mirror of
https://github.com/jrnl-org/jrnl.git
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245 lines
6.7 KiB
Markdown
245 lines
6.7 KiB
Markdown
# FAQ
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## Recipes
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### Co-occurrence of tags
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If I want to find out how often I mentioned my flatmates Alberto and
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Melo in the same entry, I run
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```sh
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jrnl @alberto --tags | grep @melo
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```
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And will get something like `@melo: 9`, meaning there are 9 entries
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where both `@alberto` and `@melo` are tagged. How does this work? First,
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`jrnl @alberto` will filter the journal to only entries containing the
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tag `@alberto`, and then the `--tags` option will print out how often
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each tag occurred in this filtered journal. Finally, we pipe this to
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`grep` which will only display the line containing `@melo`.
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### Combining filters
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You can do things like
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```sh
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jrnl @fixed -starred -n 10 -until "jan 2013" --short
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```
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To get a short summary of the 10 most recent, favourited entries before
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January 1, 2013 that are tagged with `@fixed`.
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### Statistics
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How much did I write last year?
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```sh
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jrnl -from "jan 1 2013" -until "dec 31 2013" | wc -w
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```
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Will give you the number of words you wrote in 2013. How long is my
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average entry?
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```sh
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expr $(jrnl --export text | wc -w) / $(jrnl --short | wc -l)
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```
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This will first get the total number of words in the journal and divide
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it by the number of entries (this works because `jrnl --short` will
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print exactly one line per entry).
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### Importing older files
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If you want to import a file as an entry to jrnl, you can just do `jrnl < entry.ext`. But what if you want the modification date of the file to
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be the date of the entry in jrnl? Try this
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```sh
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echo `stat -f %Sm -t '%d %b %Y at %H:%M: ' entry.txt` `cat entry.txt` | jrnl
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```
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The first part will format the modification date of `entry.txt`, and
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then combine it with the contents of the file before piping it to jrnl.
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If you do that often, consider creating a function in your `.bashrc` or
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`.bash_profile`
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```sh
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jrnlimport () {
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echo `stat -f %Sm -t '%d %b %Y at %H:%M: ' $1` `cat $1` | jrnl
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}
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```
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### Using templates
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!!! note
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Templates require an [external editor](./advanced.md) be configured.
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A template is a code snippet that makes it easier to enter use repeated text
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each time a new journal entry is started. There are two ways you can utilize
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templates in your entries.
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#### 1. Command line arguments
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If you had a `template.txt` file with the following contents:
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```sh
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My Personal Journal
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Title:
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Body:
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```
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The `template.txt` file could be used to create a new entry with these
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command line arguements:
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```sh
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jrnl < template.txt # Imports template.txt as the most recent entry
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jrnl -1 --edit # Opens the most recent entry in the editor
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```
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#### 2. Include the template file in `jrnl.yaml`
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A more efficient way to work with a template file is to declare the file
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in your config file by changing the `template` setting from `false` to the
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template file's path in double quotes:
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```sh
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...
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template: "/path/to/template.txt"
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...
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```
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Changes can be saved as you continue writing the journal entry and will be
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logged as a new entry in the journal you specified in the original argument.
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!!! tip
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To read your journal entry or to verify the entry saved, you can use this
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command: `jrnl -n 1` (Check out [Import and Export](./export.md) for more export options).
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```sh
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jrnl -n 1
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```
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### Prompts on shell reload
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If you'd like to be prompted each time you refresh your shell, you can include
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this in your `.bash_profile`:
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```sh
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function log_question()
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{
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echo $1
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read
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jrnl today: ${1}. $REPLY
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}
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log_question 'What did I achieve today?'
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log_question 'What did I make progress with?'
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```
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Whenever your shell is reloaded, you will be prompted to answer each of the
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questions in the example above. Each answer will be logged as a separate
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journal entry at the `default_hour` and `default_minute` listed in your
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`jrnl.yaml` [config file](../advanced/#configuration-file).
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### Display random entry
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You can use this to select one title at random and then display the whole
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entry. The invocation of `cut` needs to match the format of the timestamp.
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For timestamps that have a space between data and time components, select
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fields 1 and 2 as shown. For timestamps that have no whitespace, select
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only field 1.
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```sh
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jrnl -on "$(jrnl --short | shuf -n 1 | cut -d' ' -f1,2)"
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```
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## External editors
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Configure your preferred external editor by updating the `editor` option
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in your `jrnl.yaml` file. (See [advanced usage](./advanced.md) for details).
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!!! note
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To save and log any entry edits, save and close the file.
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### Sublime Text
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To use Sublime Text, install the command line tools for Sublime Text and
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configure your `jrnl.yaml` like this:
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```yaml
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editor: "subl -w"
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```
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Note the `-w` flag to make sure jrnl waits for Sublime Text to close the
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file before writing into the journal.
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### MacVim
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Similar to Sublime Text, MacVim must be started with a flag that tells
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the the process to wait until the file is closed before passing control
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back to journal. In the case of MacVim, this is `-f`:
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```yaml
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editor: "mvim -f"
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```
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### iA Writer
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On OS X, you can use the fabulous [iA
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Writer](http://www.iawriter.com/mac) to write entries. Configure your
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`jrnl.yaml` like this:
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```yaml
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editor: "open -b pro.writer.mac -Wn"
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```
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What does this do? `open -b ...` opens a file using the application
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identified by the bundle identifier (a unique string for every app out
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there). `-Wn` tells the application to wait until it's closed before
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passing back control, and to use a new instance of the application.
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If the `pro.writer.mac` bundle identifier is not found on your system,
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you can find the right string to use by inspecting iA Writer's
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`Info.plist` file in your shell:
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```sh
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grep -A 1 CFBundleIdentifier /Applications/iA\ Writer.app/Contents/Info.plist
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```
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### Notepad++ on Windows
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To set [Notepad++](http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) as your editor, edit
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the jrnl config file (`jrnl.yaml`) like this:
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```yaml
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editor: "C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Notepad++\\notepad++.exe -multiInst -nosession"
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```
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The double backslashes are needed so jrnl can read the file path
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correctly. The `-multiInst -nosession` options will cause jrnl to open
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its own Notepad++ window.
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### Visual Studio Code
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To set [Visual Studo Code](https://code.visualstudio.com) as your editor on Linux, edit `jrnl.yaml` like this:
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```yaml
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editor: "/usr/bin/code --wait"
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```
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The `--wait` argument tells VS Code to wait for files to be written out before handing back control to jrnl.
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On MacOS you will need to add VS Code to your PATH. You can do that by adding:
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```sh
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export PATH="\$PATH:/Applications/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/bin"
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```
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to your `.bash_profile`, or by running the **Install 'code' command in PATH** command from the command pallet in VS Code.
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Then you can add:
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```yaml
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editor: "code --wait"
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```
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to `jrnl.yaml`. See also the [Visual Studio Code documentation](https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/setup/mac)
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