hosts-timer

Block websites on your system with /etc/hosts, and re-enable them on demand for a specified amount of time.

Installation

macOS via Homebrew

brew install cdzombak/oss/hosts-timer

Debian via apt repository

Install my Debian repository if you haven't already:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://dist.cdzombak.net/keys/dist-cdzombak-net.gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/dist-cdzombak-net.gpg
sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/keyrings/dist-cdzombak-net.gpg
sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/sources.list.d
sudo curl -fsSL https://dist.cdzombak.net/cdzombak-oss.sources -o /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cdzombak-oss.sources
sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cdzombak-oss.sources
sudo apt update

Then install hosts-timer via apt-get:

sudo apt-get install hosts-timer

Manual installation from build artifacts

Pre-built binaries for Linux and macOS on various architectures are downloadable from each GitHub Release. Debian packages for each release are available as well.

From source

Requires Go to be installed:

git clone https://github.com/cdzombak/hosts-timer.git
cd hosts-timer
make install

Usage

Setup for domain(s)

sudo hosts-timer -install facebook.com twitter.com

(-disable is an alias for -install, which disables the given sites.)

Use a site for a specified duration of time

sudo hosts-timer -time 5m twitter.com

Durations must be acceptable by time.ParseDuration.

Remove hosts-timer block for domain(s)

sudo hosts-timer -uninstall twitter.com facebook.com

(-enable is an alias for -uninstall, which enables the given sites.)

Setup Hints

.zshrc helpers

function use-facebook() {
    if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
        echo "Usage: use-facebook DURATION"
        echo "   eg. use-facebook 5m"
        return 1
    fi
    sudo hosts-timer -time "$1" facebook.com
}

function use-twitter() {
    if [ $# -eq 0 ]; then
        echo "Usage: use-twitter DURATION"
        echo "   eg. use-twitter 5m"
        return 1
    fi
    sudo hosts-timer -time "$1" twitter.com
}

Alfred helpers

Install the included Alfred helpers, and then you can use Alfred to enable Twitter or Facebook for a given amount of time (default 5 minutes).

Create /etc/sudoers.d/hosts-timer

cdzombak ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/local/bin/hosts-timer

And then:

sudo chown root:wheel /etc/sudoers.d/hosts-timer
sudo chmod 440 /etc/sudoers.d/hosts-timer

Author

Chris Dzombak

• dzombak.com
• github/cdzombak