gmb

gmb is a set of shell scripts used to generate and maintain a static microblog (in particular, this one). It supports RSS. Inspired by SoC (as seen here), but I wanted to write my own code, simply to learn how to do this.

Unless you want to publish only plain text but also want to insert hyperlinks, you still need to know basic HTML, but gmb will save you the hassle of editing your blog, writing the referrable timestamp/id and updating your RSS feed by hand.

Code

Find and fork the code on GitHub. The code is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

Setup

gmb depends on coreutils, grep, mktemp and sed, also you'll need a text editor of your choice. Note that, due to different behaviour of sed on macOS, gmb will only run on GNU operating systems.

1. Download the archive.
2. Move gmbrc to ~/.config/gmb/gmbrc and edit it to set appropriate values.
3. Move gmb.sh and gpe.sh to ~/bin and make them executable. If necessary, add ~/bin to your $PATH.

gmb is now ready for use.

Usage

Either launch gmb in interactive mode by simple invoking the script, then type your entry or prepare a textfile anywhere in your ~ and hand the absolute path to gmb as an argument.

Note that, as of now, gmb will only read one single line. Line breaks may be forced by either using the br tag or by closing the automatically added p tag and opening a new one.

Editing entries

gpe.sh (gmb post editor) helps to update the individual files that store the content of each blog post.

The string behind the second to last forward slash in an entries permanent path is handed to gpe.sh as an argument. The script will then read the necessary line, open the editor you set in gmbrc and allow for changes to be made. Saving and closing the editor will then have gpe.sh update the affected files.

As an example, suppose an entry was written on 2018-01-02 at 22:42:11 UTC. gpe.sh would be launched like so:

$ gpe.sh 201801/02224211.html

Changelog

2019-02-10

Download here.

• gmbrc was missing the path to the archive directory for some reason; now included
• if the blog directory is set in gmbrc but is not present on first run, gmb will now create it

2018-07-28

Download here.

• Now removing $tempfile after each run, sinc /tmp is only cleared out on server reboot.
• gpe.sh now uses mktemp instead of a hardcoded temporary file.

2018-07-19

Download here.

• Instead of read gmb now uses your editor of choice (defined in gmbrc) to let you write new blog entries.
• Removed that one bit of Perl code (since it did not even really do what I had planned for it to do), so if you point gmb at a file to process at launch make sure for it to contain one line only.
• There was a line from when RSS was optional left in the code, checking wether or not the feed was enabled. Removed that, too.
• The config file in ~/.config/gmb/ is called gmbrc again. One day I'll make up my mind, I promise!

2016-12-20

Download here.

• Timestamp now printed like in SoC, this allows for use without CSS.
• Configuration file is now called gmbnrc, still stored in ~/.config/gmb/
• In said file, the variable delb became delblog, blgu was changed to blogurl, archdir was added and set to $drc/archive
• Both the archive and the RSS feed are mandatory now.

2016-08-22

• Archive implemented.
• Variables stored in config file now.
• Archive and RSS feed may be toggled in the config file.

2016-07-17

• Timestamps made to be clickable links to the entry's ID.
• Blog writes RSS feed.

2016-07-16

Unreleased. Used as a first live version. The code was extended since, overwriting the original file.

• Writing timestamps
• Setting an ID for each entry