Caps-Log is a small, terminal-based journaling tool.
- Daily entries saved as Markdown files
- Sections and tags for organizing entries (level 1 headers for sections, unordered lists starting with '*' for tags) Log Entry Tags and Sections
- Two menus for navigating sections and tags
- Browse tags under a specific section or all tags
- Calendar view highlighting dates with mentions of selected tags or sections, providing a visual representation of habits and activities
- Calendar view highlighting dates with log entries, allowing you to see when you wrote something
- Calendar view highlighting dates with annual events, such as birthdays and holidays, allowing you to see when you have an event coming up Cofiguration & Command Line Options
- Open log entries in your preferred editor using
$EDITORenvironment variable - Primitive remote storage feature using a git repository with a remote for pushing and pulling data Configuration & Command Line Options
- Scratchpad feature for quick note-taking without creating a new log entry
- Encrypted logs using AES encryption algorithm for added security Encrypting Logs
Note
- Emoji handling is somewhat erratic, potentially due to an FTXUI issue or misuse on my part. This could also be an issue with my font or terminal emulator. When an emoji is drawn, it shifts all other characters to the right by one place.
- The tool is not optimal for use in small terminals. While still functional, it performs best when the entire calendar is visible.
It is recommended that you build and install it manually, see Building and installing section.
Or you can visit the releases page
and download a caps-log-<platform>.tar.gz file that contains a prebuilt binary, but
for now only x86 Linux and intel MacOS platforms are supported. This will be
improved in the future.
| Keybinding | Action |
|---|---|
Tab / Shift + Tab |
Switch focus between the calendar and menus |
hjklr / arrow keys |
Navigate within the calendar or menus |
Enter |
Open the log entry in $EDITOR for the date under the cursor |
d |
Delete the log under the cursor if the calendar is focused |
s |
Toggle scratchpad mode |
+ / - |
Navigate to the next / previous year's calendar |
Caps-Log stores all logs as simple Markdown files to enable syntax
highlighting in your editor. This 'syntax' was chosen based on personal
preference. If you find flaws, please open an issue. It's up to you to decide
what constitutes a section and what a tag.
Sections
To mark a section, use: # Section Name. All text below until the next section
is considered part of it. By default, the first line of the file
is ignored when identifying section titles, as it's commonly used for the date
of the entry. This behavior can be configured via command line arguments or a
config file.
Tags
Tags can be added to the log entry by starting a line with * Tag Name. Tags
can belong to a section, but they don't have to. If they don't belong to a
section, they are considered to belong under a <root section> which is
displayed in the section menu as a separate section.
* Tag Name* Tag Name (Additional Information) * Tag Name (Additional Information): A multiline body that is ignored by Caps-LogFor examples of valid and invalid sections and tags, see ./test/log_entry_test.cpp
Caps-Log can encrypt your logs using the AES encryption algorithm.
If you open an encrypted log repo, you will be prompted to enter a password.
In case you enter a wrong password, caps-log will notify you end exit.
Same if you provide a password for a non encrypted log repository.
# Note: Caps-Log will ignore files not matching the log filename format.
# You can also provide --log-dir-path and --log-filename-format to control behavior.
# Encrypt
caps-log --encrypt --password <your password>
# Decrypt
caps-log --decrypt --password <your password>
Command Line Options
Allowed options:
-h [ --help ] Show this message.
-c [ --config ] arg Override the default config file path
(~/.caps-log/config.ini).
--log-dir-path arg (=~/.caps-log/day/)
Path where log files are stored.
--log-name-format arg (=d%y_%m_%d.md) Format in which log entry markdown
files are saved.
--sunday-start Display Sunday as the first day of the
week in the calendar.
--first-line-section If a section mark is placed on the
first line, override the default
behavior of ignoring it.
--password arg Password for encrypted log repositories
or to be used with --encrypt/--decrypt.
--encrypt Apply encryption to all logs in the log
directory path (requires --password).
--decrypt Apply decryption to all logs in the log
directory path (requires --password).
Config File
most of the command line flags can be set through a config file.
log-dir-path=/path/to/log/dir
log-name-format=%y_%d_%m.txt
sunday-start=true
first-line-section=true
password=your-passwordConfig file also allows configuring caps-log to treat the directory where logs
are stored as a git repository with a remote set-up. Upon exiting, caps-log
will commit and push all changes to the remote. Note that currently, only the
remotes with ssh authentication are supported. Here is an example of a config
file for git remote log repository.
# NOTE: this must be a path to a directory that is
# inside the git.repo-root, otherwise `caps-log` will fail to start.
log-dir-path=/Users/me/.caps-log/clog-entries/days
[git]
# setting it to false, or not setting it at all is the
# same as not having the below options defined
enable-git-log-repo=true
ssh-key-path=/Users/me/.ssh/id_rsa # required
ssh-pub-key-path=/Users/me/.ssh/id_rsa.pub # required
repo-root=/Users/me/.caps-log/clog-entries/
remote-name=something # 'origin' is the default
main-branch-name=main # 'master' is the default
Annual events
Caps-log can also be configured to display annual events in the calendar. They
will be highlighted with green color and number of days since or until the event (if the
total number of days is less that recent-events-window days) will be displayed in the
small box to the left of the calendar.
[calendar-events]
recent-events-window=60
[calendar-events.birthadays.0]
name=Joe
date=18.07
[calendar-events.birthadays.1]
name=Jane
date=03.07.
[calendar-events.holidays.0]
name=New Year
date=01.01.
[calendar-events.holidays.1]
name=New Years eve
date=31.12.Dependencies
Caps-Log fetches its dependencies from GitHub, except for Boost and libgit2.
You should have Boost program options installed. This typically involves:
# Linux
sudo apt-get install -y libboost-program-options-dev libgit2-dev
# Mac
brew install boost libgit2To build the Caps-Log executable, run:
mkdir build && cd build && cmake ..
makeAfter a successful build, to install the executable in a common $PATH
location, run: sudo make install. Then, you can simply start the application
by typing caps-log in your terminal.
If you wish to build and run the tests, execute:
mkdir build && cd build && cmake .. -DCAPS_LOG_BUILD_TESTS=ON
make
ctest