Hosts/Domains should use 0.0.0.0 instead of 127.0.0.1 for Pi-hole

[thomasmerz]

See https://discourse.pi-hole.net/t/use-0-0-0-0-instead-of-dns-ip-in-blocklists/5412 and https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/issues/274 for "why". Thanks for changing (or do you prefer me seding this and make a PR?)!

[sml156]

Pihole no longer needs 127.0.0.1 or 0.0.0.0 it ignores them

The post you quoted was from a lifetime ago (2017)

[tweedge]

I took a look and I believe that sml156 is correct here. It looks to me like PiHole ingests domain blocklists with either the 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1 prefix, but when a domain is blocked PiHole will check what its blocking mode is set to and implement that block. The default these days is NULL blocking, which should mean that any blocked host (no matter what format the blocklist used) should return 0.0.0.0.

Reference: https://docs.pi-hole.net/ftldns/blockingmode/

I don't believe PiHole allows the lists themselves to override what blocking mode it uses - that seems like it would lead to a lot of inconsistencies. Give it a try though and let me know if there's something I can do to adjust! Would definitely prefer to adhere to best practices if there's an issue using 127.0.0.1 creates.

[sml156]

There are several lists that work with pihole and do not add either of those IP's.

Take this list for example https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Perflyst/PiHoleBlocklist/master/SmartTV.txt it works perfectly. I believe some lists continue to add 127.0.0.0 and 0.0.0.0 so that people can use them in their OS's hosts file, I guess the rest don't know they do not need them.

[thomasmerz]

I know, but 0.0.0.0 should be preferred over 127.0.0.1 - for other reasons as you told (OS's hosts file for example) 😉

[sml156]

I don't understand your comment, Pihole ignores both of those IP's you could put 27.27.27.27 and still have the same outcome ... pihole ignores it your point is pointless.

Sorry if this sounds mean and uncaring but them is the fact's, As far as the hosts file goes if your running windows 10 or above you cannot have 100's of thousands domains in your hosts file it will break your network.

Even win 7 had a hard time with a large hosts file unless you disabled "dns client" service, One of the reasons I am using pihole is because Windows 10 was slower than molasses no matter what service I disabled.

[tweedge]

I don't think anyone would use this directly as their hosts file - the only case I would expect is if someone used hBlock or similar, which would also apply its own parsing+transformation. However, considering:

• Changing to 0.0.0.0 has a slight file size reduction advantage, and
• On the off chance someone does simply do something like curl a bunch of files into /etc/hosts (hopefully not, but I've seen too many manmade technohorrors to say "it'd never happen") it would be a marginally better experience.

Change implemented: https://github.com/tweedge/emerging-threats-pihole/commit/ca761c292fb93fbe87fbc47d70d43532511918c6

[thomasmerz]

Thank you @tweedge 👍🏼