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 -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/