Simple note taker and time tracker. Add to path to use anywhere. Tested on OS X 10.10 (BSD).

note.sh

#!/bin/bash
#
# note v0.1
# Kerri Shotts <kerrishotts@gmail.com>
#
# Add a note to a file (or default file in current directory) with an optional timestamp and other nifty features

# what version are we?
version="0.1"

# A POSIX variable
OPTIND=1         # Reset in case getopts has been used previously in the shell.

# Output file. I like to create a local text file in the local directory. If you prefer a global file by default,
# use ~ instead of the dot.
output_file="./my-notes.txt"

# If 1, a timestamp will be generated
put_timestamp=0

# If 1, a new task is started
begin_task=0

# if 1, a task will be ended, and the difference between the start and end of the task is computed
end_task=0

# if 0, the file is overwritten
append=1

# if 1, the utility is extremely verbose.
verbose=0

# the message to store
message=""

# the first character. By default a ".". When a task begins, ">", and when a task ends, "<"
firstchar="."

# @method v
# @param {string} string to display, if $verbose is 1
function v {
  if [ $verbose -eq 1 ]; then
    echo "note: $1";
  fi
}

# @method write_to_file
# @param {string} string to write to the output file. If $append is zero, the file is overwritten.
function write_to_file {
    if [ $append -eq 0 ]; then
      v "overwriting $output_file";
      printf "$1\n" > $output_file;
      append=1;
    else
      printf "$1\n" >> $output_file;
    fi
    v "added $1 to $output_file"
}

# parse te command line
# command line switch processing stolen from http://stackoverflow.com/a/14203146/741043
while getopts "h?vVtOBEf:" opt; do
    case "$opt" in
    h|\?)
        echo "";
        echo "note v$version";
        echo "Kerri Shotts <kerrishotts@gmail.com>";
        echo "";
        echo "Usage:";
        echo " $0 [options] \"note\""
        echo "";
        echo "Switches:";
        echo " -h, -?: show this help";
        echo " -f:     output file ($output_file)";
        echo " -t:     generate timestamp";
        echo " -O:     overwrite (default is to append)";
        echo " -B:     begin task; generates timestamp";
        echo " -E:     end task; computes time difference";
        echo " -v:     verbose";
        echo " -V:     version";
        echo "";
        echo "Note: To prevent expansion, you should quote your note.";
        echo "";
        exit 0;
        ;;
    v)  verbose=1
        ;;
    V)  echo "$version";
        exit 0;
        ;;
    f)  output_file=$OPTARG
        ;;
    t)  put_timestamp=1;
        v "will write timestamp";
        ;;
    B)  begin_task=1;
        put_timestamp=1;
        firstchar=">";
        v "will write timestamp and begin task";
        ;;
    E)  end_task=1
        put_timestamp=1;
        firstchar="<";
        v "will end task and compute time difference";
        ;;
    O)  append=0
        ;;
    esac
done

shift $((OPTIND-1))

[ "$1" = "--" ] && shift

# Although the message should be quoted, ideally, we'll take the remainder of the
# command line just in case the user forgot.
message="$@"

# if there is no message, we'll display the last few lines of the output file
if [ "$message" = "" ]; then
  v "Listing last few lines of $output_file:";
  v "===================================================";
  tail "$output_file";
  v "===================================================";
  v "done.";
  exit 0;
fi

# if we're ending a task, get the previous date when we were starting a task.
# then compute the number of seconds and divide by 3600 for an hour.minute
# value. This is added to the message.
if [ "$end_task" -eq "1" ]; then
  v "Ending task and computing time difference...";
  a=`awk "/>\t.+\t\t/" "$output_file" | tail -n 1 | cut -f 2`;
  v "... task started at $a";
  b=`date`;
  v "... and ended at $b";
  secsa=`date -j -f "%a %b %d %T %Z %Y" "$a" "+%s"`
  v "... task started at $secsa seconds";
  secsb=`date -j -f "%a %b %d %T %Z %Y" "$b" "+%s"`
  v "... and ended at $secsb seconds";
  message="$message; took: `echo \"scale=2; ($secsb-$secsa)/60/60\" | bc`"
fi

# beginning a task just adds a visual break
if [ "$begin_task" -eq "1" ]; then
  write_to_file "\n"
fi

# generate the message, along with the first character and timestamp if desired.
if [ "$put_timestamp" -eq "1" ]; then
  write_to_file "$firstchar\t`date`\t\t$message"
else
  write_to_file "$firstchar\t\t\t$message"
fi

# done.
v "done."


# End of file

Notes

By default the script will write to ./my-notes.txt. If you don't want that to be the default file, edit the script appropriately, or use the -f switch.

Examples

With the default file:

note -B "Started working on feature A"     # begin a task
note -t "This note has a timestamp"        # add an entry with a timestamp
note "This note doesn't"                   # add an entry without a timestamp
note -E "Finished working on feature A"    # and end the task, computing the time difference
note                                       # display the recent notes

Specifying files:

note -f ~/global_notes.txt -B "Start Project"
note -f ~/global_notes.txt -t "Add a timestamp"
note -f ~/global_notes.txt "And one without"
note -f ~/global_notes.txt -E "End project"
note -f ~/global_notes.txt

Additional switches

• v Turn on verbose mode
• V display the version
• h display help
• ? display help
• O overwrite the target file

Dependencies

This script relies on date, bc, test, awk, tail and cut.

My environment is Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite).

Legal

You can do whatever you like with this script; I'm releasing it under the MIT license.

While this script works on my machine, I assume no risk for your use, misuse, or abuse. Always verify scripts before adding them to your environment.