3 ## a simple note taking script written in bash
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.
7 It's a simple (enough) bash script, the only dependence (yet) is [jq](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/).
9 here's all the functions that are now available:
16 -h | --help : This help text
17 -p | --plain : Output is in plain text
18 (without this option the output is formatted)
19 (this option must precede all others)
20 -l | --list : List existing notes
21 -a | --add=["<title>"] : Add new note
22 -e | --edit=[<note>] : Edit note
23 -d | --delete=[<note> | all] : Delete single note or all notes at once
24 -s | --show=[<note>] : Display note using your favourite PAGER
25 -r | --restore=[<dir>] : Restore a previous backup from dir
26 -v | --version : Print version
27 --userconf : Export User config file
28 --backup [<dest>] : Backup your data in your destination folder
29 --showconf : Display running options
30 --sync : Sync notes to git repository
32 if a non option is passed and is a valid note ID, the note will be displayed.
35 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.
39 When you first run it, notes.sh will create all the files it needs to operate.
40 By default the directory will be populated in `~/.local/share/bash-notes`.
42 If you want to modify the predefined settings, you can export a user configuration file by running
48 And you'll have all your settings in `~/.config/bash-notes.rc`. This file will be sourced every time you run the script.
50 You can change all these settings by editing the file:
56 TERMINAL=/usr/bin/alacritty
57 # Git binary only used if $USEGIT is true - See below
59 # add options for your terminal. Remember to add the last option to execute
60 # your editor program, otherwise the script will fail.
61 # see example in the addnote function
62 TERM_OPTS="--class notes --title notes -e "
63 # Setting PAGER here overrides whatever is set in your default shell
64 # comment this option to use your default pager if set in your shell.
67 # set this to true to have output in plain text
68 # or use the -p option on the command line before every other option
70 # base directory for program files
71 BASEDIR=~/.local/share/bash-notes
72 # notes database in json format
74 # directory containing the actual notes
75 NOTESDIR=${BASEDIR}/notes
79 # If you want to store your notes in a git repository set this to true
81 # Address of your remote repository. Without this GIT will refuse to work
83 # How long should we wait (in seconds) between sync on the git remote. Default 3600 (1 hour)
85 # The name of this client. If left empty, defaults to the output of hostname
89 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.
91 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.
97 * write a new note `--add="Your note title"` or in short `-a"Your note title"`
98 - EG. `notes.sh --add="this is a nice note"`
99 If the title is left empty, two random words will be assigned as title.
101 * modify an existing note `--edit=[note ID]`, short version `-e[note ID]`
102 - EG. `notes.sh --edit=7` will let you modify note n. 7
104 * delete a note `--delete=[note ID]`, or `-d[note ID]`
105 - EG. `notes.sh --delete=7` will delete note n. 7
107 * delete all notes `--delete=all`, or `-dall`
109 * list existing notes `--list` or `-l` in short
111 * display a note `--show=[note ID]`, or `-s[note ID]`.
113 It's also possible to simply pass `[note ID]` as an argument to the script and the corresponding note will be displayed.
119 The *note id* is assigned when the note is created, and that's how you refer to the note in the program. You can see the IDs assigned to each note when listing them.
121 ##### Plain listing vs "colorful"
123 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:
129 [ID] [TITLE] [CREATED]
130 [1] ciao nota 25/03/2023 18:53 +0100CET
131 [2] hello there 25/03/2023 19:02 +0100CET
134 And here's the same listing with the plain option:
138 1 - ciao nota - 25/03/2023 18:53 +0100CET
139 2 - hello there - 25/03/2023 19:02 +0100CET
142 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.
143 The plain option must precede all other options or it won't work. I'll try and fix this behavior in the future.
145 I'd love to implement some kind of searching functionality, but I'll have to look into that.
149 Since version 0.3, this script can also handle backups of all your notes, you can specify a backup folder with
152 notes.sh --backup=/some/dir
155 and the script will create the directory if it doesn't exists and backup all your data, including the rc file if you made one.
157 If you want to restore a backup you can do so with
160 notes.sh --restore=/some/dir
163 And the script will take care of putting everything back where it belongs.
165 > ##### A bit of a warning on restoring backups
167 > *Keep in mind that all your existing notes will be overwritten in the process.*
171 Starting with version 0.4, git support has been added, so now you can sync your notes to a git remote. The program lets you specify a few options like:
172 - your git executable
174 - how long before syncing again to the remote
175 - a nickname for the computer where this script is running.
176 This is helpful if you want to sync your notes on multiple computers, to know from which client something has appened to git.
180 Simply copy the script in your $PATH and make it executable, something like this should work:
184 chmod 755 ~/bin/notes.sh
187 Adapt to your needs as you see fit.
189 The first time you run the script it will take care of creating all the files and folders it needs in the standard directories.
193 If the script doesn't work for you for some reasons, you can turn on debugging by running the script like this:
196 DEBUG=true notes.sh [options]
199 And then you'll be able to check all that happened in the log file at `/tmp/debug_bash-notes.log`
203 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.
205 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.
209 * add a way to search the notes
210 * ~~add a way to display a note without running vim~~ *(done in version 0.3)*
212 * maybe implement an export feature that builds the html or pdf file from the note
214 * write a bash completion script to enable autocomplete in the shell
215 * other ideas may come [...]
219 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.
223 * v0.4 - GIT support. Some UX improvements
224 - Sync all your notes to a git remote.
226 * v0.3 - backups management. Some UX improvements
227 - create and restore backups of all your notes and settings.
228 - display notes using predefined PAGER variable or define your own program to use.
230 * v0.2 - debugging implemented
231 - you can now generate a debug log in case something doesn't work
232 * v0.1 - first public upload
233 - all major functionalities are present and working
237 * [danix](https://danix.xyz) - it's just me, really...
241 > 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/