Offline Microblog: Changelog

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I first wrote my "microblog" script in 2019, but as I originally had no intention to share it, I didn't keep many old versions of the script. This changelog thus starts with 0.3.9.1, which is the oldest version I had access to when I first published the script on my capsule. Starting with version 0.4.1, the changelog is complete.

2025-12-12: 9.4-1

Change:

• Refactor generating statistics, now runs much faster

2025-12-11: 9.4

Change:

• Use '-f' with all 'mv' statements
• Move timeline configuration options above user data
• Move timeline creation date and version into preformatted block
• Perform all timeline operations in a temporary file

2025-12-09: 9.3-2

Change:

• Small refactor of statistice code

2025-12-06: 9.3-1

Change:

• Standardize here-document delimiter
• Simplify 'awk' binary pattern presence logic
• Exit 'awk' earlier in binary pattern presence statements

Fix:

• Use here-documents instead of piping when variable to be processed risks being too long for 'printf'

2025-10-05: 9.3

Add:

• Include Gemini description of script as comments
• Print missing and orphaned attachments in timeline statistics

Change:

• Standardize format of 'awk' statements
• Simplify _attachList modification

Fix:

• More portable 'awk' implementation of 'grep -q'
• Redirection race condition on _attachList

2025-12-05: 9.2-1

Fix:

• No longer ignore locale setting

2025-12-05: 9.2

Add:

• Fallback to ASCII character ranges if locale is not set

Change:

• Convert all internal character ranges to explicit lists
• Replace useless 'cat' with command group

Fix

• Typo in timeline header

2025-12-04: 9.1-3

Fix:

• Attachments internally numbered by order of addition instead of lexicographical order of check sum

2025-11-22: 9.1-2

Change:

• Use POSIX lexicographical ranges for 'tr'

Remove:

• Remove unnecessary byte length check

2025-11-21: 9.1-1

Change:

• Rename "utility" variable to "dependency" for consistency

Fix:

• Check post ID compression dependencies
• Validate timeline value for post ID compression

2025-11-21: 9.1

Add:

• Re-add option to compress post IDs
• Re-add timeline header variable to compress post IDs by default

Change:

• Replace all 'grep' command with 'awk'
• Only require 'uniq' as a dependency when calculating statistics

Fix:

• Typo in comment

Remove:

• No longer require 'basename' and 'grep' as dependencies

Notes:

• To compress post IDs by default, add the variable "compressPostId=1" to your timeline header.

2025-10-29: 9.0-1

Fix:

• Incorrect creation date regex when calculating statistics

2025-10-29: 9.0

Add:

• Option to delete pending attachments

Change:

• Rename selectPost() to selectCandidate()
• Expand selectCandidate() to select drafts and attachments as well as posts
• Hide menu options that are not applicable on a given run
• Create _attachList on every run
• Get attachment counter from _attachList instead of attachment fle count

Fix:

• Remove attachments that are duplicate of existing timeline attachments at post time instead of at compose time

2025-10-22: 8.1.1

Add:

• Do not calculate statistics if timeline creation date is missing or malformed
• Check if editor command fails and exit if it does
• More comments

Change:

• Assign default avatar colors as positional arguments

Fix:

• Typos in comments

2025-10-14: 8.1

• Expanded twtxt support

Add:

• Specify a custom twtxt file name; default to '_twtxt.sink'
• Add command-line option to override timeline-defined twtxt file name

Change:

• Rename timeline creation option from 't' to 'n'
• Rename all twtxt options back to 't'
• Reword a comment

Fix:

• Correct typos in comments

Remove:

• Remove message to modify script behavior using timeline variables

Notes:

• This update adds a new variable $twtxtFile to the timeline header, which controls the name of the twtxt file written to by the script. If this variable is missing from the header, a warning message will print, and the script will default to using '_twtxt.sink'. The script will continue to work the same was as before without the variable present, but to suppress the warning message, add it to your timeline header.

2025-10-11: 8.0.1-1

Fix:

• Use correct file check when loading draft attachments list

2025-10-09: 8.0.1

Change:

• Standardize capitalization in error and warning messages
• Require that username contain alphanumerics, dashes, periods and underscores only

Fix:

• Do not overwrite twtxt file when cross-posting

2025-10-09: 8.0

• Refactoring for shell best practices

Add:

• Many explanatory comments
• Include braces and quotes for all variables that don't use arithmetic
• Check if a locale is defined
• '-?' command-line option to print help text
• Add delimiter to all case options
• Check if timeline files are symbolic links
• Strip leading and trailing whitespace from timeline header information
• When creating a new timeline, offer to create a new twtxt file with metadata from the timeline

Change:

• Major readability improvements
• Separate all 'case' options onto their own lines
• Expand command groups onto their own lines
• Replace all pseudo-ternary statements with 'if'/'then'/'else' statements
• Replace all 'if'/'then' statements (with no 'else') with conditionals
• Buffer SVG data and write it to default avatar files atomically
• Use POSIX character sets instead of hard-coded whitespace lists
• Use substitution instead of assignment in all parameter expansions
• Change twtxt-related choices from "t" to "w"
• Combine two merge options that perform the same task
• Clarify warning when attachment is a duplicate
• Allow to cross-post to twtxt even if numerical timezones are not supported by 'date'

Fix:

• When deleting a post, do not delete an attachment if it is linked in another post
• No longer assign to $pageList in subshells

Remove:

• Remove all in-line comments

2025-09-29: 7.2

Change:

• Rename short options for pager and statistics

Fix:

• Add missing 'attachments/' prefix to attachment links

2025-09-22: 7.1.0-1

Fix:

• Set default value for output flag

2025-09-13: 7.1

Change:

• Remove superfluous "--no-readback-post" option
• Simplify help text

2025-09-09: 7.0-1

Change:

• Switch to dashed version format for error fixes

Fix:

• Check for .working directory properly

Meta:

• Fix spelling and formatting errors in changelog

2025-09-02: 7.0

Add:

• Option to use pager when reading a list of posts or drafts
• Allow default avatar generation when creating a new timeline

Change:

• Move default avatar generation to its own function
• Use simpler draft enumeration

Remove:

• No longer control after-posting readback as a timeline variable

Notes:

• The 'outputLastPost' timeline variable is no longer used. You can safely remove it from your timeline header.

2025-08-28: 6.3.1

Change:

• Clarify that some statistics will be omitted if the timeline is empty
• Revert change to skip average post counts when timeline is empty

2025-08-28: 6.3

Change:

• Reformat help text slightly
• Replace 'bc' with 'awk' when generating post statistics
• Only print average post counts when timeline is not empty
• Add percentages to statistics about frequency

2025-08-25: 6.2.2

Change:

• Simplify command check statement

2025-08-25: 6.2.1.2

Fix:

• Replace all locale-dependent character sets with explicit lists

2025-08-25: 6.2.1.1

Fix:

• Manually specify blank characters to strip instead of relying on locale

2025-08-17: 6.2.1

Change:

• Clarify -m option that the original timeline file will be modified

2025-07-18: 6.2

Add:

• Give option to delete post if it is too long

Change:

• Move draft deletion to its own function
• Use function argument to set of saveDraft exits the script

2025-07-09: 6.1.9

Change:

• Modify wording on header comments
• Print invoked script name in timeline header and default avatar comments

2025-07-07: 6.1.8

Change:

• Use custom text for default action when selecting a post

2025-07-03: 6.1.7.4

Fix:

• Implement correct check for .working when timeline file doesn't exist

Meta:

• Re-format changelog

2025-07-01: 6.1.7.3

Change:

• Remove BSD license, release into the public domain

2025-06-27: 6.1.7.2

Fix:

• Use correct path to kernel UUID

2025-06-26: 6.1.7.1

Fix:

• Check that _attachList exists before looping over it when posting

2025-06-26: 6.1.7

Change:

• Exit if the specified timeline file doesn't exist but .working does

2025-06-15: 6.1.6.1

Fix:

• Use correct logic when selecting source of randomness

2025-06-12: 6.1.6

Change:

• Use dedicated function for printing a spinner

2025-06-10: 6.1.5

Change:

• Skip adding attachment if it is a duplicate of a pending attachment that is itself a duplicate of an existing attachment

2025-06-10: 6.1.4.3

Fix:

• Check that _attachList exists when saving and loading drafts

2025-06-07: 6.1.4.2

Fix:

• Improve matching logic

2025-06-07: 6.1.4.1

Fix:

• Suppress output of 'expr'

Remove:

• Unneeded redirections

2025-06-07: 6.1.4

Change:

• Reduce number of subshell spawns

2025-06-05: 6.1.3

Remove:

• Extraneous checks for 'env' and 'sh'
• Extraneous comment symbol

2025-06-05: 6.1.2

Change:

• Reduce subshell spawns by using exit status of 'command'
• When generating avatars, skip checking for 'fold' if 'bc' is not found

2025-06-04: 6.1.1

Change:

• Small refactor

Remove:

• Unused post ID compression option

2025-06-04: 6.1

Add:

• Check all external dependencies at runtime

Change:

• Refactor UUID source logic

2025-06-04: 6.0.0.2

Fix:

• Do not delete drafts directory when a draft is loaded

2025-06-04: 6.0.0.1

Fix:

• Create attachment, draft and working directories in timeline file's directory instead of working directory

2025-06-04: 6.0

Add:

• Use attachment list file in working directory
• Store working and draft attachments in their own subdirectories
• Prevent duplicate attachments in a single post
• Deduplicate attachments in storage

Change:

• Major overhaul of internal file layout
• Name attachments by post number, attachment number and CRC value
• Store draft posts in their own subdirectories
• Replace 'head' with 'sed'
• Change wording when an undefined option is passed
• Refactoring

Fix:

• Fix typo in comment

Remove:

• No longer save UUIDs with drafts, only date
• Remove post ID compression option; remove 'base64' as a dependency
• No longer strip double quotes around timeline editor command

Notes:

• This version changes many aspects of internal files. Existing attachments need to be renamed to enable deduplication. Existing drafts are not usable.

2025-06-03: 5.2.6.2

Fix:

• Fix typo in comment

2025-06-03: 5.2.6.1

Change:

• Change a comment

Remove:

• Remove extra indentation

2025-05-22: 5.2.6

Change:

• Switch default too-long action to saving as draft

Remove:

• Remove menu option to ignore post length limit

2025-05-14: 5.2.5.1

Change:

• Refactor editor selection logic and wording

2025-05-14: 5.2.5

Change:

• Remove text after any POSIX whitespace when checking if editor is installed
• Check $VISUAL for editor before checking $EDITOR

2025-05-08: 5.2.4.7

Fix:

• Don't exit from statistics when 'bc' is not installed

2025-05-04: 5.2.4.6

Change:

• Add comments and spacing to demarcate flow better

Fix:

• Strip spaces when using 'od' to generate UUID
• When using 'printf' to format UUID, ensure all hex strings contain 4 characters

2025-05-03: 5.2.4.5

Fix:

• When printing statistics, check if creation date is after current date

2025-05-03: 5.2.4.4

Fix:

• Use correct years+months+days calculation in statistics

2025-05-01: 5.2.4.3

Fix:

• Swap reply statistics

2025-05-01: 5.2.4.2

Change:

• Convert some 'find' statements to 'for/do/done'

2025-05-01: 5.2.4.1

Fix:

• Handle attachment listing when timeline path contains dashes

2025-05-01: 5.2.4

Add:

• Include statistics for attachments and replies

Change:

• Clean up some double quotes
• Simplify command return code check

2025-05-01: 5.2.3.1

Fix:

• Implement correct variable call

2025-05-01: 5.2.3

Add:

• Include error numbers with all error messages

Change:

• Statistics: Always print timeline age and post count
• Statistics: Print averages if bc is installed, skip otherwise

Fix:

• Repair post count check

2025-05-01: 5.2.2

Change:

• Refactor statistics calculation

2025-05-01: 5.2.1.1

Change:

• Send status messages to STDERR

Fix:

• Decrement correct value when calculating statistics
• Fix typo

Remove:

• Remove references to printOptions function

2025-04-30: 5.2.1

Add:

• Print years, months and days since timeline creation to statistics

Change:

• Change statistics parsing message

Fix:

• Fix typo in comments

2025-04-30: 5.2

Add:

• Add post statistics function
• Print progress indicator while merging timelines and generating statistics

Change:

• Small refactor

Remove:

• Remove function to print options

2025-04-26: 5.1.1.1

• Fix typo and use more consistent wording in help text

2025-04-26: 5.1.1

Change:

• Use different exit codes for different error types
• Change help text wording
• Get recent post only if reading it back

2025-04-25: 5.1.0.3

Change:

• Add clarifications to help text
• Simplify timeline header comments

Remove:

• Delete reference to setting editor in script

2025-04-25: 5.1.0.2

Fix:

• Use correct variable call

2025-04-25: 5.1.0.1

Change:

• Refactor and clarify help text

2025-04-25: 5.1

Add:

• Add '-o' option to print current timeline options

Change:

• Print hint instead of full help text when no timeline is specified

2025-04-22: 5.0.4

Change:

• No longer use _format file; write atomically by grouping all printing commands
• Convert binary 'case' construct to 'if/then/else'
• Convert 'find/read' construct to 'for/do/done'
• Remove extraneous command groupings

Remove:

• Don't exclude _body unnecessarily in 'find'

2025-04-22: 5.0.3.1

Change:

• Explicitly create empty _merged file before writing to it

Fix:

• Remove _merged when cleaning up files

2025-04-21: 5.0.3

Change:

• Skip getting basename of timeline file

2025-04-21: 5.0.2.1

Fix:

• Exit when saving a draft

2025-04-21: 5.0.2

Change:

• Simplify substring removal logic

Remove:

• Remove extraneous newlines

2025-04-21: 5.0.1.1

Fix:

• Fix typo
• Add missing 'fi'

Meta:

• Fix many typos in changelog

2025-04-20: 5.0.1

Change:

• Remove extraneous post list generation
• Move most comments to in-line

Remove:

• Remove some comments

2025-04-20: 5.0

Add:

• Add function to merge diverging timelines

Change:

• No longer try to use $RANDOM for UUID
• Bump version number

Fix:

• Add missing quotes

Remove:

• Remove trap for SIGSTOP

2025-04-20: 4.3.1

Add:

• Use function to select post(s)

Change:

• Replace 'grep | sed 1q' constructs with awk

2025-04-17: 4.3.0.2

Fix:

• Remove extraneous space

2025-04-15: 4.3.0.1

Fix:

• Remove some extraneous trailing spaces
• Call correct function when "-h" option is passed
• Use correct postLength check

2025-04-07: 4.3

Change:

• Generation avatars by command-line option only; remove from timeline header
• Rewrite exit message and draft saving as functions
• Expand comments
• Include license in script file

Notes:

• This version no longer reads the generateAvatars option in your timeline header. The option can be deleted.

2025-03-11: 4.2.4.1

Fix:

• Do not exit again on trap

2025-03-10: 4.2.4

Change:

• Rewrite 'while' statement as 'until'
• Remove some subshell invocations

2025-03-10: 4.2.3

Add:

• Save current IFS and set to only newline at start
• Trap most types of termination signal and restore original IFS

Change:

• Change recent post assignment logic
• Replace some while loops with for loops

Remove:

• Remove all other IFS assignments

2025-03-09: 4.2.2.1

Fix:

• Fix typos
• Include last byte of UUID when compressing

2025-03-06: 4.2.2

Change:

• Refactor some 'if/then/else' statements into pseudo-ternary
• Set default post reply number when checking reply

2025-03-02: 4.2.1

Change:

• Small 'if/then' refactor
• Re-use draft count

Remove:

• Remove remaining unneeded braces

2025-03-02: 4.2.0.1

Fix:

• Repair date and draft recalls

2025-03-02: 4.2

Add:

• Add missing -h option

Change:

• Convert variable names from using underscores to camel case
• Replace some 'while' loops with 'until'
• Indent here-document and use '<<-' to strip tabs
• Replace 'true' with ':' (no-op)
• Simplify post length check logic
• Simplify some if/then/else constructs to pseudo-ternary

Fix:

• Clarify in option messages that timeline is not read from STDIN

Remove:

• Remove braces around variables that don't use parameter expansion

Notes:

• This version changes the names of the variables used by the script and does not read variables from existing timelines out-of-the-box. To make the script read the variables in your timeline header, rename them as follows:

editor_command -> editorCommand
post_length -> postLength
generate_avatars -> generateAvatars
compress_post_id -> compressPostId
output_last_post -> outputLastPost

2025-02-27: 4.1.4

Change:

• Refactor post ID compression
• Refactor avatar generation

2025-02-26: 4.1.3

Change:

• Prefer /dev/urandom over $RANDOM as a source of randomness
• Explicitly seed 'awk' srand() with date and time
• Explicitly ignore STDIN when creating new timeline
• Prune 'find' statements on path rather than name

Remove:

• Remove 'xxd' as a dependency

2025-02-26: 4.1.2

Add:

• Check for single 0 when reading posts

Change:

• Change verbiage when not selecting any draft
• Refactor post-delete and post-reply selection logic

Fix:

• Use correct variable call
• Fix typo in comment
• Use tabs instead of spaces to indent

2025-02-25: 4.1.1.2

Remove:

• Remove extraneous space

2025-02-25: 4.1.1.1

Fix:

• Use consistent date format when saving drafts

2025-02-25: 4.1.1

Change:

• Remove extraneous check for 'awk'
• Change warning text when using awk for UUID
• Add explicit no-op when not cross-posting to twtxt
• Refactoring

Fix:

• Fix file and option value checks
• Remove extraneous space
• Correct menu text

2025-02-20: 4.1.0.4

Change:

• Refactor option parsing

2025-02-17: 4.1.0.3

Fix:

• Remove hard-coded location copied from test code

2025-02-17: 4.1.0.2

Fix:

• Fix inconsistent 'find' behavior caused by trailing slashes

2025-02-16: 4.1.0.1

Fix:

• Use UTC for post headers even if 'date' supports local timezones

2025-02-16: 4.1

Change:

• If multiple posts are selected to delete or reply to, show previews and prompt to select only one
• Small refactor of draft previews

Fix:

• Fix broken forward reply writing

Remove:

• Remove warning text if no matching post to read is found

2025-02-16: 4.0

Add:

Change:

• Use UTC date/time in post numbers instead of strict ordering
• Small refactor of options
• Slightly modify text after timeline creation
• Use partial matches to select posts to read, delete or reply to
• If deleting or replying to a post, require exactly one post to be selected
• Bump version number

Fix:

• Use correct option check syntax
• Fix post length check logic

Remove:

• No longer exit on any error
• Remove layer of if-then nesting for checking if posts exist

Notes:

• This version changes many aspects of the script's core functionality and is not compatible with existing timelines out-of-the-box. Existing timelines can be converted using the following script (using GNU date and sed).

timelineFile="$1"
timelineLength=$(wc -l < "$timelineFile")
i=1
while [ $i -le $timelineLength ]; do
  line="$(sed -n $((i+1))p "$timelineFile")"
  if [ $(expr "x${line}" : "x[0-9]\{4\}-[0-9]\{2\}-[0-9]\{2\}T[0-9]\{2\}:[0-9]\{2\}:[0-9]\{2\}.*$") -gt 0 ]; then
    postNumber="$(sed -n ${i}p "$timelineFile")"
    postNumber="${postNumber#"#### "}"
    printf "%s\n" "$postNumber"
    sed -i "s/${postNumber}/$(date -ud "$line" +"%Y%m%d%H%M%S")/g" "${timelineFile}"
  fi
  i=$((i+1))
done

Be sure to rename attachment files accordingly.

2025-02-14: 3.5.3.2

Add:

• Add explicit no-op when continuing to compose post
• Add several comments

Change:

• Refactor script variable load/save logic

Fix:

• Validate numerical option contains only ASCII digits

Remove:

• Remove redundant dependency check

2025-02-13: 3.5.3.1

Change:

• Small refactor

2025-02-13: 3.5.3

Change:

• Refactor option parsing

2025-02-13: 3.5.2.1

Fix:

• Use correct option syntax

2025-02-13: 3.5.2

Add:

• Add version option

2025-02-12: 3.5.1

Add:

• Add switch to save command-line options to existing timeline file

Fix:

• Repair variable replacement 'sed' statement

2025-02-12: 3.5.0.1

Fix:

• Improve date format logic

2025-02-12: 3.5

Add:

• Add command-line options
• Override timeline variables at runtime with command arguments
• Use command-line options to set timeline variables during timeline creation
• Include help text
• Use $EDITOR environment variable if no editor is defined

Change:

• Set default values for most variables
• Check dependencies earlier
• When modifying timeline variables, ensure only first occurrence changes

Fix:

• Fix incorrect post length validation logic

Remove:

• Remove unnecessary arithmetic expansions

2025-02-08: 3.4.0.4

Fix:

• Use correct BRE regex test

2025-02-07: 3.4.0.3

Fix:

• Do not treat post length limit of 0 as an error
• Do not treat no specified avatar as an error

2025-02-06: 3.4.0.2

Change:

• Modify header comments to fit in 80 columns

2025-02-05: 3.4.0.1

Fix:

• Fix typo

2025-02-05: 3.4

Change:

• Add comments to header to clarify timeline variables
• Simplify timeline variable loading method
• Default to $EDITOR environment variable if $editor_command is not set in timeline or script file

Notes:

• This update removes support for comments on the same line as any timeline variables. Existing headers will not work out of the box. Remove comments from any line in the header in which a variable is assigned.

2025-02-05: 3.3.3

Change:

• Remove all 'eval' statements except editor invocation
• Simplify variable validation

2025-02-05: 3.3.2

Change:

• Standardize date call for twtxt posts
• Refactoring

Fix:

• Modify script version date

Remove:

• Remove unneeded check

2025-02-05: 3.3.1

Change:

• Save drafts with ISO 8601 dates

2025-02-05: 3.3

Add:

• Re-add second sanity check: user ID is exactly 32 hexadecimal digits

Change:

• Use ISO 8601 dates in posts
• Unset default timeline editor command
• Replace more 'if/then' constructs with 'case/esac'
• Change timeline variable validation

Fix:

• Check attachment list is nonempty before attempting to move attachments

Remove:

• Remove unnecessary quotes

2025-02-04: 3.2

Change:

• Replace menu 'if/else' statements with 'case/esac'
• Indent with tabs instead of spaces to reduce file size

2025-02-04: 3.1.4

Fix:

• Use correct formatting in header
• Include last attachment when loading a draft

2025-01-23: 3.1.3

Fix:

• Repair post readback check logic

2025-01-23: 3.1.2

Change:

• Do not create attachments directory on timeline creation

2025-01-23: 3.1.1

Fix:

• Format date string correctly

2025-01-23: 3.1

Add:

Change:

• Change "add reply" option from r to p to make options unique
• Set default reply option to cancel reply instead of changing reply

Fix:

• Repair draft load and some attachment load logic
• Check that attachments exist before moving them
• Draft is no longer overwritten on load

Remove:

• Remove extraneous redirect

Meta:

• Update changelog for 3.0

2025-01-22: 3.0

Add:

• Add creation date and time to timeline header
• Check that '%z' format option is defined in date
• Do not crosspost to twtxt if '%:z' format option is undefined in date
• Add final exit statement

Change:

• Immediately exit on any errors
• Reduce number of subshell spawns
• Simplify most 'if' statements without 'else' conditions
• Change draft enumeration logic
• Replace 'touch' with empty redirects
• Replace file globs with 'find' statements
• Standardize status strings to only use "Error" when program flow differs from expectation
• Change whitespace calculation logic in body
• Bump version number

Fix:

• Attachment warning states the maximum number of attachments per post is 100

Remove:

• Remove unused second sanity check

2025-01-20: 2.4

Add:

• Ability to read post body from STDIN
• Skip first menu if post body comes from STDIN
• Require menu input from /dev/tty

Change:

• Move ending spaces from menu strings to printf format statements

2025-01-11: 2.3

Add:

• Add line to header stating script version that generated timeline file
• Add ellipsis to listed draft if draft is more than 50 bytes

Change:

• Store version as script variable
• Print all messages to STDERR except menus and readbacks
• Edit post-too-long menu text to be more clear, in case STDERR is suppressed

2025-01-10: 2.2.2

Change:

• Print warning when readback post doesn't exist

2025-01-10: 2.2.1

Change:

• Put braces around all positional arguments

2025-01-10: 2.2

Change:

• Only override script variables with timeline variables if timeline variables are nonempty
• Wrap all variables in braces
• Update copyright year to 2025

2024-11-22: 2.1.3

Change:

• Touch _format before writing to it

Fix:

• Do not attach .nomedia to post

2024-11-22: 2.1.2

Change:

• Ignore .nomedia file and subdirectories in all 'find' statements

2024-11-22: 2.1.1

Add:

• Implement second timeline sanity check

Change:

• Preset all timeline variables to default values

Fix:

• Print replies in correct format

2024-11-21: 2.1

Change:

• Format post in temporary file before adding to timeline

Remove:

• Remove GNU-specific formatting in date string

2024-11-21: 2.0.2

Fix:

• Fix shebang

2024-11-20: 2.0.1

Fix:

• Use correct call to UUID variable

Meta:

• Add missing change to 2.0 changelog

2024-11-20: 2.0

Add:

• Add UUID to each post
• Generate UUID4 in script if necessary
• Save UUID with draft
• Option to write post UUIDs as hex dump or "compressed" base64-encoded binary

Change:

• Change shell invocation
• Update copyright year to 2024
• Move drafts directory out of working directory
• Change default avatars' color palette
• Change simple avatar to use 7x7 grid of 5 colors instead of 6x6 grid of 6 colors
• Replace all 'echo' statements with 'printf'
• Output all warning and error messages to STDERR
• Bump version number

Notes:

• New optional dependencies for base64 UUID: xxd, base64
• Existing drafts are not usable with this update and will need to be deleted or rewritten.
• To use base64-encoded UUIDs, add the option "compress_post_id=1" to your timeline header.

2024-05-23: 1.5.3

Change:

• Refer to no-draft-selected as a warning instead of an error

2023-12-26: 1.5.2

Fix:

• Fix recalculating post length after each edit

Remove:

• Remove extraneous whitespace

2023-12-15: 1.5.1

Change:

• Standardize 'find' command formats

Fix:

• Do not delete drafts when discarding a post

2023-12-15: 1.5

Add:

• Add changing reply number after setting
• Enable discard (unset) reply number
• Can add attachments or reply in any order

Change:

• Strip leading and trailing whitespace from post body

Fix:

• Remove extraneous whitespace when post has attachments and empty body

2023-09-20: 1.4

Add:

• Check for hanging files on start (e.g. when script is killed) and save as draft

2023-08-18: 1.3.4

Fix:

• Reindex replies and attachments correctly when a post is deleted

2023-08-08: 1.3.3

Fix:

• Do not try to load load invalid drafts

2023-07-24: 1.3.2

Fix:

• Repair empty body check logic

2023-07-21: 1.3.1

Add:

• Check if specified text editor is installed and exit if not

Change:

• Modify error text slightly

2023-07-18: 1.3

Add:

• Specify text editor command in timeline header to override script default

2023-07-13: 1.2.2

Change:

• Rename anchor file from ".anchor" to ".nomedia"

2023-07-11: 1.2.1

Fix:

• Fix infinite loops while generating default avatars

2023-06-09: 1.2

Fix:

• Load attachments with draft posts
• Calculate attachment count correctly
• Output tab instead of "\t" when cross-posting to twtxt

2023-05-22: 1.1

Add:

• Set dedicated variable for editor command (empty by default)

Change:

• Require editor to be defined in script file before first use
• Check that bc is installed if generating default avatars, skip if missing

2023-04-13: 1.0

• Full POSIX compliance

Add:

• Check if timeline file in argument is actually a directory
• Sanity-check first line of timeline file
• Generate avatars only when set in timeline variables
• Add comments to emphasize where to change editor

Change:

• Modify copyright to include year of initial creation and current year
• 'grep' for timeline variables instead of hard-coding line numbers
• Generate both unique and simple avatars
• Refactoring

Notes:

• This update changed header formats slightly and is not compatible with existing headers out of the box. To use this version with existing timelines, run the script once in an empty directory to create a new header, then copy the new header over the existing header. No other changes to the timeline file are required.

2022-05-06: 0.7

Change:

• Move working directory from "_working" to ".working"

Notes:

• Existing drafts will not be accessible unless they are manually moved to the new directory. The original directory can be deleted.

2022-04-21: 0.6.5

Add:

• Check existence of attachments directory on each run

2022-02-28: 0.6.4.2

Change:

• Standardize command substitution format
• Modify copyright to include current year

Meta:

• Fix formatting on index page

2022-01-25: 0.6.4.1

Fix:

• Declare counter properly before being used

2022-01-21: 0.6.4

Add:

• Option to generate simpler avatar from ID, default to unique avatar

Change:

• Add line break after avatar in header

2022-01-21: 0.6.3

Change:

• Make user IDs generate unique default avatars

Fix:

• Remove unused redirection in while loop

2022-01-21: 0.6.2

Change:

• Standardize "c" as a proactive confirmation option in all cases
• change twtxt option from "c" to "t" to standardize function of "c"

Fix:

• Add missing space in second menu

2022-01-19: 0.6.1

Add:

• Print ID next to username in first menu

Fix:

• Fix bash not specified in shebang

2022-01-19: 0.6

Add:

• Add user ID (UUID) when creating a new timeline
• Add proper avatar support
• Optionally generate avatar SVG file from user ID
• Offer to cross-post to twtxt at post time

Notes:

• This update changed header formats slightly and is not compatible with existing headers out of the box. To use this version with existing timelines, run the script once in an empty directory to create a new header, then copy the new header over the existing header. No other changes to the timeline file are required.

2022-01-16: 0.5.3

Add:

• twtxt cross-posting support

Meta:

• v0.3.9.3 rediscovered; changelog modified to include it

2022-01-05: 0.5.2.1

Change:

• Allow uppercase and lowercase for all options, not just main menus

2021-12-06: 0.5.2

Change:

• Allow inputting options as uppercase or lowercase

2021-11-19: 0.5.1

Fix:

• Use correct readback search pattern

2021-11-10: 0.5

Change:

• Change grep header search pattern
• Find post to delete based on line number instead of sed pattern
• Anchor forward reply position based on next header
• Bump version number

Fix:

• More robust index updates when a post is deleted

2021-11-09: 0.4.4

Add:

• Post deletion function

Change:

• Default to reading back latest post if any errors occur
• Remove _body if post is empty
• Add two newlines between nonempty post body and first attachment

Fix:

• Repair forward replies

2021-11-03: 0.4.3

Add:

• BSD license
• Include timezones with all dates

Change:

• Change post header count and config load methods
• Store _body and drafts as POSIX-compliant text files

2021-10-25: 0.4.2

Add:

• Check if _working exists on each run and create if not

2021-10-19: 0.4.1

• Complete rewrite

Change:

• Major refactoring: reduce ~800 SLOC to ~200
• Store attachments and _working directories at top level
• Insert newlines between attachments instead of HTML <br> tags
• Change attachment naming scheme

Remove:

• Remove state function completely
• Remove quick-post option
• Remove broken post header repair function
• Remove usage and version functions
• Remove .dat directory
• Remove conf file; get config options from timeline directly
• Remove index file; get post count from timeline directly

2021-09-21: 0.3.9.6

Change:

• Rename "helpme" function to "usage"
• Move .conf file to .dat/conf

2020-12-06: 0.3.9.3

Change:

• Standardize printf statement formats
• Touch post body on every run

Fix:

• Get correct attachment count when loading a draft

2020-11-26: 0.3.9.1

• Base version for changelog

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[Last updated: 2025-12-12]