note/README

note note-0.3 by Thomas Linden, 01/2000


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

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

	This version is completely rewritten and it is
	able to display colored output.

	You can add, edit, list and delete as many notes
	as you want. The notes are stored in a binary
	database. Unlike previous versions of note this
	version don't need a database server. All you need
	is perl and this script (and, of course, some free
	disk space for the file...).



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

	You need the following things:
		o perl installed (5.004x)
		o The module IO::Seekable, which should be 
		  already installed with your perl distributuion.



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

	Simple: Copy it to a place inside your $PATH, 
	probably as root. (for example to /usr/bin).



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 noterc
	provided with this tarball. There are detailed instructions
	about every available parameter.



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 1024 bytes,
	which you can change from your config file).
	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 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.

	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.




Format of the notedb
====================

	The database where the notes are stored is a binary 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...



Security
========

	If you want to protect the notedb against unauthorized persons
	(even root), you might want to use pgp. I use gpg (GNU privacy
	guard), which is compatible to pgp, usage should be similar.
	You could add a function to your .profile or .bashrc or whatever:
	--- snip ---
		function note
		{
			gpg -o ~/.notedb -d ~/.notedb.gpg
			note $1 $2 $3
			gpg -e ~/.notedb --yes -r username
			rm -rf ~/.notedb
		}
	--- snip ---
	You should replace <username> with your real username. After applying
	this function to your .profile, issue the following command:
		"source .profile"
	You shell will reread the file, so you can try it out without the need
	of new login.
	This function assumes, there exists a file called "~/.notedb.gpg",
	therefore you need to encrypt your notedb once before you can use this
	funcion:
		"gpg -e ~/.notedb --yes -r username"
	
	If you don't make use of encryption, I suggest you to chmod it:
		"chmod 600 .notedb"
	So, only you can read the file (and root or any intruder who became root).	



Comments
========

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




License
=======

	This program is GPL. 




Author
======

	The author is Thomas Linden.




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

	09.01.2000