codebase_structure.md

Codebase Structure

These are the folders and some key files used to generate and store various unified hosts files.

Data folders

There are two facets of the hosts files generated by /updateHostsFile.py:

Basic hosts

Basic hosts are domains that purvey advertising, malware, tracking, coin mining and other abominable behavior. These hosts are included in all our products.

The /data folder holds the metadata and latest hosts for all our basic hosts sources. The hosts are updated automatically by /updateHostsFile.py which iterates all the subfolders within ./data.

Optional hosts extensions

Hosts extensions include domains that push potentially addictive content like porn, fake news, gambling, and social media.

The /extensions folder holds metadata and latest hosts for all our basic hosts sources. The hosts are updated automatically by /updateHostsFile.py which iterates all the subfolders within ./extensions.

Product folders

Basic hosts

The basic hosts file, containing just adware, malware, etc, is stored in the root folder of this repository.

The /hosts/alternates this folder contains the products of updateHostsFile.py, one subfolder for each permutation of fakenews, gambling, porn, and social media hosts, all of which include the base extensions containing hosts that block adware, malware, tracking, etc.

Other notable files

• ./readme_template.md: This file is used to generate all the various readme files in this repository. Therefore, if you wish to change the readme, you need to change only this file.