LOG v1.2

A command-line interface for displaying and managing text logs

log is a utility that allows you to easily access, print, search, and edit your text logs and notes. There are several graphical applications (such as GNOME's Tomboy) for managing notes/stickies. However, if you do a lot of work on the command line or have a preferred text editor, graphical apps just don't cut it. log is the command-line alternative that combines a simple and intuitive interface with the power and flexibility of your favorite editor.

Files managed by this utility start with the header #!log and consist of either delimited entries or regular lines, with comments marked by #. A command consists of an optional file argument and a keyword (usually a single letter) for the operation. The file argument names a file found within the directory set by the $LOG_DIR environment variable, or a relative or absolute path to an existing log file. Some examples:

To print the default log:

log p

Print the last entry that contains the case insensitive patterns foo.bar* and baz on the first line:

log pl -i "foo.*bar" "baz"

Print a one-line summary for each of the last 10 entries of the file foo/bar in $LOG_DIR:

log foo/bar o -10

Count the number of entries that contain foo but not bar on the first line:

log c foo :bar

Edit the first entry that contains the pattern bear anywhere:

log ef bear -a

Print a random entry from the recipes log:

log recipes r

Delete the first 4 lines/entries from the log file books in your home directory:

log ~/books d +4

Append a line to movies:

log movies a  Harold and Maude

Append an entry to the default log using input from stdin:

cat foo.txt | log a -

Insert a new line "2 get bacon" in sorted order into the todo log:

log todo s  2 get bacon

Create new log file in $LOG_DIR with entries delimited by ">>":

log n'>>' new

log is the script that provides the interface, while entries.pl does the text processing.

Installation

1. Make entries.pl and log executable and available in one of your $PATH directories.
2. Edit log_completion.sh and set environment variables $LOG_DIR, $EDITOR, and $LOG_EDITOR to your preferred values. If your shell is not bash, set and export those variables in your shell's startup config.

3. Add a line to your .bashrc to source log_completion.sh:

   . /path/to/log_completion.sh

See the examples directory for example log files and scripts.

Dependencies

log and entries.pl run on any POSIX-compliant system with coreutils, bash, awk, and perl >= 5.10.0.

Usage

For documentation, please see log --help and entries.pl --man.

Use log h to print the help message.

log comes with bash command-line completion--when in doubt, press TAB!

Don't do this--you'll be deleting entries 2 and 4:

log o
log d 2
log d 3

Instead:

log d <TAB>   # to examine the file, then...
log d 2 3

Also, this will print a preview of the entry in question:

log d 2<TAB>

Tips

log uses the directory structure under $LOG_DIR to organize log files. This command will first check $LOG_DIR/foo/bar, then ./foo/bar:

log foo/bar

To specifically access a file outside $LOG_DIR, use any of the following:

log /absolute/path
log ./path
log ../path

log was written with vim integration in mind. If your editor is set to a flavor of vim, log will read a modeline in the header.

Section delimiters can double as fold markers if all of them have the same fold level:

#!log [-]1
[-]1
Entry 1
...
[-]1
Entry 2

To conveniently expand and collapse folds, add this mapping to your .vimrc (uses Space as an example):

noremap <silent> <Space> :<C-U>exec 'silent! normal! za'<CR>

Graphical stickies applications often have the ability to link between notes. The same thing can be achieved in vim by using the gf command over the name of a log file in order to jump there.

Author

David Liang (bmdavll at gmail.com)

License

log is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

log is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with log. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.