PRIVOXY(8)

📦
version 4.2.0 · 10 versions
, in arch rolling, nixpkgs unstable

🦋 PRIVOXY(8) — like, the manual page, bestie

okay so this is the man page for privoxy, and yes it lives in section 8 of the manual (the "system admin" section, very demure, very powerful 👑). Settle in, we're going through everything.

✨ NAME ✨

privoxy — Privacy Enhancing Proxy. that's it, that's the whole name, and honestly? iconic. 🎀

💅 SYNOPSIS 💅

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

like, that's the whole vibe check. you give it a config file (or not), you give it some flags (or not), and it does its thing. 🫶

🔥 OPTIONS 🔥

Privoxy may be invoked with the following command line options — all of them, we're not skipping a single one, no cap:

  • --chroot — before it switches to the user ID from --user, it chroots into that user's home directory. translation: it makes the kernel pretend to the Privoxy process that the directory tree starts right there 🌈. if you set this up carefully, it can limit the impact of possible vulnerabilities in Privoxy down to just the files inside that hierarchy. cute AND safe.
  • --config-test — loads the config files and then dips out before binding to the listen address. the exit code is the whole tell:
    • exit code 1 → at least one of the configuration files is invalid 💀
    • exit code 0 → all the configuration files loaded successfully (but they may still contain errors that can currently only be detected at run time 🙈)

this option doesn't affect the log setting, so combining it with --no-daemon is recommended if a configured log file shouldn't be used.

  • --help — prints brief usage info and exits. the "what do I even do here" button bestie 🫶
  • --no-daemon — don't become a daemon. like, don't fork and become process group leader, don't detach from the controlling tty, and do all logging right there in the tty. main character energy, staying in the room ✨
  • --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 (it's fine, it's chill, nobody's mad). if no --pidfile option is given, no PID file will be used.
  • --pre-chroot-nslookup hostname — initializes 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. little optimization slay 🌸
  • --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 wasn't given, the default group of user. exits if the privileges aren't sufficient to do so. no privileges, no entry 💅
  • --version — prints version info and exits. yes it's just for the flex 👑

and okay, important note: 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. that's it, that's the rule, periodt.

🧚 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. the way it just does all that?? obsessed 😭

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, so whether it's just you and your laptop or a whole network of people, it's got you 🫶

Privoxy is Free Software and licensed under the GNU GPLv2 or later. ✨

Privoxy is an associated project of Software in the Public Interest (SPI).

Helping hands and donations are welcome, fr fr:

🌈 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 — it's simply not that girl, don't put her in that situation 🙈. 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 (bless 🙏), so you can actually read them. 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? the user has greatly enhanced control and freedom ✨ periodt.

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. and the bestie detail: 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. iykyk.

🎀 FILES 🎀

here's the whole lineup, no gatekeeping:

/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 (she's proactive like that 💅).

Signals other than the ones listed above aren't explicitly handled and result in the default action defined by the operating system. so, like, whatever the OS decides. not our department 🙈

⭐ NOTES ⭐

Please see the User Manual on how to contact the developers, for feature requests, reporting problems, and other questions. they do want to hear from you 🫶

🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

Other references and sites of interest to Privoxy users:

👑 DEVELOPMENT TEAM 👑

  • Fabian Keil, lead developer
  • David Schmidt
  • Lee Rian
  • Roland Rosenfeld
  • Ian Silvester

legends, all of them 💜

Copyright (C) 2001-2026 by Privoxy Developers <privoxy-devel@lists.privoxy.org>

Some source code is based on code Copyright (C) 1997 by Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters, Inc.

LICENSE

Privoxy is free software; you can redistribute and/or modify its source code under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the license, or (at your option) any later version.

The same is true for Privoxy binaries unless they are linked with a mbed TLS or OpenSSL version that is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license or against a wolfSSL version that is licensed under the GPL 3 — in which case you can redistribute and/or modify the Privoxy binaries under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the license, or (at your option) any later version.

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. (read it, bestie, it's literally the whole point 🙈)

alright, that's the whole page 🎀 this was Privoxy 4.2.0, dated 02 June 2026, and it's the PRIVOXY(8) man page — go forth, proxy responsibly, and remember: no FTP, ever. 💅✨

📦 where this page comes from