Can't remove DEV adware installed on Pop OS

[Aindriú Mac Giolla Eoin]

Distribution (run cat /etc/os-release):

NAME="Pop!_OS"
VERSION="22.04 LTS"
ID=pop
ID_LIKE="ubuntu debian"
PRETTY_NAME="Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS"
VERSION_ID="22.04"
HOME_URL="https://pop.system76.com"
SUPPORT_URL="https://support.system76.com"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://github.com/pop-os/pop/issues"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://system76.com/privacy"
VERSION_CODENAME=jammy
UBUNTU_CODENAME=jammy
LOGO=distributor-logo-pop-os

Related Application and/or Package Version (run apt policy $PACKAGE NAME):

Issue/Bug Description:

Can't get rid of annoying DEV adware

Steps to reproduce (if you know):
Type the word dev and adware comes up. I never installed it on my machine but can't remove it,

Expected behavior:

No DEV Adware

Other Notes:

It should be easily removed not baked into the OS

[Randall White]

There is nothing installed, and it is not adware. This is a shortcut built into the launcher to make it quick to search https://dev.to. There are many of these (e.g, ddg "duckduckgo search", gs "google search"). They are in the file config.ron located at /usr/lib/pop-launcher/plugins/web/. You can remove that one if it is bothering you. You can also add new ones that might be helpful to you, and submit a PR for review if you think it would be useful to others as well. I think that resolves this issue so I will close it for now, but if you think there is more to address I can always reopen.

[Aindriú Mac Giolla Eoin]

i keep deleting the entry in /usr/lib/pop-launcher/plugins/web/config.ron but it comes back after I update POP, there is something installed somewhere that adds the entry to config.ron. Can you tell what that is please?

[Randall White]

It is part of the web plugin. It will always get the newest configuration config.ron when pop-laucher updates. I just tested a way that seems to accomplish what you want, and should persist between updates.

In the directory ~/.local/share/pop-launcher/plugins/web/ edit the config.ron file to contain the following.

(
    rules: [
        (
            matches: ["dev"],
            queries: [(name: "", query: "")],
        ),   
    ]
)

This new empty rule takes precedence so that when you type dev in the launcher it wont start a search for https://dev.to.

If there are other entries that bother you you can add empty rules for them as well.

 (
    rules: [
        (
            matches: ["dev"],
            queries: [(name: "", query: "")],
        ),
        (
            matches: ["gs"],
            queries: [(name: "", query: "")],
        ), 
        (
            matches: ["ddg"],
            queries: [(name: "", query: "")],
        ),    
    ]
)

This will allow the web plugin to still work while making it easy to revert if you change your mind. For instance if you want ddg to work, based on the above example, either delete the entire entry, or just remove the value in quotes for match.

Example:

matches: ["ddg"], becomes matches: [""],

[Aindriú Mac Giolla Eoin]

thanks,, I'm at the stage now where I had to write a bash script to copy config.ron over when the system gets updated.