hledger/hledger-web/hledger-web.m4.md

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# NAME

hledger-web - web interface for the hledger accounting tool

# SYNOPSIS

`hledger-web [OPTIONS]`\
`hledger web -- [OPTIONS]`

# DESCRIPTION

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<a href="images/hledger-web/normal/register.png" class="highslide" onclick="return hs.expand(this)"><img src="images/hledger-web/normal/register.png" title="Account register view with accounts sidebar" /></a>
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hledger-web is hledger's web interface.  It starts a simple web
application for browsing and adding transactions, and optionally
opens it in a web browser window if possible.
It provides a more user-friendly UI than the hledger CLI or
hledger-ui interface, showing more at once (accounts, the current
account register, balance charts) and allowing history-aware data
entry, interactive searching, and bookmarking.

hledger-web also lets you share a ledger with multiple users, or even the public web.
There is no access control, so if you need that you should put it
behind a suitable web proxy.  As a small protection against data loss
when running an unprotected instance, it writes a numbered backup of
the main journal file (only ?) on every edit.

Like hledger, it reads _files_
For more about this see hledger(1), hledger_journal(5) etc.

By default, hledger-web starts the web app in "transient mode" and
also opens it in your default web browser if possible. In this mode
the web app will keep running for as long as you have it open in a
browser window, and will exit after two minutes of inactivity (no
requests and no browser windows viewing it).
With `--serve`, it just runs the web app without exiting, and logs
requests to the console.

By default the server listens on IP address 127.0.0.1, accessible only to local requests.
You can use `--host` to change this, eg `--host 0.0.0.0` to listen on all configured addresses.

Similarly, use `--port` to set a TCP port other than 5000, eg if you are
running multiple hledger-web instances.

You can use `--base-url` to change the protocol, hostname, port and path that appear in hyperlinks,
useful eg for integrating hledger-web within a larger website.
The default is `http://HOST:PORT/` using the server's configured host address and TCP port
(or `http://HOST` if PORT is 80).

With `--file-url` you can set a different base url for static files,
eg for better caching or cookie-less serving on high performance websites.

Note there is no built-in access control (aside from listening on 127.0.0.1 by default).
So you will need to hide hledger-web behind an authenticating proxy (such as apache or nginx)
if you want to restrict who can see and add entries to your journal.

Command-line options and arguments may be used to set an initial
filter on the data. This is not shown in the web UI, but it will be
applied in addition to any search query entered there.

With journal and timeclock files (but not CSV files, currently) the
web app detects changes made by other means and will show the new data
on the next request. If a change makes the file unparseable,
hledger-web will show an error until the file has been fixed.

---
# disabled
# edit form
# Note: unlike any other hledger command, `web` can alter existing journal
# data, via the edit form.  A numbered backup of the file is saved on
# each edit, normally (ie if file permissions allow, disk is not full, etc.)
# Also, there is no built-in access control. So unless you run it behind an
# authenticating proxy, any visitor to your server will be able to see and
# overwrite the journal file (and included files.)
# hledger-web disallows edits which would leave the journal file not in
# valid [journal format](#journal). If the file becomes unparseable
# by other means, hledger-web will show an error until the file has been
# fixed.
...

# OPTIONS

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

`--serve`
: serve and log requests, don't browse or auto-exit

`--host=IPADDR`
: listen on this IP address (default: 127.0.0.1)

`--port=PORT`
: listen on this TCP port (default: 5000)

`--base-url=URL`
: set the base url (default: http://IPADDR:PORT).
You would change this when sharing over the network, or integrating within a larger website.

`--file-url=URL`
: set the static files url (default: BASEURL/static).
hledger-web normally serves static files itself, but if you wanted to
serve them from another server for efficiency, you would set the url with this.

hledger input options:

_inputoptions_

hledger reporting options:

_reportingoptions_

hledger help options:

_helpoptions_

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.)

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# ENVIRONMENT

_LEDGER_FILE_

# FILES

Reads _files_

# BUGS

The need to precede options with `--` when invoked from hledger is awkward.

`-f-` doesn't work (hledger-web can't read from stdin).

Query arguments and some hledger options are ignored.

Does not work in text-mode browsers.

Does not work well on small screens.

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