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note 1.0.7 by Thomas Linden, 27/06/2000
=======================================
Introduction
============
This is a small console program written in
perl, which allows you to manage notes similar
to programs like "knotes" from commandline.
There are currently three different database backends,
which you can use with note:
o NOTEDB::binary - this is the default backend
and uses a binary file to store your notes.
o NOTEDB::mysql - this backend uses a mysql
database to store your notes. You can switch
easily to another DBMS since this module uses
the Perl standard module "DBI" for database-
access. See below for more info on this topic!
o NOTEDB::dbm - this module uses two DBM files
for data storage and requires the module DB_FILE,
which is part of the perl standard distribution.
See below for more details about the DBM module.
Where to get?
=============
By now at
http://www.daemon.de/software.html
or
ftp://www.0c49.org/pub/scip/note/
You may also try your nearest tucows mirror.
Features
========
o Three different database backends, mysql(DBI), dbm, binary(bin file).
o Commandline interface using the standard perl module
Getopt::Long, which allows you to use short or long
command-line options.
o Interactive interface(pure ascii), the following functions
are available in interactive mode: list, display, topic,
delete, edit, help.
o Highly confiurable using a perlish configfile ~/.noterc.
although it is configurable it is not required, note can
run without a configfile using useful default presets.
o Colourized output is supported using ASCII Escape-Sequences.
o The user can customize the color for each item.
o Data can be stored in various different database backends,
since all database access is excluded from the program itself
in perl modules.
o Notes can be deleted, edited and you can search trough your notes.
o Notes can be categorized. Each category(topic) can contain multiple
notes and even more sup-topics. There is no limitation about
sub topics.
o You can view all notes in a list and it is possible only to view
notes under a certain topic.
o There is a tree-view, which allows you to get an overview of your
topic-hierarchy.
o Notes can be encrypted using DES or IDEA algorythms and Crypt::CBC.
o You can dump the contents of your note database into a plain text
file, which can later be imported. Imports can be appended or it can
overwrite an existing database (-o).
o Note has scripting capabilities, you can create a new note by piping
another commands output to note, you can also import a notedump from
stdin as well es duming to stdout instead a file. Additional, there
is an option --raw available, which prints everything out completely
without formatting.
o It can be installed without root-privileges.
o Last, a while ago a user stated: "... it simply does, what it says ..."
Requirements
============
You need the following things:
o perl installed (5.004x)
o The module IO::Seekable and Fcntl, which should be
already installed with your perl distributuion if
you want to use the binary database backend.
o DBI module and DBI::mysql if you want to use the
mysql database backend.
o The module DB_FILE if you want to use the DBM module.
o Getopt::Long (part of perl std ditribution)
Installation
============
Unpack the tar-ball and issue the command:
$ perl Makefile.PL
It will ask you a few questions about file destinations.
The script will find itself the proper destinations for
the files. So, if you agree with it, simply press ENTER.
However, you may decide to use other destinations. In this
case, enter it, when asked. This maybe usefull, if you are
installing it in your ome-directory and if you are not root!
For installation instructions for the mysql database installation
see mysql/README.
If want to use another SQL database, i.e. postgresql then set
the option "DbDriver" to the name of the responding DBI-driver
and create a symlink of this name like this:
/usr/lib/perl5/siteperl/NOTEDB $ ln -s mysql.pm oracle.pm
The functionality is the same, but not the name!
The default binary file backend does not need any special installation
procedure, you need only to spceify a filename in your config file.
The DBM backend(NOTEDB::dbm) requires the existence of a directory,
which you must specify in your config using the option "DbName".
Configuration
=============
This version of note doesn't neccessarily need
a configuration file. But you can have one and change
some default values. Take a look to the file config/noterc
provided with this tarball. There are detailed instructions
about every available parameter.
Simply copy this file into your home-directory and name it
.noterc
If you decide not to use the default database backend (a binary
file), you will *need* a configuration!
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 (the length is by default limited to 4096 bytes,
which you can change from your config file if you are using
the binary backend, therwise there is no limitation).
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. If topic-support is
turned on (which is by default), then all subtopics under the
current topic will be displayed first.
If you want to get a listing of all
If you want to see the timestamps, use "-L" instead of "-l".
Read more about topics below in the section "Topics".
You can also specify the topic which notes you want to see:
"-l mytopic" does the trick.
Additional, you might want to get an overview of your topic-
strcture. You can use the command "-t" in this case, which
will display a tree-view of your tpic-structure. You can
use the command "-T" if you want to see the notes under each
topic too. "-T" will also show the number of each note.
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 a note in the middle or the beginning of
the database will be deleted, note will recount the other
existent notes. For example there are 3 notes, number 1, 2
and 3. If you delete number 2, then number 3 will become
number 2.
You can also make use of the extended delete-syntax:
To delete note 1 and 2, use "-d 1,2"
To delete note 1,2 and 3, use "-d 1-3".
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.
Instead of using note from the commandline you can use the
interactive mode. Run note with "note -i". If you need assistance
type "?" or "h" at the ">" prompt. The interactive mode
provides you the most functions of note.
You can also dump the contents of your note-database into a
ASCII-textfile(-D). You can use this file later to import it into
your note-database(-I). This is usefull, if you want quickly trans-
fer your notes from one host to another (i.e. you could mail
your note-dump form your office to home and import it there
for further use).
The dumps from the two versions of note are in the same format.
Using dumps it is also possible to reinitialize your database. You
can use the "-o" switch whcih causes note to overwrite your existing
database. This is very handy if you changed heavily your config. And
it is required, if you changed: encryption, db-driver, (binary-format)
and the password. You can use the following command for reinitializing:
$ note -D - | note -o -I -
What the hell, does it?! Step by step:
o "note -D -" creates a note-database dump and prints it out
to stantdard output.
o "|" this is the shell's pipe command. It takes the output
of the left program and gives it to the right program as standard
input.
o "note -o -I -" imports a note-database dump from standard input
and overwrites an existing database.
Before you use the "-o" switch, I consider yuo to make a backup!
Topics
======
If topic-support is turned on (which is by default), the various
notes are sorted under various topics. There is no special database
field for the topic. Instead the topic will be stored right in the
note.
If the first line of your note contains some text bordered by slashes
(or whatever you prefer, set "TopicSeparator" in your config! default is slash),
then note will consider it as the topic of this certain note. For examle:
/TodoList/
If you are using topics, no data after the topic is allowed, if there
is any text, note will consider it as a subtopic! Therefore, don't for-
get to put a newline after the topic-line.
If you are in interactive mode, you can "cd" to a different note simply
by typing it's name at the command-prompt, or you can use the well-known
syntax "cd topic".
The list-command will only show you notes under this topic. If you create
a new note, it will automagically inserted under the current topic (note
will prepend the string "/topicname/" to the text of your note).
You can create at any time from any point a new topic. Just create a new
note and type the name of the new topic bordered by slashes (or TopicSeparator)
at the first line of this note. After saving, there will be available a
new topic with one note in it.
You can create as many subtopics as you like, the format is similar to a
filesystem-path. An example, say, you want to create such a structure:
(root - top level)
|
|----test
| |----subtopic
| | |--note 1
| | |--note 2
| |
| |--note 4
|
|--note 3
Then you may create those 4 new notes:
--- snip ---
/test/subtopic/
note 1
--- snip ---
/test/subtopic/
note 2
--- snip ---
note 3
--- snip ---
/test/
note 4
--- snip ---
I hope, you got the point ;-)
If a note does not contain the "magic" /topic/ construction on the first
line, it will be listed under the "root" of note, that is the point you are
at the startup of note.
You can subsequently move a note without a topic to a certain topic. Simply
edit it and insert at the first line the above mentioned construction.
Note: Please don't forget the prepending and appending a slash of a topic.
You will get strange results without it!
Formatting of notes
===================
Another very nice feature is the possibility to format the note-text (as much as
shell allows it). First, you can use the note-internal "magic-strings" for color-
izing. Those strings looks much like HTML:
"<green>here is a green line of text</green> no more green."
As you see, the beginning of another color starts with a tag(kinda) of the color
<colorname> and ens with an end tag </colorname>.
The following colors are available:
black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white.
Beside colorizing text, you can also create bold or underlined text! If you decide
to use this (additional) feature, you need to set the Config-Option "FormatNotes"
to 1 which turns it on.
Usage is very straightforward, if a word (a word is defined as some text with at least
one space surrounded) is between a magic mark-character. Here are the available
things, you can do:
bold: **word**
underlined: __word__
inverse: {{word}}
The text will be formatted using the actually note-color.
Scripting
=========
Since version 1.0.3 there are some additions which allows you to use note in
scripts, without user-interaction. You might run a special script as cronjob,
which adds a note under a certain topic every week. Or the like.
Here are the possibilies you have:
You can add a new note through a pipe, another commands output becomes
note's input:
$ cat /var/spool/news/daily | note -
This command adds the content of a file "daily" as a new note. Note the dash.
it stands for "Standard Input". Note will be completely silent and it will not
ask for something.
Suppose you are using encryption. You might wonder, how note will get your
passphrase? The solution: You need to set up an environment variable which
contains the password:
$ export NOTE_PASSWD=secret
If the variable is present, note will not ask you for a passphrase!
Another thingy you might find useful is the -r (--raw) command-line flag. This
turns note into raw mode , which means it will only print the
data without any formatting. Raw mode is available for list and display,
since it makes no sense, interactive mode doe not support raw mode.
Format of the notedb (binary backend)
=====================================
The database where the notes are stored is a binary fixed record length file
of the following format:
It consists of three fixed length fields per entry. The fields
have the following types:
o Number: Integer (1 byte)
o Note: String (default 1024 bytes)
o Time: String (default 64 bytes)
You can change the sizes of the fields "Note" and "Time" in
the configfile "~/.noterc". If it does not exist, the above
defaults will be used.
If the data to be stored is smaller then the size of the field,
it will be filled with ZERO's ("\0"). The Note and the Time
fields will be uuencoded before storage. Of course, this is
no security, never mind...
The note-database (mysql backend)
=================================
The sql-database for the mysql version has the following design:
+--------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+--------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| number | int(10) | | PRI | 0 | auto_increment |
| note | text | YES | | NULL | |
| date | text | YES | | NULL | |
+--------+---------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
Format of the ASCII-dump file (note -D)
=======================================
The dump of a note-database (if you use note -D) has the following
format:
--- snip ---
Number: 1
Timestamp: 14.01.2000 00:25:01
This is a sample text
in a sample note.
Number: 2
Timestamp: 14.01.2000 02:37:40
And this is another sample
of a note.
--- snip ---
You can reimport a dump into your note-database with "note -I <file>"
Existing notes will not overwritten, note will append the imported
data to your note-database.
Security
========
If you are using the MySQL driver, refer to the mysql
manual for more informations about security of mysql databases:
http://www.mysql.org/Manual_chapter/manual_Privilege_system.html
If you are using notes proprietary binary driver, then
the permission 0600 of the file "~/.notedb" is strongly required!
Additional, you can turn on encryption from the config file.
Simply set UseEncryption to 1. Please note, that you need
to decide, if you want to use encryption before the first use
of note! If have already a note database and want to "migrate"
to encryption, I suggest you to follow the directions in the
file UPGRADE!
You can choose from different encryption algorythms. The default
is IDEA, but DES or BLOWFISH is also possible. You need to have
installed the following additional perl-modules on your system:
MD5
Crypt::IDEA
Crypt::DES
Crypt::CBC
After turning on encryption, note will ask you for a passphrase
everytime it runs! It will *not* store this passphrase!
So, don't forget it! Be careful!
Once note have encrypted some data using this passphrase, you
cannot simply switch to another passphrase, because all data
within the database needs to be encrypted using the same passphrase!
If you want to change the passphrase for any reason, please read
the file UPGRADE and follow it's directions!
Someday I will add a "change passwd" function, which will do all
these things for you. Someday, I said...
For now you can use the "re-initialze database" functionality, mentioned
earlier in the "Usage" section (at the end of the section).
Note: To make sure, the encrypted data can be stored properly,
it will be uuencoded after encryption.
Note: *If* you forgot your passphrase and *if* you don't have
a backup of your database without encryption, PLEASE
don't bother me with "helpme" emails! If you don't know
the phrase, then the data can't be decrypted. Even if it
is possible - I am not responsible for that!
Note: How does note know, if the passphrase was incorrect? It uses the
specified phrase and encodes at least one note (the first one)
and checks if the decrypted timestamp field matches the following
expression: "^\d+\.\d+". Translated from perl to human:
the timestamp must begin with minimum one digit (possibly more),
followed by one dot, followed by minimum one digit (possibly more).
Chances are bad, that a wrong passphrase will cause a timestamp
matching the rule above. If you have other experiences, please
drop me a mail!
Comments
========
You can send any comments to Thomas Linden <tom@daemon.de>.
If you find a bug or if you have a suggestion for improvement of the script
feel free to send me a patch ;-)
License
=======
This script comes with absolutely NO WARRANTY. It is distributed under the
terms of the GNU General Public License. Use it at your own risk :-)
You can read the complete GPL at: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
Author and Copyright
====================
The author is Thomas Linden.
note is Copyright of Thomas Linden.
Contributors / Credits
======================
Shouts to those guys who helped me to enhance note: THANKS A LOT!
Jens Heunemann <jens.heunemann@consol.de> - sub tree.
Peter Palmreuther - various additions.
And many other people who sended bug reports, feature requests. If you feel that
I forgot your name in this list, then please send me an email and I'll add you.
Last changed
============
27/06/2000