noop for static filters

[WiredPlay]

This rule will ignore other block rules:

@@*$3p,from=google.com,to=maps.googleapis.com|streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com

acting as an allow rule (due the *). I'm trying to make it act as a noop rule, something like:

@@_$3p,from=google.com,to=maps.googleapis.com|streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com
(the documentation says _ could be used as noop)

The main purpose is to keep using static filters and have the rule as a single line rule.

Currently, I can do something similar using regex to keep the blocking rule:

@@/^(?!.*gen_204).*$/$3p,from=google.com,to=maps.googleapis.com|streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com

but that is absolutely horrible.

I would like to have a $noop or something like the _ that works as a noop for scenarios like that, cause both from= and to= support multiple domains and that is really useful to reduce the line count.

Thanks

[gothic-bum]

Please explain the actual problem that you are trying to solve rather than asking about what you think is the solution for it.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem

[gorhill]

The purpose of noop in dynamic filtering engine is to defer the filtering to the static filtering engine. The static filtering engine is the last layer, there is nothing to defer to, so noop makes no sense for the static filtering engine.

[WiredPlay]

The question: How to block every 3p from a cdn domain, except anything from [multiple domains] requesting [some multiple cdns], excluding previous explicit blocked rules from other blocklists.

literally: (but *$3p is allowing previous blocks from other blocklists)
||cdndomain.tld^$3p,
@@*$3p,from=website1.com|website2.com,to=websitethings.cdndomain.tld|websitestuff.cdndomain.tld

---

The Odyssey:

When first using hard mode, I end up with a lot of duplicate lines at the dynamic filtering.

Using googleapis.com as an example:

www.ayumi.com.br storage.googleapis.com * noop
fbreader.org fonts.googleapis.com * noop
fonts.google.com fonts.googleapis.com * noop
photos.google.com youtube.googleapis.com * noop
play.google.com ajax.googleapis.com * noop
www.google.com maps.googleapis.com * noop
www.google.com streetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com * noop
developers.googleblog.com storage.googleapis.com * noop
huggingface.co fonts.googleapis.com * noop
labs.google storage.googleapis.com * noop
patatap.com storage.googleapis.com * noop
newsroom.spotify.com storage.googleapis.com * noop
tenor.com tenor.googleapis.com * noop
typatone.com storage.googleapis.com * noop
cultura.uol.com.br imasdk.googleapis.com * noop
marble.worldlabs.ai storage.googleapis.com * noop
youtube.com fonts.googleapis.com * noop

That makes it impossible to see which asset or script is being used, then the filter ends up losing its purpose.

So I tried doing it another way, as:

* https://identitytoolkit.googleapis.com/v1/accounts:lookup xmlhttprequest noop
* https://identitytoolkit.googleapis.com/v1/accounts:update xmlhttprequest noop
* https://identitytoolkit.googleapis.com/v1/accounts:signInWithPassword xmlhttprequest noop
* https://identitytoolkit.googleapis.com/v2/recaptchaConfig xmlhttprequest noop

but this quickly becomes unmanageable.
To avoid thousand of lines from similar partyness, I changed it to use common static filters like:

||googleapis.com^$3p
@@identitytoolkit.googleapis.com/v1/accounts:*$xhr
@@storage.googleapis.com^$image
@@storage.googleapis.com/example-assets/libraries/react-*.mjs$domain=example.tld

then I can use a single * googleapis.com * noop at dynamic filtering and have a fine control of everything.

but then I found out some situations where I need multiple lines for same web service. Using steam as example:

||steamstatic.com^$3p
@@video.fastly.steamstatic.com$domain=store.steampowered.com
@@community.fastly.steamstatic.com$domain=steamcommunity.com
@@store.fastly.steamstatic.com$domain=store.steampowered.com
@@cdn.fastly.steamstatic.com$domain=store.steampowered.com|steamcommunity.com

I found out I can reduce rules like that using:

||steamstatic.com^$3p
@@*$3p,from=store.steampowered.com|steamcommunity.com,to=cdn.fastly.steamstatic.com|community.fastly.steamstatic.com|store.fastly.steamstatic.com

It's much more manageable this way because all the domains for the same web service are on the same line.

That decreased my filters from 2000 lines to 500 lines.

but this ends up allowing things that were previously blocked (due *$3p), and this is what I'm trying to solve.

---

This is probably an aesthetic request, but given that uBlock offers the hard mode, I think it might be a valid request.

The static filter list is much more readable and allows comments for futher reference, I use it a lot, for example:

! static.parastorage.com
@@||d2v4ffmk60pnnm.cloudfront.net$domain=institutoespe.com.br

then if something change, I can find out what d2v4ffmk60pnnm.cloudfront.net was refering to (static.parastorage.com).

[gorhill]

literally:

||cdndomain.tld^$3p,
@@*$3p,from=website1.com|website2.com,to=websitethings.cdndomain.tld|websitestuff.cdndomain.tld

This?

||cdndomain.tld^$3p,from=~website1.com|~website2.com,to=~websitethings.cdndomain.tld|~websitestuff.cdndomain.tld

[WiredPlay]

Thank you!