Buku

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

buku fetches the title of a bookmarked web page and stores it along with any additional comments and tags. With multiple options to search bookmarks, including regex and a deep scan mode (particularly for URLs), finding a bookmark is very easy. Multiple search results can be opened in the browser at once.

Though a terminal utility, it's possible to add bookmarks to buku without touching the terminal! Refer to the section on GUI integration. If you prefer the terminal, thanks to the shell completion scripts, you don't need to memorize any of the options. There's an Easter egg to revisit random forgotten bookmarks too.

Buku is too busy to track you - no history, obsolete records, usage analytics or homing.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Installation
  • Dependencies
  • Installing from this repository
    • Running as a standalone utility
    • Debian package
  • Installing with a package manager
• Shell completion
• Usage
  • Cmdline options
  • Operational notes
• GUI integration
  • Add bookmarks from anywhere
  • Import bookmarks to browser
• Sync database across systems
• As a library
• Related projects
• Mentions
• Examples
• Contributions
• Copyright

Features

• Fast, clean interface with distinct symbols
• Fetch page title from the web, add tags and comments
• Multiple search modes, including deep and regex
• Continuous search at prompt with on the fly mode switch
• Open bookmarks and search results in browser
• Import/export in HTML (FF, Chrome compatible) or Markdown
• Shorten and expand URLs
• Manual password protection using AES256 encryption
• Portable, merge-able database to sync between systems
• Additional options for power users (see help or man page)
• Completion scripts (Bash, Fish, Zsh), man page with examples
• Minimal dependencies

Installation

Dependencies

buku requires Python 3.3 or later.

To install package dependencies, run:

$ sudo pip3 install urllib3 cryptography beautifulsoup4 requests

or on Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt-get install python3-urllib3 python3-cryptography python3-bs4 python3-requests

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:

$ chmod +x buku.py
$ ./buku.py

Debian package

If you are on a Debian (including Ubuntu) based system visit the latest stable release and download the .deb package. To install, run:

$ sudo dpkg -i buku-$version-all.deb

Please substitute $version with the appropriate package version.

Installing with a package manager

• PyPi ($ pip install buku)
• AUR
• Homebrew
• Debian
• Ubuntu
• Ubuntu PPA
• Void Linux ($ sudo xbps-install -S 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.

Usage

Cmdline options

usage: buku [OPTIONS] [KEYWORD [KEYWORD ...]]

Powerful command-line bookmark manager. Your mini web!

POSITIONAL ARGUMENTS:
      KEYWORD              search keywords

GENERAL OPTIONS:
      -a, --add URL [tag, ...]
                           bookmark URL with comma-separated tags
      -u, --update [...]   update fields of bookmark at DB indices
                           accepts indices and ranges
                           refresh all titles, if no arguments
                           refresh titles of bookmarks at indices,
                           if no edit options are specified
                           update search results when used with
                           search options, if no arguments
      -d, --delete [...]   delete bookmarks. Valid inputs: either
                           a hyphenated single range (100-200),
                           OR space-separated indices (100 15 200)
                           delete all bookmarks, if no arguments
                           delete search results when used with
                           search options, if no arguments
      -v, --version        show program version and exit
      -h, --help           show this information and exit

EDIT OPTIONS:
      --url keyword        specify url, works only with -u option
      --tag [+|-] [...]    set comma-separated tags with -a and -u
                           clear tags, if no arguments
                           works with -a, -u
                           append to tags, if preceded by '+'
                           remove from tags, if preceded by '-'
      -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
      --immutable N        disable title fetch from web on update
                           works with -a, -u
                           N=0: mutable (default), N=1: immutable

SEARCH OPTIONS:
      -s, --sany           find records with ANY search keyword
                           this is the default search option
      -S, --sall           find records with ALL search keywords
                           special keywords -
                           "blank": entries with empty title/tag
                           "immutable": entries with locked title
      --deep               match substrings ('pen' matches 'opens')
      --sreg               run a regex search
      --stag               search bookmarks by a tag
                           list all tags, if no search keywords

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:
      -e, --export file    export bookmarks to Firefox format html
                           use --tag to export only specific tags
      -i, --import file    import bookmarks from html file
                           FF and Google Chrome formats supported
      --markdown           use markdown with -e and -i
                           format: [title](url), 1 per line
      -m, --merge file     add bookmarks from another buku DB file
      -p, --print [...]    show details of bookmark by DB index
                           accepts indices and ranges
                           show all bookmarks, if no arguments
      -f, --format N       limit fields in -p or Json search output
                           N=1: URL, N=2: URL and tag, N=3: title
      -r, --replace oldtag [newtag ...]
                           replace oldtag with newtag everywhere
                           delete oldtag, if no newtag
      -j, --json           Json formatted output for -p and search
      --nocolor            disable color output
      --noprompt           do not show the prompt, run and exit
      -o, --open [...]     open bookmarks in browser by DB index
                           accepts indices and ranges
                           open a random index, if no arguments
      --shorten N/URL      fetch shortened url from tny.im service
                           accepts either a DB index or a URL
      --expand N/URL       expand a tny.im shortened url
      --tacit              reduce verbosity
      --threads N          max network connections in full refresh
                           default N=4, min N=1, max N=10
      --upstream           check latest upstream version available
      -z, --debug          show debug information and verbose logs

SYMBOLS:
      >                    title
      +                    comment
      #                    tags

Operational notes

• The 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.

• 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.

• Bookmarks with immutable titles are listed with bold (L) after the URL.

• Tags:

  • Comma (,) is the tag delimiter in DB. A tag cannot have comma(s) in it. Tags are filtered (for unique tags) and sorted. Tags are stored in lower case and can be replaced, appended or deleted.
  • Releases prior to v2.7 support both capital and lower cases in tags. From v2.7 all tags are stored in lowercase. An undocumented option --fixtags is introduced to modify the older tags. It also fixes another issue where the same tag appears multiple times in the tagset of a record. Run buku --fixtags once.

• 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 indices are passed without any other options (--url, --title, --tag, --comment and --immutable), read the URLs from DB and update titles from web. Bookmarks marked immutable are skipped.
  • Can update bookmarks matching a search, when combined with any of the search options and no arguments to update are passed.

• Delete operation:

  • When a record is deleted, the last record is moved to the index.
  • Delete doesn't work with range and indices provided together as arguments. It's an intentional decision to avoid extra sorting, in-range checks and to keep the auto-DB compaction functionality intact. On the same lines, indices are deleted in descending order.
  • Can delete bookmarks matching a search, when combined with any of the search options and no arguments to delete are passed.

• Search works in mysterious ways:

  • Case-insensitive.
  • Matches words in URL, title and tags.
  • --sany : match any of the keywords in URL, title or tags. Default search option.
  • --sall : match all the keywords in URL, title or tags.
  • --deep : match substrings (match matches rematched) in URL, title and tags.
  • --sreg : match a regular expression (ignores --deep).
  • --stag : search bookmarks by a tag, or list all tags alphabetically with usage count (if no arguments).
  • Search results are indexed serially. This index is different from actual database index of a bookmark record which is shown in bold within [] after the URL.

• Encryption is optional and manual. AES256 algorithm is used. 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.

• Proxy support: environment variable https_proxy, if defined, is used to tunnel data for both http and https connections. The supported format is:

    http[s]://[username:password@]proxyhost:proxyport/
  

GUI integration

buku can be integrated in a GUI environment with simple tweaks.

Add bookmarks from anywhere

With support for piped input, it's possible to add bookmarks to buku using keyboard shortcuts on Linux and OS X. CLIPBOARD (plus PRIMARY on Linux) text selections can be added directly this way. The additional utility required is xsel (on Linux) or pbpaste (on OS X).

The following steps explore the procedure on Linux with Ubuntu as the reference platform.

1. To install xsel on Ubuntu, run:

    $ sudo apt install xsel
   

2. Create a new script bukuadd with the following content:

    #!/bin/bash
   
    xsel | buku -a
   

-a is the option to add a bookmark. 3. Make the script executable:

    $ chmod +x bukuadd

4. Copy it somewhere in your PATH.
5. Add a new keyboard shortcut to run the script. I use <Alt-b>.

Test drive

Select a URL anywhere or copy a link and press the keyboard shortcut to add it to the buku database. The addition might take a few seconds to reflect depending on your internet speed and the time buku needs to fetch the title from the URL. To avoid title fetch from the web, add the -t option to the script.

To verify that the bookmark has indeed been added, run:

$ buku -p | tail -3

and check the entry.

Tips

• To add the last visited URL in Firefox to buku, use the following script:

    #!/bin/bash
  
    sqlite3 $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/places.sqlite "select url from moz_places where last_visit_date=(select max(last_visit_date) from moz_places)" | buku -a
  

• If you want to tag these bookmarks, look them up later using:

    $ buku -S blank
  

Use option -u to tag these bookmarks.

Import bookmarks to browser

buku can export (or import) bookmarks in HTML format recognized by Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.

To export all bookmarks, run:

$ buku --export path_to_bookmarks.html

To export specific tags, run:

$ buku --export path_to_bookmarks.html --tag tag 1, tag 2

Once exported, import the html file in your browser.

Sync database across systems

buku has the capability to import records from another buku database file. However, users with a cloud service client installed on multiple systems can keep the database synced across these systems automatically. To achieve this store the actual database file in a synced directory and create a symbolic link to it in the location where the database file would exist otherwise. For example, $HOME/.local/share/buku/bookmarks.db can be a symbolic link to ~/synced_dir/bookmarks.db.

As a library

buku can be used as a powerful bookmark management library. All functionality are available through carefully designed APIs. main() is a good usage example. It's also possible to use a custom database file in multi-user scenarios. Check out the documentation for the following APIs which accept an optional argument as database file:

BukuDb.initdb(dbfile=None)
BukuCrypt.encrypt_file(iterations, dbfile=None)
BukuCrypt.decrypt_file(iterations, dbfile=None)

NOTE: This flexibility is not exposed in the program.

Related projects

• buku_run, a rofi frontend
• oil, a search-as-you-type cli frontend

Mentions

• One Thing Well
• It's F.O.S.S.
• Make Tech Easier
• LinuxUser Magazine 01/2017 Issue

Examples

1. Add a bookmark with tags search engine and privacy, comment Alternative search engine with perks, fetch page title from the web:

    $ buku -a https://ddg.gg search engine, privacy -c Alternative search engine with perks
    336. https://ddg.gg
    > DuckDuckGo
    + Alternative search engine with perks
    # privacy,search engine
   

where, >: title, +: comment, #: tags 2. Add a bookmark with tags search engine & privacy and immutable custom title DDG:

    $ buku -a https://ddg.gg search engine, privacy -t 'DDG' --immutable 1
    336. https://ddg.gg (L)
    > DDG
    # privacy,search engine

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

    $ buku -a https://ddg.gg search engine, privacy -t

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

    $ buku -u 15012014 --url http://ddg.gg/ --tag web search, utilities -c Alternative search engine
   

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. Export bookmarks tagged tag 1 or tag 2 to HTML and markdown:

    $ buku -e bookmarks.html --tag tag 1, tag 2
    $ buku -e bookmarks.md --markdown --tag tag 1, tag 2

All bookmarks are exported if --tag is not specified. 8. Import bookmarks from HTML and markdown:

    $ buku -i bookmarks.html
    $ buku -i bookmarks.md --markdown

9. 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. 10. Update or refresh full DB with page titles from the web:

    $ buku -u
    $ buku -u --tacit (show only failures and exceptions)

This operation does not modify the indexes, URLs, tags or comments. Only title is refreshed if fetched title is non-empty. 11. 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. 12. Delete all bookmarks:

    $ buku -d

13. Delete a range or list of bookmarks:

    $ buku -d 100-200
    $ buku -d 100 15 200
    

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

    $ buku -s kernel debugging
    

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

    $ buku -S kernel debugging
    

16. Search bookmarks tagged general kernel concepts:

    $ buku --stag general kernel concepts
    

17. List all unique tags alphabetically:

    $ buku --stag
    

18. Run a search and update the results:

    $ buku -s kernel debugging -u --tag + newtag
    

19. Run a search and delete the results:

    $ buku -s kernel debugging -d
    

20. 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 specified for one lock & unlock instance. Default is 8, if omitted. 21. Show details of bookmarks at index 15012014 and ranges 20-30, 40-50:

    $ buku -p 20-30 15012014 40-50

22. Show all bookmarks with real index from database:

    $ buku -p
    $ buku -p | more
    

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

    $ buku -r 'old tag' new tag
    

24. Delete tag 'old tag' from DB:

    $ buku -r 'old tag'
    

25. Append (or delete) tags 'tag 1', 'tag 2' to (or from) existing tags of bookmark at index 15012014:

    $ buku -u 15012014 --tag + tag 1, tag 2
    $ buku -u 15012014 --tag - tag 1, tag 2
    

26. Open URL at index 15012014 in browser:

    $ buku -o 15012014
    

27. List bookmarks with no title or tags for bookkeeping:

    $ buku -S blank
    

28. List bookmarks with immutable title:

    $ buku -S immutable
    

29. Shorten URL www.google.com and the URL at index 20:

    $ buku --shorten www.google.com
    $ buku --shorten 20
    

30. More help:

    $ buku -h
    $ man buku
    

Contributions

Pull requests are welcome. Please visit #103 for a list of TODOs.

Copyright

Copyright © 2015-2017 Arun Prakash Jana