Looking for an App That Timestamps Each Entry

[Sojourn71]

Looking For An Open-Source Journal/Text Editor/Note Taking App That Timestamps Each Entry, Stores all Data On-Device, and is Linux-Friendly

When I say "each entry," I mean overtime I hit "Enter." I don't really care about a ton of bells and whistles as long as it has that.

I keep a running journal of some things that did/did not happen for weeks at a time, and I need to be able to accurately recall when entries were made. I know I can do it manually with almost anything, but I also know I can be forgetful as all hell when things get going.

I know a couple of people looked at me today like such an idea was crazy talk, but instant messengers have been time stamping each entry for years now.

If it were Android-friendly as well, that would be nice, but not a must.

If there really isn't such a thing Is there an easy macro I can toggle on when I need to that will accomplish the same thing?

 

[MikeRocor]

Seems like this would be a straightforward scripting project. If you only need a piece of text with a timestamp, something like this might do:

#!/bin/sh
# mylog - enter a bit of text into a log file with     lem 2026-06-22 00:02
#         time and date stamp.  Hit enter on an empty comment to exit.

LOG=/tmp/mylog.txt
STAMPFMT="+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"

while read -p "Type a log entry: " ENTRY ; do
  [ -z "${ENTRY}" ] && exit
  echo "`date "${STAMPFMT}"` ${ENTRY}" |tee -a ${LOG}
done

 

[wizardfromoz]

@Sojourn71 just a note on good forum etiquette or manners - if you are going to post the same question at more than one forum, it is better to let each one know you have done so.

We cannot be expected to read minds of their members, nor they ours. Otherwise people can waste their time or give contradictory advice.

I am speaking of

https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/1uby43f/opensource_journal_app_that_timestamps_each_entry

One person there suggested Obsidian, have you tried that yet?

You should also tell us what Linux distro you are using and version number.

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

 

[Sojourn71]

@Sojourn71 just a note on good forum etiquette or manners - if you are going to post the same question at more than one forum, it is better to let each one know you have done so.

We cannot be expected to read minds of their members, nor they ours. Otherwise people can waste their time or give contradictory advice.

I am speaking of

https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/1uby43f/opensource_journal_app_that_timestamps_each_entry

One person there suggested Obsidian, have you tried that yet?

You should also tell us what Linux distro you are using and version number.

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

If it were such critical etiquette, then you would think there would have been obvious notices at both forums. I must've missed that.

In all seriousness, I have posted the same or very similar question on multiple forums covering all sorts of topics for decades...and this is the first time anyone's taken a moment to inform me of my egregious error.

I'll tell you something though, In terms of manners, it's definitely bad form to be critical rather than informative and encouraging when encountering someone new who you feel isn't doing something the way you feel it should be.

No, I have not tried Obsidian yet, and I haven't posted distro information again because I'm in the process of migrating from one to the other, and life's really "shown up," this weekend.