <quote>www.google.de</quote>! So, apparently, we have these two actions
8543 defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere in the lower
8544 part of our <filename>default.action</filename> file, and
8545 <quote>google.com</quote> is referenced somewhere in these latter sections.
8549 Then, for our <filename>user.action</filename> file, we again have no hits.
8550 So there is nothing google-specific that we might have added to our own, local
8551 configuration. If there was, those actions would over-rule any actions from
8552 previously processed files, such as <filename>default.action</filename>.
8553 <filename>user.action</filename> typically has the last word. This is the
8554 best place to put hard and fast exceptions,
8558 And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and summarize how
8559 <application>Privoxy</application> is applying all its <quote>actions</quote>
8560 to <quote>google.com</quote>:
8568 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8569 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8570 -content-type-overwrite
8571 -crunch-client-header
8572 -crunch-if-none-match
8573 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8574 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8575 -crunch-server-header
8576 +deanimate-gifs {last}
8577 -downgrade-http-version
8580 -filter {content-cookies}
8581 -filter {all-popups}
8582 -filter {banners-by-link}
8583 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8584 -filter {frameset-borders}
8585 -filter {demoronizer}
8586 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8587 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8589 -filter {crude-parental}
8590 -filter {site-specifics}
8591 -filter {js-annoyances}
8592 -filter {html-annoyances}
8593 +filter {refresh-tags}
8594 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8595 +filter {img-reorder}
8596 +filter {banners-by-size}
8598 +filter {jumping-windows}
8599 +filter {ie-exploits}
8606 -handle-as-empty-document
8608 -hide-accept-language
8609 -hide-content-disposition
8610 +hide-from-header {block}
8611 -hide-if-modified-since
8612 +hide-referrer {forge}
8615 -overwrite-last-modified
8616 -prevent-compression
8618 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8619 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8620 -session-cookies-only
8621 +set-image-blocker {pattern}
8625 Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
8626 <quote>fast-redirects</quote> and <quote>session-cookies-only</quote>,
8627 which are activated specifically for this site in our configuration,
8628 and thus show in the <quote>Final Results</quote>.
8632 Now another example, <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>:
8636 { +block{Domains starts with "ad"} }
8639 { +block{Domain contains "ad"} }
8642 { +block{Doubleclick banner server} +handle-as-image }
8643 .[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
8647 We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It is
8648 matched three different times. Two <quote>+block{}</quote> sections,
8649 and a <quote>+block{} +handle-as-image</quote>,
8650 which is the expanded form of one of our aliases that had been defined as:
8651 <quote>+block-as-image</quote>. (<link
8652 linkend="ALIASES"><quote>Aliases</quote></link> are defined in
8653 the first section of the actions file and typically used to combine more
8658 Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an unwanted
8659 image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case effectively
8660 would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with these guys
8661 though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious
8662 URL to be invisible, it should be defined as <quote>ad.doubleclick.net</quote>
8663 is done here -- as both a <link
8664 linkend="BLOCK"><quote>+block{}</quote></link>
8665 <emphasis>and</emphasis> an
8666 <link linkend="HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><quote>+handle-as-image</quote></link>.
8667 The custom alias <quote><literal>+block-as-image</literal></quote> just
8668 simplifies the process and make it more readable.
8672 One last example. Let's try <quote>http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/</quote>.
8673 This one is giving us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...
8677 Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
8679 In file: default.action <guibutton>[ View ]</guibutton> <guibutton>[ Edit ]</guibutton>
8683 +change-x-forwarded-for{block}
8684 -client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
8685 -content-type-overwrite
8686 -crunch-client-header
8687 -crunch-if-none-match
8688 -crunch-incoming-cookies
8689 -crunch-outgoing-cookies
8690 -crunch-server-header
8692 -downgrade-http-version
8693 +fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
8695 -filter {content-cookies}
8696 -filter {all-popups}
8697 -filter {banners-by-link}
8698 -filter {tiny-textforms}
8699 -filter {frameset-borders}
8700 -filter {demoronizer}
8701 -filter {shockwave-flash}
8702 -filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
8704 -filter {crude-parental}
8705 -filter {site-specifics}
8706 -filter {js-annoyances}
8707 -filter {html-annoyances}
8708 +filter {refresh-tags}
8709 -filter {unsolicited-popups}
8710 +filter {img-reorder}
8711 +filter {banners-by-size}
8713 +filter {jumping-windows}
8714 +filter {ie-exploits}
8721 -handle-as-empty-document
8723 -hide-accept-language
8724 -hide-content-disposition
8725 +hide-from-header{block}
8726 +hide-referer{forge}
8728 -overwrite-last-modified
8729 +prevent-compression
8731 -server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
8732 -server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
8733 +session-cookies-only
8734 +set-image-blocker{blank} }
8737 { +block{Path contains "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8742 Ooops, the <quote>/adsl/</quote> is matching <quote>/ads</quote> in our
8743 configuration! But we did not want this at all! Now we see why we get the
8744 blank page. It is actually triggering two different actions here, and
8745 the effects are aggregated so that the URL is blocked, and &my-app; is told
8746 to treat the block as if it were an image. But this is, of course, all wrong.
8747 We could now add a new action below this (or better in our own
8748 <filename>user.action</filename> file) that explicitly
8749 <emphasis>un</emphasis> blocks (
8750 <link linkend="BLOCK"><quote>{-block}</quote></link>) paths with
8751 <quote>adsl</quote> in them (remember, last match in the configuration
8752 wins). There are various ways to handle such exceptions. Example:
8761 Now the page displays ;-)
8762 Remember to flush your browser's caches when making these kinds of changes to
8763 your configuration to insure that you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try
8764 using <literal>Shift+Reload</literal>.
8768 But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
8773 { +block{Path starts with "ads".} +handle-as-image }
8778 That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the problem
8779 was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of the default
8780 rules in the first section of <filename>default.action</filename> is causing
8781 the problem. This would require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and
8782 error to isolate the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the
8783 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link> actions.
8784 These tend to be harder to troubleshoot.
8785 Try adding the URL for the site to one of aliases that turn off
8786 <link linkend="FILTER"><quote>+filter</quote></link>:
8792 .worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
8799 <quote><literal>{ shop }</literal></quote> is an <quote>alias</quote> that expands to
8800 <quote><literal>{ -filter -session-cookies-only }</literal></quote>.
8801 Or you could do your own exception to negate filtering:
8806 # Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
8813 This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best
8814 put in <filename>user.action</filename>, for local site
8815 exceptions. Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without
8816 the subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
8817 automatically in the scope of the action.
8821 Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
8822 <link linkend="FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><quote>+filter{banners-by-size}</quote></link>
8824 that images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well
8825 <emphasis>most of the time</emphasis> since these tend to be standardized).
8829 <quote><literal>{ fragile }</literal></quote> is an alias that disables most
8830 actions that are the most likely to cause trouble. This can be used as a
8831 last resort for problem sites.
8836 # Handle with care: easy to break
8838 mybank.example.com</screen>
8842 <emphasis>Remember to flush caches!</emphasis> Note that the
8843 <literal>mail.google</literal> reference lacks the TLD portion (e.g.
8844 <quote>.com</quote>). This will effectively match any TLD with
8845 <literal>google</literal> in it, such as <literal>mail.google.de.</literal>,
8849 If this still does not work, you will have to go through the remaining
8850 actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the problem.
8859 This program is free software; you can redistribute it
8860 and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
8861 Public License as published by the Free Software
8862 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
8863 your option) any later version.
8865 This program is distributed in the hope that it will
8866 be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
8867 implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
8868 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
8869 License for more details.
8871 The GNU General Public License should be included with
8872 this file. If not, you can view it at
8873 http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
8874 or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
8875 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301,