Pi-Hole - Adding blocklist urls to the Gravity DB from the command-line

This is to add block list to the Gravity DB from the command line from a text file.

You will need a few things to do this

This is for allowing zmodem options if you telnet session allows it like SecurCRT that I used.

Install the following packages

sudo apt-get install lrzsz
sudo apt-get install sqlite3

Add the URL's per line for example

Blocklist: HERE

To add these URL's you have to add them to the following file

sudo nano /etc/pihole/adlists.list

Create a file to run as the import script

sudo nano /etc/pihole/adlists.sh

Then create a script and call it what ever you like and put this in

#!/bin/bash
set -e

DB_FILE="/etc/pihole/gravity.db"
BACKUP_FILE="/etc/pihole/gravity_backup_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S).db"
ADLIST_FILE="/etc/pihole/adlists.list"

# Check if adlists.list exists
if [ ! -f "$ADLIST_FILE" ]; then
    echo "Error: $ADLIST_FILE not found!"
    exit 1
fi

echo "1. Backing up existing gravity.db..."
sudo cp "$DB_FILE" "$BACKUP_FILE"

echo "2. Clearing existing adlists from database..."
sudo sqlite3 "$DB_FILE" "DELETE FROM adlist;"

echo "3. Importing HTTPS URLs from $ADLIST_FILE..."
count=0

# Process lines using process substitution to keep scope in the main shell
while IFS= read -r url; do
    if [ -n "$url" ]; then
        safe_url=$(echo "$url" | sed "s/'/''/g")
        sudo sqlite3 "$DB_FILE" "INSERT INTO adlist (address, enabled, comment) VALUES ('$safe_url', 1, 'Imported from adlists.list');"
        count=$((count + 1))
        echo "Added: $safe_url"
    fi
done < <(grep 'https://' "$ADLIST_FILE" | grep -v '^[[:space:]]*#' | grep -o 'https://[^[:space:]]*')

echo "Successfully imported $count adlists."

echo "4. Updating Gravity (downloading lists)..."
sudo pihole -g

echo "Done! Pi-hole gravity update complete."

Change the permissions on the file

sudo chmod +x /etc/pihole/adlists.sh

Docker Users

If you place the script within the working directory of pihole container you can do the following:

docker exec -it pihole chmod +x /etc/pihole/bash_script.sh
docker exec -it pihole chmod 777 /etc/pihole/adlists.list
docker exec -it pihole ./etc/pihole/bash_script.sh

Error Check

Run the following to make sure your database is still okay and does not display any errors like these

If so just rebuild the database like this

sudo mv /etc/pihole/gravity.db /etc/pihole/gravity_backup.db
sudo pihole -g