Regarding the syntax versions of Peter Lowe's List (original) (raw)

Prerequisites

Description

I've realised that Peter Lowe's List, in-so-far as it is included in uBlock Origin and forks of it, is using the Hosts version of the list. Wouldn't it have been better to use the adblocker-syntaxed version of it instead?

I admit that my request is heavily flavoured by some work I've done on AdGuard Home, a tool that would treat domains from Hosts entries very strictly (e.g. it would not cover subdomains, nor domains with differences in www. prefixes), while in contrast it would treat || entries the way normal adblockers do. This does not seem to affect uBO nearly as much, although I am admittedly not 110% expertious in uBO's treatment of Hosts entries. My findings indicate that uBO tries to convert 127.0.0.1 into || anyway, if the strict blocking warnings is any indicator.

The list versions' internally listed update times are the same (e.g. # last updated: Wed, 29 Jan 2020 16:22:55 GMT), so there doesn't seem to be any easily noticeable update delays on the non-Hosts versions that I can easily see.

The filesize is also somewhat smaller, should it become somewhat important that end-users save bandwidth whenever possible.

A specific URL where the issue occurs

chrome-extension://cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm/asset-viewer.html?url=plowe-0

Steps to Reproduce

  1. If you're using a Chromium browser, visit chrome-extension://cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm/asset-viewer.html?url=plowe-0
  2. See that the entries use Hosts syntax, namely 127.0.0.1 example.org.
  3. Go to https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php?hostformat=adblockplus&showintro=1&mimetype=plaintext
  4. See that the entries use adblocker syntax, namely ||example.org^.

Expected behavior:

The most ideal version of Peter Lowe's List is included in uBO, which may or may not be the adblocker-syntax version.

Actual behavior:

The Hosts version of Peter Lowe's List is included in uBO.

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