GNU recutils: Plain text database
13 comments
·December 14, 2025saulpw
emil-lp
What tool do you use to read/write/modify? Do you do it manually?
saulpw
I use VisiData[0] to view and modify in bulk. For simple error corrections I just edit the text file. For insertions as part of another process I'll write a simple script that appends a block of test to one of the .rec files.
simonw
(saulpw is the author of VisiData, and it's a marvelous piece of software.)
setheron
In 2010 I remember people being very proficient with this at Amazon.
I really enjoying the toolset to query logs etc...
Good memories.
binaryturtle
For those who get blocked by gnu.org with a 403 (older Firefox) or an even sillier "Too Many Requests" error (older Safari) need to override their user agents strings to "curl" to make the site load again.
emil-lp
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22153665 505 points, 143 comments, 6 years ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31832564 155 points, 52 comments, 3 years ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15302035 105 points, 46 comments, 8 years ago
bsndjdkd
maybe if the top image wasn't two turtles fucking there would be a higher chance of these projects going somewhere
justinator
Leave Fred and George alone! They love each other.
debo_
"Mommy, where do plaintext databases come from?"
"You see son, when a boy turtle and a girl turtle love each other very much..."
dontdoxxme
This among other things is why the GNU project as a whole has little credibility left.
ahoka
I thought you was kidding first…
I use the .rec format whenever I want a database maintained in git/github. The format is ideal if you want reasonable data diffs.