From: "Christopher B. Browne" To: cbbers@infoplane.com Subject: shell-based interface to cbb Date: Mon, 21 Apr 1997 23:30:58 -0500 I've finally gotten around to updating the program "txn" to version 0.7 of cbb. The attached program will append records to .cbb files, and do so from the command line. For instance: [25%] txn checking -t '75' 'The Mansion in Dallas' Lunch 75.00 'Gratuitously expensive luncheon' Added to /home/cbbrowne/kwiken/checking.cbb 19970422 75 The Mansion in Dallas 75.00 0 Lunch Gratuitously expensive luncheon [26%] Limitations: - It appears that "splits" have been changed somewhat; I haven't checked yet to see if they are handled correctly. - Writing to a .cbb file whilst the TCL version is open and using the file in question will have obviously questionable results. If Curt implements his file locking idea (which probably ought to put the PID of the main CBB process in either /var/lock/LCK..cbb or do individual file locks like /var/lock/LCK..checking.cbb), I could have txn look for and/or lock these... - You'll have to modify the paths at the start of the script to locate your favorite CBB directory. - This script assumes that if the category is not available that you can look at a list of similar category names and pick one. If you plan to write scripts that will create transactions as "batch jobs," then you'll have to ensure that the category is correct. I'm not sure how to best deal with the error condition of not having a correct category. Create "ntxn" (non-interactive txn) that reports an error and dies upon receiving a bad category, perhaps? An additional command line switch? Ideas anyone? - I have no further intentions to maintain the code that allowed deletion/reconciliation from the command line. The cbbsh of 1994 did provide this functionality, at the cost of a fairly painful user interface. It just makes too much sense to do transaction editing with a somewhat "GUIed" interface to bring most of the remainder of CBBSH up to date. Anyway, here's the new and improved txn: -- Christopher B. Browne, cbbrowne@hex.net, chris_browne@sdt.com Web: http://www.conline.com/~cbbrowne SAP Basis Consultant, UNIX Guy Windows NT - How to make a 100 MIPS Linux workstation perform like an 8 MHz 286