hledger/hledger-ui/hledger-ui.txt

HLEDGER-UI(1)                hledger User Manuals                HLEDGER-UI(1)



NAME
       hledger-ui - robust, friendly plain text accounting (TUI version)

SYNOPSIS
       hledger-ui [OPTIONS] [QUERYARGS]
       hledger ui -- [OPTIONS] [QUERYARGS]

DESCRIPTION
       This  manual is for hledger's terminal interface, version 1.29.99.  See
       also the hledger manual for common concepts and file formats.

       hledger is a robust, user-friendly, cross-platform set of programs  for
       tracking  money,  time,  or  any  other  commodity,  using double-entry
       accounting and a simple, editable file format.  hledger is inspired  by
       and  largely  compatible  with  ledger(1), and largely interconvertible
       with beancount(1).

       hledger-ui is hledger's  terminal  interface,  providing  an  efficient
       full-window  text  UI  for  viewing accounts and transactions, and some
       limited data entry capability.  It is easier  than  hledger's  command-
       line  interface, and sometimes quicker and more convenient than the web
       interface.

       Like hledger, it reads data from one or more files  in  journal,  time-
       clock, timedot, or CSV format.  The default file is .hledger.journal in
       your home directory; this can be overridden with one or  more  -f  FILE
       options,  or the LEDGER_FILE environment variable.  For more about this
       see hledger(1), hledger_journal(5) etc.

       Unlike hledger,  hledger-ui  hides  all  future-dated  transactions  by
       default.   They can be revealed, along with any rule-generated periodic
       transactions, by pressing the F key (or starting  with  --forecast)  to
       enable "forecast mode".

OPTIONS
       Note:  if  invoking hledger-ui as a hledger subcommand, write -- before
       options as shown above.

       Any QUERYARGS are interpreted as a hledger search query  which  filters
       the data.

       -w --watch
              watch for data and date changes and reload automatically

       --theme=default|terminal|greenterm
              use this custom display theme

       --menu start in the menu screen

       --cash start in the cash accounts screen

       --bs   start in the balance sheet accounts screen

       --is   start in the income statement accounts screen

       --all  start in the all accounts screen

       --register=ACCTREGEX
              start in the (first) matched account's register screen

       --change
              show  period balances (changes) at startup instead of historical
              balances

       -l --flat
              show accounts as a flat list (default)

       -t --tree
              show accounts as a tree

       hledger input options:

       -f FILE --file=FILE
              use  a  different  input  file.   For  stdin,  use  -  (default:
              $LEDGER_FILE or $HOME/.hledger.journal)

       --rules-file=RULESFILE
              Conversion   rules  file  to  use  when  reading  CSV  (default:
              FILE.rules)

       --separator=CHAR
              Field separator to expect when reading CSV (default: ',')

       --alias=OLD=NEW
              rename accounts named OLD to NEW

       --anon anonymize accounts and payees

       --pivot FIELDNAME
              use some other field or tag for the account name

       -I --ignore-assertions
              disable balance assertion checks (note: does not disable balance
              assignments)

       -s --strict
              do  extra  error  checking  (check  that all posted accounts are
              declared)

       hledger reporting options:

       -b --begin=DATE
              include postings/txns on or after this date (will be adjusted to
              preceding subperiod start when using a report interval)

       -e --end=DATE
              include postings/txns before this date (will be adjusted to fol-
              lowing subperiod end when using a report interval)

       -D --daily
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by day

       -W --weekly
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by week

       -M --monthly
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by month

       -Q --quarterly
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by quarter

       -Y --yearly
              multiperiod/multicolumn report by year

       -p --period=PERIODEXP
              set start date, end date, and/or reporting interval all at  once
              using period expressions syntax

       --date2
              match  the  secondary  date  instead (see command help for other
              effects)

       --today=DATE
              override  today's  date  (affects  relative  smart  dates,   for
              tests/examples)

       -U --unmarked
              include only unmarked postings/txns (can combine with -P or -C)

       -P --pending
              include only pending postings/txns

       -C --cleared
              include only cleared postings/txns

       -R --real
              include only non-virtual postings

       -NUM --depth=NUM
              hide/aggregate accounts or postings more than NUM levels deep

       -E --empty
              show  items with zero amount, normally hidden (and vice-versa in
              hledger-ui/hledger-web)

       -B --cost
              convert amounts to their cost/selling amount at transaction time

       -V --market
              convert  amounts to their market value in default valuation com-
              modities

       -X --exchange=COMM
              convert amounts to their market value in commodity COMM

       --value
              convert amounts to cost or  market  value,  more  flexibly  than
              -B/-V/-X

       --infer-market-prices
              use  transaction  prices  (recorded  with @ or @@) as additional
              market prices, as if they were P directives

       --auto apply automated posting rules to modify transactions.

       --forecast
              generate future transactions from  periodic  transaction  rules,
              for  the  next 6 months or till report end date.  In hledger-ui,
              also make ordinary future transactions visible.

       --commodity-style
              Override the commodity style in the  output  for  the  specified
              commodity.  For example 'EUR1.000,00'.

       --color=WHEN (or --colour=WHEN)
              Should  color-supporting  commands  use ANSI color codes in text
              output.  'auto' (default): whenever stdout seems to be a  color-
              supporting  terminal.  'always' or 'yes': always, useful eg when
              piping output into  'less  -R'.   'never'  or  'no':  never.   A
              NO_COLOR environment variable overrides this.

       --pretty[=WHEN]
              Show  prettier  output,  e.g.  using unicode box-drawing charac-
              ters.  Accepts 'yes' (the default) or 'no' ('y', 'n',  'always',
              'never'  also  work).   If  you provide an argument you must use
              '=', e.g.  '--pretty=yes'.

       When a reporting option appears more than once in the command line, the
       last one takes precedence.

       Some reporting options can also be written as query arguments.

       hledger help options:

       -h --help
              show general or COMMAND help

       --man  show general or COMMAND user manual with man

       --info show general or COMMAND user manual with info

       --version
              show general or ADDONCMD version

       --debug[=N]
              show debug output (levels 1-9, default: 1)

       A @FILE argument will be expanded to the contents of FILE, which should
       contain one command line option/argument per line.  (To  prevent  this,
       insert a -- argument before.)

MOUSE
       In  most  modern terminals, you can navigate through the screens with a
       mouse or touchpad:

       o Use mouse wheel or trackpad to scroll up and down

       o Click on list items to go deeper

       o Click on the left margin (column 0) to go back.

KEYS
       Keyboard gives more control.

       ? shows a help dialog listing all keys.  (Some of these also appear  in
       the  quick  help  at  the  bottom  of  each screen.)  Press ? again (or
       ESCAPE, or LEFT, or q) to close it.  The following keys  work  on  most
       screens:

       The  cursor  keys navigate: RIGHT or ENTER goes deeper, LEFT returns to
       the  previous  screen,  UP/DOWN/PGUP/PGDN/HOME/END  move  up  and  down
       through  lists.  Emacs-style (CTRL-p/CTRL-n/CTRL-f/CTRL-b) and VI-style
       (k,j,l,h) movement keys are also supported.  A tip: movement  speed  is
       limited  by  your  keyboard repeat rate, to move faster you may want to
       adjust it.  (If you're on a mac, the karabiner app is  one  way  to  do
       that.)

       With  shift pressed, the cursor keys adjust the report period, limiting
       the transactions to be shown  (by  default,  all  are  shown).   SHIFT-
       DOWN/UP  steps downward and upward through these standard report period
       durations: year, quarter, month,  week,  day.   Then,  SHIFT-LEFT/RIGHT
       moves  to the previous/next period.  T sets the report period to today.
       With the -w/--watch option, when viewing a "current" period  (the  cur-
       rent day, week, month, quarter, or year), the period will move automat-
       ically to track the current date.  To set a  non-standard  period,  you
       can use / and a date: query.

       (Mac  users:  SHIFT-DOWN/UP keys do not work by default in Terminal, as
       of MacOS Monterey.  You can configure them as follows:  open  Terminal,
       press  CMD-comma  to open preferences, click Profiles, select your cur-
       rent terminal profile on the left, click Keyboard on the right, click +
       and add this for Shift-Down: \033[1;2B, click + and add this for Shift-
       Up: \033[1;2A.  Press the Escape key to enter the \033 part, you  can't
       type it directly.)

       /  lets  you  set a general filter query limiting the data shown, using
       the same query terms as in hledger and hledger-web.  While editing  the
       query,  you  can  use CTRL-a/e/d/k, BS, cursor keys; press ENTER to set
       it, or ESCAPEto cancel.  There are also keys for quickly adjusting some
       common  filters  like account depth and transaction status (see below).
       BACKSPACE or DELETE removes all filters, showing all transactions.

       As mentioned above, by default hledger-ui hides future  transactions  -
       both ordinary transactions recorded in the journal, and periodic trans-
       actions  generated  by  rule.   F  toggles  forecast  mode,  in   which
       future/forecasted transactions are shown.

       ESCAPE  resets the UI state and jumps back to the top screen, restoring
       the app's initial state at startup.  Or,  it  cancels  minibuffer  data
       entry or the help dialog.

       CTRL-l redraws the screen and centers the selection if possible (selec-
       tions near the top won't be centered, since we don't scroll  above  the
       top).

       g  reloads from the data file(s) and updates the current screen and any
       previous screens.  (With large files, this  could  cause  a  noticeable
       pause.)

       I  toggles  balance  assertion  checking.  Disabling balance assertions
       temporarily can be useful for troubleshooting.

       a runs command-line hledger's add  command,  and  reloads  the  updated
       file.  This allows some basic data entry.

       A  is like a, but runs the hledger-iadd tool, which provides a terminal
       interface.  This key will be available if hledger-iadd is installed  in
       $path.

       E  runs $HLEDGER_UI_EDITOR, or $EDITOR, or a default (emacsclient -a ""
       -nw) on the journal file.  With some editors (emacs,  vi),  the  cursor
       will  be  positioned  at  the current transaction when invoked from the
       register and transaction screens, and at the error location (if  possi-
       ble) when invoked from the error screen.

       B  toggles  cost  mode, showing amounts in their cost's commodity (like
       toggling the -B/--cost flag).

       V toggles value mode, showing amounts' current market  value  in  their
       default  valuation  commodity  (like  toggling  the  -V/--market flag).
       Note, "current market value" means the value on the report end date  if
       specified,  otherwise today.  To see the value on another date, you can
       temporarily set that as the report end date.  Eg: to see a  transaction
       as  it  was  valued  on july 30, go to the accounts or register screen,
       press /, and add date:-7/30 to the query.

       At most one of cost or value mode can be active at once.

       There's not yet any visual reminder when cost or value mode is  active;
       for now pressing b b v should reliably reset to normal mode.

       q quits the application.

       Additional screen-specific keys are described below.

SCREENS
       At  startup,  hledger-ui shows a menu screen by default.  From here you
       can navigate to other screens using the cursor keys: UP/DOWN to select,
       RIGHT  to  move  to the selected screen, LEFT to return to the previous
       screen.  Or you can use ESC to return directly to the top menu  screen.

       You  can  also  use a command line flag to specific a different startup
       screen (--cs, --bs, --is, --all, or --register=ACCT).

   Menu
       This is the top-most screen.  From here you  can  navigate  to  several
       screens  listing accounts of various types.  Note some of these may not
       show anything until you have configured account types.

   Cash accounts
       This screen shows "cash" (ie, liquid asset) accounts (like hledger bal-
       ancesheet  type:c).   It  always shows balances (historical ending bal-
       ances on the date shown in the title line).

   Balance sheet accounts
       This screen shows asset, liability and equity  accounts  (like  hledger
       balancesheetequity).  It always shows balances.

   Income statement accounts
       This  screen  shows revenue and expense accounts (like hledger incomes-
       tatement).  It always shows changes  (balance  changes  in  the  period
       shown in the title line).

   All accounts
       This  screen  shows  all accounts in your journal (unless filtered by a
       query; like hledger balance).  It shows balances by  default;  you  can
       toggle showing changes with the H key.

   Register
       This  screen  shows  the  transactions  affecting a particular account.
       Each line represents one transaction, and shows:

       o the other account(s) involved, in abbreviated form.   (If  there  are
         both  real  and virtual postings, it shows only the accounts affected
         by real postings.)

       o the overall change to the current account's balance; positive for  an
         inflow to this account, negative for an outflow.

       o the running total after the transaction.  With the H key you can tog-
         gle between

         o the period total, which is from just the transactions displayed

         o or the historical total, which includes  any  undisplayed  transac-
           tions  before the start of the report period (and matching the fil-
           ter query if any).  This will be  the  running  historical  balance
           (what  you would see on a bank's website, eg) if not disturbed by a
           query.

       Transactions affecting this account's subaccounts will be  included  in
       the register if the accounts screen is in tree mode, or if it's in list
       mode but this account has subaccounts which are  not  shown  due  to  a
       depth  limit.   In  other words, the register always shows the transac-
       tions contributing to the balance shown on the accounts  screen.   Tree
       mode/list mode can be toggled with t here also.

       U  toggles  filtering  by  unmarked  status, showing or hiding unmarked
       transactions.  Similarly, P toggles pending transactions, and C toggles
       cleared  transactions.  (By default, transactions with all statuses are
       shown; if you activate one or two status filters, only  those  transac-
       tions are shown; and if you activate all three, the filter is removed.)

       R toggles real mode, in which virtual postings are ignored.

       z toggles nonzero mode, in which only transactions  posting  a  nonzero
       change  are  shown (hledger-ui shows zero items by default, unlike com-
       mand-line hledger).

       Press RIGHT to view the selected transaction in detail.

   Transaction
       This screen shows a single transaction, as  a  general  journal  entry,
       similar  to  hledger's  print command and journal format (hledger_jour-
       nal(5)).

       The transaction's date(s)  and  any  cleared  flag,  transaction  code,
       description,  comments,  along  with  all  of  its account postings are
       shown.  Simple transactions have two postings, but there  can  be  more
       (or in certain cases, fewer).

       UP  and  DOWN will step through all transactions listed in the previous
       account register screen.  In the title bar, the numbers in  parentheses
       show  your  position  within  that  account  register.   They will vary
       depending on which account register you came from (remember most trans-
       actions appear in multiple account registers).  The #N number preceding
       them is the transaction's position within the complete unfiltered jour-
       nal, which is a more stable id (at least until the next reload).

       On this screen (and the register screen), the E key will open your text
       editor with the cursor positioned at the current transaction if  possi-
       ble.

       This  screen  has  a  limitation with showing file updates: it will not
       show them until you exit and re-enter it.  So eg to see the  effect  of
       using the E key, currently you must: - press E, edit and save the file,
       then exit the editor, returning to hledger-ui - press g to  reload  the
       file  (or  use -w/--watch mode) - press LEFT then RIGHT to exit and re-
       enter the transaction screen.

   Error
       This screen will appear if there is a problem, such as a  parse  error,
       when  you  press g to reload.  Once you have fixed the problem, press g
       again to reload and resume normal operation.  (Or, you can press escape
       to cancel the reload attempt.)

TIPS
   Watch mode
       One  of  hledger-ui's  best  features  is the auto-reloading -w/--watch
       mode.  With this flag, it will update the display  automatically  when-
       ever changes are saved to the data files.

       This  is very useful when reconciling.  A good workflow is to have your
       bank's online register open in a browser  window,  for  reference;  the
       journal  file open in an editor window; and hledger-ui in watch mode in
       a terminal window, eg:

              $ hledger-ui --watch --register checking -C

       As you mark things cleared in the editor, you can see the effect  imme-
       diately  without  having  to  context  switch.  This leaves more mental
       bandwidth for your accounting.  Of course you can still  interact  with
       hledger-ui  when  needed,  eg to toggle cleared mode, or to explore the
       history.

       Here are some current limitations to be aware of:

       Changes might not be detected with certain editors, possibly  including
       Jetbrains  IDEs, gedit, other Gnome applications; or on certain unusual
       filesystems.  (#1617, #911).  To work around, reload manually by press-
       ing  g in the hledger-ui window.  (Or see #1617 for another workaround,
       and let us know if it works for you.)

       CPU and memory usage can sometimes gradually  increase,  if  hledger-ui
       --watch  is  left  running for days.  (Possibly correlated with certain
       platforms, many transactions,  and/or  large  numbers  of  other  files
       present).   To  work  around, quit and restart it, or (where supported)
       suspend (CTRL-z) and restart it (fg).

   Debug output
       You can add --debug[=N] to the command line to log debug output.   This
       will  be logged to the file hledger-ui.log in the current directory.  N
       ranges from 1 (least output, the default) to 9 (maximum output).

ENVIRONMENT
       COLUMNS The screen width to use.  Default: the full terminal width.

       LEDGER_FILE The journal file path when not specified with -f.

       On unix computers, the default value is: ~/.hledger.journal.

       A more typical value is something  like  ~/finance/YYYY.journal,  where
       ~/finance  is  a  version-controlled  finance directory and YYYY is the
       current year.  Or, ~/finance/current.journal, where current.journal  is
       a symbolic link to YYYY.journal.

       The  usual  way  to  set this permanently is to add a command to one of
       your shell's startup files (eg ~/.profile):

              export LEDGER_FILE=~/finance/current.journal`

       On some Mac computers, there is a more thorough way to set  environment
       variables, that will also affect applications started from the GUI (eg,
       Emacs started from a dock icon): In ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist, add an
       entry like:

              {
                "LEDGER_FILE" : "~/finance/current.journal"
              }

       For this to take effect you might need to killall Dock, or reboot.

       On  Windows  computers,  the  default  value is probably C:\Users\YOUR-
       NAME\.hledger.journal.  You can change this by running a  command  like
       this  in a powershell window (let us know if you need to be an Adminis-
       trator, and if this persists across a reboot):

              > setx LEDGER_FILE "C:\Users\MyUserName\finance\2021.journal"

       Or,  change   it   in   settings:   see   https://www.java.com/en/down-
       load/help/path.html.

FILES
       Reads  data  from  one or more files in journal, timeclock, timedot, or
       CSV format.  The default file is .hledger.journal in your  home  direc-
       tory;  this  can be overridden with one or more -f FILE options, or the
       LEDGER_FILE environment variable.

BUGS
       -f- doesn't work (hledger-ui can't read from stdin).

       -V affects only the accounts screen.

       When you press g, the current and all previous screens are regenerated,
       which  may cause a noticeable pause with large files.  Also there is no
       visual indication that this is in progress.

       --watch is not yet fully robust.  It works well for normal  usage,  but
       many  file  changes  in  a  short time (eg saving the file thousands of
       times with an editor macro) can cause problems at least on OSX.   Symp-
       toms  include:  unresponsive UI, periodic resetting of the cursor posi-
       tion, momentary display of parse errors, high CPU usage eventually sub-
       siding, and possibly a small but persistent build-up of CPU usage until
       the program is restarted.

       Also, if you are viewing files mounted from another machine, -w/--watch
       requires that both machine clocks are roughly in step.



REPORTING BUGS
       Report  bugs  at  http://bugs.hledger.org  (or  on the #hledger chat or
       hledger mail list)


AUTHORS
       Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com> and contributors.
       See http://hledger.org/CREDITS.html


COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 2007-2023 Simon Michael and contributors.


LICENSE
       Released under GNU GPL v3 or later.


SEE ALSO
       hledger(1), hledger-ui(1), hledger-web(1), ledger(1)



hledger-ui-1.29.99                March 2023                     HLEDGER-UI(1)