# NAME

Format - Description of the timelog.txt file format.

# VERSION

This document describes version 1 of the timelog.txt file format.

# HISTORY

The format of this file was strongly influenced by the design of the `todo.txt`
system created by Gina Trapani. The major idea was to have a format that could
be easily read and modified by a human with a text editor. This format should
be a simple as possible, and require no proprietary technology to read or write.

Some of the data stored in the file and the reporting of the data was influenced
by years of use of the TEAK tool on the Palm. I wrote this tool to replace TEAK
once it was obvious that the Palm was no more.

# DESCRIPTION

Each time entry resides on a line by itself. Each line is made up of two parts
separated by a space: a time/date stamp and an event. There should be no leading
or trailing white space on the lines.

## Time/Date Stamp

The time/date stamp is the first thing on each line and is set in the local
timezone. Except where we cross from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time or
vice versa this should cause no problems.

The format of this part of the line is 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS'. This format is
relatively easy for a person to read, is easily and unambiguously parsed, and
sorts nicely.

## Event

The event is just text that describes the task or event we are now beginning.
To enhance reporting, there are two forms of metadata. The first string
starting with a `+` is treated as a project. All events with the same project
are reported together. The first string starting with `@` is treated as a
task. Any remaining text is treated as further detail on the task.

If no task is specified, all of the event string except the project is treated
as the task. The task is optional because not everyone will find it useful to
define consistent tasks for reporting.

There is one special case. An event of `stop` stops timing the current event
without starting a new event.

## Examples

The following examples should make the format clear.

### Full Featured Event Line

A full event using all of the features would look line this:

    2013-07-01 10:01:23 +Timelog @Document File Format

The project in this case is `Timelog`, which specifies that I am working on
this module. The task is `Docment`, which means I am documenting something on
the project. The string 'File Format' specifies more detail on what I am
documenting.

This event began just after 10:01 on July 1st.

### Event With No Detail

This following event contains both a project and a task, but with no extra
detail.

    2013-07-01 08:05:14 +Misc @Email

In this case, I'm just checking my email for the morning. There is really no
need for any more detail than that.

### Event with No Explicit Task

    2013-07-01 13:05:45 +Timelog Submit to crates.io

In this case, the task would be 'Submit to crates.io' because I haven't separated
the task from the details.

# AUTHOR

G. Wade Johnson `<rust@gwadej.org>`

# LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2013-2021, G. Wade Johnson "<rust@gwadej.org>". All rights
reserved.

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself. See [perlartistic](https://opensource.org/licenses/Artistic-2.0).