# Sample Configuration File for Privoxy v3.0.x # # Copyright (C) 2001-2004 Privoxy Developers http://privoxy.org # # $Id$ # #################################################################### # # # 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. # # # 1. CONFIGURATION AND LOG FILE LOCATIONS # ======================================= # # Privoxy 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. # # # 1.1. confdir # ============ # # Specifies: # # The directory where the other configuration files are located # # Type of value: # # Path name # # Default value: # # /etc/privoxy (Unix) or Privoxy installation dir (Windows) # # Effect if unset: # # Mandatory # # Notes: # # 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 . # # 1.2. logdir # =========== # # Specifies: # # The directory where all logging takes place (i.e. where logfile # and jarfile are located) # # Type of value: # # Path name # # Default value: # # /var/log/privoxy (Unix) or Privoxy installation dir (Windows) # # Effect if unset: # # Mandatory # # Notes: # # No trailing "/", please # logdir . # # 1.3. actionsfile # ================ # # Specifies: # # The actions file(s) to use # # Type of value: # # File name, relative to confdir, without the .action suffix # # Default values: # # standard # Internal purposes, no editing recommended # # default # Main actions file # # user # User customizations # # Effect 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 # # 1.4. filterfile # =============== # # Specifies: # # The filter file to use # # Type of value: # # File name, relative to confdir # # Default 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 # # 1.5. logfile # ============ # # Specifies: # # The log file to use # # Type of value: # # File name, relative to logdir # # Default 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 windows version will additionally log to the console. # # 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 # # 1.6. jarfile # ============ # # Specifies: # # The file to store intercepted cookies in # # Type of value: # # File name, relative to logdir # # Default 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 # # 1.7. trustfile # ============== # # Specifies: # # The trust file to use # # Type of value: # # File name, relative to confdir # # Default value: # # Unset (commented out). When activated: trust (Unix) or trust.txt # (Windows) # # Effect if unset: # # The entire 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 # # 2. 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. # # # 2.1. user-manual # ================ # # Specifies: # # Location of the Privoxy User Manual. # # Type of value: # # A fully qualified URI # # Default value: # # Unset # # Effect 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-3.0.1/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/ # # 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/ # # 2.2. trust-info-url # =================== # # Specifies: # # A URL to be displayed in the error page that users will see if # access to an untrusted page is denied. # # Type of value: # # URL # # Default value: # # Two example URL are provided # # Effect 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 # # 2.3. admin-address # ================== # # Specifies: # # An email address to reach the proxy administrator. # # Type of value: # # Email address # # Default value: # # Unset # # Effect 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 # # 2.4. proxy-info-url # =================== # # Specifies: # # A URL to documentation about the local Privoxy setup, # configuration or policies. # # Type of value: # # URL # # Default value: # # Unset # # Effect 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 # # 3. 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. # # # 3.1. debug # ========== # # Specifies: # # Key values that determine what information gets logged to # the logfile. # # Type of value: # # Integer values # # Default 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 512" ONLY 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* # # 3.2. single-threaded # ==================== # # Specifies: # # Whether to run only one server thread # # Type of value: # # None # # Default value: # # Unset # # Effect 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 # # 4. ACCESS CONTROL AND SECURITY # ============================== # # This section of the config file controls the security-relevant # aspects of Privoxy's configuration. # # # 4.1. listen-address # =================== # # Specifies: # # The IP address and TCP port on which Privoxy will listen for # client requests. # # Type of value: # # [IP-Address]:Port # # Default value: # # 127.0.0.1:8118 # # Effect 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 # # 4.2. toggle # =========== # # Specifies: # # Initial state of "toggle" status # # Type of value: # # 1 or 0 # # Default value: # # 1 # # Effect 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 # # 4.3. enable-remote-toggle # ========================= # # Specifies: # # Whether or not the web-based toggle feature may be used # # Type of value: # # 0 or 1 # # Default value: # # 1 # # Effect 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 0 # # 4.4. enable-edit-actions # ======================== # # Specifies: # # Whether or not the web-based actions file editor may be used # # Type of value: # # 0 or 1 # # Default value: # # 1 # # Effect 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 0 # # 4.5. ACLs: permit-access and deny-access # ======================================== # # Specifies: # # 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: # # Unset # # Effect if unset: # # Don't restrict access further than implied by listen-address # # Notes: # # 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 # # # 4.6. buffer-limit # ================= # # Specifies: # # Maximum size of the buffer for content filtering. # # Type of value: # # Size in Kbytes # # Default value: # # 4096 # # Effect 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 # # 5. 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. # # # 5.1. forward # ============ # # Specifies: # # To which parent HTTP proxy specific requests should be routed. # # Type of value: # # target_pattern 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[: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: # # Unset # # Effect 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 . # # # 5.2. forward-socks4 and forward-socks4a # ======================================= # # Specifies: # # Through which SOCKS proxy (and to which parent HTTP proxy) # specific requests should be routed. # # Type of value: # # target_pattern socks_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: # # Unset # # Effect 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 . # forward-socks4a / 127.0.0.1:9050 . # # 6. WINDOWS GUI OPTIONS # ====================== # # Privoxy 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 # If "log-messages" is set to 1, Privoxy will log messages to the # console window: # #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-max-lines is the maximum number of lines held in the log # buffer. See above. # #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 # The font used in the console window: # #log-font-name Comic Sans MS # Font size used in the console window: # #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 # 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 # 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 #