calcurse(1) - Linux man page

Name

Calcurse - text-based organizer

Synopsis

calcurse [-h|-v] [-x] [-an] [-t[num]] [-d date|num] [-c file]

Description

Calcurse is a text-based calendar and scheduling application. It helps keeping track of events, appointments and everyday tasks. A configurable notification system reminds user of upcoming deadlines, and the curses based interface can be customized to suit user needs. All of the commands are documented within an online help system.

Options

The following options are supported:

-a, --appointment: Print the appointments and events for the current day and exit.
Note: the calendar from which to read the appointments can be specified using the '-c' flag.
-c <file>, --calendar <file>: Specify the calendar file to use. The default calendar is '~/.calcurse/apts' (see section FILES below).
-d <date|num>, --day <date|num>: Print the appointments and events for the given date or for the given number of upcoming days, depending on the argument format. Two possible formats are supported:; * a date of the form 'mm/dd/yyyy'.; * a number 'n'.; In the first case, the appointments and events list for the specified date will be returned, while in the second case the appointments and events list for the 'n' upcoming days will be returned.
As an example, typing 'calcurse -d 3' will display your appointments and events for today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow.
Note: as for the '-a' flag, the calendar from which to read the appointments can be specified using the '-c' flag.
-h, --help: Print a short help text describing the supported command-line options, and then exit.
-n, --next: Print the next appointment within upcoming 24 hours and exit. The indicated time is the number of hours and minutes left before this appointment.
Note: the calendar from which to read the appointments can be specified using the '-c' flag.
-t[num], --todo[=num]: Print the 'todo' list and exit. If the optional number num is given, then only todos having a priority equal to num will be returned.
Note: priority number must be between 1 (highest) and 9 (lowest).
-v, --version: Display calcurse version and exit.
-x, --export: Export user data to iCalendar format. Events, appointments and todos are converted and echoed to stdout.
Note: redirect standard output to export data to a file, by issuing a command such as:
$ calcurse --export > my_data.ics

Notes

Calcurse interface contains three different panels (calendar, appointment list, and todo list) on which you can perform different actions. All the possible actions, together with their associated keystrokes, are listed on the status bar. This status bar takes place at the bottom of the screen.

At any time, the built-in help system can be invoked by pressing the '?' key. Once viewing the help screens, informations on a specific command can be accessed by pressing the keystroke corresponding to that command.

Configuration

The calcurse options can be changed from the configuration menu (shown when 'C' is hit). Four possible categories are to be chosen from : the color scheme, the layout (the location of the three panels on the screen), notification options, and more general options (such as automatic save before quitting). All of these options are detailed in the configuration menu.

Files

The following structure is created in your $HOME directory the first time calcurse is run :

$HOME/.calcurse/: |___notes/
|___conf
|___apts
|___todo
The notes subdirectory contains descriptions of the notes which are attached to appointments, events or todos. One text file is created per note, whose name is built using mkstemp(3) and should be unique, but with no relation with the corresponding item's description.
The conf file contains the user configuration. The apts file contains all of the user's appointments and events, and the todo file contains the todo list.

Environment

This section describes the environment variables that affect how calcurse operates.

VISUAL: Specifies the external editor to use for writing notes.
EDITOR: If the VISUAL environment variable is not set, then EDITOR will be used as the default external editor. If none of those variables are set, then /usr/bin/vi is used instead.
PAGER: Specifies the default viewer to be used for reading notes. If this variable is not set, then /usr/bin/less is used.

Bugs

Incorrect highlighting of items appear when using calcurse black and white theme together with a $TERM variable set to xterm-color. To fix this bug, and as advised by Thomas E. Dickey (xterm maintainer), xterm-xfree86 should be used instead of xterm-color to set the $TERM variable: "The xterm-color value for $TERM is a bad choice for XFree86 xterm because it is commonly used for a terminfo entry which happens to not support bce. Use the xterm-xfree86 entry which is distributed with XFree86 xterm (or the similar one distributed with ncurses)."

If you find other bugs, please send a report to calcurse@culot.org or to the author, below.

Author

Frederic Culot <frederic@culot.org>.

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2004-2008 by Frederic Culot.
This software is released under the GNU General Public License. Please read the COPYING file for more information.