Procrast: a tool for managing blocked domains in /etc/hosts

A command line tool that allows you to manage a domain block list in /etc/hosts. Turning blocking on/off for the entire list, adding, and removing domains can be done from the command line using procrast.

The tool writes directly to your /etc/hosts file and keeps track of the list using an identifier comment (your existing entries won't be affected, and you can keep adding entries that aren't managed by procrast). Turning blocking on/off for the entire domain list works by commenting and uncommenting the entries marked to be managed by procrast.

Original author: @jfarmer

Installation

If you are unsure what the /etc/hosts file is, you will probably want to make a backup of the file and keep it safe in case you want to revert to your pre-procrast configuration. When you wish to revert any changes procrast has made, simply replace the /etc/hosts file with your backed-up version.

Download the procrast file. To see the options available in procrast type

sh path/to/the/file/procrast

Place the procrast file somewhere that's on your shell's $PATH, e.g. inside /usr/local/bin. Make sure the file is executable: chmod +x /usr/local/bin/procrast. When you start a new shell, the tool can be used by typing procrast.

Usage

Note that procrast needs root privileges for operations that modify the /etc/hosts file.

To add a domain to the block list

procrast add facebook.com

To see the current list of domains

procrast list

To start blocking the list

procrast no

To stop blocking the list

procrast yes

To remove a domain from the block list

procrast remove facebook.com

On macOS you may have to restart the mDNSResponder daemon to clear the local DNS cache. A convenience command is available in procrast to do this

procrast dns_reload

Multiple block lists

The procrast script uses the file name as an identifier to keep track of which entries are part of the list among all entries in /etc/hosts. You can therefore easily create a new, independent list by creating a copy of procrast called something else:

cp procrast domainsthattrackme

If the copy is also on your path, you can now start adding domains to the new list in the same way you would with the procrast list.

domainsthattrackme add google.com
domainsthattrackme no

NOTE that this also means that changing the name of procrast leaves all current entries on the list unmanaged by procrast!