Adblocking using /etc/hosts

Adblocking is a non-trivial task, but there are trivial solutions.


Install hosts-gen from

% git clone
% cd hosts-gen
% sudo make install

Make sure all your custom configuration from your current /etc/hosts is preserved in a file in /etc/hosts.d. The files have to begin with a number, a minus and then the name.

Install the gethostszero script.

# In the above directory.
% sudo cp examples/gethostszero /bin
% sudo chmod 775 /bin/gethostszero
% sudo /bin/gethostszero
% sudo hosts-gen 

Now the /etc/hosts with the zero hosts is ready and will be used in any further started application.

The gethostszero file can of course be reused to more easier create the /etc/hosts file. A cronjob can be used to update the file and run hosts-gen again.


The following script gather well-known and trusted lists from various places : adaway, someonewhocares, pgl.yoyo...

They are written in /etc/hosts file to disable DNS resolution.

Get the script from here : zerohosts.

Include your own /etc/hosts rules by including a file as an argument

zerohosts /etc/myhosts.txt

Run the script each time you want to update the lists using a cronjob, or /etc/rc.local :

/usr/local/sbin/zerohosts &


If you don't want to use your /etc/hosts file, you can use firejail:

 firejail --noprofile --hosts-file="~/adblockhosts" surf ""