Free logbook software for linux

bLogbook is a shell script that makes it easy to keep notes. bLogbook project uses the file system to manage a hierarchical set of "folders" and files.

bLogbook is configurable and extensible. Extensions can be added using the available plugin infrastructure.

User Guide

logbook has to following command line parameters:

logbook [-v]
Where:
-v: Output the version of logbook and exit.

To launch logbook, enter the command name (bLogbook) with no parameters.

After initialization, you will be presented with the following screen:

bLogbook version 0.1, Copyright (C) 2006 Fernand Boudreau
bLogbook comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type license.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; type license for details.

[elogbook]
Number or Command (h for help):

The space between [elogbook] and Number or Command (h for help): normally contains the list of files and/or folders availabe at this level of the hierarchy. The first time you launch logbook, the hierarchy should be empty.

For a list of operation, you can enter h then press enter. You will be presented with a list of commands that are available.

The builtin list of commands are used for such operations as adding and deleting entries (files or folders) into the logbook.

In addition to the built in commands, plugin commands may also be available if plugins have been installed. Plugin commands appear after the list of builtin commands, in the section titled Plugin Commands.

logbook also allows you to specify commands that are available in your $PATH. Simply enter the command at the prompt. If the command is not a builtin and not a plugin command, logbook will passed it to the shell to be executed.

Plugins

Plugins are added to the plugins directory located in the logbook configuration directory (~/.blogbook/plugins)

A plugin is a bash script. The plugin should contain a function named Initialize. This function will be called by the script after all plugins have been loaded (sourced). In this function you may do things to initialize your plugin such as add a command to the user menu.

User Menu

There are two types of menus: builtin and plugin. The builtin menu contains items created that are built into the logbook script. The plugin menu contains items that are added by plugins.

To add an item to the plugin menu, the plugin developer must call AddMenuItem(< command_name > < function_to_invoke > < command description >).

This is normally done in the Initialize function.

ELOG is part of a family of applications known as weblogs. ELOG Electronic Web Logbook general purpose is :
1. to make it easy for people to put information online in a chronological fashion, in the form of short, time-stamped text messages ("entries") with optional HTML markup for presentation, and optional file attachments (images, archives, etc.)
2. to make it easy for other people to access this information through a Web interface, browse entries, search, download files, and optionally add, update, delete or comment on entries.
ELOG is a remarkable implementation of a weblog in at least two respects :
- its simplicity of use : you dont need to be a seasoned server operator and/or an experimented database administrator to run ELOG ; one executable file (under Unix or Windows), a simple configuration text file, and it works. No Web server or relational database required. It is also easy to translate the interface to the appropriate language for your users.
- its versatility : through its single configuration file, ELOG can be made to display an infinity of variants of the weblog concept. There are options for what to display, how to display it, what commands are available and to whom, access control, etc. Moreover, a single server can host several weblogs, and each weblog can be totally different from the rest.
Several logbooks can be served though a single ELOG server. Each logbook can use different attributes for its entries. The logbook can then be searched using these attributes. The right pane on the left image shows a search for all entries with attribute "Type" equal to "Configuration ", and the lower pane shows the search result. It is also possible to use full-text search in attributes and the entry body.
While logbook entries are usually displayed one entry per page, they can also be listed consecutively which makes it easy to produce a paper printout of a logbook.
Logbook pages can be edited or deleted. This feature can be turned off in the configuration file so that a logbook entries cannot be changed after being submitted.
An additional feature is the automatic generation of a notification email messages based on a certain type or category of a logbook entry.
Main features:
- Personal Logbooks. Personal notes can be written into ELOG and can then be retrieved from anywhere with a Web browser. This makes it handy for PC supporters who have to go around in companies or laboratories and dont want to carry their paper logbook with them. The same holds true for people traveling around a lot. The logbook database consists of plain ASCII files which can copied easily between different computers to have local access, for example on a notebook with no network connection.
- Shared Logbooks. Logbooks can be shared by several people, for reading and optionally for writing. This way workgroups can share and exchange information like in a (simplified) news group. This is supported by the Reply command in ELOG which creates "threads" of entries. Users can be notified by email when new entries are added to the logbook. Compared to that of a news server, the installation of ELOG is much simpler.
- Small Databases. Since arbitrary attributes can be defined for a logbook, it can be used as a small database with search facilities.
- Problem collections. A system can consist of two logbooks, in one of which users enter bugs or problems. If someone adds a problem, an email is automatically sent to the administrator, who can then copy the entry to the second logbook and add the solution to the problem. Users can then look up all fixed problems.
- Shift Logbooks. If the Allow delete and Allow edit flags are off, an entry cannot be modified once its been entered. This can be useful for shift logbooks for example in accelerator control rooms where each entry becomes a "document" with a time and author stamp. ELOG was originally developed as a shift logbook for the PiBeta and Muegamma particle experiments at PSI.
- File collections. Since files can be attached to ELOG entries, the system can be used to store and retrieve files. This can be used to store configuration files, which need to be accessible by several people over the web, or to store images. Since ELOG features an elaborate query facility, entries can be searched for by specifying several categories.
Enhancements:
- ELCode tags were improved with keyboard shortcuts, tables, and a date/time tag.
- Several small bugs were fixed.

LogPot provides a simple logging IRC bot that runs on a single server and on multiple channels.

LogPot is a simple IRC logging bot. It supports logging multiple channels on a single server.

To log is a verbed derivative of the noun logbook; the verb form means to record in a logbook, and may have been coined in the 1820s. The term logbook itself stems from the practice of floating a stationary "log" (actually a wooden block attached to a reel via rope) to provide a fixed point of reference for the purpose of measuring a ships speed (see Knot (speed)). Computer scientists adopted the verb to log circa 1963 to describe the systematic recording of specific types of data processing events.

Taglog provides an electronic workbook, combining logging of time to projects with keeping a detailed diary of what you actually do. Individual work elements can be tagged by project, allowing you to produce, for example, a record of work on one particular project, even if your time is spread across a number of projects.

Work items can also be tagged by activity type - for example meeting, phone, programming etc - allowing you to analyse where your time is going by activity. Note that this activity type is orthogonal to the project axis, so that - for example - user support would be a project - in the larger sense WHAT you are doing - and phone calls to users - HOW you are doing it - would be the activity type.

phpDiveLog project displays the information of your Aqua DiveLog LogBook based on CSV files you generate with the Java Conduit shipped with Aqua DiveLog.
These dynamic pages are nicely and lucidly formatted. phpDiveLog allows you to combine these data with additional information, such as pictures or other external data sources.
You can create your own skins (template sets) to change the look and feel to match your Web site.
Main features:
- ...the DiveLogBook. Here you browse through the list of your dives (in the config file, you may specify how many entries should be displayed per page). For detailed information, a click on the dive# brings you directly to the log books entry.
- ...the Dive Statistics show you some basic stats about your dives, such as max/avg depth and divetime etc.
- ...the Dive Sites Information provides you with a list of your dive sites. Again, a click on the site# brings you to the details page
Enhancements:
- Sorting functionality was added to logbook and sitelist.
- Some vulnerability checks were added.

COllaborative DEvelopment SHell is a project that provides an automatic persistent logbook for sessions of personal command line work by recording what and how is being done, for private use/reuse and for sharing selected parts with collaborators.
COllaborative DEvelopment SHell is an intelligent shell that automatically logs a users command line (shell) session: commands, scripts executed, output produced, changes to environment variables, alias creation, and other information needed to recreate the session later.
Sessions are uniquely tagged and stored in local or distributed backend repositories and can be extracted and reproduced at any time by the user who created the session or by collaborators located anywhere in the world.
Enhancements:
- This release introduces a new persistent backend for virtual sessions, based just on flat (mostly ASCII) files, and the corresponding new module codeshbascii.py.
- Now the user has a clear choice between a CVS backend, a flat file (ASCII) backend (thus avoiding the CVS dependency), or no backend at all.
- The protection of repository commands has been improved.
- Now they are executed only after a check that the repository specified by the user is alive and operational.
- The verification of user-supplied command line parameters has been improved.

Murdoc project is a system for documenting system management departments.
All documents of a system management department can be put in Murdoc for convenient browsing and searching.
It comes with several tools for creating content, like a Unix documenter (for automatically documenting Unix servers on a daily basis), a Windows documenter (for automatically documenting Microsoft Windows servers on a daily basis), and a Logbook writer (for entering logbook entries by the system administrators). A searching feature is included.
Main features:
- UNIX documenter (for automatically documenting UNIX servers on a daily basis)
- Windows documenter (for automatically documenting Microsoft Windows servers on a daily basis)
- Logbook writer (for entering logbook entries by the system administrators)

XEphem project is a scientific-grade interactive astronomical ephemeris package.
Main features:
- computes heliocentric, geocentric and topocentric information for all objects;
- has built-in support for all planets; the moons of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Earth; central meridian longitude of Mars and Jupiter; Saturns rings; and Jupiters Great Red Spot;
- allows user-defined objects including stars, deepsky objects, asteroids, comets and Earth satellites.
- provides special efficient handling of large catalogs including Tycho, Hipparcos, GSC.
- displays data in configurable tabular formats in conjunction with several interactive graphical views;
- displays a night-at-a-glance 24 hour graphic showing when any selected objects are up;
- displays 3-D stereo Solar System views that are particularly well suited for visualizing comet trajectories;
- quickly finds all close pairs of objects in the sky;
- sorts and prints all catalogs with very flexible criteria for creating custom observing lists;
- creates plots of any pairs of all data fields throughout the program;
- downloads and displays AAVSO light curves directly online;
- downloads current asteroid and comets ephemerides from Lowell Observatory and Minor Planet Center;
- downloads timely Earth satellite orbital TLE parameters;
- plots true binary system orbits;
- downloads Digitized Sky Survey FITS files from STScI or ESO;
- displays seti@home client progress and plots position being processed on Sky View map;
- provides a handy coordinates spreadsheet for converting among equatorial, ecliptic, horizon and galactic frames ;
- displays live SOHO images of the Sun;
- includes a compiler for entering and solving user-written functions using any data fields;
- serves as the control point for GOTO telescopes such as Meade LX200 or other external applications;
- displays FITS files images overlaid with database symbols and other graphical information;
- performs automatic star pattern matching to automatically solve for World Coordinate System on any image;
- performs 1-click 2D Gaussian relative and absolute photometry;
- defines and saves any number of Eyepieces to use in sky maps;
- captures, displays and clips to any number of local horizon profiles;
- stores sets of all Sky View options in history sets for easy playback later;
- prints using high quality Postscript;
- allows you to assign any number of objects as Favorites for special fast access throughout the program, and makes them available even when their original databases are no longer loaded;
- provides an extensible image gallery initialized with over 300 beautiful and informative color images of deep sky objects;
- provides an observing logbook which is automatically filled in with observing circumstances, with searching on most fields;
- displays magnetic deviation for any location.