AppBlocker

A KDE Linux app for blocking, scheduling, and managing application access — built in Rust with egui.

Block apps by process name, schedule them on/off by time, trigger on resource usage, and enforce rules automatically via a background daemon.

Features

• Three blocking methods — Kill (SIGTERM), Force Kill (SIGKILL / pkill -9), PATH Wrapper, or Network Block (nftables)
• Flexible scheduling — Always, Time Range (HH:MM – HH:MM), or Rest of Day (until midnight)
• Grace period — warn N minutes before a block kicks in
• Resource trigger — block automatically when CPU% or RAM exceeds a threshold for a set duration
• Lazy / fuzzy matching — type steam to catch steam, steamwebhelper, steam_osx all at once
• Startup actions — launch an app at login or have it blocked from the moment the session starts
• Real-time Monitor tab — live process list sorted by CPU/RAM, right-click to create rules instantly
• System tray — runs silently in the background, toggleable
• Session-only rules — rules that vanish when AppBlocker exits (no permanent config change)
• Persistent config — TOML file at ~/.config/appblocker/config.toml

Requirements

Dependency	Purpose
Linux (any distro)	—
KDE Plasma (or any D-Bus desktop)	System tray via StatusNotifierItem
libnotify / notify-send	Block/warning desktop notifications
pkexec (polkit)	Network blocking only — prompts for root
Rust 1.75+	Building from source only

Installation

From a GitHub release (recommended)

1. Download the latest release tarball from Releases
2. Extract and run the install script:

tar xzf appblocker-*.tar.gz
cd appblocker-*/
./install.sh

The script will:

• Copy the binary to ~/.local/bin/ (or /usr/local/bin/ if run as root)
• Create a .desktop entry so AppBlocker appears in your app launcher under Utilities
• Install and enable a systemd user service so the daemon starts automatically on login

From source

git clone https://github.com/Segually/AppBlocker
cd AppBlocker
./install.sh        # builds with cargo then installs

Manual

cargo build --release
cp target/release/appblocker ~/.local/bin/

Usage

Launch from your app menu (under Utilities) or run:

appblocker

Creating a rule

1. Open the Rules tab → click ➕ Add Rule
2. Enter a display name and the process name or full path
   • steam — matches the steam process (case-insensitive)
   • /usr/bin/firefox — matches by exact path
   • Enable Lazy match to catch all processes whose name contains your input (e.g. steam also blocks steamwebhelper)
3. Choose a blocking method (Kill is recommended for most apps)
4. Set the schedule and save

Quick-block from the Monitor tab

Open Monitor, right-click any running process → Create block rule… or Block for rest of day.

Blocking Steam (example)

Field	Value
Display name	Steam
Executable / name	steam
Lazy match	✓ (catches steamwebhelper too)
Method	Force Kill
Schedule	Always (or a time range)

Daemon mode

The daemon enforces rules in the background. Check its status:

systemctl --user status appblocker.service
systemctl --user start  appblocker.service   # start now
systemctl --user stop   appblocker.service   # stop

Debugging

Run with logging to see exactly what the daemon is matching and killing:

RUST_LOG=info appblocker
# or for verbose detail:
RUST_LOG=debug appblocker

Uninstall

./uninstall.sh

Removes the binary, desktop entry, and systemd service. Optionally removes your config.

Building a release tarball (for maintainers)

cargo build --release
VERSION=$(grep '^version' Cargo.toml | head -1 | grep -oP '[\d.]+')
DIST="appblocker-${VERSION}"
mkdir -p "${DIST}/assets"
cp target/release/appblocker install.sh uninstall.sh README.md "${DIST}/"
cp assets/appblocker.desktop "${DIST}/assets/"
tar czf "${DIST}.tar.gz" "${DIST}/"

License

MIT