DunneNote · Tutorial

Check a notebook with dnfmt

Look inside a notebook and check it for damage from the command line, without opening DunneNote.

Available10 min· Intermediate· DunneNote 0.9.2

In this tutorial you'll use dnfmt, the open-source command-line tool for DunneNote notebooks, to see what a notebook holds, read a page as text, and check the notebook for damage. None of this changes the notebook.

You'll need#

dnfmt on your path.
A notebook from DunneNote 0.9, for example Research.dunnenote. Its folder path is shown in DunneNote's notebook picker.
A terminal, opened in the folder that holds the notebook.

See what the notebook holds#

Run dnfmt inspect Research.dunnenote. You'll see the notebook's name, its schema version (18 for DunneNote 0.9), and how many sections, pages, canvases, tags and stored files it has.
If DunneNote has the notebook open, inspect says so. That's fine: dnfmt only reads.
Run dnfmt ls Research.dunnenote to list the sections and pages in sidebar order. Each line ends with an id.

Read a page as text#

Copy the id of a page from the ls output.
Run dnfmt cat Research.dunnenote followed by the id.
Each canvas on the page is printed in turn: rich text as paragraphs, tables as tab-separated rows, calendar events one per line, and a one-line summary for pictures and sketches.

Check for damage#

Run dnfmt verify Research.dunnenote. It checks the database, the page tree, and that every stored file exists and is referenced correctly. A healthy notebook ends with ok.
Run it again with --full. This also re-reads every stored file and checks it against its SHA-256 hash, so it takes longer on a large notebook.
To use it in a script, add --strict. The command then exits with status 1 on any finding, not only on damage.

If verify finds a problem#

Don't try to repair the notebook by hand. Close DunneNote, keep a copy of the notebook folder, and restore from your most recent backup. See Backup and restore. If you'd like help, open a support ticket and include the dnfmt verify --full output.

Next#

Something unclear or out of date? Open a support ticket.

DunneNote · Tutorial

Check a notebook with dnfmt

Look inside a notebook and check it for damage from the command line, without opening DunneNote.

Available10 min· Intermediate· DunneNote 0.9.2

You'll need#

dnfmt on your path.
A notebook from DunneNote 0.9, for example Research.dunnenote. Its folder path is shown in DunneNote's notebook picker.
A terminal, opened in the folder that holds the notebook.

See what the notebook holds#

Run dnfmt inspect Research.dunnenote. You'll see the notebook's name, its schema version (18 for DunneNote 0.9), and how many sections, pages, canvases, tags and stored files it has.
If DunneNote has the notebook open, inspect says so. That's fine: dnfmt only reads.
Run dnfmt ls Research.dunnenote to list the sections and pages in sidebar order. Each line ends with an id.

Read a page as text#

Copy the id of a page from the ls output.
Run dnfmt cat Research.dunnenote followed by the id.
Each canvas on the page is printed in turn: rich text as paragraphs, tables as tab-separated rows, calendar events one per line, and a one-line summary for pictures and sketches.

Check for damage#

Run dnfmt verify Research.dunnenote. It checks the database, the page tree, and that every stored file exists and is referenced correctly. A healthy notebook ends with ok.
Run it again with --full. This also re-reads every stored file and checks it against its SHA-256 hash, so it takes longer on a large notebook.
To use it in a script, add --strict. The command then exits with status 1 on any finding, not only on damage.

If verify finds a problem#

Next#

Something unclear or out of date? Open a support ticket.