README.md

   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 -m | --modify <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 # base directory for program files
  48 BASEDIR=~/.local/share/bash-notes
  49 # notes database in json format
  50 DB=${BASEDIR}/db.json
  51 # directory containing the actual notes
  52 NOTESDIR=${BASEDIR}/notes
  53 ```
  54
  55 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.
  56
  57 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.
  58
  59 ### Functionalities
  60
  61 bash-notes can:
  62
  63  * write a new note `--add "Your note title"` or in short `-a "Your note title"`
  64  * modify an existing note `--edit [note ID]`, short version `-e [note ID]`
  65  * delete a note `--delete [note ID]`, or `-d [note ID]`
  66  * delete all notes `--delete all`, or `-d all`
  67  * list existing notes `--list` or `-l` in short
  68
  69 The *note id* is assigned when the note is created, and that's how you refer to the note in the program.
  70
  71 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:
  72
  73 ```bash
  74 notes.sh -l
  75 listing all notes
  76
  77 [ID]    [TITLE]         [CREATED]
  78 [1]     ciao nota       25/03/2023 18:53 +0100CET
  79 [2]     hello there     25/03/2023 19:02 +0100CET
  80 ```
  81
  82 And here's the same listing with the plain option:
  83
  84 ```bash
  85 notes.sh -pl
  86 1 - ciao nota - 25/03/2023 18:53 +0100CET
  87 2 - hello there - 25/03/2023 19:02 +0100CET
  88 ```
  89
  90 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.
  91 The plain option must precede all other options or it won't work. I'll try and fix this behaviour in the future.
  92
  93 I'd love to implement some kind of searching functionality, but I'll have to look into that.
  94
  95 ### Installing
  96
  97 Simply copy the script in your $PATH and make it executable, something like this should work:
  98
  99 ```bash
 100 mv notes.sh ~/bin/
 101 chmod 755 ~/bin/notes.sh
 102 ```
 103
 104 Adapt to your needs as you see fit.
 105
 106 ### Vision
 107
 108 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.
 109
 110 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.
 111
 112 ### TO DO
 113
 114  * add a way to search the notes
 115  * add a way to display a note without running vim
 116  * markdown?
 117         - maybe implement an export feature that builds the html file from the note
 118  * write a bash completion script to enable autocomplete in the shell
 119  * other ideas may come [...]
 120
 121 ### Contributing
 122
 123 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.
 124
 125 ### Mantainer
 126
 127  * [danix](https://danix.xyz) - it's just me, really...
 128
 129 ### LICENSE
 130
 131 > 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/