A CLI to write without restraint.
Based upon note.sh: "A simple shell script for managing your random daily notes."
- In your shell profile, export the name of your preferred text editor and the name of the directory where you want your writing to live:
export EDITOR=vim
export WRITER_DIR=$HOME/writing
It's important you prepend your $HOME path to the writing directory. Otherwise, writer might get confused about your desired writing destination.
- Restart your shell to source the new environment variables. Make a new
$WRITER_DIRdirectory andcdinto your new writing directory:
mkdir "$WRITER_DIR"
cd "$WRITER_DIR"
- Then download and install:
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/smcalilly/writer/main/download.sh | bash
.src/install.sh
This will download all the code into your new writing directory, which is where writer saves your writing.
This setup has been tested on:
- MacOS Catalina with zsh
- MacOS Mojave with bash
- Raspberry Pi OS with bash
You can inspect the code at download.sh, install.sh, and /writer/src/writer to make sure there is nothing malicious in that curl | bash download. Harmless bugs are the only thing you might download, so if you have any issues or bugs or problems downloading/installing, please open an issue!
Write in your daily note:
writer -n
That command opens a note where you can write random thoughts. A new note is created each day. This is the influence of note.sh on this project.
writer can also write to specific directories or filenames in your writer directory. This helps keep your notes or ideas or writing projects organized while still being able to write at moment's notice. Here are some commands:
writer -d good-recipes -f turnip-green-soup # Write to a named file within a directory
writer also accepts stdin, with the -s flag:
echo "hello yall" | writer -s -n
writer -n -s<<<"woooooooooooooooooo"
echo "i can send sentences to a specific place, too" | writer -s -f file-name -d dir-name
This is a useful feature if you're wanting to copy/paste something into a note or writing file. For example, you're writing some code and need to get rid of a function but you like the function or learned something while writing the code, so you want to keep it for future reference. But you don't want to commit it to the project's version control. Or you read somebody's good code and you want to keep it and learn from it. So you just send it to writer:
echo "function noteworthyFunction()" | writer -d code-snippets -s
The basic structure of the $WRITER_DIR directory should look like this:
$WRITER_DIR
|.src/
|
|notes/
| |<todays-date>.md
This command will open a daily note to write in:
writer -n # opens /notes/<todays-date>.md in $EDITOR
A new file is created each day. It's like a staging area or organized dumping ground, but accessible quickly. An aggregation of notes in the same file throughout a day.
Important! If you change the names of the notes directory, it will break this feature of CLI.
You can also create your own directories, like if you have a specific project where you want to write. Here is a command that will write a daily note in a new directory:
writer -d my-manuscript -n # $WRITER_DIR/my-manuscript/<todays-date>.md in $EDITOR
You can also name a writing file in a directory:
writer -d my-manuscript -f chapter-1 # $WRITER_DIR/my-manuscript/chapter-5.md in $EDITOR
This can be organized however you wish - you can name directories within directories and files within those directories, and recall them via the CLI. Of course, you don't have to use the CLI; it's just a handy way to write from your terminal. Once you've created a directory, you can work with it however you want, like in your favorite text editor with a file system interface.
As seen above, you can declare a filename with the -f flag. You can use it like the -n flag and save a named note to your notes directory:
writer -f recipe-idea # opens /recipe-idea.md in $EDITOR in $EDITOR
That's helpful for creating a specific or thematic note that doesn't yet have a place to live. Both the daily note and a named note can be used the same way. It's just a matter of preference. Would you rather have a dated note with random scribbles throughout the day, or do you want to name your notes? How about both?
You can search with grep:
writer -g turnip # views all the files in /$WRITER_DIR with the word 'turnip'
All of my writing projects need version control and a file system. writer takes care of the file system and git can easily be added to any of the directories. You can either initialize a repo at the writer's root directory or have an individual repo per directory/project. git also lets me backup my writing and write on other devices.
Setting up your writer with git can be helpful for working across computers which might need shared knowledge, but you don't want to give access to your personal cloud. For example, I have a Rapsberry Pi home server that I use to explore/learn Linux. Whenever I learn something new or want to remember a command or something, I write it to some markdown note files. I've never had a good way to replicate and share and expand upon this knowledge. Now, with writer, all of my notes live in a remote directory, which I can download and write in and edit on any device. Same with my work computer or my home computer. I can code at work and write notes and things I've learned a share them across computers, in a simple file type (markdown) with a Unix CLI.
cd $WRITER_DIR/.src
make uninstall
cd ../..
rm -rf $WRITER_DIR