| 1 | # bash notes |
| 2 | |
| 3 | ## a simple note taking script written in bash |
| 4 | |
| 5 | I've found myself in need of a simple way to take notes, and since the other solutions available didn't meet my needs, I've decided to write my own script. |
| 6 | |
| 7 | It's a simple (enough) bash script, the only dependance (yet) is [jq](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/). |
| 8 | |
| 9 | here's all the functions that are now available: |
| 10 | |
| 11 | ```bash |
| 12 | -h | --help : This help text |
| 13 | -p | --plain : Output is in plain text (without this option the output is colored) |
| 14 | -l | --list : List existing notes |
| 15 | -a | --add "<title>" : Add new note |
| 16 | -e | --edit <note> : Modify note |
| 17 | -d | --delete [<note> | all] : Delete note |
| 18 | -v | --version : Print version |
| 19 | --userconf : Export User config file |
| 20 | ``` |
| 21 | |
| 22 | All the basic functionalities are present and working, it probably needs some polishing and some testing, so if you want to give it a try, let me know what you think. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | ### Settings |
| 25 | |
| 26 | When you first run it, notes.sh will create all the files it needs to operate. |
| 27 | By default the directory will be populated in `~/.local/share/bash-notes`. |
| 28 | |
| 29 | If you want to modify the predefined settings, you can export a user configuration file by running |
| 30 | |
| 31 | ```notes.sh --userconf``` |
| 32 | |
| 33 | And you'll have all your settings in `~/.config/bash-notes.rc`. This file will be sourced everytime you run the script. |
| 34 | |
| 35 | You can change all these settings: |
| 36 | |
| 37 | ```bash |
| 38 | # Binaries to use |
| 39 | JQ=/usr/bin/jq |
| 40 | EDITOR=/usr/bin/vim |
| 41 | TERMINAL=/usr/bin/alacritty |
| 42 | # add options for your terminal. Remember to add the last option to execute |
| 43 | # your editor program, otherwise the script will fail. |
| 44 | # see example in the addnote function |
| 45 | TERM_OPTS="--class notes --title notes -e " |
| 46 | |
| 47 | # set this to true to have output in plain text |
| 48 | # or use the -p option on the command line before every other option |
| 49 | PLAIN=false |
| 50 | # base directory for program files |
| 51 | BASEDIR=~/.local/share/bash-notes |
| 52 | # notes database in json format |
| 53 | DB=${BASEDIR}/db.json |
| 54 | # directory containing the actual notes |
| 55 | NOTESDIR=${BASEDIR}/notes |
| 56 | ``` |
| 57 | |
| 58 | Most are pretty self explanatory, the only one that might need clarification is `TERM_OPTS` which is used to set the terminal window that will run the editor while writing the note. |
| 59 | |
| 60 | Special attention is needed when specifying the options, in my case, using [alacritty](https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty), the option that allows to run some software in the newly created window is `-e`, so I need to specify this as the last option. |
| 61 | |
| 62 | ### Functionalities |
| 63 | |
| 64 | bash-notes can: |
| 65 | |
| 66 | * write a new note `--add "Your note title"` or in short `-a "Your note title"` |
| 67 | * modify an existing note `--edit [note ID]`, short version `-e [note ID]` |
| 68 | * delete a note `--delete [note ID]`, or `-d [note ID]` |
| 69 | * delete all notes `--delete all`, or `-d all` |
| 70 | * list existing notes `--list` or `-l` in short |
| 71 | |
| 72 | The *note id* is assigned when the note is created, and that's how you refer to the note in the program. |
| 73 | |
| 74 | The `--plain` or `-p` option in short, dictates how the output from the script is formatted, here's a sample listing of all the notes: |
| 75 | |
| 76 | ```bash |
| 77 | notes.sh -l |
| 78 | listing all notes |
| 79 | |
| 80 | [ID] [TITLE] [CREATED] |
| 81 | [1] ciao nota 25/03/2023 18:53 +0100CET |
| 82 | [2] hello there 25/03/2023 19:02 +0100CET |
| 83 | ``` |
| 84 | |
| 85 | And here's the same listing with the plain option: |
| 86 | |
| 87 | ```bash |
| 88 | notes.sh -pl |
| 89 | 1 - ciao nota - 25/03/2023 18:53 +0100CET |
| 90 | 2 - hello there - 25/03/2023 19:02 +0100CET |
| 91 | ``` |
| 92 | |
| 93 | It's just a proof of concept at the moment, but the idea is to use a more interesting output maybe using markup, and strip it down in plain mode. After all is still a work in progress. |
| 94 | The plain option must precede all other options or it won't work. I'll try and fix this behaviour in the future. |
| 95 | |
| 96 | I'd love to implement some kind of searching functionality, but I'll have to look into that. |
| 97 | |
| 98 | ### Installing |
| 99 | |
| 100 | Simply copy the script in your $PATH and make it executable, something like this should work: |
| 101 | |
| 102 | ```bash |
| 103 | mv notes.sh ~/bin/ |
| 104 | chmod 755 ~/bin/notes.sh |
| 105 | ``` |
| 106 | |
| 107 | Adapt to your needs as you see fit. |
| 108 | |
| 109 | ### Debugging |
| 110 | |
| 111 | If the script doesn't work for you for some reasons, you can turn on debugging by running the script like this: |
| 112 | |
| 113 | ```bash |
| 114 | DEBUG=true notes.sh [options] |
| 115 | ``` |
| 116 | |
| 117 | And then you'll be able to check all that happened in the log file at `/tmp/debug_bash-notes.log` |
| 118 | |
| 119 | ### Vision |
| 120 | |
| 121 | Ok, maybe vision is a bit of a stretch, but I've written this script to use it in my daily workflow with [rofi](https://github.com/davatorium/rofi) and [i3wm](https://github.com/i3/i3). I'll adapt the way it works to better suit this need of mine. |
| 122 | |
| 123 | There are of course things I'd love to add, but my main goal is for it to work the way I planned to use it. |
| 124 | |
| 125 | ### TO DO |
| 126 | |
| 127 | * add a way to search the notes |
| 128 | * add a way to display a note without running vim |
| 129 | * markdown? |
| 130 | - maybe implement an export feature that builds the html file from the note |
| 131 | * write a bash completion script to enable autocomplete in the shell |
| 132 | * other ideas may come [...] |
| 133 | |
| 134 | ### Contributing |
| 135 | |
| 136 | It'd mean so much to receive some feedback, patches if you feel like contributing, I'm not expecting much as this is a personal project, but feel free to interact as much as you want. |
| 137 | |
| 138 | ### ChangeLog |
| 139 | |
| 140 | * v0.2 - debugging implemented |
| 141 | - you can now generate a debug log in case something doesn't work |
| 142 | * v0.1 - first public upload |
| 143 | - all major functionalities are present and working |
| 144 | |
| 145 | ### Mantainer |
| 146 | |
| 147 | * [danix](https://danix.xyz) - it's just me, really... |
| 148 | |
| 149 | ### LICENSE |
| 150 | |
| 151 | > bash-notes © 2023 by danix is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |