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Add support for regular expressions in $app modifier #714

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Add support for regular expressions in $app modifier #714

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326b642
Update create-own-filters.md
Jun 26, 2025
c674b73
Update create-own-filters.md
Jun 26, 2025
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10 changes: 10 additions & 0 deletions docs/general/ad-filtering/create-own-filters.md
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Expand Up @@ -435,10 +435,20 @@ If you want the rule not to be applied to certain apps, start the app name with
- `||baddomain.com^$app=~org.example.app` — a rule to block requests that match the specified mask and are sent from any app except for the `org.example.app`.
- `||baddomain.com^$app=~org.example.app1|~org.example.app2` — same as above, but now two apps are excluded: `org.example.app1` and `org.example.app2`.

You can use regular expressions in the `$app` modifier by enclosing them in forward slashes `/.../`. This allows for more flexible matching — for example, targeting a group of apps from the same publisher or matching complex patterns.

- `||baddomain.com^$app=/org\.example\.[a-z0-9_]+/` — applies to all apps whose package name starts with `org.example` (e.g. `org.example.app1`, `org.example.utility`, etc.).
- `||baddomain.com^$app=/^org\.example\.app$|^org\.example\.[ab].*/` — applies to `org.example.app` and to any app whose package starts with `org.example.a` or `org.example.b`.
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$ and , should be escaped in modifiers, since unescaped $ means modifiers start, and , is modifiers separator.


The `$app` modifier supports combining plain app names, negated app names, and regular expressions in the same rule.

- `||baddomain.com^$app=org.example.app|~org.example.excluded|/org\.example\.[a-z]+/` — applies to `org.example.app`, to all matching `org.example.[a-z]+` apps, and excludes `org.example.excluded`.
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A negation and a non-negated expression cannot be in the same expression, because ~ essentially matches "everything except", and can only be combined with other ~ expressions to expand that "except". Otherwise, it leads to too many possible interpretations.


:::caution Restrictions

Apps in the modifier value cannot have a wildcard, e.g. `$app=com.*.music`.
Rules with such modifier are considered invalid.
Use regular expressions instead: `$app=/com\..*\.music/`.

:::

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