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[BUG] Inconsistent meaning of 1 in globalblacklist.conf #636

@adam12b1

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@adam12b1

The meaning of the 1 setting is defined very confusingly, and used in contradictory ways. I would submit a PR, but need to get clear on some of the mysteries first.

The comments at the top of globalblacklist.conf say:

###     SETTINGS:
### ---------------------------------------------
###     0 = allowed - no limits
###     1 = allowed - (rate limited but limiting rate zone not implemented)
[...]

So, first, that is very confusing - if the rate limiting is not implemented, what is the actual behavior? The only reasonable interpretation would be "allowed with no limits", but in practice we see that is wrong - it actually means "block completely", correct? Most of the lines in this file use the 1 setting to define a block, and that is the behavior we see in practice.

So it seems like that should be changed to something like:

###     1 = blocked (rate limited but limiting rate zone not implemented)

And on that basis, it seems like this section is all incorrect:

# START ALLOWED BOTS ### DO NOT EDIT THIS LINE AT ALL ###
        "~*(?:\b)Lynx(?:\b)"            1;
        "~*(?:\b)Presto(?:\b)"          1;
        "~*(?:\b)Wget/1.15(?:\b)"               1;
        "~*(?:\b)jetmon(?:\b)"          1;
        "~*(?:\b)libwww-perl(?:\b)"             1;
        "~*(?:\b)munin(?:\b)"           1;
# END ALLOWED BOTS ### DO NOT EDIT THIS LINE AT ALL ###

It should be using either 0 or 2, not 1, yes? You don't really want to completely block Lynx and wget and these others by default, do you? I know we can enable the rate-limiting zone for 1, but it seems like the default configuration out-of-the-box needs to be to allow the things it would apply to, not to block them. And certainly a section called "ALLOWED BOTS" should in fact allow those bots.

Or am I losing my mind?

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