adstop is a small bash script that will fetch several other publicated ad and tracker servers and generates a hosts as well as two dnsmasq config files containing those entries for blacklisting. Basically it just creates entries like:
0.0.0.0 ad.domain.tld
0.0.0.0 tracker.domain.tld
or in the case of dnsmasq entries will be like
address=/somedomain.tld/0.0.0.0
address=/otherdomain.tld/0.0.0.0
Since dnsmasq also applies a rule for domain.tld to sub.domain.tld, the dnsmasq configuration files are shorted compared to the hosts file. Some special measures are taken so that popular domains won't get blocked as it would be case for pixel.facebook.com or adservice.google.com which would without measures block all of facebook.com and google.com
The most basic version is just to download the script and the adstop.tpl file, put them into the same directory and run it.
The script will then use the blocklists in the tpl file, generate the hosts and dnsmasq files and copy them into the same location where you run it.
However, instead of just running it like that, you can copy the adstop.tpl file to adstop.conf.
Then you can modify the blocklists in the adstop.conf file by either adding more or removing some.
You can also give custom entries that should appear at the top or bottom of your hosts files and set custom filters for domains that should not be shortened.
And with the finalize function at the top of the adblock.tpl file you can even say what commands should be run after it generated the hosts file in a temporary directory.
There are two dnsmasq configuration files being created. One contains IDN domains and the other one has filtered them out, since support of IDN in dnsmasq is dependant on how it was compiled.