Privoxy Man page

## NAME

## SYNOPSIS

           privoxy   [--help   ]  [--version   ]  [--no-daemon  ] [--pidfile pidfile ]
           [--user user[.group] ] [--chroot    ]  [--pre-chroot-nslookup  hostname  ]
           [configfile ]

## OPTIONS

           Privoxy may be invoked with the following command line options:

           --help Print brief usage  info and exit.

           --version
              Print version info and exit.

           --no-daemon
              Don't   become   a  daemon,  i.e.  don't fork and become process
              group leader, don't detach from controlling tty, and do all log-
              ging there.

           --pidfile pidfile
              On startup, write the process ID to pidfile.  Delete the pidfile
              on exit.  Failure to create or delete the pidfile  is  non-fatal.
              If no --pidfile option is  given, no PID file will be used.

           --user user[.group]
              After  (optionally)  writing the PID file, assume the user ID of
              user and the GID of group, or, if   the  optional  group  was  not
              given, the default group of user.  Exit if the privileges are not
              sufficient to do so.

           --chroot
              Before changing to the user  ID  given  in  the  --user  option,
              chroot  to that user's home directory, i.e. make the kernel pre-
              tend to the Privoxy  process  that  the  directory  tree   starts
              there.  If set up carefully, this can limit the impact of possi-
              ble vulnerabilities in Privoxy to  the files  contained  in  that
              hierarchy.

           --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.

           If  the  configfile  is   not  specified on  the  command  line, Privoxy
           will  look for a file named config in the current directory. If no con-
           figfile 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,  con-
           trolling  access,  and  removing ads and other obnoxious Internet junk.
           Privoxy has a flexible configuration and  can  be  customized  to  suit

## 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;  Connec-
           tions; LAN Settings.

           The Secure (SSL) Proxy should also be set to the same values, otherwise
           https: URLs will not be proxied. Note: Privoxy can only proxy HTTP  and
           HTTPS  traffic.  Do  not  try  it  with  FTP or other protocols.  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
           detect them automatically.

## NOTES

           This  is  a  UNRELEASED  version  of Privoxy. Not all features are well
           tested.

           Please see the User Manual on how to contact the   developers,  for  fea-
           ture 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 develop-
           ers.

## DEVELOPMENT TEAM

        Fabian Keil, lead developer
        David Schmidt, developer

        Hal Burgiss
        Lee Rian
        Roland Rosenfeld

## COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       COPYRIGHT
           Copyright  (C)  2001-2011  by   Privoxy   Developers   <ijbswa-develop-
           ers@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  pub-
           lished by the Free Software Foundation.