Note: This product comes with no warranty whatsoever. I am not responsible for any damage that happens using this script!
A very simple Mac script to block distracting websites. At this time, the following websites are blocked:
In order to use this script, simply download it onto your computer, and then run chmod a+x macblocker.command in the directory which contains the script in order to give executing permissions to the script. Then, run the script. The script will ask for how long, in minutes, to block distracting websites. Once that is given, the script will, after a brief "are you sure" period, lock the user out of afformentioned websites.
The script will make a current backup of your hosts file (located in /etc/hosts) in the current directory. It will then append the afformentioned websites to the hosts file, causing the computer to direct them to localhost. Once the time has run out, the script will remove the websites from the hosts file, and the websites can be accessed again.
If, for whatever reason, the program terminated before the time is up, it is possible to unblock the websites. In order to do so, using your favorite text editor (we are using VIM in this case), enter the hosts file from terminal using the command sudo vim /etc/hosts, and delete all the lines of code in between and including the #start-Blocking and #stop-Blocking comment.
If you wish to add additional websites to block, simply go into the script using the text editor of your choice and find the declare -a websitesToBlock=("reddit.com" "facebook.com" "instagram.com") line, and add in any additional websites you wish to block, making sure to encompass the URL with quotes. The URL should not contain http:// and/or www. in order to work properly (for example, "example.com" is a valid URL while "http://example.com" and "www.example.com" are not).