Related issue:
- https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/780
Related commit:
- https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/commit/3a564c199260
This adds two new advanced settings:
- cnameIgnoreRootDocument
- Default to `true`
- Tells uBO to skip CNAME-lookup for root document.
- cnameReplayFullURL
- Default to `false`
- Tells uBO whether to replay the whole URL or just
the origin part of it.
Replaying only the origin part is meant to lower
undue breakage and improve performance by avoiding
repeating the pattern-matching of the whole URL --
which pattern-matching was most likely already
accomplished with the original request.
This commit is meant to explore enabling CNAME-lookup
by default for the next stable release while:
- Eliminating a development burden by removing the
need to create a new filtering syntax to deal with
undesirable CNAME-cloaked hostnames
- Eliminating a filter list maintainer burden by
removing the need to find/deal with all base
domains which engage in undesirable CNAME-cloaked
hostnames
The hope is that the approach implemented in this
commit should require at most a few unbreak rules
with no further need for special filtering syntax
or filter list maintance efforts.
Related issue:
- https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/780
New webext permission added: `dns`, which purpose is
to allow an extension to fetch the DNS record of
specific hostnames, reference documentation:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/API/dns
The webext API `dns` is available in Firefox 60+ only.
The new API will enable uBO to "uncloak" the actual
hostname used in network requests. The ability is
currently disabled by default for now -- this is only
a first commit related to the above issue to allow
advanced users to immediately use the new ability.
Four advanced settings have been created to control the
uncloaking of actual hostnames:
cnameAliasList: a space-separated list of hostnames.
Default value: unset => empty list.
Special value: * => all hostnames.
A space-separated list of hostnames => this tells uBO
to "uncloak" the hostnames in the list will.
cnameIgnoreList: a space-separated list of hostnames.
Default value: unset => empty list.
Special value: * => all hostnames.
A space-separated list of hostnames => this tells uBO
to NOT re-run the network request through uBO's
filtering engine with the CNAME hostname. This is
useful to exclude commonly used actual hostnames
from being re-run through uBO's filtering engine, so
as to avoid pointless overhead.
cnameIgnore1stParty: boolean.
Default value: true.
Whether uBO should ignore to re-run a network request
through the filtering engine when the CNAME hostname
is 1st-party to the alias hostname.
cnameMaxTTL: number of minutes.
Default value: 120.
This tells uBO to clear its CNAME cache after the
specified time. For efficiency purpose, uBO will
cache alias=>CNAME associations for reuse so as
to reduce calls to `browser.dns.resolve`. All the
associations will be cleared after the specified time
to ensure the map does not grow too large and too
ensure uBO uses up to date CNAME information.
This is a feature under development, hidden behind
a new advanced setting, `filterAuthorMode` which
default to `false`.
Ability to point-and-click to create temporary
exception filters for static extended filters (i.e.
cosmetic, scriptlet & html filters) from within
the summary pane in the logger. The button to
toggle on/off temporary exception filter is
labeled `#@#`.
The created exceptions are temporary and will be
lost when restarting uBO, or manually toggling off
the exception filters.
Creating temporary exception filters does not
cause the filter lists to reloaded, and thus there
is no overhead in creating/removing these temporary
exception filters.
Related documentation:
- https://help.eyeo.com/en/adblockplus/how-to-write-filters#element-hiding
Related feedback/discussion:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/uBlockOrigin/comments/d6vxzj/
The `elemhide` filter option as per ABP semantic is
now supported. Previously uBO would consider `elemhide`
to be an alias of `generichide`.
The support of `elemhide` is through the convenient
conversion of `elemhide` option into existing
`generichide` option and new `specifichide` option.
The purpose of the new `specifichide` filter option
is to disable all specific cosmetic filters, i.e.
those who target a specific site.
Additionally, for convenience purpose, the filter
options `generichide`, `specifichide` and `elemhide`
can be aliased using the shorter forms `ghide`,
`shide` and `ehide` respectively.
Little-used code from vapi-client.js has been moved
to vapi-client-extra.js. Given that vapi-client.js
is injected in all web pages, this means less dead
code being injected in all pages.
Swathes of code in vapi-client.js was used only in
a few very specific cases, such as when the logger's
DOM inspector is opened or when the "Filter lists"
pane in the dashboard is opened -- and thus to avoid
that little used code to be loaded in every web page
unconditionally, it has been moved to its own
separate file, vapi-client.extra.js.
vapi-client-extra.js is loaded declaratively or
programmatically only where needed.
Related issue:
- https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues/983
- https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues/1353
The current implementation reports statistics for all
static filters, and the presentation/featureset is
intentionally minimal: *Do not open issues about this.*
It's still a work in progress and it will be worked on
slowly and thoughtfully over time and as time allows.
Pausing the logger will not pause the collation of
filter hit statistics, thus it is possible to lower
the logger overhead by pausing logger output without
losing filter hit collation.
Performance-related work: the logger data has been decoupled
from the DOM -- inspired from CodeMirror's way of efficiently
handling large amout of text data.
This decoupling now makes the logger highly efficient CPU- and
memory-wise, and open the way to more possibilities.
Ability to configure some aspect of the logger behavior and
visuals:
- The hard-coded limit of 5000 entries has been
removed and is now replaced with a variety of
user-configurable settings to enforce the discarding of
logger entries.
- Some columns in the logger output can now be hidden.
The filter list look-up feature has been merged into the
existing overlay dialog used to create URL rules or static
filters, as an entry in a new "Details" pane.
Other issues addressed during refactoring:
- https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBlock-issues/issues/280
- https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues/1999
The minimum version supported on Firefox has been bumped
up to 55.0.
- Make FA icons non-selectable, because of spurious selection
on Firefox for Android when merely tapping an icon
- Disable spellchecking in the static network filter editor
in the logger
Raymond Hill