InformAction Forums

Hi guys. I'm new here and registered so I could get some help with this wonderful add-on, NoScript, that I've been using for like a couple years now. I've searched the FAQ and forums but can't seem to find the answer I need.

I have many PC's, all with Windows 7, but typically use just one at a time. I also use VirtualBox with XP, Win7 and Win8 guest OS's on them. I use Firefox with NoScript on all of them.

I have Dropbox installed on my PC's and I export all my NoScript lists (from every PC and virtual machine) to a folder in my Dropbox to be accessed from any PC. I also backup my Dropbox to a thumb drive.

I found a thread here that (I think) answers my long-time question of whether importing other lists overwrites or appends the current list, and according to what I read , they "merge" which is like appending but apparently (as seen from looking inside an exported list) they are organized into alphabetical order, which would make it very difficult for me to manually edit to add sites to the list from other exported files.

Is there some way to create a huge master list, a compilation, of all the different exported lists from all my PC's and virtual guest machines too?

If into one Firefox browser, I imported one after another, until I went through all of them that I have backed up, since they merge together versus overwrite, would that create a master list at the end? If so, I could then import that into every Firefox browser so they'd all have the same whitelist and blacklist. Or is there an easier way?

Thank you so much,

Lee

Personally I copy the entire browser profile to my VM's and don't make any modifications I'd like to keep "permanent" inside any VM (or I use the VM as a sandbox to try out modifications there first then if it works out do the same on my main machine).. maintenance of the VMs would be impossible otherwise.

Anyway, since you've got VMs why not just give it a try? Export all your whitelists, snapshot (or backup) one of your VM's, then boot it up and import all of the NoScript whitelists in the now disposable environment and see what happens...

You could also try to use the whitelist subscription feature in NoScript (but I don't know how to do that)...

barbaz wrote:Personally I copy the entire browser profile to my VM's

Hi barbaz. Thanks for your response. Doesn't doing that create an exact duplicate of your host's browser? Normally, I have Firefox setup somewhat differently in my VM's since I try out new add-ons there before I install them on my host's browser. Also, I can go to websites in my VM's that I'm unsure about on my host and can experiment with allowing scripts in a VM's browser to later on be allowed on my host. I like your method though, I'll try it sometime. I'd have to backup the VM's browser profile first in case I want to put it back.

Anyway, since you've got VMs why not just give it a try?

I imagine I will now. I was hoping to have saved some time by having an expert from here tell me if it would or wouldn't work. In theory, it seems like it would given how they merge together to combine old with new, unless I'm mistaken about that part. It was only yesterday that I learned that lists get merged together when imported. Will definitely report back as to the results of my findings.

You could also try to use the whitelist subscription feature in NoScript (but I don't know how to do that)...

I had no idea there even was a subscription feature but I'm glad you mentioned it, I'll have to look into that.

Lee49 wrote:

barbaz wrote:Personally I copy the entire browser profile to my VM's

Hi barbaz. Thanks for your response. Doesn't doing that create an exact duplicate of your host's browser? Normally, I have Firefox setup somewhat differently in my VM's since I try out new add-ons there before I install them on my host's browser. Also, I can go to websites in my VM's that I'm unsure about on my host and can experiment with allowing scripts in a VM's browser to later on be allowed on my host.

Mostly.. er.. that's precisely the whole point of copying the entire profile. You have pretty close to a duplicate of your host setup that way so you can be pretty sure how new things will act in your host setup so you don't run much risk of screwing up anything that matters. Plus if something goes wrong there's a decent chance you can reproduce in the VM which opens up a LOT more options for diagnostic procedures.

Lee49 wrote:I'd have to backup the VM's browser profile first in case I want to put it back.

You can also do what I originally did before I had any confidence that method was viable, and create a separate profile to overwrite with the profile from your host and keep your original VM profile as it is.

Lee49 wrote:

You could also try to use the whitelist subscription feature in NoScript (but I don't know how to do that)...

I had no idea there even was a subscription feature

Because it's not exactly discoverable or even documented.
about:config > noscript.subscription.*
(I know nothing of the subscription file formats. I'd have to dig around in the xpi and play around to infer it.)

barbaz wrote:You have pretty close to a duplicate of your host setup that way so you can be pretty sure how new things will act in your host setup so you don't run much risk of screwing up anything that matters.

Glad to hear it. I've known about the profile folder for awhile but it always threw me off that the odd folder name was always different, it's apparent now the contents are what's important and to copy only that stuff to whatever oddly named profile folder the VM has, like t7mawcqu.default for example.

If on a VM, I backed up the profile folder (whatever it's named) then before copying the contents of my host's folder's oddly named profile folder to my VM, shouldn't I delete the contents of that guest's folder so there aren't any conflicts? I'm thinking there will be all kinds of files mixed together that might mess things up. I can try it both ways but it'd help to know the correct way.

and create a separate profile to overwrite with the profile from your host and keep your original VM profile as it is.

I'm going to start backing up profiles, creating new ones, and have all kinds of fun learning new things this way.

Because it's not exactly discoverable or even documented.
about:config > noscript.subscription.*
(I know nothing of the subscription file formats. I'd have to dig around in the xpi and play around to infer it.)

I figured it'd be somewhere in the NoScript Options but found nothing about subscriptions. Then looked in about:config for noscript.subscription.* and saw the four lines but had no idea what to do there. It's not what I expected. I know nothing about editing settings in the about:config area.

My next step is to try and make a master list by importing all my exported files into a VM browser to see what happens. I'm going to bed, busy day tomorrow, Will be back here tomorrow night.

Oh.. I can't believe I didn't say this before , but be sure to *completely* quit Firefox before attempting any profile transferring!! You *will* get problems otherwise.

Lee49 wrote:If on a VM, I backed up the profile folder (whatever it's named) then before copying the contents of my host's folder's oddly named profile folder to my VM, shouldn't I delete the contents of that guest's folder so there aren't any conflicts?

I do, but I've no idea whether it's really needed...

Lee49 wrote:

Because it's not exactly discoverable or even documented.
about:config > noscript.subscription.*
(I know nothing of the subscription file formats. I'd have to dig around in the xpi and play around to infer it.)

I figured it'd be somewhere in the NoScript Options but found nothing about subscriptions. Then looked in about:config for noscript.subscription.* and saw the four lines but had no idea what to do there. It's not what I expected. I know nothing about editing settings in the about:config area.

For non-booleans: Right-click > Modify, then type your value.
For booleans: select it, then double-click it or hit Enter.
I'm pretty sure you would (in your case) upload the master list to your Dropbox and then type the resultant URL in the noscript.subscription.trustedURL setting, if you want to go that route.

Also, IIRC the subscription feature is supposed to merge the subscription with existing lists, like you want.

Lee49 wrote:My next step is to try and make a master list by importing all my exported files into a VM browser to see what happens. I'm going to bed, busy day tomorrow, Will be back here tomorrow night.

ok GL, seeya later

Hi barbaz. Just touching base real quick. I didn't get it all accomplished yet but I've started the process at least. I'll be back tomorrow with the full report though. Thanks for your patience. Oh, and thank you for the tip about making sure Firefox was closed before copying any profiles. The way you put it, it sounds like it's imperative to do so I'm quite sure I'll remember that when the time comes.

My apologies for the delayed response. I did mess with this a few nights ago but ran into some issues and put it aside then went back to it again and again but couldn't get the desired result of all exported files being imported to create a master list and got confused a lot. What I kept getting wasn't much bigger in file-size than the others.

Then it dawned on me that maybe I wasn't importing the correct exported files and it was messing things up. After looking inside some of the old exported files (from like 1-1/2 years ago) that I had them labeled as whitelists but it turned out they were backups of the entire add-on created via the Export button at the very bottom of the Options window.

I know very little about this add-on but I like the concept behind it. I know how to allow scripts to make websites work better, it's trial and error but I figure it out. I know practically nothing about all the different settings in the Options, I always left those at the original default settings. And I thought I knew how to export and import but apparently I don't.

I realized there is a difference between the two types of exported files. When I bring up the NoScript Options, at the very bottom of the window, there are buttons to Import and Export. And then when I click on the Whitelist tab, there again are buttons for Import and Export. I've exported both ways and compared the two files. The ones exported from the very bottom Export button included all kinds of extra stuff (settings apparently?) inside the file (the first line always started with {"prefs":{) but the exported file that I did under the Whitelist tab created a file without all that extra stuff and looked to only include websites, nothing more.

Which file am I supposed to be exporting from all my other PC's and VM's to be importing into my one designated browser that I'm trying to create a master list on? Do I only export the Whitelist ones?

For non-booleans: Right-click > Modify, then type your value.

I'm sorry but you completely lost me when you started talking about booleans. I've never made any adjustments inside about:config before, been afraid to, not knowing what to do and all. I don't even know what a boolean is. So I imagine we'll just have to leave that issue alone since I don't have the proper experience to follow along, unfortunately.

On a side note, I've tried replying to this twice before but I keep getting logged off this site and I lost everything I wrote, which played a part in the delayed response. Thing was, I'd be logged in, start my reply but go work in a VM on this issue, lose track of time then get back here and find I'm logged out. Is there some way to stay logged into this site for awhile? Or is it just the way it is?

Thanks for your patience and all your help.

Lee49 wrote:I realized there is a difference between the two types of exported files. When I bring up the NoScript Options, at the very bottom of the window, there are buttons to Import and Export. And then when I click on the Whitelist tab, there again are buttons for Import and Export. I've exported both ways and compared the two files. The ones exported from the very bottom Export button included all kinds of extra stuff (settings apparently?) inside the file (the first line always started with {"prefs":{) but the exported file that I did under the Whitelist tab created a file without all that extra stuff and looked to only include websites, nothing more.

Which file am I supposed to be exporting from all my other PC's and VM's to be importing into my one designated browser that I'm trying to create a master list on? Do I only export the Whitelist ones?

Use the Import/Export buttons unique to the Whitelist panel. The ones on the very bottom do the WHOLE config and IIRC clobber (overwrite) the entire existing settings.

Lee49 wrote:

For non-booleans: Right-click > Modify, then type your value.

I'm sorry but you completely lost me when you started talking about booleans. I've never made any adjustments inside about:config before, been afraid to, not knowing what to do and all. I don't even know what a boolean is. So I imagine we'll just have to leave that issue alone since I don't have the proper experience to follow along, unfortunately.

Boolean means a value that can either be on or off, that's it. Representations for "on" also could be true/1/yes, likewise for "off" could be false/0/no.
about:config should explicitly tell you the type of each pref..

Lee49 wrote:On a side note, I've tried replying to this twice before but I keep getting logged off this site and I lost everything I wrote, which played a part in the delayed response. Thing was, I'd be logged in, start my reply but go work in a VM on this issue, lose track of time then get back here and find I'm logged out. Is there some way to stay logged into this site for awhile? Or is it just the way it is?

The automatic timeout is either 45 minutes or 1 hour, don't remember exactly. You just have to load *something* from this forum before that expires to keep your session alive. Previewing your post or opening the index page in a new tab will do.
So it's just the way it is.

You can also draft parts of your post in a text editor, then logon and paste in later when you're ready to post.

barbaz wrote:Use the Import/Export buttons unique to the Whitelist panel. The ones on the very bottom do the WHOLE config and IIRC clobber (overwrite) the entire existing settings.

I suspected after the fact that it was only the whitelist exports that I should have used. I was importing both types by mistake. I'll go through all of them and pick out only the whitelists and try again, the right way this time. <g>

Boolean means a value that can either be on or off, that's it. Representations for "on" also could be true/1/yes, likewise for "off" could be false/0/no. about:config should explicitly tell you the type of each pref..

Thanks for the explanation, it sounds simple enough. My curiousity is peaked and I'd like to learn more about that but I've got to stay focused on this for now.

The automatic timeout is either 45 minutes or 1 hour, don't remember exactly. You just have to load *something* from this forum before that expires to keep your session alive. Previewing your post or opening the index page in a new tab will do.
So it's just the way it is.

You can also draft parts of your post in a text editor, then logon and paste in later when you're ready to post.

I figured that's the way it was, I didn't see anything in the settings to change that.

I setup a timer to remind me in 40 minutes to go back and do something to stay active. My previous reply I did in Notepad. I logged in, clicked the Quote button to your last reply, copied it all to Notepad, then edited my reply and pasted it when I was done. I'm going to keep using Notepad for my replies just in case.

Now that I've got the plan of attack setup, I'll work on it tomorrow, it's too late tonight, my next reply should have some good news about this master list. Ttyl...

Here's the latest in my adventures, I made some progress for a change.

The Firefox browser I did this experiment on (in a VM) didn't have a clean install of NoScript, it already had a lot of "allowed sites" on/in it so instead of starting from scratch, I went with the current setup and added to it.

I had around 40 exported files saved up from the past two years but as I weeded through (looked inside) them to determine if they were just a whitelist file or an "everything" file (for lack of better terms) and found that I only had 10 to work with but it was better than nothing.

I imported one file, clicked the OK button, brought Options back up, exported the whitelist to a file, clicked the OK button again. And repeated this process for each file. I probably could've imported one after another without closing the Options each time but I was being meticulous and wanted to export a file after each import so I could compare it to the previous file to see if it was bigger, and it was each time.

When I was done, I finally created a master file out of all of my exported whitelist files.

I went by the size and character count for each to compare them. The original file size was 59,261 bytes with 56,115 characters. The final-result file size was 72,782 bytes with 68,965 characters. A noticable difference which proves they do keep merging together after each import.

That is not mentioned in the FAQ, trust me, I Ctrl-F searched for the words append and merge (even merg) before I even opened this thread. I also searched the forums for those same words and finally found an old thread where it was mentioned six years ago something about merging but I had to ask about it and about the master list thing too.

Perhaps including that important fact into the FAQ would help others in the future save themselves a whole lot of time. I always search the FAQ first. I'm not the type to constantly ask in forums for help, I'd rather not, I'd prefer to figure it out for myself if the resources are available but sometimes though, I have to ask upon the experts for help.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who saves old whitelist files. My saving them wrong is another story but the idea is to hang onto the time and effort spent allowing websites after countless hours of research by importing everything saved to date.

Fwiw, I hope that somebody finds my sharing (rambling) useful in some way and it helps them make sense of things if they find themselves in the same situation.

Thanks for reporting your findings and glad you got it to work
Marking as Resolved.

Lee49 wrote:That is not mentioned in the FAQ, trust me,

The FAQ is badly out of date and you aren't the only one who sees the need for better NoScript documentation.
I've offered repeatedly to help update/restructure the FAQ and write better docs, but never heard back from anyone...

barbaz wrote:Thanks for reporting your findings and glad you got it to work
Marking as Resolved.

Sure thing. I'm glad you were patient with me, and you were very helpful in a lot of ways.

I've offered repeatedly to help update/restructure the FAQ and write better docs, but never heard back from anyone...

I see your name all over the threads, you're helping people out left and right, and you know your stuff obviously, so I'm surprised you haven't been allowed to update the FAQ. Your devotion to this site is quite admirable.

Thanks for the kind words

Lee49 wrote:

I've offered repeatedly to help update/restructure the FAQ and write better docs, but never heard back from anyone...

I see your name all over the threads, you're helping people out left and right, and you know your stuff obviously, so I'm surprised you haven't been allowed to update the FAQ.

Only Giorgio has access to his site, it's not open to any of us.