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).

buku can 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) 2015-2016 Arun Prakash Jana.

Features

• Add, tag, comment on, search, update, remove bookmarks
• Fetch page title from the web (default) or add manually
• Import HTML bookmark exports from Firefox, Google Chrome or IE
• Open search results directly in browser
• Manual password protection using AES256 encryption
• Modify or delete tags, list all unique tags alphabetically
• Refresh all bookmarks online in one shot
• Tab-completion scripts for Bash, Fish and Zsh
• Man page with examples
• Several options for power users (see help or man page)
• Fast and clean interface
• Minimal dependencies

Table of Contents

• Installation
  • Dependencies
  • Installing from this repository
  • Running as a standalone utility
  • Shell completion
  • Installing with a package manager
• Usage
  • Cmdline options
  • Operational notes
• Examples
• 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 (/usr/local):

$ sudo make install

To remove, run:

$ sudo make uninstall

PREFIX is supported. 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

Shell completion

Shell completion scripts for Bash, Fish and Zsh can be found in respective subdirectories of auto-completion/. Please refer to your shell's manual for installation instructions.

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

NOTE: If you are using buku v1.9 or below please refer to the installed man page or program help.

usage: buku [-a URL [tags ...]] [-u [N]] [-i path] [-d [N]]
            [--url keyword] [--tag [...]] [-t [...]] [-c [...]]
            [-s keyword [...]] [-S keyword [...]] [--st [...]]
            [-k [N]] [-l [N]] [-p [N]] [-f N]
            [-r oldtag [newtag ...]] [-j] [-o N] [-z] [-h]

A private command-line bookmark manager. Your mini web!

general options:
  -a, --add URL [tags ...]
                       bookmark URL with comma-separated tags
  -u, --update [N]     update fields of bookmark at DB index N
                       refresh all titles, if no arguments
                       refresh title of bookmark at N, if only
                       N is specified without any edit options
  -d, --delete [N]     delete bookmark at DB index N
                       delete all bookmarks, if no arguments
  -i, --import path    import bookmarks from html file; Firefox,
                       Google Chrome and IE formats supported
  -h, --help           show this information

edit options:
  --url keyword        specify url, works with -u only
  --tag [...]          set comma-separated tags, works with -a, -u
                       clears tags, if no arguments
  -t, --title [...]    manually set title, works with -a, -u
                       if no arguments:
                       -a: do not set title, -u: clear title
  -c, --comment [...]  description of the bookmark, works with
                       -a, -u; clears comment, if no arguments

search options:
  -s, --sany keyword [...]
                       search bookmarks for ANY matching keyword
  -S, --sall keyword [...]
                       search bookmarks with ALL keywords
                       special keyword -
                       "blank": list entries with empty title/tag
  --st, --stag [...]   search bookmarks by tag
                       list all tags alphabetically, if no arguments

encryption options:
  -l, --lock [N]       encrypt DB file with N (> 0, default 8)
                       hash iterations to generate key
  -k, --unlock [N]     decrypt DB file with N (> 0, default 8)
                       hash iterations to generate key

power toys:
  -p, --print [N]      show details of bookmark at DB index N
                       show all bookmarks, if no arguments
  -f, --format N       modify -p output
                       N=1: show only URL, N=2: show URL and tag
  -r, --replace oldtag [newtag ...]
                       replace oldtag with newtag everywhere
                       delete oldtag, if no newtag
  -j, --json           Json formatted output for -p, -s, -S, --st
  -o, --open N         open bookmark at DB index N in web browser
  -z, --debug          show debug information and additional logs

prompt keys:
  1-N                  open the Nth search result in web 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.
• Before version 1.9, buku stored its database in $HOME/.cache/buku/bookmarks.db. If the file exists, buku automatically moves it to new location.
• 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.
• URLs are unique in DB. The same URL cannot be added twice. You can update tags and re-fetch title data.
• Update operation:
  • If --title, --tag or --comment is passed without argument, clear the corresponding field from DB.
  • If --url is passed (and --title is omitted), update the title from web using the URL.
  • If index number is passed without any other options (--url, --title, --tag and --comment), read the URL from DB and update title from web.
• 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.
  • --st : search bookmarks by tag, or show all tags alphabetically.
  • You can search bookmarks by tag (see examples).
  • Search results are indexed serially. This index is different from actual database index of a bookmark record which is shown within [] after the URL.
• Auto DB compaction: when a record is deleted, the last record is moved to the index.
• Encryption is optional and manual. AES256 algorithm is used. 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, comment Informative website on Linux and open source, fetch page title from the web:

    $ buku -a https://tuxdiary.com linux news, open source -c Informative website on Linux and open source
    Title: [TuxDiary – Linux, open source, command-line, leisure.]
    Added at index 336
   
    336. https://tuxdiary.com
    > TuxDiary – Linux, open source, command-line, leisure.
    + Informative website on Linux and open source
    # linux news,open source
   

where, >: title, +: comment, #: tags 2. Add a bookmark with tags linux news and open source & custom title Linux magazine:

    $ buku -a http://tuxdiary.com linux news, open source -t 'Linux magazine'
    Added at index 15012014

Note that URL must precede tags. 3. Add a bookmark without a title (works for update too):

    $ buku -a http://tuxdiary.com linux news, open source -t

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

    $ buku -u 15012014 --url http://tuxdiary.com/ --tag linux news, open source, magazine -c site for Linux utilities
   

5. Fetch and update only title for bookmark at 15012014:

    $ buku -u 15012014
   

6. Update only comment for bookmark at 15012014:

    $ buku -u 15012014 -c this is a new comment
   

Applies to --url, --title and --tag too. 7. Import bookmarks:

    $ buku -i bookmarks.html

HTML exports from Firefox, Google Chrome and IE are supported. 8. Delete only comment for bookmark at 15012014:

    $ buku -u 15012014 -c

Applies to --title and --tag too. URL cannot be deleted without deleting the bookmark. 9. Update or refresh full DB with page titles from the web:

    $ buku -u

This operation does not modify the indexes, URLs, tags or comments. Only title is refreshed if fetched title is non-empty. 10. 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. 11. Delete all bookmarks:

    $ buku -d

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

    $ buku -s kernel debugging
    

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

    $ buku -S kernel debugging
    

14. Search bookmarks with tag general kernel concepts:

    $ buku --st general kernel concepts
    

Note the commas (,) before and after the tag. Comma is the tag delimiter in DB. 15. List all unique tags alphabetically:

    $ buku --st

16. Encrypt or decrypt DB with custom number of iterations (15) to generate key:

    $ buku -l 15
    $ buku -k 15
    

The same number of iterations must be used for one lock & unlock instance. Default is 8. 17. Show details of bookmark at index 15012014:

    $ buku -p 15012014

18. Show all bookmarks with real index from database:

    $ buku -p
    $ buku -p | more
    

19. Replace tag 'old tag' with 'new tag':

    $ buku -r 'old tag' new tag
    

20. Delete tag 'old tag' from DB:

    $ buku -r 'old tag'
    

21. Open URL at index 15012014 in browser:

    $ buku -o 15012014
    

22. To list bookmarks with no title or tags for bookkeeping:

    $ buku -S blank
    

23. More help:

    $ buku
    $ man buku
    

Contributions

Pull requests are welcome. Please visit #14 for a list of TODOs.

Developers

Arun Prakash Jana

Special thanks to the community for valuable suggestions and ideas.