# WWWOFFLE - Configuration File - Version 2.9

## Introduction

The configuration file (wwwoffle.conf) specifies all of the parameters that control the operation of the proxy server. The file is split into sections each containing a series of parameters as described below. The file CHANGES.CONF explains the changes in the configuration file between this version of the program and previous ones.

The file is split into sections, each of which can be empty or contain one or more lines of configuration information. The sections are named and the order that they appear in the file is not important.

The general format of each of the sections is the same. The name of the section is on a line by itself to mark the start. The contents of the section are enclosed between a pair of lines containing only the '{' and '}' characters or the '[' and ']' characters. When the '{' and '}' characters are used the lines between contain configuration information. When the '[' and ']' characters are used then there must only be a single non-empty line between them that contains the name of a file (in the same directory) containing the configuration information for the section.

Comments are marked by a '#' character at the start of the line and they are ignored. Blank lines are also allowed and ignored.

The phrases URL-SPECIFICATION (or URL-SPEC for short) and WILDCARD have specific meanings in the configuration file and are described at the end. Any item enclosed in '(' and ')' in the descriptions means that it is a parameter supplied by the user, anything enclosed in '[' and ']' is optional, the '|' symbol is used to denote alternate choices. Some options apply to specific URLs only, this is indicated by having a URL-SPECIFICATION enclosed between '<' & '>' in the option, the first URL-SPECIFICATION to match is used. If no URL-SPECIFICATION is given then it matches all URLs.

## StartUp

This contains the parameters that are used when the program starts, changes to these are ignored if the configuration file is re-read while the program is running.

### bind-ipv4 = (hostname) | (ip-address) | none

Specify the hostname or IP address to bind the HTTP proxy and WWWOFFLE control port sockets to using IPv4 (default='0.0.0.0'). If 'none' is specified then no IPv4 socket is bound. If this is changed from the default value then the first entry in the LocalHost section may need to be changed to match.

### bind-ipv6 = (hostname) | (ip-address) | none

Specify the hostname or IP address to bind the HTTP proxy and WWWOFFLE control port sockets to using IPv6 (default='::'). If 'none' is specified then no IPv6 socket is bound. This requires the IPv6 compilation option. If this is changed from the default value then the first entry in the LocalHost section may need to be changed to match.

### http-port = (port)

An integer specifying the port number for connections to access the internal WWWOFFLE pages and for HTTP/HTTPS/FTP proxying (default=8080). This is the port number that must be specified in the client to connect to the WWWOFFLE proxy for HTTP/HTTPS/FTP proxying.

### https-port = (port)

An integer specifying the port number for encrypted connections to access the internal WWWOFFLE pages and for HTTP/FTP proxying (default=8443). Requires gnutls compilation option.

### wwwoffle-port = (port)

An integer specifying the port number for the WWWOFFLE control connections to use (default=8081).

### spool-dir = (dir)

The full pathname of the top level cache directory (spool directory) (default=/var/spool/wwwoffle or whatever was used when the program was compiled).

### run-uid = (user) | (uid)

The username or numeric uid to change to when the WWWOFFLE server is started (default=none). This option only works if the server is started by the root user on UNIX-like systems.

### run-gid = (group) | (gid)

The group name or numeric gid to change to when the WWWOFFLE server is started (default=none). This option only works if the server is started by the root user on UNIX-like systems.

### use-syslog = yes | no

Whether to use the syslog facility for messages or not (default=yes).

### password = (word)

The password used for authentication of the control pages, for deleting cached pages etc (default=none). For the password to be secure the configuration file must be set so that only authorised users can read it.

### max-servers = (integer)

The maximum number of server processes that are started for online and automatic fetching (default=8).

### max-fetch-servers = (integer)

The maximum number of server processes that are started to fetch pages that were marked in offline mode (default=4). This value must be less than max-servers or you will not be able to use WWWOFFLE interactively online while fetching.

## Options

Options that control how the program works.

### log-level = debug | info | important | warning | fatal

The minimum log level for messages in syslog or stderr (default=important).

### socket-timeout = (time)

The time in seconds that WWWOFFLE will wait for data on a socket connection before giving up (default=120).

### dns-timeout = (time)

The time in seconds that WWWOFFLE will wait for a DNS (Domain Name Service) lookup before giving up (default=60).

### connect-timeout = (time)

The time in seconds that WWWOFFLE will wait for the socket connection to be made before giving up (default=30).

### connect-retry = yes | no

If a connection cannot be made to a remote server then WWWOFFLE should try again after a short delay (default=no).

### dir-perm = (octal int)

The directory permissions to use when creating spool directories (default=0755). This option overrides the umask of the user and must be in octal starting with a '0'.

### file-perm = (octal int)

The file permissions to use when creating spool files (default=0644). This option overrides the umask of the user and must be in octal starting with a '0'.

### run-online = (filename)

The full pathname of a program to run when WWWOFFLE is switched to online mode (default=none). The program is started in the background with a single parameter set to the current mode name "online".

### run-offline = (filename)

The full pathname of a program to run when WWWOFFLE is switched to offline mode (default=none). The program is started in the background with a single parameter set to the current mode name "offline".

### run-autodial = (filename)

The full pathname of a program to run when WWWOFFLE is switched to autodial (default=none). The program is started in the background with a single parameter set to the current mode name "fetch".

### run-fetch = (filename)

The full pathname of a program to run when a WWWOFFLE fetch starts or stops (default=none). The program is started in the background with two parameters, the first is the word "fetch" and the second is "start" or "stop".

### lock-files = yes | no

Enable the use of lock files to stop more than one WWWOFFLE process from downloading the same URL at the same time (default=no). Disabling the lock-files may result in incomplete pages being displayed or many copies being downloaded if multiple requests are made for the same URL at the same time.

### reply-compressed-data = yes | no

If the replies that are made to the client are to contain compressed data when requested (default=no). Requires zlib compilation option.

### reply-chunked-data = yes | no

If the replies that are made to the client are to use chunked encoding when possible (default=yes).

### exec-cgi = (pathname)

Enable the use of CGI scripts for the local pages on the WWWOFFLE server that match the wildcard pathname (default=none).

## OnlineOptions

Options that control how WWWOFFLE behaves when it is online.

### [<URL-SPEC>] pragma-no-cache = yes | no

Whether to request a new copy of a page if the request from the client has 'Pragma: no-cache' (default=yes). This option takes precedence over the request-changed and request-changed-once options.

### [<URL-SPEC>] cache-control-no-cache = yes | no

Whether to request a new copy of a page if the request from the client has 'Cache-Control: no-cache' (default=yes). This option takes precedence over the request-changed and request-changed-once options.

### [<URL-SPEC>] cache-control-max-age-0 = yes | no

Whether to request a new copy of a page if the request from the client has 'Cache-Control: max-age=0' (default=yes). This option takes precedence over the request-changed and request-changed-once options.

### [<URL-SPEC>] cookies-force-refresh = yes | no

Whether to force the refresh of a page if the request from the client contains a cookie (default=no). This option takes precedence over the request-changed and request-changed-once options.

### [<URL-SPEC>] request-changed = (time)

While online pages will only be fetched if the cached version is older than this specified time in seconds (default=600). Setting this value negative will indicate that cached pages are always used while online. Longer times can be specified with a 'm', 'h', 'd' or 'w' suffix for minutes, hours, days or weeks (e.g. 10m=600).

### [<URL-SPEC>] request-changed-once = yes | no

While online pages will only be fetched if the cached version has not already been fetched once this session online (default=yes). This option takes precedence over the request-changed option.

### [<URL-SPEC>] request-expired = yes | no

While online pages that have expired will always be requested again (default=no). This option takes precedence over the request-changed and request-changed-once options.

### [<URL-SPEC>] request-no-cache = yes | no

While online pages that ask not to be cached will always be requested again (default=no). This option takes precedence over the request-changed and request-changed-once options.

### [<URL-SPEC>] request-redirection = yes | no

While online pages that redirect the client to another URL temporarily will be requested again. (default=no). This option takes precedence over the request-changed and request-changed-once options.

### [<URL-SPEC>] request-conditional = yes | no

While online pages that are requested from the server will be conditional requests so that server only sends data if the page has changed (default=yes).

### [<URL-SPEC>] validate-with-etag = yes | no

When making a conditional request to a server enable the use of the HTTP/1.1 cache validator 'Etag' as well as modification time (default=yes).

### [<URL-SPEC>] try-without-password = yes | no

If a request is made for a URL that contains a username and password then a request is made for the same URL without a username and password specified (default=yes). This allows for requests for the URL without a password to re-direct the client to the passworded version.

### [<URL-SPEC>] intr-download-keep = yes | no

If the client closes the connection while online the currently downloaded incomplete page should be kept (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] intr-download-size = (integer)

If the client closes the connection while online the page should continue to download if it is smaller than this size in kB (default=1).

### [<URL-SPEC>] intr-download-percent = (integer)

If the client closes the connection while online the page should continue to download if it is more than this percentage complete (default=80).

### [<URL-SPEC>] timeout-download-keep = yes | no

If the server connection times out while reading then the currently downloaded incomplete page should be kept (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] keep-cache-if-not-found = yes | no

If the remote server replies with an error message or a redirection while there is a cached version with status 200 the previously cached version should be kept (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] request-compressed-data = yes | no

If the requests that are made to the server are to request compressed data (default=yes). Requires zlib compilation option.

### [<URL-SPEC>] request-chunked-data = yes | no

If the requests that are made to the server are to request chunked encoding (default=yes).

## OfflineOptions

Options that control how WWWOFFLE behaves when it is offline.

### [<URL-SPEC>] pragma-no-cache = yes | no

Whether to request a new copy of a page if the request from the client has 'Pragma: no-cache' (default=yes). This option should be set to 'no' if when browsing offline all pages are re-requested by a 'broken' browser.

### [<URL-SPEC>] cache-control-no-cache = yes | no

Whether to request a new copy of a page if the request from the client has 'Cache-Control: no-cache' (default=yes). This option should be set to 'no' if when browsing offline all pages are re-requested by a 'broken' browser.

### [<URL-SPEC>] cache-control-max-age-0 = yes | no

Whether to request a new copy of a page if the request from the client has 'Cache-Control: max-age=0' (default=yes). This option should be set to 'no' if when browsing offline all pages are re-requested by a 'broken' browser.

### [<URL-SPEC>] confirm-requests = yes | no

Whether to return a page requiring user confirmation instead of automatically recording requests made while offline (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] dont-request = yes | no

Do not request any URLs that match this when offline (default=no).

## SSLOptions

Options that control how WWWOFFLE behaves when a connection is made to it for a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) server. Normally only tunnelling (with no decryption or caching of the data) is possible. When WWWOFFLE is compiled with the gnutls library it is possible configure WWWOFFLE to decrypt, cache and re-encrypt the connections.

### enable-caching = yes | no

If caching (involving decryption and re-encryption) of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) server connections is allowed (default = no).

### allow-tunnel = (host[:port])

A hostname and port number (a WILDCARD match) for an SSL server that can be connected to using WWWOFFLE as a tunnelling proxy (no caching or decryption of the data) (default is no hosts or ports allowed). This option should be set to *:443 to allow https to the default port number. There can be more than one option for other ports or hosts as required. This option takes precedence over the allow-cache option. The host value is matched against the URL as presented, no hostname to IP or IP to hostname lookups are performed to find alternative equivalent names.

### disallow-tunnel = (host[:port])

A hostname and port number (a WILDCARD match) for an SSL server that can not be connected to using WWWOFFLE as a tunnelling proxy. There can be more than one option for other ports or hosts as required. This option takes precedence over the allow-tunnel option. The host value is matched against the URL as presented, no hostname to IP or IP to hostname lookups are performed to find alternative equivalent names.

### allow-cache = (host[:port])

A hostname and port number (a WILDCARD match) for an SSL server that can be connected to using WWWOFFLE as a caching proxy (decryption of the data) (default is no hosts or ports allowed). This option should be set to *:443 to allow https to the default port number. There can be more than one option for other ports or hosts as required. The host value is matched against the URL as presented, no hostname to IP or IP to hostname lookups are performed to find alternative equivalent names.

### disallow-cache = (host[:port])

A hostname and port number (a WILDCARD match) for an SSL server that can not be connected to using WWWOFFLE as a caching proxy. This option takes precedence over the allow-cache option. The host value is matched against the URL as presented, no hostname to IP or IP to hostname lookups are performed to find alternative equivalent names.

## FetchOptions

Options that control what linked elements are downloaded when fetching pages that were requested while offline.

### [<URL-SPEC>] stylesheets = yes | no

If style sheets are to be fetched (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] images = yes | no

If images are to be fetched (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] webbug-images = yes | no

If images that are 1 pixel square are also to be fetched, requires the images option to also be selected. (default=yes). If these images are not fetched then the replace-webbug-images option in the ModifyHTML section can be used to stop browsers requesting them.

### [<URL-SPEC>] icon-images = yes | no

If icons (also called favourite icons or shortcut icons) as used by browsers for bookmarks are to be fetched (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] only-same-host-images = yes | no

If the only images that are fetched are the ones that are on the same host as the page that references them, requires the images option to also be selected (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] frames = yes | no

If frames are to be fetched (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] iframes = yes | no

If inline frames (iframes) are to be fetched (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] scripts = yes | no

If scripts (e.g. Javascript) are to be fetched (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] objects = yes | no

If objects (e.g. Java class files) are to be fetched (default=no).

## IndexOptions

Options that control what is displayed in the indexes.

### create-history-indexes = yes | no

Enables creation of the lasttime/prevtime and lastout/prevout indexes (default=yes). The cycling of the indexes is always performed and they will flush even if this option is disabled.

### cycle-indexes-daily = yes | no

Cycles the lasttime/prevtime and lastout/prevout indexes daily instead of each time online or fetching (default = no).

### <URL-SPEC> list-outgoing = yes | no

Choose if the URL is to be listed in the outgoing index (default=yes).

### <URL-SPEC> list-latest = yes | no

Choose if the URL is to be listed in the lasttime/prevtime and lastout/prevout indexes (default=yes).

### <URL-SPEC> list-monitor = yes | no

Choose if the URL is to be listed in the monitor index (default=yes).

### <URL-SPEC> list-host = yes | no

Choose if the URL is to be listed in the host indexes (default=yes).

### <URL-SPEC> list-any = yes | no

Choose if the URL is to be listed in any of the indexes (default=yes).

## ModifyHTML

Options that control how the HTML that is provided from the cache is modified.

### [<URL-SPEC>] enable-modify-html = yes | no

Enable the HTML modifications in this section (default=no). With this option disabled the following HTML options will not have any effect. With this option enabled there is a small speed penalty.

### [<URL-SPEC>] add-cache-info = yes | no

At the bottom of all of the spooled pages the date that the page was cached and some navigation buttons are to be added (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] anchor-cached-begin = (HTML code) |

Anchors (links) in the spooled page that are in the cache are to have the specified HTML inserted at the beginning (default="").

### [<URL-SPEC>] anchor-cached-end = (HTML code) |

Anchors (links) in the spooled page that are in the cache are to have the specified HTML inserted at the end (default="").

### [<URL-SPEC>] anchor-requested-begin = (HTML code) |

Anchors (links) in the spooled page that are not in the cache but have been requested for download are to have the specified HTML inserted at the beginning (default="").

### [<URL-SPEC>] anchor-requested-end = (HTML code) |

Anchors (links) in the spooled page that are not in the cache but have been requested for download are to have the specified HTML inserted at the end (default="").

### [<URL-SPEC>] anchor-not-cached-begin = (HTML code) |

Anchors (links) in the spooled page that are not in the cache or requested are to have the specified HTML inserted at the beginning (default="").

### [<URL-SPEC>] anchor-not-cached-end = (HTML code) |

Anchors (links) in the spooled page that are not in the cache or requested are to have the specified HTML inserted at the end (default="").

### [<URL-SPEC>] disable-script = yes | no

Removes all scripts and scripted events (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] disable-applet = yes | no

Removes all Java applets (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] disable-style = yes | no

Removes all stylesheets and style references (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] disable-blink = yes | no

Removes the <blink> tag from HTML but does not disable blink in stylesheets (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] disable-marquee = yes | no

Removes the <marquee> tag from HTML to stop scrolling text (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] disable-flash = yes | no

Removes any Shockwave Flash animations (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] disable-iframe = yes | no

Removes any inline frames (the <iframe> tag) from HTML (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] disable-meta-refresh = yes | no

Removes any meta tags in the HTML header that re-direct the client to change to another page after an optional delay (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] disable-meta-refresh-self = yes | no

Removes any meta tags in the HTML header that re-direct the client to reload the same page after a delay (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] disable-meta-set-cookie = yes | no

Removes any meta tags in the HTML header that cause cookies to be set (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] disable-dontget-links = yes | no

Disables any links to URLs that are in the DontGet section of the configuration file (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] disable-dontget-iframes = yes | no

Disables inline frame (iframe) URLs that are in the DontGet section of the configuration file (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] replace-dontget-images = yes | no

Replaces image URLs that are in the DontGet section of the configuration file with a static URL (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] replacement-dontget-image = (URL)

The replacement image to use for URLs that are in the DontGet section of the configuration file (default=/local/dontget/replacement.gif).

### [<URL-SPEC>] replace-webbug-images = yes | no

Replaces image URLs that are 1 pixel square with a static URL (default=no). The webbug-images option in the FetchOptions section can be used to stop these images from being automatically downloaded.

### [<URL-SPEC>] replacement-webbug-image = (URL)

The replacement image to use for images that are 1 pixel square (default=/local/dontget/replacement.gif).

### [<URL-SPEC>] demoronise-ms-chars = yes | no

Replaces strange characters that some Microsoft applications put into HTML with character equivalents that most browsers can display (default=no). The idea for this comes from the public domain Demoroniser perl script.

### [<URL-SPEC>] fix-mixed-cyrillic = yes | no

Replaces punctuation characters in cp-1251 encoding that are combined with text in koi-8 encoding that appears in some cyrillic web pages.

### [<URL-SPEC>] disable-animated-gif = yes | no

Disables the animation in animated GIF files (default=no).

## LocalHost

A list of hostnames that the host running the WWWOFFLE server may be known by. This is so that the proxy does not need to contact itself if the request has a different name for the same server.

### (host)

A hostname or IP address that in connection with the port number (in the StartUp section) specifies the WWWOFFLE proxy HTTP server. The hostnames must match exactly, it is not a WILDCARD match. The first named host is used as the server name for several features so must be a name that will work from any client host on the network. The entries can be hostnames, IPv4 addresses or IPv6 addresses enclosed within '[...]'. None of the hosts named here are cached or fetched via a proxy.

## LocalNet

A list of hostnames whose web servers are always accessible even when offline and are not to be cached by WWWOFFLE because they are on a local network.

### (host)

A hostname or IP address that is always available and is not to be cached by WWWOFFLE. The host name matching uses WILDCARDs. A host can be excluded by appending a '!' to the start of the name. The host value is matched against the URL as presented, no hostname to IP or IP to hostname lookups are performed to find alternative equivalent names. The entries can be hostnames, IPv4 addresses or IPv6 addresses enclosed within '[...]'. All entries here are assumed to be reachable even when offline. None of the hosts named here are cached or fetched via a proxy.

## AllowedConnectHosts

A list of client hostnames that are allowed to connect to the server.

### (host)

A hostname or IP address that is allowed to connect to the server. The host name matching uses WILDCARDs. A host can be excluded by appending a '!' to the start of the name. If the IP address or hostname (if available) of the machine connecting matches then it is allowed. The entries can be hostnames, IPv4 addresses or IPv6 addresses enclosed within '[...]'. All of the hosts named in LocalHost are also allowed to connect.

## AllowedConnectUsers

A list of the users that are allowed to connect to the server and their passwords.

### (username):(password)

The username and password of the users that are allowed to connect to the server. If this section is left empty then no user authentication is done. The username and password are both stored in plaintext format. This requires the use of clients that handle the HTTP/1.1 proxy authentication standard.

## DontCache

A list of URLs that are not to be cached by WWWOFFLE.

### [!]URL-SPECIFICATION

Do not cache any URLs that match this. The URL-SPECIFICATION can be negated to allow matches to be cached. The URLs that are not cached will not be requested if offline.

## DontGet

A list of URLs that are not to be got by WWWOFFLE when it is fetching and not to be served from the WWWOFFLE cache even if they exist.

### [!]URL-SPECIFICATION

Do not get any URLs that match this. The URL-SPECIFICATION can be negated to allow matches to be got.

### [<URL-SPEC>] replacement = (URL)

The URL to use to replace any URLs that match the URL-SPECIFICATIONs instead of using the standard error message (default=none). The URLs in /local/dontget/ are suggested replacements (e.g. replacement.gif or replacement.png which are 1x1 pixel transparent images or replacement.js which is an empty javascript file).

### <URL-SPEC> get-recursive = yes | no

Choose whether to get URLs that match this when doing a recursive fetch (default=yes).

### <URL-SPEC> location-error = yes | no

When a URL reply contains a 'Location' header that redirects to a URL that is not got (specified in this section) then the reply is modified to be an error message instead (default=no). This will stop ISP proxies from redirecting users to adverts if the advert URLs are in this section.

## DontCompress

A list of MIME types and file extensions that are not to be compressed by WWWOFFLE (because they are already compressed or not not worth compressing). Requires zlib compilation option.

### mime-type = (mime-type)/(subtype)

The MIME type of a URL that is not to be compressed in the cache or when providing compressed pages to clients.

### file-ext = .(file-ext)

The file extension of a URL that is not to be requested compressed from a server.

## CensorHeader

A list of HTTP header lines that are to be removed from the requests sent to web servers and the replies that come back from them.

### [<URL-SPEC>] (header) = yes | no | (string)

A header field name (e.g. From, Cookie, Set-Cookie, User-Agent) and the string to replace the header value with (default=no). The header is case sensitive, and does not have a ':' at the end. The value of "no" means that the header is unmodified, "yes" or no string can be used to remove the header or a string can be used to replace the header. This only replaces headers it finds, it does not add any new ones. An option for Referer here will take precedence over the referer-self and referer-self-dir options.

### [<URL-SPEC>] referer-self = yes | no

Sets the Referer header to the same as the URL being requested (default=no). This will add the Referer header if none is contained in the original request.

### [<URL-SPEC>] referer-self-dir = yes | no

Sets the Referer header to the directory name of the URL being requested (default=no). This will add the Referer header if none is contained in the original request. This option takes precedence over referer-self.

### [<URL-SPEC>] referer-from = yes | no

Removes the Referer header based on a match of the referring URL (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] force-user-agent = yes | no

Forces a User-Agent header to be inserted into all requests that are made by WWWOFFLE (default=no). This User-Agent is added only if there is not an existing User-Agent header and is set to the value WWWOFFLE/<version-number>. This header is inserted before censoring and may be changed by the normal header censoring method.

## FTPOptions

Options to use when fetching files using the ftp protocol.

### anon-username = (string)

The username to use for anonymous ftp (default=anonymous).

### anon-password = (string)

The password to use for anonymous ftp (default determined at run time). If using a firewall then this may contain a value that is not valid to the FTP server and may need to be set to a different value.

### <URL-SPEC> auth-username = (string)

The username to use on a host instead of the default anonymous username.

### <URL-SPEC> auth-password = (string)

The password to use on a host instead of the default anonymous password.

## MIMETypes

MIME Types to use when serving files that were not fetched using HTTP or for files on the built-in web-server.

### default = (mime-type)/(subtype)

The default MIME type (default=text/plain).

### .(file-ext) = (mime-type)/(subtype)

The MIME type to associate with a file extension. The '.' must be included in the file extension. If more than one extension matches then the longest one is used.

## Proxy

This contains the names of the HTTP (or other) proxies to use external to the WWWOFFLE server machine.

### [<URL-SPEC>] proxy = (host[:port])

The hostname and port on it to use as the proxy.

### <URL-SPEC> auth-username = (string)

The username to use on a proxy host to authenticate WWWOFFLE to it. The URL-SPEC in this case refers to the proxy and not the URL being retrieved.

### <URL-SPEC> auth-password = (string)

The password to use on a proxy host to authenticate WWWOFFLE to it. The URL-SPEC in this case refers to the proxy and not the URL being retrieved.

### [<URL-SPEC>] ssl = (host[:port])

A proxy server that should be used for Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connections e.g. https. Note that for the <URL-SPEC> that only the host is checked and that the other parts must be '*' WILDCARDs.

## Alias

A list of aliases that are used to replace the server name and path with another server name and path.

### URL-SPECIFICATION = URL-SPECIFICATION

Any requests that match the first URL-SPECIFICATION are replaced by the second URL-SPECIFICATION. The first URL-SPECIFICATION is a wildcard match for the protocol and host/port, the path must match the start of the requested URL exactly and includes all subdirectories.

## Purge

The method to determine which pages to purge, the default age the host specific maximum age of the pages in days, and the maximum cache size.

### use-mtime = yes | no

The method to use to decide which files to purge, last access time (atime) or last modification time (mtime) (default=no).

### max-size = (size)

The maximum size for the cache in MB after purging (default=-1). A maximum cache size of -1 (or 0 for backwards compatibility) means there is no limit to the size. If this and the min-free options are both used the smaller cache size is chosen. This option take into account the URLs that are never purged when measuring the cache size but will not purge them.

### min-free = (size)

The minimum amount of free disk space in MB after purging (default=-1). A minimum disk free of -1 (or 0) means there is no limit to the free space. If this and the max-size options are both used the smaller cache size is chosen. This option take into account the URLs that are never purged when measuring the cache size but will not purge them.

### use-url = yes | no

If true then use the URL to decide on the purge age, otherwise use the protocol and host only (default=no).

### del-dontget = yes | no

If true then delete the URLs that match the entries in the DontGet section (default=no).

### del-dontcache = yes | no

If true then delete the URLs that match the entries in the DontCache section (default=no).

### [<URL-SPEC>] age = (age)

The maximum age in the cache for URLs that match this (default=14). An age of zero means always to delete, negative means not to delete. The URL-SPECIFICATION matches only the protocol and host unless use-url is set to true. Longer times can be specified with a 'w', 'm' or 'y' suffix for weeks, months or years (e.g. 2w=14).

### [<URL-SPEC>] compress-age = (age)

The maximum age in the cache for URLs that match this to be stored uncompressed (default=-1). Requires zlib compilation option. An age of zero means always to compress, negative means never to compress. The URL-SPECIFICATION matches only the protocol and host unless use-url is set to true. Longer times can be specified with a 'w', 'm' or 'y' suffix for weeks, months or years (e.g. 2w=14).

## WILDCARD

A WILDCARD match is one that uses the '*' character to represent any group of characters.

This is basically the same as the command line file matching expressions in DOS or the UNIX shell, except that the '*' can match the '/' character.

For example

*.gif
  matches foo.gif and bar.gif

*.foo.com
  matches www.foo.com and ftp.foo.com

/foo/*
  matches /foo/bar.html and /foo/bar/foobar.html

## URL-SPECIFICATION

When specifying a host and protocol and pathname in many of the sections a URL-SPECIFICATION can be used, this is a way of recognising a URL.

For the purposes of this explanation a URL is considered to be made up of five parts.

proto
  The protocol that is used (e.g. 'http', 'ftp')

host
  The server hostname (e.g. 'www.gedanken.demon.co.uk').

port
  The port number on the host (e.g. default of 80 for HTTP).

path
  The pathname on the host (e.g. '/bar.html') or a directory name (e.g. '/foo/').

args
  Optional arguments with the URL used for CGI scripts etc. (e.g. 'search=foo').

For example the WWWOFFLE homepage: http://www.gedanken.demon.co.uk/wwwoffle/ The protocol is 'http', the host is 'www.gedanken.demon.co.uk', the port is the default (in this case 80), and the pathname is '/wwwoffle/'.

In general this is written as (proto)://(host)[:(port)]/[(path)][?(args)]

Where [] indicates an optional feature, and () indicate a user supplied name or number.

Some example URL-SPECIFICATION options are the following:

*://*/*
  Any protocol, Any host, Any port, Any path, Any args (This is the default for options that can have a <URL-SPEC> prefix when none is specified).

*://*/(path)
  Any protocol, Any host, Any port, Named path, Any args

*://*/*?
  Any protocol, Any host, Any port, Any path, No args

*://*/(path)?*
  Any protocol, Any host, Any port, Named path, Any args

*://(host)
  Any protocol, Named host, Any port, Any path, Any args

(proto)://*/*
  Named proto, Any host, Any port, Any path, Any args

(proto)://(host)/* Named proto, Named host, Any port, Any path, Any args

(proto)://(host):/* Named proto, Named host, Default port, Any path, Any args

*://(host):(port)/* Any protocol, Named host, Named port, Any path, Any args

The matching of the host, the path and the args use the WILDCARD matching that is described above. The matching of the path has the special condition that a WILDCARD of '/*/foo' will match '/foo' and '/any/path/foo', in other words it matches any path prefix.

In some sections that accept URL-SPECIFICATIONs they can be negated by inserting the '!' character before it. This will mean that the comparison of a URL with the URL-SPECIFICATION will return the logically opposite value to what would be returned without the '!'. If all of the URL-SPECIFICATIONs in a section are negated and '*://*/*' is added to the end then the sense of the whole section is negated.

In all sections that accept URL-SPECIFICATIONs the comparison can be made case insensitive for the path and arguments part by inserting the '~' character before it. (The host and the protocol comparisons are always case insensitive).