Ubuntu Manpage: note - a perl script for maintaining notes.

NAME

       note - a perl script for maintaining notes.

SYNPOPSIS

       note [options] [ number [,number...]]

DESCRIPTION

       note is a small console program written in perl, which allows you to manage notes similar
       to programs like "knotes" but from the commandline. Note can use different database-
       backends for notes-storage. It ships with a DBI-based mysql-module(which can also be used
       for other by DBI supported DBMS), another module, which uses a binary file for storage and
       a DBM module.  There are also two modules available which uses a text file.  Note supports
       since version 1.0.0 encryption(IDEA or DES)!

OPTIONS

-c, --config file
Use another config file than the default ~/.noterc.

-l, --list [topic]
Lists all existing notes. If no topic were specified, it will display a list of all
existing topics. See the section TOPICS for details about topics.

-L, --longlist [topic]
The same as -l but prints also the timestamp of the notes.

-t, --topic
Prints a list of all topics as a tree.

-T, --longtopic
Prints the topic-tree with the notes under each topic.

-s, --search string
Searches for <string> trough the notes database. See the section SEARCHING for details
about the search engine.

-e, --edit number
Edit the note with the number <number> using your default editor or the one you
specified in the config file.

-d, --delete number
Delete the note with the number <number>. You can delete multiple notes with one
command. "1-4" deletes the notes 1,2,3,4. And "1,5,7" deletes the specified ones.

-D, --Dump [file | -]
Dumps all notes to the textfile <file>. If <file> is a "-" it will be printed out to
standard output (STDOUT).

-I, --Import file | -
Imports a previously dumped textfile into the note database. Data will be appended by
default. You can also specify a dash note -I - instead of a <file>, which causes
note, silently to read in a dump from STDIN.

-o, --overwrite
Only suitable for use with --Import. Overwrites an existing notedb. Use with care.

-r, --raw
Raw mode, output will not be formatted. Works not in interactive mode, only on cmd-
line for list and display. That means, no colors will be used and no lines or titles.

-i, --interactive
Start note in interactive mode. See the section INTERACTIVE MODE for details on this
mode.

--encrypt cleartext
Encrypt the given clear text string. You would need that if you want to store the
mysql password not in cleartext in the config(if you are using the mysql backend!).

-h, --help
Display this help screen.

-v, --version
Display the version number.

- If you run note just with one dash: note -, then it will read in a new note from STDIN
until EOF. This makes it possible to pipe text into a new note, i.e.:

cat sometextfile | note -

USAGE

GENERAL 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, otherwise 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 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- structure. You can use the command "-t" in this case, which will
display a tree-view of your topic-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".

SEARCHING
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
has.

You can extend the searchstring using AND, OR ( and ) and shell-like wildcards:

$ note -s "moses AND lenin"

or:

$ note -s "(mike OR arnold) AND (jackson OR schwarzenegger)"

If note finds a note, which first line is a topic, then it will display it's second line.

These rules apply for the interactive search too.

You need to know, that note searches for the expression in every note. In other words,
"moses AND lenin" searches for an occurence of "moses" and "lenin" in ONE note. Or, if you
are looking for "mike OR daniel", then it searches for an occurence of "mike" or daniel"
in ONE note. Thus a note with the text "mike oldfield" will match that search.

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:

B</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.

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:

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!

INTERACTIVE MODE
If you start note with the commandline flag -i, then it starts with an interactive
interface. It will start with a listing under the default top-topic ("/"). You can enter
the name of a topic to change to that topic. This works similar to a filesystem structure.
The current topic will be displayed on the top of the screen.

The following commands are available:

L [topic]
This command lists all notes with a timestamp. If you specify a topic, it will only
list the notes under this topic. If you are under a certain subtopic, then it will
only display the notes under this topic.

l [topic]
This commands behaves similar to L but it does not display the timestamp. You can
achieve the same result by simply pressing enter at any time.

N You can create a new note by simply pressing N or n. You favorite editor will be
started and you can enter your note text. If you are already under a topic then this
new note will automatically go to this topic. note adds an additional line to the top
of the note with the topic. But you can of course specify your own topic.

Note will tell you which number it has assigned to the newly created note.

E number
By entering E or e and a note-number you can edit an existing note using your favorite
editor. This way you can also move an existing note from one topic to another one by
editing the first line of the note.

D number
E or e deletes one or more existing note(s). It requires a note number or a set of
note numbers. 1-5 and 1,7,9 are possible values. After one or more notes has been
deleted note will recount all remaining notes. Say if you delete 1 and 2, then 3 will
become 1, 4 will become 5 and so forth.

S [expression]
You can search for the occurence of a text in your notes-database with the command S
or s. If you omit an expression note will ask you for one.

If your search criteria matches on exactly one entry, note will display that note
entry instead of displaying its number.

T This prints a tree-view of your topic-structure. T displays the tree with notes, t
displays just the topics without notes.

C It is possible to change note's behavior at runtime. Specify the parameter you'd like
to modify followed by equalsign and the new value. Use with care! However, database
related parameters cannot be changed at runtime. Entering just "c" without parameters
displays the customizable variables.

cd topic
Change the actual topic under which you are. This works identical like just entering
the topic but it has some advantages. You can enter cd .. if you want to go one level
up in the topic-structure. And you can enter cd / to go to the top of the structure.
You can always leave out the 'cd' keyword too.

Additional it is possible to enter a note-number instead of a topic name. For this
feature to be active you need to set the config option ShortCd to 1 or yes. If you use
a number and the note with this number is under a certain topic then you will "cd" to
this topic. This allows you to do kind of jumps over multiple levels of topics.

If is possible to abbreviate a topic. This works only if the abbreviation matches on
one single topic. If it matches more than one topic then the available ones will be
suggested.

? or h
Display a short help screen.

Q Quit note.

BACKUP
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 useful, 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 this do?! Step by step:

• note -D - creates a note-database dump and prints it out to stantdard output.

• | 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.

• note -o -I - imports a note-database dump from standard input and overwrites an
existing database.

Before you use the -o switch, I consider you to make a backup!

BACKUP FILE FORMAT

Caution: since version 1.3.8 note uses a new file format for backups: YAML. The old format
is only supported by the -I option to import old backups. New backups are always created
as YAML files. See YAML.

FORMATING
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 colorizing. 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 ends 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 "FormatText" 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}}
hidden: //word//

The text will be formatted using the actually note-color.

The hidden formatting will use blue forground and blue background to hide a string from
the terminal, which is useful for passwords.

If you set "FormatText" to simple then the formatting can be done this way instead:

bold: *word*
underlined: _word_
inverse: {word}
hidden: /word/

ENCRYPTION

       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 are 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!

CONFIGURATION

       You can use a configuration file with note but it is not required.  Note will use default
       values if there is no config.

       The default config file is ~/.noterc. You may specify another one with the commandline
       flag --config.

       Comments start with #, empty lines will be ignored.

       To turn on an option, set it to: 1, on or yes.

       To turn off an option, set it to: 0, off or no.

       An option consists of an atribute-value pair separated by minimum one space (more spaces
       and/or tabs are allowed) and an optional equal sign in between.

       Variable names are case in-sensitive.

       For a detailed explanation of each possible parameter take a look at the supplied sample
       configuration file in config/noterc.

AUTHOR

       T.v.Dein <tlinden@cpan.org>

VERSION

       1.3.20