--- /dev/null
+---
+title: "Bash Notes"
+date: 2023-04-07T11:20:20+02:00
+draft: true
+type: article
+author: "danilo 'danix' m."
+format: "post"
+excerpt: "A 'sticky notes' kind of app, written in bash for all shell entusiasts."
+featured_image: "/img/default_article.jpg"
+categories:
+ - "bash"
+ - "notes"
+ - "linux"
+ - "diy"
+tags:
+
+---
+
+# bash notes
+
+## a simple note taking script written in bash
+
+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.
+
+It's a simple (enough) bash script, the only dependence (yet) is [jq](https://stedolan.github.io/jq/).
+
+here's all the functions that are now available:
+
+```bash
+Usage:
+ notes.sh [PARAMS] ...
+
+notes parameters are:
+ -h | --help : This help text
+ -p | --plain : Output is in plain text
+ (without this option the output is formatted)
+ (this option must precede all others)
+ -l | --list : List existing notes
+ -a | --add=["<title>"] : Add new note
+ -e | --edit=[<note>] : Edit note
+ -d | --delete=[<note> | all] : Delete single note or all notes at once
+ -s | --show=[<note>] : Display note using your favourite PAGER
+ -r | --restore=[<dir>] : Restore a previous backup from dir
+ -v | --version : Print version
+ --userconf : Export User config file
+ --backup [<dest>] : Backup your data in your destination folder
+
+if a non option is passed and is a valid note ID, the note will be displayed.
+```
+
+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.
+
+### Settings
+
+When you first run it, notes.sh will create all the files it needs to operate.
+By default the directory will be populated in `~/.local/share/bash-notes`.
+
+If you want to modify the predefined settings, you can export a user configuration file by running
+
+```bash
+notes.sh --userconf
+```
+
+And you'll have all your settings in `~/.config/bash-notes.rc`. This file will be sourced every time you run the script.
+
+You can change all these settings by editing the file:
+
+```bash
+# Binaries to use
+JQ=${JQ:-/usr/bin/jq}
+EDITOR=${EDITOR:-/usr/bin/vim}
+TERMINAL=${TERMINAL:-/usr/bin/alacritty}
+# add options for your terminal. Remember to add the last option to execute
+# your editor program, otherwise the script will fail.
+# see example in the addnote function
+TERM_OPTS="--class notes --title notes -e "
+# Setting PAGER here overrides whatever is set in your default shell
+# comment this option to use your default pager if set in your shell.
+PAGER=${PAGER:-/usr/bin/more}
+
+# set this to true to have output in plain text
+# or use the -p option on the command line before every other option
+PLAIN=false
+# base directory for program files
+BASEDIR=${BASEDIR:-~/.local/share/bash-notes}
+# notes database in json format
+DB=${BASEDIR}/db.json
+# directory containing the actual notes
+NOTESDIR=${BASEDIR}/notes
+```
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+### Functionalities
+
+bash-notes can:
+
+ * write a new note `--add="Your note title"` or in short `-a"Your note title"`
+
+ * modify an existing note `--edit=[note ID]`, short version `-e[note ID]`
+
+ * delete a note `--delete=[note ID]`, or `-d[note ID]`
+
+ * delete all notes `--delete=all`, or `-dall`
+
+ * list existing notes `--list` or `-l` in short
+
+ * display a note `--show=[note ID]`, or `-s[note ID]`.
+
+ It's also possible to simply pass [note ID] as an argument to the script and the corresponding note will be displayed.
+
+ ```bash
+ notes.sh 1
+ ```
+
+The *note id* is assigned when the note is created, and that's how you refer to the note in the program.
+
+##### Plain listing vs "colorful"
+
+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:
+
+```bash
+notes.sh -l
+listing all notes
+
+[ID] [TITLE] [CREATED]
+[1] ciao nota 25/03/2023 18:53 +0100CET
+[2] hello there 25/03/2023 19:02 +0100CET
+```
+
+And here's the same listing with the plain option:
+
+```bash
+notes.sh -pl
+1 - ciao nota - 25/03/2023 18:53 +0100CET
+2 - hello there - 25/03/2023 19:02 +0100CET
+```
+
+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.
+The plain option must precede all other options or it won't work. I'll try and fix this behavior in the future.
+
+I'd love to implement some kind of searching functionality, but I'll have to look into that.
+
+##### Backups
+
+Since version 0.3, this script can also handle backups of all your notes, you can specify a backup folder with
+
+```bash
+notes.sh --backup=/some/dir
+```
+
+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.
+
+If you want to restore a backup you can do so with
+
+```bash
+notes.sh --restore=/some/dir
+```
+
+And the script will take care of putting everything back where it belongs.
+
+> ##### A bit of a warning on restoring backups
+>
+> *Keep in mind that all your existing notes will be overwritten in the process.*
+
+### Installing
+
+Simply copy the script in your $PATH and make it executable, something like this should work:
+
+```bash
+mv notes.sh ~/bin/
+chmod 755 ~/bin/notes.sh
+```
+
+Adapt to your needs as you see fit.
+
+The first time you run the script it will take care of creating all the files and folders it needs in the standard directories.
+
+### Debugging
+
+If the script doesn't work for you for some reasons, you can turn on debugging by running the script like this:
+
+```bash
+DEBUG=true notes.sh [options]
+```
+
+And then you'll be able to check all that happened in the log file at `/tmp/debug_bash-notes.log`
+
+### Vision
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+### TO DO
+
+* add a way to search the notes
+* ~~add a way to display a note without running vim~~ *(done in version 0.3)*
+* markdown support?
+ * maybe implement an export feature that builds the html or pdf file from the note
+ (pandoc??)
+* write a bash completion script to enable autocomplete in the shell
+* other ideas may come [...]
+
+### Contributing
+
+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.
+
+### ChangeLog
+
+ * v0.3 - backups management. Some UX improvements
+ * create and restore backups of all your notes and settings.
+ * display notes using predefined PAGER variable or define your own program to use.
+
+ * v0.2 - debugging implemented
+ - you can now generate a debug log in case something doesn't work
+ * v0.1 - first public upload
+ - all major functionalities are present and working
+
+### Mantainer
+
+ * [danix](https://danix.xyz) - it's just me, really...
+
+### LICENSE
+
+> 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/
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