System integration

ToC

• Bookmark from anywhere
• Auto-import browser bookmarks
• Export bookmarks to browser
• Sync bookmarks with a web service
• Set the preferred editor
• Sync database across systems

buku can be integrated in a GUI environment with simple tweaks.

Bookmark from anywhere

With support for piped input, it's possible to add bookmarks to buku using keyboard shortcuts on Linux and OS X. CLIPBOARD (plus PRIMARY on Linux) text selections can be added directly this way. The additional utility required is xsel (on Linux) or pbpaste (on OS X).

The following steps explore the procedure on Linux with Ubuntu as the reference platform.

1. To install xsel on Ubuntu, run:

    $ sudo apt install xsel
   

2. Create a new script bukuadd with the following content:

    #!/bin/bash
   
    xsel | buku -a
   

   -a is the option to add a bookmark.

3. Make the script executable:

    $ chmod +x bukuadd
   

4. Copy it somewhere in your PATH.

5. Add a new keyboard shortcut to run the script. I use <Alt-b>.

Test drive

Copy or select a URL with mouse and press the keyboard shortcut to add it to the buku database. The addition might take a few seconds to reflect depending on your internet speed and the time buku needs to fetch the title from the URL. To avoid title fetch from the web, add the --title option to the script.

To verify that the bookmark has indeed been added, run:

$ buku -p -1

and check the entry.

Tips

• To add the last visited URL in Firefox to buku, use the following script:

    #!/bin/bash
  
    sqlite3 $HOME/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/places.sqlite "select url from moz_places where last_visit_date=(select max(last_visit_date) from moz_places)" | buku -a
  

• If you want to tag these bookmarks, look them up later using:

    $ buku -S blank
  

  Use option -u to tag these bookmarks.

Auto-import browser bookmarks

To automatically import bookmarks from Firefox and Google Chrome, run:

$ buku --ai

Alternatively, buku can also import html bookmark exports from Firefox and Google Chrome.

Export bookmarks to browser

buku can export bookmarks in HTML format recognized by Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer.

To export all bookmarks, run:

$ buku --export path_to_bookmarks.html

To export specific tags, run:

$ buku --export path_to_bookmarks.html --tag tag 1, tag 2

Once exported, import the html file in your browser. For Firefox, the workflow is:

Ctrl-Shift-O -> Import and Backup -> Import Bookmarks from HTML...

Sync bookmarks with a web service

Many web-based bookmark management services understand Mozilla's standard bookmarks HTML format. You can sync your buku database with these services using the --import and --export options above.

Pinku is a utility to import bookmarks from Pinboard to Buku.

If the service you are using doesn't understand it, probably send a request to the technical team to support the format.

Set the preferred editor

Set the environment variable EDITOR to your preferred editor to add/edit bookmarks using the --write/-w option:

export EDITOR=vim

or

export EDITOR=mousepad

Some GUI editors may need to be opened in blocking mode. See issue #210 and examples.

Sync database across systems

buku has the capability to import records from another buku database file. However, users with a cloud service client installed on multiple systems can keep the database synced across these systems automatically. To achieve this, store the actual database file in a synced directory and create a symbolic link to it in the location where the database file would exist otherwise. For example, if you are using Dropbox then you can do the following:

mv ~/.local/share/buku/bookmarks.db ~/Dropbox/Public/bookmarks.db
ln -s ~/Dropbox/Public/bookmarks.db ~/.local/share/buku/bookmarks.db

If you prefer to sync manually from time to time instead of creating a symlink:

buku -e ~/Dropbox/Public/bookmarks.db