privoxy(1)

NAME

privoxy - Privacy Enhancing Proxy

SYNOPSIS

privoxy  [--help  ] [--version ] [--no-daemon ] [--pidfile
pidfile ] [--user user[.group] ] [--chroot ] [configfile ]
(UNIX)
privoxy.exe [configfile ] (Windows)

OPTIONS

Privoxy may be invoked with the following command line options:

--help Print brief usage info and exit.

--version: Print version info and exit.
--no-daemon: Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become
process group leader, don't detach from controlling
tty, and do all logging there.
--pidfile pidfile: On startup, write the process ID to pidfile. Delete the pidfile on exit. Failure to create or delete the pidfile is non-fatal. If no --pidfile option is given, no PID file will be used.
--user user[.group]: After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the
user ID of user and the GID of group, or, if the optional group was not given, the default group of
user. Exit if the privileges are not sufficient to
do so.
--chroot: Before changing to the user ID given in the --user
option, chroot to that user's home directory, i.e.
make the kernel pretend to the Privoxy process that the directory tree starts there. If set up care
fully, this can limit the impact of possible vul
nerabilities in Privoxy to the files contained in that hierarchy.
If the configfile is not specified on the command line, Privoxy will look for a file named config in the current directory (except on Win32 where it will try config.txt). If no configfile is found, Privoxy will fail to start.

DESCRIPTION

Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabili ties for protecting privacy, filtering web page content,
managing cookies, controlling access, and removing ads,
banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet junk.
Privoxy has a very flexible configuration and can be cus tomized to suit individual needs and tastes. Privoxy has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user
networks.

Privoxy is based on Internet Junkbuster (tm).

INSTALLATION AND USAGE

Browsers must be individually configured to use Privoxy as a HTTP proxy. The default setting is for localhost, on
port 8118 (configurable in the main config file). To set
the HTTP proxy in Netscape and Mozilla, go through: Edit;
Preferences; Advanced; Proxies; Manual Proxy Configura tion; View.

For Internet Explorer, go through: Tools; Internet Proper ties; Connections; LAN Settings.

The Secure (SSL) Proxy should also be set to the same val
ues, otherwise https: URLs will not be proxied. Note:
Privoxy can only proxy HTTP and HTTPS traffic. Do not try it with FTP or other protocols.

For other browsers, check the documentation.

CONFIGURATION

Privoxy can be configured with the various configuration files. The default configuration files are: config, default.filter, and default.action. user.action should be used for locally defined exceptions to the default rules
of default.action These are all well commented. On Unix and Unix-like systems, these are located in /etc/privoxy/ by default. On Windows, OS/2 and AmigaOS, these files are
in the same directory as the Privoxy executable.

The name and number of configuration files has changed
from previous versions. In fact, the configuration itself
is changed and much more sophisticated. See the usermanual for a complete explanation of all configuration
options and general usage, and notes for upgrading from
Junkbuster and earlier Privoxy versions.

The actions list (ad blocks, etc) can also be configured
with your web browser at http://config.privoxy.org/.
Privoxy's configuration parameters can also be viewed at the same page. In addition, Privoxy can be toggled on/off. This is an internal page, and does not require Internet
access.

SAMPLE CONFIGURATION

A brief example of what a simple default.action configura tion might look like:: # Define a few useful custom aliases for later use
{{alias}}; # Useful aliases
+crunch-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgo; ing-cookies
-crunch-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgo; ing-cookies
+imageblock = +block +handle-as-image; # Fragile sites should have the minimum changes
fragile = -block -deanimate-gifs -fast-redirects; -filter -hide-referer -prevent-cookies; -kill-popups; ## Turn some actions on ################################
{ -add-header -block +deanimate; gifs{last} -downgrade-http-version -fast-redi; rects +filter{html-annoyances} +filter{js-annoy; ances} +filter{content-cookies} +filter{webbugs}; +filter{banners-by-size} +hide-forwarded-for-headers; +hide-from-header{block} +hide-referrer{forge}; -hide-user-agent -handle-as-image +set-image; blocker{pattern} -limit-connect +prevent-compres; sion +session-cookies-only -crunch-cookies; -kill-popups }
/ # '/' Matches *all* URL patterns; # Block, and treat these URL patterns as if they were; 'images'.
# We would expect these to be ads.
{+imageblock}
.ad.doubleclick.net
.a[0-9].yimg.com/(?:(?!/i/).)*$
ad.*.doubleclick.net; # Block any URLs that match these patterns
{+block}
ad*.
.*ads.
banner?.
/.*count(er)?.(pl|cgi|exe|dll|asp|php[34]?)
.hitbox.com; # Make exceptions for these harmless ones that would be
# caught by our +block patterns just above.
{-block}
adsl.
advice.
.*downloads.; Then for a user.action, we would put local, narrowly defined exceptions:

# Re-define aliases as needed here
{{alias}}

# Useful aliases
-crunch-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgo

ing-cookies

# Set personal exceptions to the policies in default.ac

tion #######

# Sites where we want persistant cookies, so allow *all*

cookies
{-crunch-cookies -session-cookies-only}
.redhat.com
.sun.com
.msdn.microsoft.com

# This site breaks easily.
{-block -fast-redirects}

.forbes.com

See the comments in the configuration files themselves, or
the user-manual for explanations of the above syntax, and other Privoxy configuration options.

FILES

/usr/sbin/privoxy
/etc/privoxy/config
/etc/privoxy/default.action /etc/privoxy/standard.action /etc/privoxy/user.action /etc/privoxy/default.filter /etc/privoxy/trust
/etc/privoxy/templates/* /var/log/privoxy/logfile
Various other files should be included, but may vary depending on platform and build configuration. More docu mentation should be included in the local documentation directory.

SIGNALS

Privoxy terminates on the SIGINT, SIGTERM and SIGABRT sig nals. Log rotation scripts may cause a re-opening of the
logfile by sending a SIGHUP to Privoxy. Note that unlike other daemons, Privoxy does not need to be made aware of config file changes by SIGHUP -- it will detect them auto
matically.

NOTES

Please see the User Manual on how to contact the develop ers for feature requests, reporting problems, and other
questions.

DEVELOPMENT TEAM

Hal Burgiss (docs)
Jon Foster
Andreas Oesterhelt
David Schmidt (OS/2, Mac OSX ports)

Johny Agotnes
Rodrigo Barbosa (RPM specfiles)
Moritz Barsnick
Mattes Dolak
Karsten Hopp (Red Hat)
Alexander Lazic
Daniel Leite
G�bor Lipt�k
Adam Lock (Win32)
Guy Laroche
Haroon Rafique
Roland Rosenfeld (Debian)
Georg Sauthoff (Gentoo)
Thomas Steudten
Joerg Strohmayer (Amiga)
Rodney Stromlund
Sviatoslav Sviridov
Sarantis Paskalis
Stefan Waldherr

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

COPYRIGHT: Copyright (C) 2001 - 2003 by Privoxy Developers <develop
ers@privoxy.org>; Some source code is based on code Copyright (C) 1997 by
Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters, Inc. and licensed under
the GNU General Public License.
LICENSE: Privoxy is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2, as published by the Free Software Foundation.; This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details, which is available from the Free Software Founda
tion, Inc, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA
02111-1307, USA.; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

docs.sk

comprehensive documentation repository

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