PRIVOXY(1)PRIVOXY(1)NAMEprivoxy - Privacy Enhancing Proxy
SYNOPSISprivoxy [--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 log‐
ging 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 pre‐
tend to the Privoxy process that the directory tree starts
there. If set up carefully, this can limit the impact of possi‐
ble vulnerabilities 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 capabilities for pro‐
tecting privacy, modifying web page content, managing cookies, control‐
ling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious
Internet junk. Privoxy has a very flexible configuration and can be
customized 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 (config‐
urable in the main config file). To set the HTTP proxy in Netscape and
Mozilla, go through: Edit; Preferences; Advanced; Proxies; Manual
Proxy Configuration; View.
For Internet Explorer, go through: Tools; Internet Properties; Connec‐
tions; LAN Settings.
The Secure (SSL) Proxy should also be set to the same values, 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 excep‐
tions to the default rules of default.action These are all well com‐
mented. 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 user-manual 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 parame‐
ters 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 Inter‐
net access.
SAMPLE CONFIGURATION
A brief example of what a simple default.action configuration might
look like:
# Define a few useful custom aliases for later use
{{alias}}
# Useful aliases
+crunch-cookies = +crunch-incoming-cookies +crunch-outgoing-cookies
-crunch-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-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-redirects \
+filter{html-annoyances} \
+filter{js-annoyances} \
+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-compression \
+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 excep‐
tions:
# Re-define aliases as needed here
{{alias}}
# Useful aliases
-crunch-cookies = -crunch-incoming-cookies -crunch-outgoing-cookies
# Set personal exceptions to the policies in default.action #######
# 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 configu‐
ration 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 plat‐
form and build configuration. More documentation should be included in
the local documentation directory.
SIGNALS
Privoxy terminates on the SIGINT, SIGTERM and SIGABRT signals. 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 automatically.
NOTES
Please see the User Manual on how to contact the developers for feature
requests, reporting problems, and other questions.
SEE ALSO
Other references and sites of interest to Privoxy users:
http://www.privoxy.org/, the Privoxy Home page.
http://www.privoxy.org/faq/, the Privoxy FAQ.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/, the Project Page for Privoxy
on SourceForge.
http://config.privoxy.org/, the web-based user interface. Privoxy must
be running for this to work. Shortcut: http://p.p/
http://www.privoxy.org/actions/, to submit ``misses'' to the develop‐
ers.
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/ijbswa/contrib/, cool
and fun ideas from Privoxy users.
http://www.junkbusters.com/ht/en/cookies.html, an explanation how cook‐
ies are used to track web users.
http://www.junkbusters.com/ijb.html, the original Internet Junkbuster.
http://www.waldherr.org/junkbuster/, Stefan Waldherr's version of Junk‐
buster, from which Privoxy was derived.
http://privacy.net/analyze/, a useful site to check what information
about you is leaked while you browse the web.
http://www.squid-cache.org/, a very popular caching proxy, which is
often used together with Privoxy.
http://www.privoxy.org/developer-manual/, the Privoxy developer manual.
DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Hal Burgiss (docs)
Andreas Oesterhelt
David Schmidt (OS/2, Mac OSX ports)
Johny Agotnes
Rodrigo Barbosa (RPM specfiles)
Moritz Barsnick
Brian Dessent
Mattes Dolak
Jon Foster
Karsten Hopp (Red Hat)
Alexander Lazic
Daniel Leite
Gábor Lipták
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 - 2004 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 pub‐
lished 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 MER‐
CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General
Public License for more details, which is available from the Free Soft‐
ware Foundation, 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 Founda‐
tion, Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330 Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Privoxy 3.0.3 31 Januar 2004 PRIVOXY(1)
