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

buku can handle piped input, which lets you combine it with xsel (on Linux) and add bookmarks from anywhere without touching the terminal.

Ref: buku & xsel: add selected or copied URL as bookmark

Find buku useful? If you would like to donate, visit the page.

Copyright (C) 2015-2016 Arun Prakash Jana.

• Add, tag, comment on, search, update, remove bookmarks
• Fetch page title from the web (default) or add manually
• Import HTML bookmark exports from Firefox, Google Chrome or IE (not released yet)
• Open search results directly in browser
• Manual password protection using AES256 encryption
• Modify or delete tags, list all unique tags alphabetically
• Refresh all bookmarks online in one shot
• Tab-completion scripts for Bash, Fish and Zsh
• Man page with examples
• Several options for power users (see help or man page)
• Fast and clean interface
• Minimal dependencies

• Installation
  • Dependencies
  • Installing from this repository
  • Running as a standalone utility
  • Shell completion
  • Installing with a package manager
• Usage
  • Cmdline options
  • Operational notes
• Examples
• Contributions
• Developers

buku requires Python 3.x to work.

For optional encryption support, install PyCrypto module. Run:

$ sudo pip3 install pycrypto

or on Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt-get install python3-crypto

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.

buku is a standalone utility. From the containing directory, run:

$ ./buku

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.

buku is also available on

• AUR for Arch Linux
• Void Linux repos ( $ sudo xbps-install -S buku )
• Homebrew for OS X, or its Linux fork, Linuxbrew

NOTE: If you are using buku v1.9 or below please refer to the installed man page or program help.

usage: buku [-a URL [tags ...]] [-u [N]] [-i path] [-d [N]]
            [--url keyword] [--tag [...]] [-t [...]] [-c [...]]
            [-s keyword [...]] [-S keyword [...]] [--st [...]]
            [-k [N]] [-l [N]] [-p [N]] [-f N]
            [-r oldtag [newtag ...]] [-j] [-o N] [-z] [-h]

A private command-line bookmark manager. Your mini web!

general options:
  -a, --add URL [tags ...]
                       bookmark URL with comma-separated tags
  -u, --update [N]     update fields of bookmark at DB index N
                       refresh all titles, if no arguments
                       refresh title of bookmark at N, if only
                       N is specified without any edit options
  -d, --delete [N]     delete bookmark at DB index N
                       delete all bookmarks, if no arguments
  -i, --import path    import bookmarks from html file; Firefox,
                       Google Chrome and IE formats supported
  -h, --help           show this information

edit options:
  --url keyword        specify url, works with -u only
  --tag [...]          set comma-separated tags, works with -a, -u
                       clears tags, if no arguments
  -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

search options:
  -s, --sany keyword [...]
                       search bookmarks for ANY matching keyword
  -S, --sall keyword [...]
                       search bookmarks with ALL keywords
                       special keyword -
                       "blank": list entries with empty title/tag
  --st, --stag [...]   search bookmarks by tag
                       list all tags alphabetically, if no arguments

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:
  -p, --print [N]      show details of bookmark at DB index N
                       show all bookmarks, if no arguments
  -f, --format N       modify -p output
                       N=1: show only URL, N=2: show URL and tag
  -r, --replace oldtag [newtag ...]
                       replace oldtag with newtag everywhere
                       delete oldtag, if no newtag
  -j, --json           Json formatted output for -p, -s, -S, --st
  -o, --open N         open bookmark at DB index N in web browser
  -z, --debug          show debug information and additional logs

prompt keys:
  1-N                  open the Nth search result in web browser
  double Enter         exit buku

• The SQLite3 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.
• Before version 1.9, buku stored its database in $HOME/.cache/buku/bookmarks.db. If the file exists, buku automatically moves it to new location.
• It's advisable to copy URLs directly from the browser address bar, i.e., along with the leading http:// or https:// token. buku looks up title data (found within <title></title> tags of HTML) from the web ONLY for fully-formed HTTP(S) URLs.
• 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. You can update tags and re-fetch title data.
• 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 index number is passed without any other options (--url, --title, --tag and --comment), read the URL from DB and update title from web.
• Search works in mysterious ways:
  • Case-insensitive.
  • Substrings match (match matches rematched) for URL, title and tags.
  • -s : match any of the keywords in URL, title or tags.
  • -S : match all the keywords in URL, title or tags.
  • --st : search bookmarks by tag, or show all tags alphabetically.
  • You can search bookmarks by tag (see examples).
  • Search results are indexed serially. This index is different from actual database index of a bookmark record which is shown within [] after the URL.
• Auto DB compaction: when a record is deleted, the last record is moved to the index.
• Encryption is optional and manual. AES256 algorithm is used. If you choose 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.

1. Add a bookmark with tags linux news and open source, comment Informative website on Linux and open source, fetch page title from the web:

    $ buku -a https://tuxdiary.com linux news, open source -c Informative website on Linux and open source
    Title: [TuxDiary – Linux, open source, command-line, leisure.]
    Added at index 336
   
    336. https://tuxdiary.com
    > TuxDiary – Linux, open source, command-line, leisure.
    + Informative website on Linux and open source
    # linux news,open source
   

where, >: title, +: comment, #: tags 2. Add a bookmark with tags linux news and open source & custom title Linux magazine:

    $ buku -a http://tuxdiary.com linux news, open source -t 'Linux magazine'
    Added at index 15012014

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

    $ buku -a http://tuxdiary.com linux news, open source -t

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

    $ buku -u 15012014 --url http://tuxdiary.com/ --tag linux news, open source, magazine -c site for Linux utilities
   

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. Import bookmarks:

    $ buku -i bookmarks.html

HTML exports from Firefox, Google Chrome and IE are supported. 8. 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. 9. Update or refresh full DB with page titles from the web:

    $ buku -u

This operation does not modify the indexes, URLs, tags or comments. Only title is refreshed if fetched title is non-empty. 10. 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. 11. Delete all bookmarks:

    $ buku -d

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

    $ buku -s kernel debugging
    

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

    $ buku -S kernel debugging
    

14. Search bookmarks with tag general kernel concepts:

    $ buku --st general kernel concepts
    

Note the commas (,) before and after the tag. Comma is the tag delimiter in DB. 15. List all unique tags alphabetically:

    $ buku --st

16. 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 used for one lock & unlock instance. Default is 8. 17. Show details of bookmark at index 15012014:

    $ buku -p 15012014

18. Show all bookmarks with real index from database:

    $ buku -p
    $ buku -p | more
    

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

    $ buku -r 'old tag' new tag
    

20. Delete tag 'old tag' from DB:

    $ buku -r 'old tag'
    

21. Open URL at index 15012014 in browser:

    $ buku -o 15012014
    

22. To list bookmarks with no title or tags for bookkeeping:

    $ buku -S blank
    

23. More help:

    $ buku
    $ man buku
    

Pull requests are welcome. Please visit #14 for a list of TODOs.

Arun Prakash Jana

Special thanks to the community for valuable suggestions and ideas.