Awesome
addrb
addrb
, the command line address book. It's super lightweight, yet it
supports CardDAV sync!
Build
go build .
Usage
Either export all necessary variables to your ENV or set them as command line flags:
export CARDDAV_USERNAME='...'
export CARDDAV_PASSWORD='...'
export CARDDAV_ENDPOINT='...'
export ADDRB_DB='...'
If you're using Baïkal for example, you
would export something like this as CARDDAV_ENDPOINT
:
export CARDDAV_ENDPOINT='https://my.baik.al/dav.php/'
The ADDRB_DB
is the local contacts database in order to not need to contact
the CardDAV for every lookup. You might set it to something like this:
export ADDRB_DB=~/.cache/addrb.db
When addrb
is launched for the first time, it requires the -r
flag to
refresh the contacts and sync them locally:
addrb -r john doe
This command will connect to the CardDAV server, sync all address books/contacts locally and perform a lookup for john doe. It will display you the contact(s) if any was found.
You can also refresh without querying:
addrb -r
This way you could create a cron job that refreshes addrb
in the background,
e.g. every three hours:
crontab -e
0 */3 * * * sh -c 'addrb -r'
You can also output contacts as JSON format using the -j
flag:
addrb -j john doe
Find more flags and info with addrb --help
.
Templating
You can customize the regular output using templating. The template can either
be passed using the --template <file>
flag or by exporting ADDRB_TEMPLATE
in the in the environment.
The templating format is the Go standard text/template
format. The
following special functions are available:
RenderPhoto
for rendering a base64 string as image (usually the contactPHOTO
)RenderAddress
for rendering a contact address
Available property names that are available can be found by displaying a
contact as JSON (using the -j
flag). E.g. "FN" is the full name, which can be
retrieved using e.g. the .PreferredValue
method:
{{ .PreferredValue "FN" }}
Other methods that are available can be found here, with the most useful
ones probably being .PreferredValue
, .Value
, and .Values
(for arrays).
An example template can be found here. To make use of the template, you can
copy it to e.g. ~/.config/addrb.tmpl
and have
ADDRB_TEMPLATE=~/.config/addrb.tmpl
exported in your .zshrc
/.bashrc
/etc.
FAQ
- Q: Does
addrb
write/modify any contact information? A: Nope, so far it's read-only and does not support updating vCards, hence it won't mess with your data. - Q: Can I use it with my local address book?
A: Nope, as of right now
addrb
only supports CardDAV servers to sync with. - Q: Does it support HTTP Digest auth? A: Nope, only HTTP Basic auth.
- Q: The
text/template
stuff doesn't work for me, can I makeaddrb
output contact data differently? A: Yes, you can use the-j
flag and have it output pure JSON, which you can then process using e.g.jq
.