cli-diary

Keep a diary using the cli. This program is designed for CLI users to quickly keep a diary or notebook using the command line.

Installation

Clone this repository using git and run the following command using cargo:

cargo build --release

Then move the resulting binary ./target/release/diary to ~/.cargo/bin/. You will then be able to run the program using the diary command.

Alternatively, use cargo to install it from crates.io:

cargo install cli-diary

First Steps

Setup diary by specifying where you want the diary folder to be kept. Either cd to where you want the diary/ folder to be created or make a note of the filepath. You will then need to use the init sub-command as follows:

diary init <path/to/create>

The path is optional and if not provided the new diary/ folder will be created in the current directory.

Configuration

Diary's configuration file is automatically placed in the following location after you run init for the first time:

~/.config/diary/diary.toml

Content

Below is an example config file.

# The location of the diary.
diary_path = '/home/user/diary'

# The prefix assigned to the diary entries filename,
# e.g. diary_2020-01-01.md
prefix = 'diary'

Usage

New Command

The first command you should run each day is the new command. This creates a new entry for the day (only one is currently permitted). If you provide the -o or --open flag your editor will open and you will be able to quickly make your first entry. Save and quit your editor to add the content to the entry.

diary new -o

Add Command

The add command allows you to add to today's entry on the fly. Similar to new -o the add command opens your system editor to allow you to type the contents on the new entry. To make this easier it is recommended you use a CLI text editor like nano or vim.

The add command also has an optional --tag flag which allows you to specify a Markdown Heading 2 level tag to place above the entry.

diary new --tag Tip

## Tip

Content of the new entry.

Diary Folder Structure

The diary/ folder is organised into monthly sub-folders with each days entry being a markdown file.

diary
└── 2021-11
    ├── diary_2021-11-06.md
    └── diary_2021-11-07.md

Acknowledgements

Huge thanks to the authors of the Cargo library. The architecture of this tool is heavily inspired by it.