readme_template.md

Take Note!

• With the exception of issues and PRs regarding changes to hosts/sources/hrshadhin/hosts, all other issues regarding the content of the produced hosts files should be made with the appropriate data source that contributed the content in question. The contact information for all of the data sources can be found in the hosts/sources/ directory.

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Unified hosts file

This repository consolidates several reputable hosts files, and merges them into a unified hosts file with duplicates removed.

• Last updated: @GEN_DATE@.
• Here's the raw hosts file containing @NUM_ENTRIES@ entries.
• This project is heavily inspired by StevenBlack/hosts project.

Sources of hosts data unified in this variant

Updated hosts files from the following locations are always unified and included:

Host file source	Description	Home page	Raw hosts	Update frequency	License	Issues
@SOURCEROWS@

Generate your own unified hosts file

To generate your own amalgamated hosts files you will need Python 3.5 or later.

First, install the dependencies with:

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install --user -r requirements.txt

Common steps regardless of your development environment

To run unit tests, in the top-level directory, run:

python test_helpers.py

The update_hosts_file.py script will generate a unified hosts file based on the sources in the local sources/ subfolder. The script will auto detect whether it should fetch updated versions (from locations defined by the info.json text file in each source's folder). Otherwise, it will use the hosts file that's already there.

python update_hosts_file.py [--ip nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn] [--minimise]

Command line options

--help, or -h: display help.

--ip nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn, or -i nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn: the IP address to use as the target. Default is 0.0.0.0.

--empty-target-ip, or -e: false (default) or true, omit IP part from host rule. i.e: example.com instead of 0.0.0.0 example.com

--skip-static-hosts, or -s: false (default) or true, omit the standard section at the top, containing lines like 127.0.0.1 localhost. This is useful for configuring proximate DNS services on the local network.

--no-update, or -n: skip fetching updates from hosts data sources.

--output-directory <subfolder>, or -d <subfolder>: place the generated source file in a subfolder. If the subfolder does not exist, it will be created.

--output-file <file_name>, or -o <file_name>: named unified generated hosts file as given name, instead of hosts.

--no-update-readme, or -nr: false (default) or true, skip updating readme.md file. This is useful if you are generating host files with additional whitelists or blacklists and want to keep your local checkout of this repo unmodified.

--minimise, or -m: false (default) or true, Compress the hosts file ignoring non-necessary lines (empty lines and comments). Reducing the number of lines of the hosts file improves the performances.

--blacklist <black_list_file>, or -x <black_list_file>: Append the given blacklist file in hosts format to the generated hosts file.

--whitelist <white_list_file>, or -w <white_list_file>: Use the given whitelist file to remove hosts from the generated hosts file.

How do I control which sources are unified?

Add one or more additional sources, each in a subfolder of the sources/ folder, and specify the url key in its info.json file.

Create an optional blacklist file. The contents of this file (containing a listing of additional domains in hosts file format) are appended to the unified hosts file during the update process. A sample blacklist is included, and may be modified as you need.

• NOTE: The blacklist is not tracked by git, so any changes you make won't be overridden when you git pull this repo from origin in the future.

How do I include my own custom domain mappings?

If you have custom hosts records, place them in file custom_hosts. The contents of this file are prepended to the unified hosts file during the update process. if you pass -empty-target-ip or -e flag then contents of this file will not added to the unified hosts file.

The custom_hosts file is not tracked by git, so any changes you make won't be overridden when you git pull this repo from origin in the future.

How do I prevent domains from being included?

The domains you list in the whitelist file are excluded from the final hosts file.

The whitelist uses partial matching. Therefore if you whitelist google-analytics.com, that domain and all its subdomains won't be merged into the final hosts file.

The whitelist is not tracked by git, so any changes you make won't be overridden when you git pull this repo from origin in the future.

How can I contribute hosts records?

If you discover sketchy domains you feel should be included here, here are some ways to contribute them.

Option 1: contact one of the hosts sources

The best way to get new domains included is to submit an issue to any of the data providers whose home pages are listed here. This is best because once you submit new domains, they will be curated and updated by the dedicated folks who maintain these sources.

Option 2: Fork this repository, add your domains to H.R. Shadhin's personal data file, and submit a pull request

Fork this repo and add your links to sources/hrshadhin/hosts.

Then, submit a pull request.

Option 3: create your own hosts list as a repo on GitHub

If you're able to curate your own collection of sketchy domains, then curate your own hosts list. Then signal the existence of your repo as a new issue and we may include your new repo into the collection of sources we pull whenever we create new versions.

What is a hosts file?

A hosts file, named hosts (with no file extension), is a plain-text file used by all operating systems to map hostnames to IP addresses.

In most operating systems, the hosts file is preferential to DNS. Therefore if a domain name is resolved by the hosts file, the request never leaves your computer.

Having a smart hosts file goes a long way towards blocking malware, adware, and other irritants.

For example, to nullify requests to some doubleclick.net servers, adding these lines to your hosts file will do it:

# block doubleClick's servers
0.0.0.0 ad.ae.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 ad.ar.doubleclick.net
# etc...

Location of your hosts file

To modify your current hosts file, look for it in the following places and modify it with a text editor.

GNU/Linux, macOS (until 10.14.x macOS Mojave), iOS, Android: /etc/hosts file.

macOS Catalina: /private/etc/hosts file.

Windows: %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file.

Reloading hosts file

Your operating system will cache DNS lookups. You can either reboot or run the following commands to manually flush your DNS cache once the new hosts file is in place.

GNU/Linux

Open a Terminal and run with root privileges:

Debian/Ubuntu sudo service network-manager restart

Linux Mint sudo /etc/init.d/dns-clean start

GNU/Linux with systemd: sudo systemctl restart network.service

Fedora Linux: sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service

Arch Linux/Manjaro with Network Manager: sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service

Arch Linux/Manjaro with Wicd: sudo systemctl restart wicd.service

RHEL/Centos: sudo /etc/init.d/network restart

FreeBSD: sudo service nscd restart

To enable the nscd daemon initially, it is recommended that you run the following commands:

sudo sysrc nscd_enable="YES"
sudo service nscd start

Then modify the hosts line in your /etc/nsswitch.conf file to the following:

hosts: cache files dns

Others: Consult this Wikipedia article.

macOS

Open a Terminal and run:

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Goals of this unified hosts file

The goals of this repo are to:

1. automatically combine high-quality lists of hosts to block ads, malware, spam, phishing, tracking sites.
2. by block sites via DNS actually we are reducing our bandwidth usage.
3. keep internet browsing happy by blocking those evil sites.

Why this project exists!?

Have a similar project named StevenBlack/hosts. So, why this project exist?

The reasons for existence of this repo are to:

1. we want custom formatted hosts file for our DNS proxy server Blocky
2. also we want standard hosts file for other devices.
3. we want to manage more curated sources to collect hosts

License

DON'T BE A DICK PUBLIC LICENSE