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24 Privoxy 3.0.26 User Manual
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42 <a name="CONFIGURATION">6. Privoxy Configuration</a>
45 All <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> configuration is stored
46 in text files. These files can be edited with a text editor. Many
47 important aspects of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> can
48 also be controlled easily with a web browser.
52 <a name="CONTROL-WITH-WEBBROWSER">6.1. Controlling Privoxy with
56 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>'s user interface can be
57 reached through the special URL <a href=
58 "http://config.privoxy.org/" target=
59 "_top">http://config.privoxy.org/</a> (shortcut: <a href=
60 "http://p.p/" target="_top">http://p.p/</a>), which is a built-in
61 page and works without Internet access. You will see the following
64 <table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
70 <h2 class="BRIDGEHEAD">
71 <a name="AEN902"></a> Privoxy Menu
79 ▪ <a
80 href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status" target=
81 "_top">View & change the current configuration</a>
86 ▪ <a
87 href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version" target=
88 "_top">View the source code version numbers</a>
93 ▪ <a
94 href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request" target=
95 "_top">View the request headers.</a>
100 ▪ <a
101 href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info" target=
102 "_top">Look up which actions apply to a URL and why</a>
108 ▪ <a
109 href="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle" target=
110 "_top">Toggle Privoxy on or off</a>
115 ▪ <a
116 href="https://www.privoxy.org/3.0.26/user-manual/"
117 target="_top">Documentation</a>
128 This should be self-explanatory. Note the first item leads to an
129 editor for the <a href="actions-file.html">actions files</a>, which
130 is where the ad, banner, cookie, and URL blocking magic is
131 configured as well as other advanced features of <span class=
132 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>. This is an easy way to adjust various
133 aspects of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> configuration.
134 The actions file, and other configuration files, are explained in
138 <span class="QUOTE">"Toggle Privoxy On or Off"</span> is handy for
139 sites that might have problems with your current actions and
140 filters. You can in fact use it as a test to see whether it is
141 <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> causing the problem or
142 not. <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> continues to run as a
143 proxy in this case, but all manipulation is disabled, i.e. <span
144 class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> acts like a normal forwarding
148 Note that several of the features described above are disabled by
149 default in <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> 3.0.7 beta and
150 later. Check the <a href="config.html" target="_top">configuration
151 file</a> to learn why and in which cases it's safe to enable them
157 <a name="CONFOVERVIEW">6.2. Configuration Files Overview</a>
160 For Unix, *BSD and Linux, all configuration files are located in
161 <tt class="FILENAME">/etc/privoxy/</tt> by default. For MS Windows,
162 OS/2, and AmigaOS these are all in the same directory as the <span
163 class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> executable.
166 The installed defaults provide a reasonable starting point, though
167 some settings may be aggressive by some standards. For the time
168 being, the principle configuration files are:
175 The <a href="config.html">main configuration file</a> is named
176 <tt class="FILENAME">config</tt> on Linux, Unix, BSD, OS/2, and
177 AmigaOS and <tt class="FILENAME">config.txt</tt> on Windows.
178 This is a required file.
183 <tt class="FILENAME">match-all.action</tt> is used to define
184 which <span class="QUOTE">"actions"</span> relating to
185 banner-blocking, images, pop-ups, content modification, cookie
186 handling etc should be applied by default. It should be the
187 first actions file loaded.
190 <tt class="FILENAME">default.action</tt> defines many
191 exceptions (both positive and negative) from the default set of
192 actions that's configured in <tt class=
193 "FILENAME">match-all.action</tt>. It should be the second
194 actions file loaded and shouldn't be edited by the user.
197 Multiple actions files may be defined in <tt class=
198 "FILENAME">config</tt>. These are processed in the order they
199 are defined. Local customizations and locally preferred
200 exceptions to the default policies as defined in <tt class=
201 "FILENAME">match-all.action</tt> (which you will most probably
202 want to define sooner or later) are best applied in <tt class=
203 "FILENAME">user.action</tt>, where you can preserve them across
204 upgrades. The file isn't installed by all installers, but you
205 can easily create it yourself with a text editor.
208 There is also a web based editor that can be accessed from <a
209 href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status" target=
210 "_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</a> (Shortcut: <a
211 href="http://p.p/show-status" target=
212 "_top">http://p.p/show-status</a>) for the various actions
218 <span class="QUOTE">"Filter files"</span> (the <a href=
219 "filter-file.html">filter file</a>) can be used to re-write the
220 raw page content, including viewable text as well as embedded
221 HTML and JavaScript, and whatever else lurks on any given web
222 page. The filtering jobs are only pre-defined here; whether to
223 apply them or not is up to the actions files. <tt class=
224 "FILENAME">default.filter</tt> includes various filters made
225 available for use by the developers. Some are much more
226 intrusive than others, and all should be used with caution. You
227 may define additional filter files in <tt class=
228 "FILENAME">config</tt> as you can with actions files. We
229 suggest <tt class="FILENAME">user.filter</tt> for any locally
230 defined filters or customizations.
236 The syntax of the configuration and filter files may change between
237 different Privoxy versions, unfortunately some enhancements cost
238 backwards compatibility.
241 All files use the <span class="QUOTE">"<tt class=
242 "LITERAL">#</tt>"</span> character to denote a comment (the rest of
243 the line will be ignored) and understand line continuation through
244 placing a backslash ("<tt class="LITERAL">\</tt>") as the very last
245 character in a line. If the <tt class="LITERAL">#</tt> is preceded
246 by a backslash, it looses its special function. Placing a <tt
247 class="LITERAL">#</tt> in front of an otherwise valid configuration
248 line to prevent it from being interpreted is called "commenting
249 out" that line. Blank lines are ignored.
252 The actions files and filter files can use Perl style <a href=
253 "appendix.html#REGEX">regular expressions</a> for maximum
257 After making any changes, there is no need to restart <span class=
258 "APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> in order for the changes to take
259 effect. <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> detects such
260 changes automatically. Note, however, that it may take one or two
261 additional requests for the change to take effect. When changing
262 the listening address of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>,
263 these <span class="QUOTE">"wake up"</span> requests must obviously
264 be sent to the <span class="emphasis"><i class=
265 "EMPHASIS">old</i></span> listening address.
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292 The Main Configuration File