1CALCURSE(1) Calcurse Manual CALCURSE(1)
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6 Calcurse - text-based organizer
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9 calcurse [-h|-v] [-N] [-an] [-t[num]] [-c<file> | -D<dir>]
10 [-i<file>] [-x[format]] [-d <date>|<num>]
11 [-s[date]] [-r[range]] [-S <regex>] [--status]
12
15 Calcurse is a text-based calendar and scheduling application. It helps
16 keeping track of events, appointments and everyday tasks. A config‐
17 urable notification system reminds user of upcoming deadlines, and the
18 curses based interface can be customized to suit user needs. All of
19 the commands are documented within an online help system.
20
22 The following options are supported:
23 -a, --appointment
25 Print the appointments and events for the current day and exit.
26 Note: the calendar from which to read the appointments can be
27 specified using the '-c' flag.
28 -c <file>, --calendar <file>
30 Specify the calendar file to use. The default calendar is
31 '~/.calcurse/apts' (see section FILES below). This option is
32 incompatible with -D.
33 -d <date|num>, --day <date|num>
35 Print the appointments and events for the given date or for the
36 given number of upcoming days, depending on the argument format.
37 Two possible formats are supported:
38 · a date (see below for possible formats).
40 · a number 'n'.
42 In the first case, the appointments and events list for the
44 specified date will be returned, while in the second case the
45 appointments and events list for the 'n' upcoming days will be
46 returned.
47 As an example, typing 'calcurse -d 3' will display your appoint‐
48 ments and events for today, tomorrow, and the day after tomor‐
49 row.
50 The date format used is the one specified in the 'General
51 options' menu. Four formats are available:
52 1. mm/dd/yyyy
54 2. dd/mm/yyyy
56 3. yyyy/mm/dd
58 4. yyyy-mm-dd
60 Note: as for the '-a' flag, the calendar from which to
62 read the appointments can be specified using the '-c'
63 flag.
64 -D <dir>, --directory <dir>
66 Specify the data directory to use. This option is incom‐
67 patible with -c. If not specified, the default directory
68 is '~/.calcurse/'
69 -h, --help
71 Print a short help text describing the supported command-
72 line options, and then exit.
73 -i <file>, --import <file>
75 Import the icalendar data contained in file.
76 -n, --next
78 Print the next appointment within upcoming 24 hours and
79 exit. The indicated time is the number of hours and min‐
80 utes left before this appointment.
81 Note: the calendar from which to read the appointments
82 can be specified using the '-c' flag.
83 -N, --note
85 When used with the '-a' or '-t' flag, also print note
86 content if one is associated with the displayed item.
87 -r[num], --range[=num]
89 Print events and appointments for the num number of days
90 and exit. If no num is given, a range of 1 day is consid‐
91 ered.
92 -s[date], --startday[=date]
94 Print events and appointments from date and exit. If no
95 date is given, the current day is considered.
96 -S<regex>, --search=<regex>
98 When used with the '-a', '-d', '-r', '-s', or '-t' flag,
99 print only the items having a description that matches
100 the given regular expression.
101 --status
103 Display the status of running instances of calcurse. If
104 calcurse is running, this will tell if the interactive
105 mode was launched or if calcurse is running in back‐
106 ground. The process pid will also be indicated.
107 -t[num], --todo[=num]
109 Print the 'todo' list and exit. If the optional number
110 num is given, then only todos having a priority equal to
111 num will be returned. The priority number must be
112 between 1 (highest) and 9 (lowest). It is also possible
113 to specify '0' for the priority, in which case only com‐
114 pleted tasks will be shown.
115 -v, --version
117 Display calcurse version and exit.
118 -x[format], --export[=format]
120 Export user data to the specified format. Events,
121 appointments and todos are converted and echoed to std‐
122 out. Two possible formats are available: ical and pcal.
123 If the optional argument format is not given, ical format
124 is selected by default.
125 Note: redirect standard output to export data to a file,
126 by issuing a command such as:
127 $ calcurse --export > calcurse.dat
128
130 Calcurse interface contains three different panels (calendar, appoint‐
131 ment list, and todo list) on which you can perform different actions.
132 All the possible actions, together with their associated keystrokes,
133 are listed on the status bar. This status bar takes place at the bottom
134 of the screen.
135 At any time, the built-in help system can be invoked by pressing the
137 '?' key. Once viewing the help screens, informations on a specific
138 command can be accessed by pressing the keystroke corresponding to that
139 command.
140
142 The calcurse options can be changed from the configuration menu (shown
143 when 'C' is hit). Five possible categories are to be chosen from : the
144 color scheme, the layout (the location of the three panels on the
145 screen), notification options, key bindings configuration menu, and
146 more general options (such as automatic save before quitting). All of
147 these options are detailed in the configuration menu.
148
150 The following structure is created in your $HOME directory (or in the
151 directory you specified with the -D option), the first time calcurse is
152 run:
153 $HOME/.calcurse/
155 |___notes/
156 |___conf
157 |___keys
158 |___apts
159 |___todo
160 The notes subdirectory contains descriptions of the notes which are
162 attached to appointments, events or todos. One text file is created per
163 note, whose name is built using mkstemp(3) and should be unique, but
164 with no relation with the corresponding item's description.
165 The conf file contains the user configuration. The keys file contains
166 the user-defined key bindings. The apts file contains all of the user's
167 appointments and events, and the todo file contains the todo list.
168 Note: if the logging of calcurse daemon activity was set in the notifi‐
170 cation configuration menu, the extra file daemon.log will appear in
171 calcurse data directory. This file contains logs about calcurse activ‐
172 ity when running in background.
173
175 This section describes the environment variables that affect how cal‐
176 curse operates.
177 VISUAL
179 Specifies the external editor to use for writing notes.
180 EDITOR
182 If the VISUAL environment variable is not set, then EDITOR will be
183 used as the default external editor. If none of those variables are
184 set, then /usr/bin/vi is used instead.
185 PAGER
187 Specifies the default viewer to be used for reading notes. If this
188 variable is not set, then /usr/bin/less is used.
189
191 Incorrect highlighting of items appear when using calcurse black and
192 white theme together with a $TERM variable set to xterm-color. To fix
193 this bug, and as advised by Thomas E. Dickey (xterm maintainer), xterm-
194 xfree86 should be used instead of xterm-color to set the $TERM vari‐
195 able:
196 "The xterm-color value for $TERM is a bad choice for
197 XFree86 xterm because it is commonly used for a
198 terminfo entry which happens to not support bce.
199 Use the xterm-xfree86 entry which is distributed
200 with XFree86 xterm (or the similar one distributed
201 with ncurses)."
202 If you find other bugs, please send a report to calcurse@culot.org or
204 to the author, below.
205
207 vi(1), less(1), ncurses(3), mkstemp(3)
208 The ical specification (rfc2445) can be found at:
209 http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2445
210 The pcal project page: http://pcal.sourceforge.net/
211 Calcurse home page: http://culot.org/calcurse/
212 Calcurse complete manual, translated in many languages and maintained
213 in html format, can be found in the doc/ directory of the source pack‐
214 age, or at: http://culot.org/calcurse/manual.html
215
217 Frederic Culot <frederic@culot.org>.
218
220 Copyright (c) 2004-2010 by Frederic Culot.
221 This software is released under the BSD License.
222Version 2.8 May 26, 2010 CALCURSE(1)