The Main Configuration File
Again, the main configuration file is named config on
Linux/Unix/BSD and OS/2, and config.txt on Windows.
Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list of
values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or tabs). For
example:
confdir /etc/privoxy
Assigns the value /etc/privoxy to the option
confdir and thus indicates that the configuration
directory is named /etc/privoxy/.
All options in the config file except for confdir and
logdir are optional. Watch out in the below description
for what happens if you leave them unset.
The main config file controls all aspects of Privoxy's
operation that are not location dependent (i.e. they apply universally, no matter
where you may be surfing).
]]>
@@TITLE<!-- between the @@ is stripped by Makefile -->@@
Sample Configuration File for Privoxy v&p-version;
$Id: p-config.sgml,v 1.1.1.2 2003/05/23 11:55:11 lionel Exp $
Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 Privoxy Developers http://privoxy.org
#################################################################
#
Table of Contents #
#
I. INTRODUCTION #
II. FORMAT OF THE CONFIGURATION FILE #
#
1. CONFIGURATION AND LOG FILE LOCATIONS #
2. LOCAL SET-UP DOCUMENTATION #
3. DEBUGGING #
4. ACCESS CONTROL AND SECURITY #
5. FORWARDING #
6. WINDOWS GUI OPTIONS #
#
#################################################################
I. INTRODUCTION
===============
This file holds the Privoxy configuration. If you modify this
file, you will need to send a couple of requests to the proxy
before any changes take effect.
When starting Privoxy on Unix systems, give the name of this
file as an argument. On Windows systems, Privoxy will look for
this file with the name 'config.txt' in the same directory where
Privoxy is installed.
II. FORMAT OF THE CONFIGURATION FILE
====================================
Configuration lines consist of an initial keyword followed by a list
of values, all separated by whitespace (any number of spaces or
tabs). For example,
actionsfile default.action
Indicates that the actionsfile is named 'default.action'.
The '#' indicates a comment. Any part of a line following a '#' is
ignored, except if the '#' is preceded by a '\'.
Thus, by placing a # at the start of an existing configuration line,
you can make it a comment and it will be treated as if it weren't there.
This is called "commenting out" an option and can be useful.
Note that commenting out and option and leaving it at its default
are two completely different things! Most options behave very
differently when unset. See the the "Effect if unset" explanation
in each option's description for details.
Long lines can be continued on the next line by using a `\' as
the last character.
]]>
Configuration and Log File LocationsPrivoxy can (and normally does) use a number of
other files for additional configuration, help and logging.
This section of the configuration file tells Privoxy
where to find those other files.
The user running Privoxy, must have read
permission for all configuration files, and write permission to any files
that would be modified, such as log files and actions files.
confdirSpecifies:The directory where the other configuration files are locatedType of value:Path nameDefault value:/etc/privoxy (Unix) orPrivoxy installation dir (Windows) Effect if unset:MandatoryNotes:
No trailing /, please
When development goes modular and multi-user, the blocker, filter, and
per-user config will be stored in subdirectories of confdir.
For now, the configuration directory structure is flat, except for
confdir/templates, where the HTML templates for CGI
output reside (e.g. Privoxy's 404 error page).
@@confdir .]]>
logdirSpecifies:
The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where logfile and
jarfile are located)
Type of value:Path nameDefault value:/var/log/privoxy (Unix) orPrivoxy installation dir (Windows) Effect if unset:MandatoryNotes:
No trailing /, please
@@logdir .]]>
actionsfile
Specifies:
The actions file(s) to use
Type of value:File name, relative to confdir, without the .action suffixDefault values: standard # Internal purposes, no editing recommended default # Main actions file user # User customizationsEffect if unset:
No actions are taken at all. Simple neutral proxying.
Notes:
Multiple actionsfile lines are permitted, and are in fact recommended!
The default values include standard.action, which is used for internal
purposes and should be loaded, default.action, which is the
main actions file maintained by the developers, and
user.action, where you can make your personal additions.
Actions files are where all the per site and per URL configuration is done for
ad blocking, cookie management, privacy considerations, etc.
There is no point in using Privoxy without at
least one actions file.
@@actionsfile standard # Internal purpose, recommended]]>
@@actionsfile default # Main actions file]]>
@@actionsfile user # User customizations]]>
filterfileSpecifies:
The filter file to use
Type of value:File name, relative to confdirDefault value:default.filter (Unix) or default.filter.txt (Windows)Effect if unset:
No textual content filtering takes place, i.e. all
+filter{name}
actions in the actions files are turned neutral.
Notes:
The filter file contains content modification
rules that use regular expressions. These rules permit
powerful changes on the content of Web pages, e.g., you could disable your favorite
JavaScript annoyances, re-write the actual displayed text, or just have some
fun replacing Microsoft with MicroSuck wherever
it appears on a Web page.
The
+filter{name}
actions rely on the relevant filter (name)
to be defined in the filter file!
A pre-defined filter file called default.filter that contains
a bunch of handy filters for common problems is included in the distribution.
See the section on the filter
action for a list.
@@filterfile default.filter]]>
logfileSpecifies:
The log file to use
Type of value:File name, relative to logdirDefault value:logfile (Unix) or privoxy.log (Windows)Effect if unset:
No log file is used, all log messages go to the console (STDERR).
Notes:
The logfile is where all logging and error messages are written. The level
of detail and number of messages are set with the debug
option (see below). The logfile can be useful for tracking down a problem with
Privoxy (e.g., it's not blocking an ad you
think it should block) but in most cases you probably will never look at it.
Your logfile will grow indefinitely, and you will probably want to
periodically remove it. On Unix systems, you can do this with a cron job
(see man cron). For Red Hat, a logrotate
script has been included.
On SuSE Linux systems, you can place a line like /var/log/privoxy.*
+1024k 644 nobody.nogroup in /etc/logfiles, with
the effect that cron.daily will automatically archive, gzip, and empty the
log, when it exceeds 1M size.
Any log files must be writable by whatever user Privoxy
is being run as (default on UNIX, user id is privoxy).
@@logfile logfile]]>
jarfileSpecifies:
The file to store intercepted cookies in
Type of value:File name, relative to logdirDefault value:jarfile (Unix) or privoxy.jar (Windows)Effect if unset:
Intercepted cookies are not stored at all.
Notes:
The jarfile may grow to ridiculous sizes over time.
@@jarfile jarfile]]>
trustfileSpecifies:
The trust file to use
Type of value:File name, relative to confdirDefault value:Unset (commented out). When activated: trust (Unix) or trust.txt (Windows)Effect if unset:
The whole trust mechanism is turned off.
Notes:
The trust mechanism is an experimental feature for building white-lists and should
be used with care. It is NOT recommended for the casual user.
If you specify a trust file, Privoxy will only allow
access to sites that are specified in the trustfile. Sites can be listed
in one of two ways:
Prepending a ~ character limits access to this site
only (and any sub-paths within this site), e.g.
~www.example.com.
Or, you can designate sites as trusted referrers, by
prepending the name with a + character. The effect is that
access to untrusted sites will be granted -- but only if a link from this
trusted referrer was used. The link target will then be added to the
trustfile so that future, direct accesses will be granted.
Sites added via this mechanism do not become trusted referrers themselves
(i.e. they are added with a ~ designation).
If you use the + operator in the trust file, it may grow
considerably over time.
It is recommended that Privoxy be compiled with
the --disable-force, --disable-toggle and
--disable-editor options, if this feature is to be
used.
Possible applications include limiting Internet access for children.
@@#trustfile trust]]>
Local Set-up Documentation
If you intend to operate Privoxy for more users
than just yourself, it might be a good idea to let them know how to reach
you, what you block and why you do that, your policies, etc.
user-manualSpecifies:
Location of the Privoxy User Manual.
Type of value:A fully qualified URIDefault value:UnsetEffect if unset:http://www.privoxy.org/version/user-manual/
will be used, where version is the Privoxy version.
Notes:
The User Manual URI is used for help links from some of the internal CGI pages.
The manual itself is normally packaged with the binary distributions, so you probably want
to set this to a locally installed copy. For multi-user setups, you could provide a copy on
a local webserver for all your users and use the corresponding URL here.
Examples:
Unix, in local filesystem:
user-manual file:///usr/share/doc/privoxy-&p-version;/user-manual/index.html
Windows, in local filesystem, must use forward slash notation, and %20 to denote
spaces in path names:
user-manual file:///c:/some%20dir/privoxy/user-manual/index.html
Windows, UNC notation (forward slashes required again):
user-manual file://///some-server/some-path/privoxy/user-manual/index.html
Any platform, on local webserver (called local-webserver):
user-manual http://local-webserver/privoxy-user-manual/
If set, this option should be the first option in the config
file, because it is used while the config file is being read.
]]>
WARNING!!!
If set, this option should be the first option in the config
file, because it is used while the config file is being read.
]]>
@@#user-manual http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/]]>
trust-info-urlSpecifies:
A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if access to an untrusted page is denied.
Type of value:URLDefault value:Two example URL are providedEffect if unset:
No links are displayed on the "untrusted" error page.
Notes:
The value of this option only matters if the experimental trust mechanism has been
activated. (See trustfile above.)
If you use the trust mechanism, it is a good idea to write up some on-line
documentation about your trust policy and to specify the URL(s) here.
Use multiple times for multiple URLs.
The URL(s) should be added to the trustfile as well, so users don't end up
locked out from the information on why they were locked out in the first place!
@@trust-info-url http://www.example.com/why_we_block.html]]>
@@trust-info-url http://www.example.com/what_we_allow.html]]>
admin-addressSpecifies:
An email address to reach the proxy administrator.
Type of value:Email addressDefault value:UnsetEffect if unset:
No email address is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
Notes:
If both admin-address and proxy-info-url
are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
not be shown.
@@#admin-address privoxy-admin@example.com]]>
proxy-info-urlSpecifies:
A URL to documentation about the local Privoxy setup,
configuration or policies.
Type of value:URLDefault value:UnsetEffect if unset:
No link to local documentation is displayed on error pages and the CGI user interface.
Notes:
If both admin-address and proxy-info-url
are unset, the whole "Local Privoxy Support" box on all generated pages will
not be shown.
This URL shouldn't be blocked ;-)
@@#proxy-info-url http://www.example.com/proxy-service.html]]>
Debugging
These options are mainly useful when tracing a problem.
Note that you might also want to invoke
Privoxy with the --no-daemon
command line option when debugging.
debugSpecifies:
Key values that determine what information gets logged to the
logfile.
Type of value:Integer valuesDefault value:12289 (i.e.: URLs plus informational and warning messages)Effect if unset:
Nothing gets logged.
Notes:
The available debug levels are:
debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request
debug 2 # show each connection status
debug 4 # show I/O status
debug 8 # show header parsing
debug 16 # log all data into the logfile
debug 32 # debug force feature
debug 64 # debug regular expression filter
debug 128 # debug fast redirects
debug 256 # debug GIF de-animation
debug 512 # Common Log Format
debug 1024 # debug kill pop-ups
debug 2048 # CGI user interface
debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings.
debug 8192 # Non-fatal errors
To select multiple debug levels, you can either add them or use
multiple debug lines.
A debug level of 1 is informative because it will show you each request
as it happens. 1, 4096 and 8192 are highly recommended
so that you will notice when things go wrong. The other levels are probably
only of interest if you are hunting down a specific problem. They can produce
a hell of an output (especially 16).
The reporting of fatal errors (i.e. ones which crash
Privoxy) is always on and cannot be disabled.
If you want to use CLF (Common Log Format), you should set debug
512ONLY and not enable anything else.
@@debug 1 # show each GET/POST/CONNECT request]]>
@@debug 4096 # Startup banner and warnings]]>
@@debug 8192 # Errors - *we highly recommended enabling this*]]>
single-threadedSpecifies:
Whether to run only one server thread
Type of value:NoneDefault value:UnsetEffect if unset:
Multi-threaded (or, where unavailable: forked) operation, i.e. the ability to
serve multiple requests simultaneously.
Notes:
This option is only there for debug purposes and you should never
need to use it. It will drastically reduce performance.
@@#single-threaded]]>
Access Control and Security
This section of the config file controls the security-relevant aspects
of Privoxy's configuration.
listen-addressSpecifies:
The IP address and TCP port on which Privoxy will
listen for client requests.
Type of value:[IP-Address]:PortDefault value:127.0.0.1:8118Effect if unset:
Bind to 127.0.0.1 (localhost), port 8118. This is suitable and recommended for
home users who run Privoxy on the same machine as
their browser.
Notes:
You will need to configure your browser(s) to this proxy address and port.
If you already have another service running on port 8118, or if you want to
serve requests from other machines (e.g. on your local network) as well, you
will need to override the default.
If you leave out the IP address, Privoxy will
bind to all interfaces (addresses) on your machine and may become reachable
from the Internet. In that case, consider using access control lists (ACL's, see below), and/or
a firewall.
If you open Privoxy to untrusted users, you will
also want to turn off the enable-edit-actions and
enable-remote-toggle
options!
Example:
Suppose you are running Privoxy on
a machine which has the address 192.168.0.1 on your local private network
(192.168.0.0) and has another outside connection with a different address.
You want it to serve requests from inside only:
listen-address 192.168.0.1:8118
@@listen-address 127.0.0.1:8118]]>
toggleSpecifies:
Initial state of "toggle" status
Type of value:1 or 0Default value:1Effect if unset:
Act as if toggled on
Notes:
If set to 0, Privoxy will start in
toggled off mode, i.e. behave like a normal, content-neutral
proxy where all ad blocking, filtering, etc are disabled. See
enable-remote-toggle below. This is not really useful
anymore, since toggling is much easier via the web interface than via
editing the conf file.
The windows version will only display the toggle icon in the system tray
if this option is present.
@@toggle 1]]>
enable-remote-toggleSpecifies:
Whether or not the web-based toggle
feature may be used
Type of value:0 or 1Default value:1Effect if unset:
The web-based toggle feature is disabled.
Notes:
When toggled off, Privoxy acts like a normal,
content-neutral proxy, i.e. it acts as if none of the actions applied to
any URL.
For the time being, access to the toggle feature can not be
controlled separately by ACLs or HTTP authentication,
so that everybody who can access Privoxy (see
ACLs and listen-address above) can
toggle it for all users. So this option is not recommended
for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
Note that you must have compiled Privoxy with
support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
@@enable-remote-toggle 1]]>
enable-edit-actionsSpecifies:
Whether or not the web-based actions
file editor may be used
Type of value:0 or 1Default value:1Effect if unset:
The web-based actions file editor is disabled.
Notes:
For the time being, access to the editor can not be
controlled separately by ACLs or HTTP authentication,
so that everybody who can access Privoxy (see
ACLs and listen-address above) can
modify its configuration for all users. So this option is not
recommended for multi-user environments with untrusted users.
Note that you must have compiled Privoxy with
support for this feature, otherwise this option has no effect.
@@enable-edit-actions 1]]>
ACLs: permit-access and deny-accessSpecifies:
Who can access what.
Type of value:src_addr[/src_masklen]
[dst_addr[/dst_masklen]]
Where src_addr and
dst_addr are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid
DNS names, and src_masklen and
dst_masklen are subnet masks in CIDR notation, i.e. integer
values from 2 to 30 representing the length (in bits) of the network address. The masks and the whole
destination part are optional.
Default value:UnsetEffect if unset:
Don't restrict access further than implied by listen-addressNotes:
Access controls are included at the request of ISPs and systems
administrators, and are not usually needed by individual users.
For a typical home user, it will normally suffice to ensure that
Privoxy only listens on the localhost
(127.0.0.1) or internal (home) network address by means of the
listen-address
option.
Please see the warnings in the FAQ that this proxy is not intended to be a substitute
for a firewall or to encourage anyone to defer addressing basic security
weaknesses.
Multiple ACL lines are OK.
If any ACLs are specified, then the Privoxy
talks only to IP addresses that match at least one permit-access line
and don't match any subsequent deny-access line. In other words, the
last match wins, with the default being deny-access.
If Privoxy is using a forwarder (see forward below)
for a particular destination URL, the dst_addr
that is examined is the address of the forwarder and NOT the address
of the ultimate target. This is necessary because it may be impossible for the local
Privoxy to determine the IP address of the
ultimate target (that's often what gateways are used for).
You should prefer using IP addresses over DNS names, because the address lookups take
time. All DNS names must resolve! You can not use domain patterns
like *.org or partial domain names. If a DNS name resolves to multiple
IP addresses, only the first one is used.
Denying access to particular sites by ACL may have undesired side effects
if the site in question is hosted on a machine which also hosts other sites.
Examples:
Explicitly define the default behavior if no ACL and
listen-address are set: localhost
is OK. The absence of a dst_addr implies that
all destination addresses are OK:
permit-access localhost
Allow any host on the same class C subnet as www.privoxy.org access to
nothing but www.example.com:
permit-access www.privoxy.org/24 www.example.com/32
Allow access from any host on the 26-bit subnet 192.168.45.64 to anywhere,
with the exception that 192.168.45.73 may not access www.dirty-stuff.example.com:
permit-access 192.168.45.64/26
deny-access 192.168.45.73 www.dirty-stuff.example.com
buffer-limitSpecifies:
Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering.
Type of value:Size in KbytesDefault value:4096Effect if unset:
Use a 4MB (4096 KB) limit.
Notes:
For content filtering, i.e. the +filter and
+deanimate-gif actions, it is necessary that
Privoxy buffers the entire document body.
This can be potentially dangerous, since a server could just keep sending
data indefinitely and wait for your RAM to exhaust -- with nasty consequences.
Hence this option.
When a document buffer size reaches the buffer-limit, it is
flushed to the client unfiltered and no further attempt to
filter the rest of the document is made. Remember that there may be multiple threads
running, which might require up to buffer-limit Kbytes
each, unless you have enabled single-threaded
above.
@@buffer-limit 4096]]>
Forwarding
This feature allows routing of HTTP requests through a chain of
multiple proxies.
It can be used to better protect privacy and confidentiality when
accessing specific domains by routing requests to those domains
through an anonymous public proxy (see e.g. http://www.multiproxy.org/anon_list.htm)
Or to use a caching proxy to speed up browsing. Or chaining to a parent
proxy may be necessary because the machine that Privoxy
runs on has no direct Internet access.
Also specified here are SOCKS proxies. Privoxy
supports the SOCKS 4 and SOCKS 4A protocols.
forwardSpecifies:
To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed.
Type of value:target_patternhttp_parent[:port]
where target_pattern is a URL pattern
that specifies to which requests (i.e. URLs) this forward rule shall apply. Use / to
denote all URLs.
http_parent[:port]
is the DNS name or IP address of the parent HTTP proxy through which the requests should be forwarded,
optionally followed by its listening port (default: 8080).
Use a single dot (.) to denote no forwarding.
Default value:UnsetEffect if unset:
Don't use parent HTTP proxies.
Notes:
If http_parent is ., then requests are not
forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made directly to the web servers.
Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
Examples:
Everything goes to an example anonymizing proxy, except SSL on port 443 (which it doesn't handle):
forward / anon-proxy.example.org:8080
forward :443 .
Everything goes to our example ISP's caching proxy, except for requests
to that ISP's sites:
forward / caching-proxy.example-isp.net:8000
forward .example-isp.net .
forward-socks4 and forward-socks4aSpecifies:
Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) specific requests should be routed.
Type of value:target_patternsocks_proxy[:port]
http_parent[:port]
where target_pattern is a URL pattern
that specifies to which requests (i.e. URLs) this forward rule shall apply. Use / to
denote all URLs.
http_parent and socks_proxy
are IP addresses in dotted decimal notation or valid DNS names (http_parent
may be . to denote no HTTP forwarding), and the optional
port parameters are TCP ports, i.e. integer values from 1 to 64535
Default value:UnsetEffect if unset:
Don't use SOCKS proxies.
Notes:
Multiple lines are OK, they are checked in sequence, and the last match wins.
The difference between forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a
is that in the SOCKS 4A protocol, the DNS resolution of the target hostname happens on the SOCKS
server, while in SOCKS 4 it happens locally.
If http_parent is ., then requests are not
forwarded to another HTTP proxy but are made (HTTP-wise) directly to the web servers, albeit through
a SOCKS proxy.
Examples:
From the company example.com, direct connections are made to all
internal domains, but everything outbound goes through
their ISP's proxy by way of example.com's corporate SOCKS 4A gateway to
the Internet.
forward-socks4a / socks-gw.example.com:1080 www-cache.example-isp.net:8080
forward .example.com .
A rule that uses a SOCKS 4 gateway for all destinations but no HTTP parent looks like this:
forward-socks4 / socks-gw.example.com:1080 .
Advanced Forwarding Examples
If you have links to multiple ISPs that provide various special content
only to their subscribers, you can configure multiple Privoxies
which have connections to the respective ISPs to act as forwarders to each other, so that
your users can see the internal content of all ISPs.
Assume that host-a has a PPP connection to isp-a.net. And host-b has a PPP connection to
isp-b.net. Both run Privoxy. Their forwarding
configuration can look like this:
host-a:
forward / .
forward .isp-b.net host-b:8118
host-b:
forward / .
forward .isp-a.net host-a:8118
Now, your users can set their browser's proxy to use either
host-a or host-b and be able to browse the internal content
of both isp-a and isp-b.
If you intend to chain Privoxy and
squid locally, then chain as
browser -> squid -> privoxy is the recommended way.
Assuming that Privoxy and squid
run on the same box, your squid configuration could then look like this:
# Define Privoxy as parent proxy (without ICP)
cache_peer 127.0.0.1 parent 8118 7 no-query
# Define ACL for protocol FTP
acl ftp proto FTP
# Do not forward FTP requests to Privoxy
always_direct allow ftp
# Forward all the rest to Privoxy
never_direct allow all
You would then need to change your browser's proxy settings to squid's address and port.
Squid normally uses port 3128. If unsure consult http_port in squid.conf.
You could just as well decide to only forward requests for Windows executables through
a virus-scanning parent proxy, say, on antivir.example.com, port 8010:
forward / .
forward /.*\.(exe|com|dll|zip)$ antivir.example.com:8010
]]>
Windows GUI OptionsPrivoxy has a number of options specific to the
Windows GUI interface:
@@]]>
If activity-animation is set to 1, the
Privoxy icon will animate when
Privoxy is active. To turn off, set to 0.
@@#activity-animation 1]]>
activity-animation 1
]]>
@@]]>
If log-messages is set to 1,
Privoxy will log messages to the console
window:
@@#log-messages 1]]>
log-messages 1
]]>
@@]]>
If log-buffer-size is set to 1, the size of the log buffer,
i.e. the amount of memory used for the log messages displayed in the
console window, will be limited to log-max-lines (see below).
Warning: Setting this to 0 will result in the buffer to grow infinitely and
eat up all your memory!
@@#log-buffer-size 1]]>
log-buffer-size 1
]]>
@@]]>
log-max-lines is the maximum number of lines held
in the log buffer. See above.
@@#log-max-lines 200]]>
log-max-lines 200
]]>
@@]]>
If log-highlight-messages is set to 1,
Privoxy will highlight portions of the log
messages with a bold-faced font:
@@#log-highlight-messages 1]]>
log-highlight-messages 1
]]>
@@]]>
The font used in the console window:
@@#log-font-name Comic Sans MS]]>
log-font-name Comic Sans MS
]]>
@@]]>
Font size used in the console window:
@@#log-font-size 8]]>
log-font-size 8
]]>
@@]]>
show-on-task-bar controls whether or not
Privoxy will appear as a button on the Task bar
when minimized:
@@#show-on-task-bar 0]]>
show-on-task-bar 0
]]>
@@]]>
If close-button-minimizes is set to 1, the Windows close
button will minimize Privoxy instead of closing
the program (close with the exit option on the File menu).
@@#close-button-minimizes 1]]>
close-button-minimizes 1
]]>
@@]]>
The hide-console option is specific to the MS-Win console
version of Privoxy. If this option is used,
Privoxy will disconnect from and hide the
command console.
@@#hide-console]]>
#hide-console
]]>
]]>