note/README

note 0.1 by Thomas Linden, 1999


Introduction
============

	This is a small console program written in
	perl, which allows you to manage notes similar
	to programs like "knotes" from commandline.

	You can add, edit, list and delete as many notes
	as you want. The notes are stored in a mysql
	database. You might think, "what an overkill...",
	but doing it this way provides some important
	advantages:
		o data integrity
		o no need of another proprietary file format
		o no new engine to maintain this file format
		o speed
		o portability
		o availability
		  ...


Requirements
============

	You need the following things:
		o perl installed (5.004x)
		o mysql database installed and running
		o Mysql perlmodule (you can find it on 
		  http://www.mysql.org) PLEASE NOTE:
		  It needs the Module "Mysql". Newer versions
		  are DBI, which you can also use to access
		  mysql databases. If you want to use it, you
		  have to rewrite the program. Please let me
		  know, if you did it :-)
		o permissions to create a new database and
		  to write data to this database.



Installation
============

	First, make sure all these things above are ok.
	You can use the script "install.sh" to create a new
	database and the table structure. You might edit 
	the script before running it.

	If you getting trouble, i.e. if you have not the 
	required permissions to do that, please make sure,
	you can. 
	As user root, you have to give your username the 
	neccessary permissions. Please refer to the mysql 
	documentation, how to do that.
	After that repeat the step above.

	As root, copy the perl-script "note" to /usr/bin.

	This should be all.



Configuration
=============

	If you created the database with install.sh, you 
	do not need to do anything further. Simply run
	"note" without any commandline parameters. It will
	create a configfile ~/.noterc for you.
	You might take a look to this file and change something,
	if neccessary.




Usage
=====

	If you don't know, how to run note, try "note -h" first. 
	It will tell you all available commandline options.

	To create a new note, simply run "note". You can enter
	the note (there is no limitation on length of the note).
	End by typing a . on a line itself. note will tell you the 
	number of the note.

	If you want to view the note, type "note 1", if the notenumber
	was 1. 

	If you want to get an overview of all notes, type "note -l".
	You will get a list of all notes, containing the number,
	the first line and the creation date.

	To edit a certain note, type "note -e 1". It will invoke your
	editor (vi or pico). You can edit it, after saving, note
	will store the changed note to the database.

	Of course you can drop a certain note: "note -d 1" deletes
	note number 1.

	If you cannot remember, which note you are looking for, you
	can use the search capability of note: "note -s <searchstring>".
	note will search the whole note database case insensitive for
	an occurence of this string and tell you the number and first-
	line it have.




Comments
========

	You can send any comments to Thomas Linden <tom@daemon.de>.




License
=======

	This program is GPL. 




Author
======

	The author os Thomas Linden.




Last changed
============

	07.11.1999