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<title>Appendix</title>
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<th colspan="3" align="center">Privoxy 3.0.19 User Manual</th>
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<div class="SECT1">
<h1 class="SECT1"><a name="APPENDIX" id="APPENDIX">14. Appendix</a></h1>
<div class="SECT2">
<h2 class="SECT2"><a name="REGEX" id="REGEX">14.1. Regular
Expressions</a></h2>
<p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> uses Perl-style
<span class="QUOTE">"regular expressions"</span> in its <a href=
"actions-file.html">actions files</a> and <a href=
"filter-file.html">filter file</a>, through the <a href=
"http://www.pcre.org/" target="_top">PCRE</a> and <span class=
"APPLICATION">PCRS</span> libraries.</p>
<p>If you are reading this, you probably don't understand what
<span class="QUOTE">"regular expressions"</span> are, or what they can
do. So this will be a very brief introduction only. A full explanation
would require a <a href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/regex/" target=
"_top">book</a> ;-)</p>
<p>Regular expressions provide a language to describe patterns that can
be run against strings of characters (letter, numbers, etc), to see if
they match the string or not. The patterns are themselves (sometimes
complex) strings of literal characters, combined with wild-cards, and
other special characters, called meta-characters. The <span class=
"QUOTE">"meta-characters"</span> have special meanings and are used to
build complex patterns to be matched against. Perl Compatible Regular
Expressions are an especially convenient <span class=
"QUOTE">"dialect"</span> of the regular expression language.</p>
<p>To make a simple analogy, we do something similar when we use
wild-card characters when listing files with the <b class=
"COMMAND">dir</b> command in DOS. <tt class="LITERAL">*.*</tt> matches
all filenames. The <span class="QUOTE">"special"</span> character here
is the asterisk which matches any and all characters. We can be more
specific and use <tt class="LITERAL">?</tt> to match just individual
characters. So <span class="QUOTE">"dir file?.text"</span> would match
<span class="QUOTE">"file1.txt"</span>, <span class=
"QUOTE">"file2.txt"</span>, etc. We are pattern matching, using a
similar technique to <span class="QUOTE">"regular
expressions"</span>!</p>
<p>Regular expressions do essentially the same thing, but are much,
much more powerful. There are many more <span class="QUOTE">"special
characters"</span> and ways of building complex patterns however. Let's
look at a few of the common ones, and then some examples:</p>
<table border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">.</span> - Matches any
single character, e.g. <span class="QUOTE">"a"</span>,
<span class="QUOTE">"A"</span>, <span class="QUOTE">"4"</span>,
<span class="QUOTE">":"</span>, or <span class=
"QUOTE">"@"</span>.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">?</span> - The preceding
character or expression is matched ZERO or ONE times.
Either/or.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">+</span> - The preceding
character or expression is matched ONE or MORE times.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">*</span> - The preceding
character or expression is matched ZERO or MORE times.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">\</span> - The
<span class="QUOTE">"escape"</span> character denotes that the
following character should be taken literally. This is used where
one of the special characters (e.g. <span class=
"QUOTE">"."</span>) needs to be taken literally and not as a
special meta-character. Example: <span class=
"QUOTE">"example\.com"</span>, makes sure the period is
recognized only as a period (and not expanded to its
meta-character meaning of any single character).</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">[ ]</span> - Characters
enclosed in brackets will be matched if any of the enclosed
characters are encountered. For instance, <span class=
"QUOTE">"[0-9]"</span> matches any numeric digit (zero through
nine). As an example, we can combine this with <span class=
"QUOTE">"+"</span> to match any digit one of more times:
<span class="QUOTE">"[0-9]+"</span>.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">( )</span> - parentheses
are used to group a sub-expression, or multiple
sub-expressions.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">|</span> - The
<span class="QUOTE">"bar"</span> character works like an
<span class="QUOTE">"or"</span> conditional statement. A match is
successful if the sub-expression on either side of <span class=
"QUOTE">"|"</span> matches. As an example: <span class=
"QUOTE">"/(this|that) example/"</span> uses grouping and the bar
character and would match either <span class="QUOTE">"this
example"</span> or <span class="QUOTE">"that example"</span>, and
nothing else.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>These are just some of the ones you are likely to use when matching
URLs with <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>, and is a long way
from a definitive list. This is enough to get us started with a few
simple examples which may be more illuminating:</p>
<p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2"><tt class=
"LITERAL">/.*/banners/.*</tt></span> - A simple example that uses the
common combination of <span class="QUOTE">"."</span> and <span class=
"QUOTE">"*"</span> to denote any character, zero or more times. In
other words, any string at all. So we start with a literal forward
slash, then our regular expression pattern (<span class=
"QUOTE">".*"</span>) another literal forward slash, the string
<span class="QUOTE">"banners"</span>, another forward slash, and lastly
another <span class="QUOTE">".*"</span>. We are building a directory
path here. This will match any file with the path that has a directory
named <span class="QUOTE">"banners"</span> in it. The <span class=
"QUOTE">".*"</span> matches any characters, and this could conceivably
be more forward slashes, so it might expand into a much longer looking
path. For example, this could match: <span class=
"QUOTE">"/eye/hate/spammers/banners/annoy_me_please.gif"</span>, or
just <span class="QUOTE">"/banners/annoying.html"</span>, or almost an
infinite number of other possible combinations, just so it has
<span class="QUOTE">"banners"</span> in the path somewhere.</p>
<p>And now something a little more complex:</p>
<p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2"><tt class=
"LITERAL">/.*/adv((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))?/</tt></span> - We have
several literal forward slashes again (<span class="QUOTE">"/"</span>),
so we are building another expression that is a file path statement. We
have another <span class="QUOTE">".*"</span>, so we are matching
against any conceivable sub-path, just so it matches our expression.
The only true literal that <span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">must
match</span> our pattern is <span class="APPLICATION">adv</span>,
together with the forward slashes. What comes after the <span class=
"QUOTE">"adv"</span> string is the interesting part.</p>
<p>Remember the <span class="QUOTE">"?"</span> means the preceding
expression (either a literal character or anything grouped with
<span class="QUOTE">"(...)"</span> in this case) can exist or not,
since this means either zero or one match. So <span class=
"QUOTE">"((er)?ts?|ertis(ing|ements?))"</span> is optional, as are the
individual sub-expressions: <span class="QUOTE">"(er)"</span>,
<span class="QUOTE">"(ing|ements?)"</span>, and the <span class=
"QUOTE">"s"</span>. The <span class="QUOTE">"|"</span> means
<span class="QUOTE">"or"</span>. We have two of those. For instance,
<span class="QUOTE">"(ing|ements?)"</span>, can expand to match either
<span class="QUOTE">"ing"</span> <span class=
"emphasis EMPHASIS c2">OR</span> <span class="QUOTE">"ements?"</span>.
What is being done here, is an attempt at matching as many variations
of <span class="QUOTE">"advertisement"</span>, and similar, as
possible. So this would expand to match just <span class=
"QUOTE">"adv"</span>, or <span class="QUOTE">"advert"</span>, or
<span class="QUOTE">"adverts"</span>, or <span class=
"QUOTE">"advertising"</span>, or <span class=
"QUOTE">"advertisement"</span>, or <span class=
"QUOTE">"advertisements"</span>. You get the idea. But it would not
match <span class="QUOTE">"advertizements"</span> (with a <span class=
"QUOTE">"z"</span>). We could fix that by changing our regular
expression to: <span class=
"QUOTE">"/.*/adv((er)?ts?|erti(s|z)(ing|ements?))?/"</span>, which
would then match either spelling.</p>
<p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2"><tt class=
"LITERAL">/.*/advert[0-9]+\.(gif|jpe?g)</tt></span> - Again another
path statement with forward slashes. Anything in the square brackets
<span class="QUOTE">"[ ]"</span> can be matched. This is using
<span class="QUOTE">"0-9"</span> as a shorthand expression to mean any
digit one through nine. It is the same as saying <span class=
"QUOTE">"0123456789"</span>. So any digit matches. The <span class=
"QUOTE">"+"</span> means one or more of the preceding expression must
be included. The preceding expression here is what is in the square
brackets -- in this case, any digit one through nine. Then, at the end,
we have a grouping: <span class="QUOTE">"(gif|jpe?g)"</span>. This
includes a <span class="QUOTE">"|"</span>, so this needs to match the
expression on either side of that bar character also. A simple
<span class="QUOTE">"gif"</span> on one side, and the other side will
in turn match either <span class="QUOTE">"jpeg"</span> or <span class=
"QUOTE">"jpg"</span>, since the <span class="QUOTE">"?"</span> means
the letter <span class="QUOTE">"e"</span> is optional and can be
matched once or not at all. So we are building an expression here to
match image GIF or JPEG type image file. It must include the literal
string <span class="QUOTE">"advert"</span>, then one or more digits,
and a <span class="QUOTE">"."</span> (which is now a literal, and not a
special character, since it is escaped with <span class=
"QUOTE">"\"</span>), and lastly either <span class=
"QUOTE">"gif"</span>, or <span class="QUOTE">"jpeg"</span>, or
<span class="QUOTE">"jpg"</span>. Some possible matches would include:
<span class="QUOTE">"//advert1.jpg"</span>, <span class=
"QUOTE">"/nasty/ads/advert1234.gif"</span>, <span class=
"QUOTE">"/banners/from/hell/advert99.jpg"</span>. It would not match
<span class="QUOTE">"advert1.gif"</span> (no leading slash), or
<span class="QUOTE">"/adverts232.jpg"</span> (the expression does not
include an <span class="QUOTE">"s"</span>), or <span class=
"QUOTE">"/advert1.jsp"</span> (<span class="QUOTE">"jsp"</span> is not
in the expression anywhere).</p>
<p>We are barely scratching the surface of regular expressions here so
that you can understand the default <span class=
"APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> configuration files, and maybe use this
knowledge to customize your own installation. There is much, much more
that can be done with regular expressions. Now that you know enough to
get started, you can learn more on your own :/</p>
<p>More reading on Perl Compatible Regular expressions: <a href=
"http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html" target=
"_top">http://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html</a></p>
<p>For information on regular expression based substitutions and their
applications in filters, please see the <a href=
"filter-file.html">filter file tutorial</a> in this manual.</p>
</div>
<div class="SECT2">
<h2 class="SECT2"><a name="AEN5795" id="AEN5795">14.2. Privoxy's
Internal Pages</a></h2>
<p>Since <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> proxies each
requested web page, it is easy for <span class=
"APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> to trap certain special URLs. In this way,
we can talk directly to <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>, and
see how it is configured, see how our rules are being applied, change
these rules and other configuration options, and even turn <span class=
"APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> filtering off, all with a web
browser.</p>
<p>The URLs listed below are the special ones that allow direct access
to <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>. Of course, <span class=
"APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> must be running to access these. If not,
you will get a friendly error message. Internet access is not necessary
either.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Privoxy main page:</p><a name="AEN5809" id="AEN5809"></a>
<blockquote class="BLOCKQUOTE">
<p><a href="http://config.privoxy.org/" target=
"_top">http://config.privoxy.org/</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is a shortcut: <a href="http://p.p/" target=
"_top">http://p.p/</a> (But it doesn't provide a fall-back to a
real page, in case the request is not sent through <span class=
"APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Show information about the current configuration, including
viewing and editing of actions files:</p><a name="AEN5817" id=
"AEN5817"></a>
<blockquote class="BLOCKQUOTE">
<p><a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-status" target=
"_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-status</a></p>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p>Show the source code version numbers:</p><a name="AEN5822" id=
"AEN5822"></a>
<blockquote class="BLOCKQUOTE">
<p><a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-version" target=
"_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-version</a></p>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p>Show the browser's request headers:</p><a name="AEN5827" id=
"AEN5827"></a>
<blockquote class="BLOCKQUOTE">
<p><a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-request" target=
"_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-request</a></p>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p>Show which actions apply to a URL and why:</p><a name="AEN5832"
id="AEN5832"></a>
<blockquote class="BLOCKQUOTE">
<p><a href="http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info" target=
"_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</a></p>
</blockquote>
</li>
<li>
<p>Toggle Privoxy on or off. This feature can be turned off/on in
the main <tt class="FILENAME">config</tt> file. When toggled
<span class="QUOTE">"off"</span>, <span class=
"QUOTE">"Privoxy"</span> continues to run, but only as a
pass-through proxy, with no actions taking place:</p><a name=
"AEN5840" id="AEN5840"></a>
<blockquote class="BLOCKQUOTE">
<p><a href="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle" target=
"_top">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Short cuts. Turn off, then on:</p><a name="AEN5844" id=
"AEN5844"></a>
<blockquote class="BLOCKQUOTE">
<p><a href="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable" target=
"_top">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=disable</a></p>
</blockquote><a name="AEN5847" id="AEN5847"></a>
<blockquote class="BLOCKQUOTE">
<p><a href="http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable" target=
"_top">http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?set=enable</a></p>
</blockquote>
</li>
</ul>
<p>These may be bookmarked for quick reference. See next.</p>
<div class="SECT3">
<h3 class="SECT3"><a name="BOOKMARKLETS" id="BOOKMARKLETS">14.2.1.
Bookmarklets</a></h3>
<p>Below are some <span class="QUOTE">"bookmarklets"</span> to allow
you to easily access a <span class="QUOTE">"mini"</span> version of
some of <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> special pages.
They are designed for MS Internet Explorer, but should work equally
well in Netscape, Mozilla, and other browsers which support
JavaScript. They are designed to run directly from your bookmarks -
not by clicking the links below (although that should work for
testing).</p>
<p>To save them, right-click the link and choose <span class=
"QUOTE">"Add to Favorites"</span> (IE) or <span class="QUOTE">"Add
Bookmark"</span> (Netscape). You will get a warning that the bookmark
<span class="QUOTE">"may not be safe"</span> - just click OK. Then
you can run the Bookmarklet directly from your favorites/bookmarks.
For even faster access, you can put them on the <span class=
"QUOTE">"Links"</span> bar (IE) or the <span class="QUOTE">"Personal
Toolbar"</span> (Netscape), and run them with a single click.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p><a href=
"javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&amp;set=enabled','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());"
target="_top">Privoxy - Enable</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href=
"javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&amp;set=disabled','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());"
target="_top">Privoxy - Disable</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href=
"javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y&amp;set=toggle','ijbstatus','width=250,height=100,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());"
target="_top">Privoxy - Toggle Privoxy</a> (Toggles between
enabled and disabled)</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href=
"javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/toggle?mini=y','ijbstatus','width=250,height=2,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no,status=no,menubar=no,copyhistory=no').focus());"
target="_top">Privoxy- View Status</a></p>
</li>
<li>
<p><a href=
"javascript:void(window.open('http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info?url='+escape(location.href),'Why').focus());"
target="_top">Privoxy - Why?</a></p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Credit: The site which gave us the general idea for these
bookmarklets is <a href="http://www.bookmarklets.com/" target=
"_top">www.bookmarklets.com</a>. They have more information about
bookmarklets.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="SECT2">
<h2 class="SECT2"><a name="CHAIN" id="CHAIN">14.3. Chain of
Events</a></h2>
<p>Let's take a quick look at how some of <span class=
"APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> core features are triggered, and the
ensuing sequence of events when a web page is requested by your
browser:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>First, your web browser requests a web page. The browser knows
to send the request to <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span>,
which will in turn, relay the request to the remote web server
after passing the following tests:</p>
</li>
<li>
<p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> traps any request for
its own internal CGI pages (e.g <a href="http://p.p/" target=
"_top">http://p.p/</a>) and sends the CGI page back to the
browser.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Next, <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> checks to see if
the URL matches any <a href="actions-file.html#BLOCK"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+block"</span></a> patterns. If so, the URL is then
blocked, and the remote web server will not be contacted. <a href=
"actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+handle-as-image"</span></a> and <a href=
"actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-EMPTY-DOCUMENT"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+handle-as-empty-document"</span></a> are then checked,
and if there is no match, an HTML <span class=
"QUOTE">"BLOCKED"</span> page is sent back to the browser.
Otherwise, if it does match, an image is returned for the former,
and an empty text document for the latter. The type of image would
depend on the setting of <a href=
"actions-file.html#SET-IMAGE-BLOCKER"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+set-image-blocker"</span></a> (blank, checkerboard
pattern, or an HTTP redirect to an image elsewhere).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Untrusted URLs are blocked. If URLs are being added to the
<tt class="FILENAME">trust</tt> file, then that is done.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>If the URL pattern matches the <a href=
"actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+fast-redirects"</span></a> action, it is then processed.
Unwanted parts of the requested URL are stripped.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Now the rest of the client browser's request headers are
processed. If any of these match any of the relevant actions (e.g.
<a href="actions-file.html#HIDE-USER-AGENT"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+hide-user-agent"</span></a>, etc.), headers are
suppressed or forged as determined by these actions and their
parameters.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Now the web server starts sending its response back (i.e.
typically a web page).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>First, the server headers are read and processed to determine,
among other things, the MIME type (document type) and encoding. The
headers are then filtered as determined by the <a href=
"actions-file.html#CRUNCH-INCOMING-COOKIES"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+crunch-incoming-cookies"</span></a>, <a href=
"actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+session-cookies-only"</span></a>, and <a href=
"actions-file.html#DOWNGRADE-HTTP-VERSION"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+downgrade-http-version"</span></a> actions.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>If any <a href="actions-file.html#FILTER"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+filter"</span></a> action or <a href=
"actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+deanimate-gifs"</span></a> action applies (and the
document type fits the action), the rest of the page is read into
memory (up to a configurable limit). Then the filter rules (from
<tt class="FILENAME">default.filter</tt> and any other filter
files) are processed against the buffered content. Filters are
applied in the order they are specified in one of the filter files.
Animated GIFs, if present, are reduced to either the first or last
frame, depending on the action setting.The entire page, which is
now filtered, is then sent by <span class=
"APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> back to your browser.</p>
<p>If neither a <a href="actions-file.html#FILTER"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+filter"</span></a> action or <a href=
"actions-file.html#DEANIMATE-GIFS"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+deanimate-gifs"</span></a> matches, then <span class=
"APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> passes the raw data through to the
client browser as it becomes available.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>As the browser receives the now (possibly filtered) page
content, it reads and then requests any URLs that may be embedded
within the page source, e.g. ad images, stylesheets, JavaScript,
other HTML documents (e.g. frames), sounds, etc. For each of these
objects, the browser issues a separate request (this is easily
viewable in <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> logs). And
each such request is in turn processed just as above. Note that a
complex web page will have many, many such embedded URLs. If these
secondary requests are to a different server, then quite possibly a
very differing set of actions is triggered.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>NOTE: This is somewhat of a simplistic overview of what happens with
each URL request. For the sake of brevity and simplicity, we have
focused on <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy's</span> core features
only.</p>
</div>
<div class="SECT2">
<h2 class="SECT2"><a name="ACTIONSANAT" id="ACTIONSANAT">14.4.
Troubleshooting: Anatomy of an Action</a></h2>
<p>The way <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> applies <a href=
"actions-file.html#ACTIONS">actions</a> and <a href=
"actions-file.html#FILTER">filters</a> to any given URL can be complex,
and not always so easy to understand what is happening. And sometimes
we need to be able to <span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">see</span>
just what <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is doing.
Especially, if something <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is
doing is causing us a problem inadvertently. It can be a little
daunting to look at the actions and filters files themselves, since
they tend to be filled with <a href="appendix.html#REGEX">regular
expressions</a> whose consequences are not always so obvious.</p>
<p>One quick test to see if <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is
causing a problem or not, is to disable it temporarily. This should be
the first troubleshooting step. See <a href=
"appendix.html#BOOKMARKLETS">the Bookmarklets</a> section on a quick
and easy way to do this (be sure to flush caches afterward!). Looking
at the logs is a good idea too. (Note that both the toggle feature and
logging are enabled via <tt class="FILENAME">config</tt> file settings,
and may need to be turned <span class="QUOTE">"on"</span>.)</p>
<p>Another easy troubleshooting step to try is if you have done any
customization of your installation, revert back to the installed
defaults and see if that helps. There are times the developers get
complaints about one thing or another, and the problem is more related
to a customized configuration issue.</p>
<p><span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> also provides the <a href=
"http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info" target=
"_top">http://config.privoxy.org/show-url-info</a> page that can show
us very specifically how <span class="APPLICATION">actions</span> are
being applied to any given URL. This is a big help for
troubleshooting.</p>
<p>First, enter one URL (or partial URL) at the prompt, and then
<span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> will tell us how the current
configuration will handle it. This will not help with filtering effects
(i.e. the <a href="actions-file.html#FILTER"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+filter"</span></a> action) from one of the filter files since
this is handled very differently and not so easy to trap! It also will
not tell you about any other URLs that may be embedded within the URL
you are testing. For instance, images such as ads are expressed as URLs
within the raw page source of HTML pages. So you will only get info for
the actual URL that is pasted into the prompt area -- not any sub-URLs.
If you want to know about embedded URLs like ads, you will have to dig
those out of the HTML source. Use your browser's <span class=
"QUOTE">"View Page Source"</span> option for this. Or right click on
the ad, and grab the URL.</p>
<p>Let's try an example, <a href="http://google.com" target=
"_top">google.com</a>, and look at it one section at a time in a sample
configuration (your real configuration may vary):</p>
<table class="c3" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>
<pre class="SCREEN">
Matches for http://www.google.com:
In file: default.action <span class="GUIBUTTON">[ View ]</span> <span class=
"GUIBUTTON">[ Edit ]</span>
{+change-x-forwarded-for{block}
+deanimate-gifs {last}
+fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
+filter {refresh-tags}
+filter {img-reorder}
+filter {banners-by-size}
+filter {webbugs}
+filter {jumping-windows}
+filter {ie-exploits}
+hide-from-header {block}
+hide-referrer {forge}
+session-cookies-only
+set-image-blocker {pattern}
/
{ -session-cookies-only }
.google.com
{ -fast-redirects }
.google.com
In file: user.action <span class="GUIBUTTON">[ View ]</span> <span class=
"GUIBUTTON">[ Edit ]</span>
(no matches in this file)
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>This is telling us how we have defined our <a href=
"actions-file.html#ACTIONS"><span class="QUOTE">"actions"</span></a>,
and which ones match for our test case, <span class=
"QUOTE">"google.com"</span>. Displayed is all the actions that are
available to us. Remember, the <tt class="LITERAL">+</tt> sign denotes
<span class="QUOTE">"on"</span>. <tt class="LITERAL">-</tt> denotes
<span class="QUOTE">"off"</span>. So some are <span class=
"QUOTE">"on"</span> here, but many are <span class=
"QUOTE">"off"</span>. Each example we try may provide a slightly
different end result, depending on our configuration directives.</p>
<p>The first listing is for our <tt class=
"FILENAME">default.action</tt> file. The large, multi-line listing, is
how the actions are set to match for all URLs, i.e. our default
settings. If you look at your <span class="QUOTE">"actions"</span>
file, this would be the section just below the <span class=
"QUOTE">"aliases"</span> section near the top. This will apply to all
URLs as signified by the single forward slash at the end of the listing
-- <span class="QUOTE">" / "</span>.</p>
<p>But we have defined additional actions that would be exceptions to
these general rules, and then we list specific URLs (or patterns) that
these exceptions would apply to. Last match wins. Just below this then
are two explicit matches for <span class="QUOTE">".google.com"</span>.
The first is negating our previous cookie setting, which was for
<a href="actions-file.html#SESSION-COOKIES-ONLY"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+session-cookies-only"</span></a> (i.e. not persistent). So we
will allow persistent cookies for google, at least that is how it is in
this example. The second turns <span class=
"emphasis EMPHASIS c2">off</span> any <a href=
"actions-file.html#FAST-REDIRECTS"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+fast-redirects"</span></a> action, allowing this to take
place unmolested. Note that there is a leading dot here -- <span class=
"QUOTE">".google.com"</span>. This will match any hosts and
sub-domains, in the google.com domain also, such as <span class=
"QUOTE">"www.google.com"</span> or <span class=
"QUOTE">"mail.google.com"</span>. But it would not match <span class=
"QUOTE">"www.google.de"</span>! So, apparently, we have these two
actions defined as exceptions to the general rules at the top somewhere
in the lower part of our <tt class="FILENAME">default.action</tt> file,
and <span class="QUOTE">"google.com"</span> is referenced somewhere in
these latter sections.</p>
<p>Then, for our <tt class="FILENAME">user.action</tt> file, we again
have no hits. So there is nothing google-specific that we might have
added to our own, local configuration. If there was, those actions
would over-rule any actions from previously processed files, such as
<tt class="FILENAME">default.action</tt>. <tt class=
"FILENAME">user.action</tt> typically has the last word. This is the
best place to put hard and fast exceptions,</p>
<p>And finally we pull it all together in the bottom section and
summarize how <span class="APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is applying all
its <span class="QUOTE">"actions"</span> to <span class=
"QUOTE">"google.com"</span>:</p>
<table class="c3" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>
<pre class="SCREEN">
&#13; Final results:
-add-header
-block
+change-x-forwarded-for{block}
-client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
-content-type-overwrite
-crunch-client-header
-crunch-if-none-match
-crunch-incoming-cookies
-crunch-outgoing-cookies
-crunch-server-header
+deanimate-gifs {last}
-downgrade-http-version
-fast-redirects
-filter {js-events}
-filter {content-cookies}
-filter {all-popups}
-filter {banners-by-link}
-filter {tiny-textforms}
-filter {frameset-borders}
-filter {demoronizer}
-filter {shockwave-flash}
-filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
-filter {fun}
-filter {crude-parental}
-filter {site-specifics}
-filter {js-annoyances}
-filter {html-annoyances}
+filter {refresh-tags}
-filter {unsolicited-popups}
+filter {img-reorder}
+filter {banners-by-size}
+filter {webbugs}
+filter {jumping-windows}
+filter {ie-exploits}
-filter {google}
-filter {yahoo}
-filter {msn}
-filter {blogspot}
-filter {no-ping}
-force-text-mode
-handle-as-empty-document
-handle-as-image
-hide-accept-language
-hide-content-disposition
+hide-from-header {block}
-hide-if-modified-since
+hide-referrer {forge}
-hide-user-agent
-limit-connect
-overwrite-last-modified
-prevent-compression
-redirect
-server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
-server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
-session-cookies-only
+set-image-blocker {pattern}
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Notice the only difference here to the previous listing, is to
<span class="QUOTE">"fast-redirects"</span> and <span class=
"QUOTE">"session-cookies-only"</span>, which are activated specifically
for this site in our configuration, and thus show in the <span class=
"QUOTE">"Final Results"</span>.</p>
<p>Now another example, <span class=
"QUOTE">"ad.doubleclick.net"</span>:</p>
<table class="c3" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>
<pre class="SCREEN">
&#13; { +block{Domains starts with "ad"} }
ad*.
{ +block{Domain contains "ad"} }
.ad.
{ +block{Doubleclick banner server} +handle-as-image }
.[a-vx-z]*.doubleclick.net
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>We'll just show the interesting part here - the explicit matches. It
is matched three different times. Two <span class=
"QUOTE">"+block{}"</span> sections, and a <span class="QUOTE">"+block{}
+handle-as-image"</span>, which is the expanded form of one of our
aliases that had been defined as: <span class=
"QUOTE">"+block-as-image"</span>. (<a href=
"actions-file.html#ALIASES"><span class="QUOTE">"Aliases"</span></a>
are defined in the first section of the actions file and typically used
to combine more than one action.)</p>
<p>Any one of these would have done the trick and blocked this as an
unwanted image. This is unnecessarily redundant since the last case
effectively would also cover the first. No point in taking chances with
these guys though ;-) Note that if you want an ad or obnoxious URL to
be invisible, it should be defined as <span class=
"QUOTE">"ad.doubleclick.net"</span> is done here -- as both a <a href=
"actions-file.html#BLOCK"><span class="QUOTE">"+block{}"</span></a>
<span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">and</span> an <a href=
"actions-file.html#HANDLE-AS-IMAGE"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+handle-as-image"</span></a>. The custom alias <span class=
"QUOTE">"<tt class="LITERAL">+block-as-image</tt>"</span> just
simplifies the process and make it more readable.</p>
<p>One last example. Let's try <span class=
"QUOTE">"http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/"</span>. This one is giving
us problems. We are getting a blank page. Hmmm ...</p>
<table class="c3" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>
<pre class="SCREEN">
&#13; Matches for http://www.example.net/adsl/HOWTO/:
In file: default.action <span class="GUIBUTTON">[ View ]</span> <span class=
"GUIBUTTON">[ Edit ]</span>
{-add-header
-block
+change-x-forwarded-for{block}
-client-header-filter{hide-tor-exit-notation}
-content-type-overwrite
-crunch-client-header
-crunch-if-none-match
-crunch-incoming-cookies
-crunch-outgoing-cookies
-crunch-server-header
+deanimate-gifs
-downgrade-http-version
+fast-redirects {check-decoded-url}
-filter {js-events}
-filter {content-cookies}
-filter {all-popups}
-filter {banners-by-link}
-filter {tiny-textforms}
-filter {frameset-borders}
-filter {demoronizer}
-filter {shockwave-flash}
-filter {quicktime-kioskmode}
-filter {fun}
-filter {crude-parental}
-filter {site-specifics}
-filter {js-annoyances}
-filter {html-annoyances}
+filter {refresh-tags}
-filter {unsolicited-popups}
+filter {img-reorder}
+filter {banners-by-size}
+filter {webbugs}
+filter {jumping-windows}
+filter {ie-exploits}
-filter {google}
-filter {yahoo}
-filter {msn}
-filter {blogspot}
-filter {no-ping}
-force-text-mode
-handle-as-empty-document
-handle-as-image
-hide-accept-language
-hide-content-disposition
+hide-from-header{block}
+hide-referer{forge}
-hide-user-agent
-overwrite-last-modified
+prevent-compression
-redirect
-server-header-filter{xml-to-html}
-server-header-filter{html-to-xml}
+session-cookies-only
+set-image-blocker{blank} }
/
{ +block{Path contains "ads".} +handle-as-image }
/ads
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Ooops, the <span class="QUOTE">"/adsl/"</span> is matching
<span class="QUOTE">"/ads"</span> in our configuration! But we did not
want this at all! Now we see why we get the blank page. It is actually
triggering two different actions here, and the effects are aggregated
so that the URL is blocked, and <span class=
"APPLICATION">Privoxy</span> is told to treat the block as if it were
an image. But this is, of course, all wrong. We could now add a new
action below this (or better in our own <tt class=
"FILENAME">user.action</tt> file) that explicitly <span class=
"emphasis EMPHASIS c2">un</span> blocks ( <a href=
"actions-file.html#BLOCK"><span class="QUOTE">"{-block}"</span></a>)
paths with <span class="QUOTE">"adsl"</span> in them (remember, last
match in the configuration wins). There are various ways to handle such
exceptions. Example:</p>
<table class="c3" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>
<pre class="SCREEN">
&#13; { -block }
/adsl
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>Now the page displays ;-) Remember to flush your browser's caches
when making these kinds of changes to your configuration to insure that
you get a freshly delivered page! Or, try using <tt class=
"LITERAL">Shift+Reload</tt>.</p>
<p>But now what about a situation where we get no explicit matches like
we did with:</p>
<table class="c3" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>
<pre class="SCREEN">
&#13; { +block{Path starts with "ads".} +handle-as-image }
/ads
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>That actually was very helpful and pointed us quickly to where the
problem was. If you don't get this kind of match, then it means one of
the default rules in the first section of <tt class=
"FILENAME">default.action</tt> is causing the problem. This would
require some guesswork, and maybe a little trial and error to isolate
the offending rule. One likely cause would be one of the <a href=
"actions-file.html#FILTER"><span class="QUOTE">"+filter"</span></a>
actions. These tend to be harder to troubleshoot. Try adding the URL
for the site to one of aliases that turn off <a href=
"actions-file.html#FILTER"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+filter"</span></a>:</p>
<table class="c3" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>
<pre class="SCREEN">
&#13; { shop }
.quietpc.com
.worldpay.com # for quietpc.com
.jungle.com
.scan.co.uk
.forbes.com
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p><span class="QUOTE">"<tt class="LITERAL">{ shop }</tt>"</span> is an
<span class="QUOTE">"alias"</span> that expands to <span class=
"QUOTE">"<tt class="LITERAL">{ -filter -session-cookies-only
}</tt>"</span>. Or you could do your own exception to negate
filtering:</p>
<table class="c3" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>
<pre class="SCREEN">
&#13; { -filter }
# Disable ALL filter actions for sites in this section
.forbes.com
developer.ibm.com
localhost
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>This would turn off all filtering for these sites. This is best put
in <tt class="FILENAME">user.action</tt>, for local site exceptions.
Note that when a simple domain pattern is used by itself (without the
subsequent path portion), all sub-pages within that domain are included
automatically in the scope of the action.</p>
<p>Images that are inexplicably being blocked, may well be hitting the
<a href="actions-file.html#FILTER-BANNERS-BY-SIZE"><span class=
"QUOTE">"+filter{banners-by-size}"</span></a> rule, which assumes that
images of certain sizes are ad banners (works well <span class=
"emphasis EMPHASIS c2">most of the time</span> since these tend to be
standardized).</p>
<p><span class="QUOTE">"<tt class="LITERAL">{ fragile }</tt>"</span> is
an alias that disables most actions that are the most likely to cause
trouble. This can be used as a last resort for problem sites.</p>
<table class="c3" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>
<pre class="SCREEN">
&#13; { fragile }
# Handle with care: easy to break
mail.google.
mybank.example.com
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p><span class="emphasis EMPHASIS c2">Remember to flush caches!</span>
Note that the <tt class="LITERAL">mail.google</tt> reference lacks the
TLD portion (e.g. <span class="QUOTE">".com"</span>). This will
effectively match any TLD with <tt class="LITERAL">google</tt> in it,
such as <tt class="LITERAL">mail.google.de.</tt>, just as an
example.</p>
<p>If this still does not work, you will have to go through the
remaining actions one by one to find which one(s) is causing the
problem.</p>
</div>
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