BMSYNC(1)

NAME
bmsync - convert bookmark files between various browsers

SYNOPSIS
bmsync [OPTION]... [COLLECTION]...

DESCRIPTION
bmsync reads bookmarks from any number of so called bookmark collections, checks for conflicts among the bookmarks, and write them back to the bookmark collections.

A bookmark collection is a file or directory, containing a number of titles and a URL for each title (bookmarks). bmsync currently supports two types of bookmark collections - namely those generated by Netscape Navigator (bookmarks.html) and Microsoft Internet Explorer (Favorites/).

Bookmark collections are specified as "[type:]path", where path is a file or directory depending on the type. The type part is not necessary unless bmsync could not identify the type of bookmark collection from path. See ENGINES below for a more elaborate description of type abbreviation and engines.

Five general commands exist: --sync, --copy, and --merge to convert bookmarks in various ways; --output to write bookmarks to standard out; --identify to identify the type of a bookmarks collection.

To read bookmarks and write to all sources - a way of synchronizing - use the --sync (-s) option. (This is the default if basename is 'bmsync'.)

If you rather wish to copy bookmarks from one source, and simply recreate or overwrite the destination, use the --copy (-c) option. (This is the default if basename is 'bmcopy'.)

To you wish to read bookmarks from a number of sources, but write to the last specified, use the -m (--merge) option.

Here is an overview:

                         first   second  third   last arg
  -s, --sync, bmsync       RW      RW      RW      RW
  -c, --copy, bmcopy       R       R       R       W
  -m, --merge, bmmerge     R       R       R       RW

OPTIONS
Synchronize bookmark collections. Copy bookmarks to a bookmark collection. Merge bookmarks from other bookmark collection. Output bookmarks in a human-readable form to standard out. Output format of bookmark collections to standard out. Never actually write or make any changes to files. Write only intersection of bookmarks. (That is, bookmarks which are common to all of the collections that bookmarks were read from). Write all bookmarks; do not skip some unportable bookmarks. Do not rename some bookmarks or directories which they reside in. (There is a special toolbar folder which this option affects.) Prompt what to do at conflicts. (This is the default behavior, but may change with new options in newer version.) Explain what is being done. Write to the same collection path: overwrite if necessary. The default without this option is to append ".new" to the file or directory. (E.g. bookmarks.html becomes bookmarks.html.new.)

This option exists only because this software is beta. It will most likely be removed in the next version. Display help with option overview and exit. Output version information and exit.

ENGINES
An engine is an internal part of bmsync which takes care of identifying, reading, and writing bookmark collections. bmsync currently implements the following engines: Netscape Navigator and Communicator keeps bookmarks in a single html file which usually resides in .netscape/bookmarks.html in the user's home directory.

Converted bookmarks (--exact affects):
  "Personal Toolbar Folder" -> toolbar

Ignored bookmarks (--all affects):
  none Microsoft Internet Explorer stores bookmarks in separate url files - one URL per file. These url files usually reside in C:\Windows\Favorites.

Converted bookmarks (--exact affects):
  "Links" -> toolbar

Ignored bookmarks (--all affects):
  "Channels", "Software Updates" The bookmark storage scheme is pretty much like MSIE's.

CONFLICTS
Due to the implementation of bookmark collection in browsers, there are some restrictions on bookmark titles or names. For example, MSIE bookmarks are url files, usually stored on a FAT file system, and thus inherits all limitations of the file system.

To resolve these conflicts, bmsync allows you to bump (rename) or remove bookmarks. If --interactive (-i) was specified, you will be prompted when there is a conflict. (At the moment, this is the default behavior no matter if --interactive is specified.)

Two bookmarks are considered to be the same if

DRAWBACKS
This is due to the internal format of a bookmark. This is also due to the internal format of bookmarks. There are currently no plans of changing this behavior. (Much since disk-based engines don't support this at all.)

EXAMPLES
bmmerge "nn:/mnt/C/Program Files/Netscape/Navigator/users/you/bookmarks.html" /mnt/C/windows/Favorites ~/.netscape/bookmarks.html

AUTHOR
Oskar Liljeblad <osk@hem.passagen.se>