Offline Microblog

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(SH, 33.6 KiB)

Current version: 4.2.4 2025-03-10

Changelog

Function and Features

This script creates and manages a Markdown-formatted "timeline" microjournal file.

Usage:

microblog.sh [OPTIONS] TIMELINE_FILE

Features:

• Full POSIX compliance
• Unique user ID and custom username
• Add posts from STDIN
• ISO 8601 date and time on all posts
• UUID on all posts
• Per-timeline configuration options
• POSIX- and GNU-style options supported
• Post length limits, including limit overrides
• Use editor of choice to write posts
• Post deletion
• Attachment support
• Up to 100 attachments per post
• Avatar support
• Default avatar generation
• Draft saving and loading, including attachments
• Reply support, including forward replies
• All post operations (except forward replies) are atomic
• Atomic post read-back
• twtxt cross-posting support

Attachments are stored in a directory called "attachments" in the same location as the timeline file. Drafts are similarly stored in a directory called "drafts". A ".working" directory is also created for internal files.

Background

When I used Twitter (before 280 characters became standard), I had a private secondary account that I used as a "rant" account. If I wanted to vent, spam, ramble, or simply write something inappropriate, I would post it there. No-one followed the account, and the account didn't follow anyone. I got used to writing my thoughts as a stream of conscience, necessitated by the fact that each snippet had to be 140 characters or less. I closed that account in early 2017.

The germ of this script formed in mid-2019. I had recently installed the note-taking app Markor on my smartphone and had just finished converting my personal notes to Markdown. Markor has a button in its toolbar that automatically inserts the current date and time into a note. I began to use this feature to write free-form journal entries, but as time passed, I discovered that I missed the specific microjournaling format I had grown accustomed to on Twitter. I decided to write a script to mimic the timeline properties of Twitter, a script I've been developing ever since.

I consider this script functionally complete for my original purpose, but I may tweak it or add features over time.

Requirements, Quirks and Caveats

• Optional dependencies are base64 and bc. bc is used to generate default avatars; base64 is used to convert UUIDs into base64-encoded binary. These functions are automatically disabled if any dependencies are not found.
• Abbreviated long options are not supported.
• Paths containing newlines are not supported.
• The script sets $IFS to only newlines. Upon most types of termination signal, IFS will be restored to its original value (or unset). Confirm $IFS has the value you expect after running.
• twtxt cross-posting writes to "_twtxt.sink" in the same directory as the timeline file. To post to twtxt seamlessly, create a symlink from this file to your twtxt file.

License

For purely legal purposes, this script is distributed under the terms of the simplified (2-clause) BSD license.

License Text

(TXT, 1.23 KiB)

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[Last updated: 2025-03-10]