Buku

buku is a powerful cmdline bookmark management utility written in Python3 and SQLite3. When I started writing it, I couldn't find a flexible cmdline solution with a portable database. Hence, Buku (after my son's nickname).

You can add bookmarks to buku with tags and page title fetched from the web, search, update and remove bookmarks. You can open the URLs from search results directly in the browser. Encryption is supported, optionally with custom number of hash passes for key generation.

buku can also handle piped input, which lets you combine it with xsel (on Linux) and use a shortcut to add selected or copied text as bookmark without touching the terminal. Ref: buku & xsel: add selected or copied URL as bookmark

Find buku useful? If you would like to donate, visit the page.

Copyright (C) 2015 Arun Prakash Jana.

Features

• Add, update or remove a bookmark
• Tag bookmarks
• Manual password protection using AES256 encryption
• Fetch page title from the web (default) or add a custom page title manually
• Use (partial) tags or keywords to search bookmarks
• Any or all search keyword match options
• Unique URLs to avoid duplicates
• Open search results in browser
• Open bookmark in browser using index
• Handle piped input (combine with xsel and add bookmarks directly from browser)
• Supports HTTP compression
• Optional Json formatted output
• Modify or delete tags in DB
• Show all unique tags sorted alphabetically
• Show single bookmark by ID or all bookmarks in a go
• Refresh all bookmarks online
• Auto DB compaction on bookmark removal
• Delete all bookmarks from DB
• Show all bookmarks with empty titles or no tags (for bookkeeping)
• Supports Unicode characters in URL
• UTF-8 request and response, page character set detection
• Secure parameterized SQLite3 queries to access database
• Handle multiple HTTP redirections (reports redirected URL, loops, IP blocking)
• Coloured output for clarity
• Easily create compatible batch add or update scripts
• Unformatted selective output (for creating batch update scripts)
• Manpage with examples for quick reference
• Fast and clean (no ads or clutter)
• Minimal dependencies
• Open source and free

Table of Contents

• Installation
  • Dependencies
  • Installing from this repository
  • Running as a standalone utility
  • Installing with a package manager
• Usage
  • Cmdline options
  • Operational notes
• Examples
  • Bookkeeping
• Contributions
• Developers

Installation

Dependencies

buku requires Python 3.x to work.

For optional encryption support, install PyCrypto module. Run:

$ sudo pip3 install pycrypto

or on Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt-get install python3-crypto

Installing from this repository

If you have git installed, run:

$ git clone https://github.com/jarun/buku/

or download the latest stable release or development version.

Install to default location:

$ sudo make install

or, a custom location (PREFIX):

$ PREFIX=/path/to/prefix make install

To remove, run:

$ sudo make uninstall

or, if you have installed to a custom location (PREFIX):

$ PREFIX=/path/to/prefix make uninstall

You may need to use sudo with PREFIX depending on your permissions on destination directory.

Running as a standalone utility

buku is a standalone utility. From the containing directory, run:

$ ./buku

Installing with a package manager

buku is also available on

• AUR for Arch Linux
• Void Linux repos ( $ sudo xbps-install -S buku )
• Homebrew for OS X, or its Linux fork, Linuxbrew

Usage

Cmdline options

Usage: buku OPTIONS [URL] [TAGS] [KEYWORDS ...]

A private cmdline bookmark manager. Your mini web!

General options
  -a URL [tags]        add URL as bookmark with comma separated tags
  -d N                 delete entry at DB index N (from -p 0), N=0 deletes all
  -g                   list all tags alphabetically
  -m title             manually set title, for -a, -i, -u; '-m none' clears title
  -s keyword(s)        search bookmarks for any keyword
  -S keyword(s)        search bookmarks with all keywords
  -u N [URL] [tags]    update fields of the entry at DB index N
                       The first keyword, if available, is treated as the URL.
                       If URL is omitted (and -m is not used) the title of entry at
                       index N is refreshed from the web, N=0 refreshes all titles.

Power toys
  -e                   show bookmarks with empty titles or no tags
  -i N                 insert new bookmark at free DB index N
  -j                   show results in Json format
  -k                   decrypt (unlock) database file
  -l                   encrypt (lock) database file
  -o N                 open URL at DB index N in browser
  -p N                 show details of bookmark record at DB index N, N=0 shows all
  -r oldtag [newtag]   replace oldtag with newtag, delete oldtag if newtag empty
  -t N                 use N (> 0) hash iterations to generate key, for -k, -l
  -x N                 modify -p behaviour, N=1: show only URL, N=2: show URL & tag
  -z                   show debug information

Prompt keys
  1-N                  open Nth search result in browser
  Enter                exit buku

Operational notes

• The SQLite3 database file is stored in:
  • $XDG_DATA_HOME/buku/bookmarks.db, if XDG_DATA_HOME is defined (first preference) or
  • $HOME/.local/share/buku/bookmarks.db, if HOME is defined (second preference) or
  • the current directory, e.g. on Windows.
• Before version 1.9, bukustored its database in $HOME/.cache/buku/bookmarks.db. If the file exists, buku automatically moves it to new location.
• The database index for entries starts from 1. Index 0 is used for special operations like show or refresh or delete all bookmarks.
• It's advisable to copy URLs directly from the browser address bar, i.e., along with the leading http:// or https:// token. buku looks up title data (found within tags of HTML) from the web ONLY for fully-formed HTTP(S) URLs.
• If the URL contains characters like ;, & or brackets they may be interpreted specially by the shell. To avoid it, add the URL within single or double ('/") quotes.
• The same URL cannot be added twice. You can update tags and re-fetch title data. You can also insert a new bookmark at a free index.
• You can either add or update or delete record(s) in one instance. A combination of these operations is not supported in a single run.
• Search works in mysterious ways:
  • Case-insensitive.
  • Substrings match (match matches rematched) for URL, title and tags.
  • -s : match any of the keywords in URL, title or tags.
  • -S : match all the keywords in URL, title or tags.
  • You can search bookmarks by tag (see example).
  • Search results are indexed serially. This index is different from actual database index of a bookmark record which is shown within () after the URL.
• When a record is deleted, the last record is moved to the index.
• AES256 is used for encryption. Optionally specify (-t) the number of hash iterations to use to generate key. Default is 8 iterations.
• Encryption is optional and manual. If you choose to use encryption, the database file should be unlocked (-k) before using buku and locked (-l) afterwards. Between these 2 operations, the database file lies unencrypted on the disk, and NOT in memory. Also, note that the database file is unencrypted on creation.

Examples

1. Add a bookmark with tags linux news and open source, fetch page title from the web:

    $ buku -a http://tuxdiary.com linux news, open source
    Title: [TuxDiary | Linux, open source and a pinch of leisure.]
    Added at index 15012014
   

2. Add a bookmark with manual title Linux magazine & tags linux news and open source:

    $ buku -a -m 'Linux magazine' http://tuxdiary.com linux news, open source
    Added at index 15012014
   

Note that URL must precede tags. Multiple words in title must be within quotes. The assigned automatic index 15012014 is unique, one greater than highest index already in use in database. 3. Add a bookmark without a title (works for update and insert too):

    $ buku -a -m none http://tuxdiary.com linux news, open source

4. Update existing bookmark at index 15012014 with new URL and tags, fetch title from the web:

    $ buku -u 15012014 http://tuxdiary.com/ linux news, open source, magazine
    Title: [TuxDiary | Linux, open source and a pinch of leisure.]
    Updated index 15012014
   

Tags are updated too. Original tags are removed. 5. Update or refresh full DB with page titles from the web:

    $ buku -u 0

This operation does not modify the indexes, URLs or tags. Only titles, if non-empty, are refreshed. Any index other than 0 refreshes title for that index. 6. Delete bookmark at index 15012014:

    $ buku -d 15012014
    Index 15012020 moved to 15012014

The last index is moved to the deleted index to keep the DB compact. 7. Delete all bookmarks:

    $ buku -d 0

8. List all unique tags alphabetically:

    $ buku -g
   

9. Insert a bookmark at index 15012014 (fails if index or URL exists in database):

    $ buku -i 15012014 http://tuxdiary.com/about linux news, open source
    Title: [A journey with WordPress | TuxDiary]
    Added at index 15012014
   

10. Replace a tag with new one:

    $ buku -r 'old tag' 'new tag'
    

11. Delete a tag from DB:

    $ buku -r 'old tag'
    

12. Show info on bookmark at index 15012014:

    $ buku -p 15012014
    

13. Show all bookmarks with real index from database:

    $ buku -p 0
    

14. Open URL at index 15012014 in browser:

    $ buku -o 15012014
    

15. Search bookmarks for ANY of the keywords *kernel* and *debugging* in URL, title or tags:

    $ buku -s kernel debugging
    

16. Search bookmarks with ALL the keywords *kernel* and *debugging* in URL, title or tags:

    $ buku -S kernel debugging
    

17. Search bookmarks tagged general kernel concepts:

    $ buku -S ',general kernel concepts,'
    

Note the commas (,) before and after the tag. 18. Encrypt/decrypt DB with custom number of iterations to generate key:

    $ buku -l -t 15
    $ buku -k -t 15

The same number of iterations must be used for one lock & unlock instance. 19. Show debug info:

    $ buku -z ...

20. More help:

    $ buku
    $ man buku
    

Bookkeeping

1. To list bookmarks with no title or tags:

    $ buku -e
   

Use the -u option to add title or tags to those entries, if you want to. 2. buku doesn't have any import feature of its own. To import URLs in bulk, create a script with URLs and tags like the following (check TIP below):

    #!/bin/bash
    buku -a https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/ networking, device drivers
    buku -a https://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece390/books/artofasm/ArtofAsm.html assembly
    buku -a http://www.tittbit.in/
    buku -a http://www.mikroe.com/chapters/view/65/ electronics
    buku -a "http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb470206(v=vs.85).aspx" file systems
    buku -a http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-linuxboot/index.html boot process

Make the script executable and run to batch add bookmarks. 3. To update selected URLs (refresh) along with your tags, first get the unformatted selective output with URL and tags:

    $ buku -p 0 -x 2 | tee myurls

Remove the lines you don't need. Add buku -u in front of all the other lines (check TIP below). Should look like:

    #!/bin/bash
    buku -u 50 https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/ networking, device drivers
    buku -u 51 https://courses.engr.illinois.edu/ece390/books/artofasm/ArtofAsm.html assembly
    buku -u 52 http://www.tittbit.in/
    buku -u 53 http://www.mikroe.com/chapters/view/65/ electronics
    buku -u 54 "http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb470206(v=vs.85).aspx" file systems
    buku -u 55 http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-linuxboot/index.html boot process

Run the script:

    $ chmod +x myurls
    $ ./myurls

####TIP

Add the same text at the beginning of multiple lines:

vim

• Press Ctrl-v to select the first column of text in the lines you want to change (visual mode).
• Press Shift-i and type the text you want to insert.
• Hit Esc, wait 1 second and the inserted text will appear on every line.

sed

$ sed -i 's/^/buku -u /' filename

Contributions

Pull requests are welcome. Some of the features I have in mind are:

• Support subcommands using argparse
• Ubuntu deb package
• Merge bookmark database files (for users who work on multiple systems)
• Exact word match (against substring in a word as it works currently. Hint: REGEXP)
• Parse full page data??? Might end up writing a search engine like Google. ;)
• Anything else which would add value (please raise an issue for discussion)

Developers

Arun Prakash Jana

Special thanks to the community for valuable suggestions and ideas.