Re: [PATCH] urlfilter: Remove bundled Toulouse blacklist

[p27m <p27m@orange.fr>]

Hello Michael,

Yes, I Build it and install master ISO (CU204) on my test virtual machine.

SquidGuard starts without errors when the blacklist directory is empty 
(the patch preserves the custom list).
Naturally, no category-based filtering takes place until a blacklist has 
been downloaded.

I also ran a test using only a custom blacklist.
In this case, SquidGuard starts normally, and the custom domain is 
correctly blocked.

This point was documented in comment #13 of bug 13969:
https://bugzilla.ipfire.org/show_bug.cgi?id=13969#c13

Thus, removing the default blacklist does not prevent 
URLFilter/SquidGuard from starting or functioning.
The user can simply download or restore a blacklist later, or use only 
the custom blacklist.

Best regards,

Philippe

Le 07/09/2026 à 17:22, Michael Tremer a écrit :
> Hello Phil,
>
> Yes, this makes sense so far. But what actually happens when squidGuard is being started with nothing? I remember that this list has been treated as a dummy. Did you test this case too?
>
> -Michael
>
>> On 29 Aug 2026, at 16:56, p27m <p27m@orange.fr> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Michael,
>>
>> Thank you for your reply.
>>
>> The problem described in the bug report is actually quite simple.
>>
>> Currently, the blacklist included in the IPFire repository and installed with IPFire dates from June 15, 2005, so it is now obsolete.
>> Since March 2026, the University of Toulouse has changed some directories in its blacklist into symbolic links.
>> Therefore, when restoring a backup containing a blacklist downloaded after this change, `tar` can fail because symbolic links cannot replace existing directories. As a result, the backup restoration fails.
>>
>> @adolf previously added a fix to `backup.pl` which removes the existing contents of `/var/ipfire/urlfilter/blacklists/` before extracting the backup.
>>
>> However, I recently discovered that the problem could still occur when restoring a backup from a backup ISO.
>>
>> For this reason, I thought that the simplest solution, and the best way to avoid similar problems in the future, would be to remove the obsolete blacklist archive from the installation.
>>
>> This patch does not prevent URLFilter from working without an installed blacklist. It also ensures that the old blacklist shipped with IPFire cannot interfere with restoring a newer blacklist from a backup.
>>
>> I have tested the patch with upgrades, fresh ISO installations, and restoration of backups containing both the Toulouse blacklist and the IPFire DBL blacklist.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Philippe
>>
>> Le 29/08/2026 à 17:31, Michael Tremer a écrit :
>>> Thank you very much for this patch.
>>>
>>> I could not quite figure out what you want to achieve with this change. Is this data being shipped causing some problems? The bug report did not give me the information I was looking for either.
>>>
>>> All the best,
>>> -Michael
>