NAME¶
privoxy - Privacy Enhancing Proxy
SYNOPSIS¶
privoxy [
--chroot ] [
--config-test ] [
--help ]
[
--no-daemon ] [
--pidfile pidfile ]
[
--pre-chroot-nslookup hostname ] [
--user
user[.group] ] [
--version ]
[
configfile ]
OPTIONS¶
Privoxy may be invoked with the following command line options:
- --chroot
- Before changing to the user ID given in the --user option, chroot to that
user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pretend to the Privoxy
process that the directory tree starts there. If set up carefully, this
can limit the impact of possible vulnerabilities in Privoxy to the
files contained in that hierarchy.
- --config-test
- Exit after loading the configuration files before binding to the listen
address. The exit code signals whether or not the configuration files have
been successfully loaded.
If the exit code is 1, at least one of the configuration files is invalid,
if it is 0, all the configuration files have been successfully loaded (but
may still contain errors that can currently only be detected at run time).
This option doesn't affect the log setting, combination with
"--no-daemon" is recommended if a configured log file shouldn't
be used.
- --help
- Print brief usage info and exit.
- --no-daemon
- Don't become a daemon, i.e. don't fork and become process group leader,
don't detach from controlling tty, and do all logging there.
- --pidfile pidfile
- On startup, write the process ID to pidfile. Delete the
pidfile on exit. Failure to create or delete the pidfile is
non-fatal. If no --pidfile option is given, no PID file will be
used.
- --pre-chroot-nslookup hostname
- Initialize the resolver library using hostname before chroot'ing.
On some systems this reduces the number of files that must be copied into
the chroot tree.
- --user user[.group]
- After (optionally) writing the PID file, assume the user ID of user
and the GID of group, or, if the optional group was not
given, the default group of user. Exit if the privileges are not
sufficient to do so.
- --version
- Print version info and exit.
If the
configfile is not specified on the command line,
Privoxy
will look for a file named
config in the current directory. If no
configfile is found,
Privoxy will fail to start.
DESCRIPTION¶
Privoxy is a non-caching web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for
enhancing privacy, modifying web page data and HTTP headers, controlling
access, and removing ads and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a
flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and
tastes. It has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user
networks.
Privoxy is Free Software and licensed under the GNU GPLv2.
Privoxy is an associated project of Software in the Public Interest (SPI).
Helping hands and donations are welcome:
- •
- http://www.privoxy.org/faq/general.html#PARTICIPATE
- •
- http://www.privoxy.org/faq/general.html#DONATE
INSTALLATION AND USAGE¶
Browsers can either be individually configured to use
Privoxy as a HTTP
proxy (recommended), or
Privoxy can be combined with a packet filter to
build an intercepting proxy (see
config). The default setting is for
localhost, on port 8118 (configurable in the main config file). To set the
HTTP proxy in Firefox, go through:
Tools;
Options;
General;
Connection Settings;
Manual Proxy Configuration.
For Internet Explorer, go through:
Tools;
Internet Properties;
Connections;
LAN Settings.
The Secure (SSL) Proxy should also be set to the same values, otherwise https:
URLs will not be proxied. Note:
Privoxy can only proxy HTTP and HTTPS
traffic. Do not try it with FTP or other protocols. HTTPS presents some
limitations, and not all features will work with HTTPS connections.
For other browsers, check the documentation.
CONFIGURATION¶
Privoxy can be configured with the various configuration files. The
default configuration files are:
config,
default.filter,
default.action and
default.action.
user.action should be
used for locally defined exceptions to the default rules in
match-all.action and
default.action, and
user.filter for
locally defined filters. These are well commented. On Unix and Unix-like
systems, these are located in
/etc/privoxy/ by default.
Privoxy uses the concept of
actions in order to manipulate the
data stream between the browser and remote sites. There are various actions
available with specific functions for such things as blocking web sites,
managing cookies, etc. These actions can be invoked individually or combined,
and used against individual URLs, or groups of URLs that can be defined using
wildcards and regular expressions. The result is that the user has greatly
enhanced control and freedom.
The actions list (ad blocks, etc) can also be configured with your web browser
at
http://config.privoxy.org/ (assuming the configuration allows it).
Privoxy's configuration parameters can also be viewed at the same page.
In addition,
Privoxy can be toggled on/off. This is an internal page,
and does not require Internet access.
See the
User Manual for a detailed explanation of installation, general
usage, all configuration options, new features and notes on upgrading.
FILES¶
/usr/sbin/privoxy
/etc/privoxy/config
/etc/privoxy/match-all.action
/etc/privoxy/default.action
/etc/privoxy/user.action
/etc/privoxy/default.filter
/etc/privoxy/user.filter
/etc/privoxy/trust
/etc/privoxy/templates/*
/var/log/privoxy/logfile
Various other files should be included, but may vary depending on platform and
build configuration. Additional documentation should be included in the local
documentation directory.
SIGNALS¶
Privoxy terminates on the
SIGINT and
SIGTERM signals. Log
rotation scripts may cause a re-opening of the logfile by sending a
SIGHUP to
Privoxy. Note that unlike other daemons,
Privoxy does not need to be made aware of config file changes by
SIGHUP -- it will detect them automatically. Signals other than the
ones listed above aren't explicitly handled and result in the default action
defined by the operating system.
NOTES¶
Please see the
User Manual on how to contact the developers, for feature
requests, reporting problems, and other questions.
SEE ALSO¶
Other references and sites of interest to
Privoxy users:
http://www.privoxy.org/, the
Privoxy Home page.
http://www.privoxy.org/faq/, the
Privoxy FAQ.
http://www.privoxy.org/developer-manual/, the
Privoxy developer manual.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ijbswa/, the Project Page for
Privoxy on
SourceForge.
http://config.privoxy.org/, the web-based user interface.
Privoxy must be
running for this to work. Shortcut:
http://p.p/
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=460288, to submit
``misses'' and other configuration related suggestions to the developers.
DEVELOPMENT TEAM¶
Fabian Keil, lead developer
David Schmidt
Hal Burgiss
Lee Rian
Roland Rosenfeld
Ian Silvester
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE¶
COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright (C) 2001-2013 by Privoxy Developers
<ijbswa-developers@lists.sourceforge.net>
Some source code is based on code Copyright (C) 1997 by Anonymous Coders and
Junkbusters, Inc. and licensed under the
GNU General Public
License.
LICENSE¶
Privoxy is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the
GNU General Public License, version 2, as published by
the Free Software Foundation.
Privoxy is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
license for details.