Ubuntu Manpage: tomboy-ng - manage a collection of notes using a simple GUI markup

NAME

       tomboy-ng - manage a collection of notes using a simple GUI markup

SYNOPSIS

       tomboy-ng       [-h     --help]     [--dark-theme]     [--debug-sync]      [--debug-index]
       [--debug-log=LOGFILE]  [-l   --lang=CC]   [--config-dir=PATH_to_DIR]   [-o   PATH_to_NOTE]
       [--open-note=PATH_to_NOTE]     [PATH_to_NOTE]     [-t    --import-txt=PATH_to_FILE]    [-m
       --import-md=PATH_to_FILE] [-n --import-note=PATH_to_NOTE] [--title-fname]

DESCRIPTION

tomboy-ng is a rewrite of the much loved Tomboy Notes. It runs on Linux, Windows and
MacOS. It is file compatible with Tomdroid and GNote (>=v0.30). Tomboy-ng notes
support Bold, Italic, Strikethrough, Highlight and Underline in four sizes. It will sync
notes with other systems using Tomboy's File Sync model and to remote servers using sshfs.
It will Sync with a Github account, either all your notes or just ones in the SyncGithub
notebook. You can edit notes, from almost any device with a browser in markdown format.

tomboy-ng has built in systems to take snapshots of your notes for safe keeping, to import
and export notes in different formats, spell checking means to group your notes into
"notebooks" for easy management.

Many users will want to have tomboy-ng start at logon time and leave it running
indefinitly. When running, it will put an Icon in the System Tray and you can interact
with it via that Icon. However, some Gnome 3 based Linux distros have problems initially
with the System Tray Icon, on such limited systems, see the project wiki page mentioned
below.

On Windows and Mac tomboy-ng uses native libraries, on Linux, tomboy-ng comes in both
GTK2 and Qt5 version and many systems have almost all the necessary libraries pre
installed.

While options below are familiar to Linux users, Mac and Windows users may like to look at
some examples further down to see how to use them.

DARK THEME

       The GTK2 version follows the system colour theme. However, the Qt5  version  (eg  Bookworm
       and later) requires some instruction from the user. Using the --dark-theme is simplest and
       probably the least satisfactory approach, the note edit screen  is  a  dark  theme,  other
       windows  vary.  A better Qt5 approach is to set an environment variable that instructs the
       app  to  follow  the  existing  (generally  gtk2)  theme.  You   may   need   to   install
       qt5-style-plugins  package.  Either  add  the variable ahead of the tomboy-ng command line
       like this -

       QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=gtk2  tomboy-ng

       or, a  more  general  solution,  applying  to  all  Qt5  apps,  add  that  var  to  either
       /etc/environment (requires root or, simpler in a .xsessionrc file in your home dir.

       cd ; echo "export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=gtk2" >> .xsessionrc

       Probably  need  to  log out and back in again. A more comprehensive approach is to install
       the qt5ct package and give your Qt5 applications the same environment  variable  as  above
       but  set to qt5ct (instead of gtk2). This will allow you to choose one of the qt5ct colour
       themes or alter a copy with colours of your choice. The qt5ct command has a nice GUI.

       On Windows, tomboy-ng  will follow the system for Dark Theme but only for  the  note  edit
       window. Using the --dark-theme switch is not recommended.

       On MacOS, tomboy-ng is believed to follow the system theme.

OPTIONS

-h --help
Print some help and exit.

-v --version
Print the tomboy-ng version and exit.

--dark-theme
Makes the note edit windows a reasonable dark theme (but you the system theme).
Other part of the app are not dark. This option may be removed in future releases.

--no-splash
Do not show the small tomboy-ng splash screen at startup. However, if an error is
detected the splash screen is always shown.

--lang=CC
Tomboy-ng normally picks up its language from the OS and does an auto switch.
However, its possible to force a language at startup using the two letter language
code, ie es for spanish, nl for dutch, fr for French and uk for Ukranian. If you
would like to help translate tomboy-ng, please, please get in touch.

-c, --config-dir=PATH_to_DIR
Create or use an alternative config. That config could, for example, specify an
alternative location to store notes and sync against a different file sync
repository.

-o, --open-note=PATH_to_NOTE
Open a note in single note mode. In this mode, a separate process runs, it does not
have access to the normal notes location, nor sync but can read, display and write
back to a stand alone note. If the note name does not exist, a new note is created.
If the note name specifies a plain text file or a rtf file, the contents of that
file will be imported into a new note and that note will be named as specified on
the command line but with an extension of ".note". In this mode, the note remains
in its existing location, it is not moved to the tomboy-ng notes location,
it is not synced, nor searched by tomboy-ng in its normal mode. Note that the
switch (-o or --open-note) is optional, "tomboy-ng some.note" will works as well.

-t --import-txt=PATH_to_FILE
Import the indicated plain text file into the Note Repository, converting it to
note format. The first line of the file will be used as the title unless
--title-fname is also specified in which case the file name will become the title.
If another instance of tomboy-ng is running, its notified of the import and the
note will appear as the newest.

-m --import-md=PATH_to_FILE
Import the indicated markdown file into the Note Repository, converting it to note
format. The first line of the file will be used as the title unless --title-fname
is also specified in which case the file name will become the title. The
conversion assumes a CommonMark version of markdown and not all aspects of even
that are supported. If another instance of tomboy-ng is running, its notified of
the import and the note will appear as the newest.

-n --import-note=PATH_to_NOTE
Import the indicated Tomboy Note format file into the Note Repository, the note
itself is not changed, its just copied in and, if necessary, a GUID style file name
is assigned. The last change date of the note is retained. If another instance of
tomboy-ng is running, its notified of the import.

--title-fname
Applies only when importing a text or markdown file, determines that the filename
will be used as the note title instead of the default first line of the file.

--debug-sync --debug-index --debug-spell
Generate a lot of logging information on the console during a sync, index or spell
process, each one relating to a particular field. You can combine or even use all
three. Intended for debugging. The debug information is written to the console in
Linux and can be captured to a file on all platforms, see below.

--debug-log=LOGFILE
Direct debug info to a file, this is necessary to see that output on Windows and
Mac and sometimes useful on Linux. LOGFILE is a filename and a (writable) path to
that filename. See section below on debugging.

FURTHER HELP

       tomboy-ng comes bundled with several read only notes that provide help on topics  such  as
       keyboard  short  cuts, setting up a sync system, using the built in calculator and keeping
       your notes safe.

       The     project's     wiki     also     has     extensive      information      available.
       https://github.com/tomboy-notes/tomboy-ng/wiki

DEBUGGING

tomboy-ng generally does not write debug output unless something has gone wrong but it
does accepts a couple of debug switches as noted above. They will cause detailed progress
reports relating to their section of the application to be written to the console.
However, Windows and Mac do not, for this purpose, have a console. But can be told to
capture this log info to a file using another command line switch or by setting an env
variable that specifies a file name. Please ensure you have permission to write to the
location specified.

tomboy-ng --debug-log=%userprofile%\debug.txt --debug-sync

set tomboy-ng_debuglog=c:\%userprofile%\debug.txt

Mac users can do something similar :

open /Applications/tomboy-ng.app --args "--debug-log=$HOME/tomboy-ng.log"
"--debug-sync"

Linux users who need a debug logfile can also :

tomboy-ng --debug-sync --debug-log=$HOME/tomboy-ng.log

Windows users should do something like this -

Rightclick the startbutton and select "run". In the field, enter this command line
exactly as show (including the inverted commas) -

"C:\Program Files\tomboy-ng\tomboy-ng.exe" --debug-index
--debug-log=%userprofile%\Desktop\tomboy-log.txt

Press enter, tomboy-ng should start up normally. Close it. A file called tomboy-log.txt
will have been created on your desktop.

If you intend to post such a log file to (eg) the Tomboy help system, do please check
through it first to ensure there is nothing there you don't want the world to see.

FILES

       On Linux, notes are stored (by default) in $HOME/.local/share/tomboy-ng On  Linux,  config
       is stored (by default) in $HOME/.config/tomboy-ng

BUGS

       Please send bug reports to the tomboy-ng Github Issues system, see above.

                                                                                      tomboy-ng()