Fogos

Overview

fogos is a small command-line utility built to do one thing reliably: block and unblock websites by editing /etc/hosts. It is written in Go, designed to be fast, and intentionally minimal. The idea was to avoid browser extensions or heavyweight tools and instead use a system-level approach that works across applications.

This project started as a quick weekend build but turned into a lesson in simplicity, usability, and restraint.

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Problem

Website blockers tend to fall into two extremes:

• Over-engineered apps with dashboards, accounts, and background services
• Browser-only extensions that are easy to bypass

There was a clear gap for something:

• System-wide
• Lightweight
• Scriptable
• Not annoying to use

Personally, the trigger was needing a frictionless way to block a few distracting sites during work sessions without installing yet another app or keeping something running in the background.

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Solution

fogos takes the simplest possible route: it directly modifies /etc/hosts to redirect unwanted domains. No daemons, no background processes, no dependencies beyond Go.

Design choices

• Single binary: easy to install, move, and remove
• Command aliases: short forms like b, ub, s, l came from repeatedly typing long commands during testing
• Colour output: added late in development after realising plain text made status checks easy to miss
• Privilege separation: only block/unblock requires sudo, everything else works as a normal user

Architecture notes (high-level)

• Reads and parses /etc/hosts safely instead of blindly appending
• Tracks blocked entries in a predictable format to avoid conflicts
• Keeps operations idempotent so repeated commands do not break state

A key constraint was resisting the urge to add features like scheduling or profiles. The goal was to keep it sharp and focused.

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Developer Notes

Building and testing

The build process is intentionally straightforward:

• Clone the repository
• Run make install
• Verify with fogos --help

Most testing was done manually on Linux and macOS by:

• Blocking/unblocking edge cases like subdomains
• Re-running commands to ensure no duplicate entries
• Checking behaviour without root privileges

One recurring issue during development was accidentally corrupting /etc/hosts while experimenting. That led to adding stricter parsing and safer write logic earlier than planned.

Anecdotes and lessons

• The first version simply appended lines. It worked until it didn’t. Cleaning up duplicates became a bigger problem than expected.
• Alias commands were not planned. They were added after getting annoyed typing unblock repeatedly.
• Testing “just one more change” with sudo gets old quickly. That pushed better separation between read and write operations.
• Considered adding Windows support early, but decided against shipping something untested.

Extensibility

The codebase is structured to allow:

• Additional commands without major rewrites
• Potential support for other blocking strategies
• Future cross-platform handling if needed

That said, the project intentionally avoids feature creep. Any extension needs to justify its place in a tool that is meant to stay minimal.

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fogos is less about complexity and more about control. It reflects a preference for small tools that do one job well and stay out of the way.