Ressbo

Ressbo is a command line tool and Ruby API for working with entries from the Apple Address Book. The entries are first cached into a SQLite database, and then are available through active record models.

The primary goal of the project is to provide command line tools that allow easy access to the Mac OS X built-in address book.

Installation

Ressbo is distributed as a Ruby Gem. If you are running Mac OS X version 10.5 (Leopard), you only need to run the following command:

$ sudo gem install ressbo

If you are running an older version of Mac OS X, you should probably install a fresh copy of Ruby, install Ruby Gems, and then finally install Ressbo using the instructions above.

Usage

All Ressbo commands automatically create a SQLite cache of the native address book. The following is a listing of provided command line utilities:

Command	Description
ressbo-mutt	Search the cache for matching addresses. Designed to work with the Mutt MUA external address query mechanism.
ressbo-sink	Rebuild the SQLite cache of the address book data.

Cached Data

Ressbo currently only caches names and email addresses. It's possible that Ressbo will be extended to support more data from the address book in future versions.

Rebuilding the Cache

The current version of Ressbo does not yet detect changes to the address book. You will therefore need to rebuild the cache after making changes to the built-in address book.

You can rebuild the cache with the provided ressbo-sink command line tool.

Development

The source code repository for Ressbo can be obtained via:

$ git clone git://pmade.com/ressbo

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Where in the world did the name Ressbo come from?

A. addRESS BOok

Q. Why did you bother to write this?

A. So that I could use my Apple address book entries with tools like Mutt and Emacs.

Q. Do you promise to maintain Ressbo and add all the features that I want?

A. No. If you want a new feature, send me a patch.

Updated Apr 14, 2008 by Peter Jones

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