Updated January 24, 2007 Download
It is a Bourne Shell script designed to be a simple, yet functional checkbook registry program.
topI wrote ChkBk because I use my checkcard a lot, but I never have my checkbook with me. I got tired of having to hold on to my receipts until I got home and then having to remember to enter the info into my checkbook when I did get home. My goal was to have something simple that I could access easily from work. I use a linux box at work, so naturally command line access and ssh was my first choice since, 1) It's encrytped, 2) It doesn't take up much network resources like a gui program would, 3) I'm comfortable at the command line. Plus, I was bored and needed a reason to learn more about shell programming.
topThere are many reasons why someone might want to use ChkBk. Ok, maybe there's not many, but there's at least a few. Some reasons might include the following:
Here's a short list of what you can do with it:
Probably, but they might not post for a day or two. I wanted something MORE real-time, so that if I made several transactions in the same day I would know exactly what I had in my account. Plus, I think it's good to keep a record to check against them just in case they (cough) screw up because you know you won't be the one screwing up (cough, cough).
topFrom here:
Name Last Modified Size Description
![[ ]](../../images/disk.png)
chkbk-1.5.tar.gz
07-Apr-2006 14:18 19.0KB Latest version (1.5) Linux/BSD archive
chkbk-1.5.zip
07-Apr-2006 14:18 29.0KB Latest version (1.5) Windows archive
chkbk-1.22.tar.gz
30-Oct-2005 10:08 16.0KB Version (1.22) Linux/BSD archive
chkbk-1.22.zip
30-Oct-2005 10:08 24.6KB Version (1.22) Windows archive
chkbk-1.2.tar.gz
21-Oct-2005 16:20 15.6KB Version 1.2 Linux/BSD archive
chkbk-1.2.zip
21-Oct-2005 16:21 24.1KB Version 1.2 Windows archive
chkbk-1.0.tar.gz
3-Oct-2005 14:50 13.0KB Version 1.0 Linux/BSD archive
chkbk-1.0.zip
3-Oct-2005 14:50 20.6KB Version 1.0 Windows archive
See the changelog.
topOk, so I've actually talked you into trying ChkBk. Now you wanna know how to install it so you can actually use it, right? The complete Help file that is included with ChkBk can be found here.
Instructions for the impatient:
Linux/BSD (replace "version" with chkbk version you downloaded) - extract the archive: tar xvzf chkbk-"version".tar.gz - change to chkbk directory cd chkbk-"version" - run install script ./install.sh Windows - install cygwin http://cygwin.com/setup.exe - make sure you install and awk/gawk with cygwin (should be installed by default) - then extract the archive using winrar or some other exrtraction utility into your cygwin home folder (default location is c:\cygwin\home\"username" ) - start cygwin double-click Cygwin icon on desktop - change to directory you named chkbk when you extracted it (HINT: type ls at the command prompt if you don't know what it is. You should see something referring to chkbk) type: cd chkbk-"version" or cd "directory" that shows up when you type ls above - run install script ./install.sh - NOTE: there is a problem with the PATH not getting exported in Windows. This means that even if you choose the "bin" install, you will not be able to run chkbk by just typing "chkbk" at the prompt. To work around this just copy the chkbk script to the /usr/local/bin directory under where cygwin is installed. Example: cd cp bin/chkbk /usr/local/bin
The obligatory screenshots:
Yes! The ChkBk install script gives you the option to install ChkBk as a standard UNIX user, so that shouldn't be a problem on any UNIX derived system. Windows users may not be able to use it if they aren't allowed to install software because of the fact that they will need to install Cygwin (see Windows install instructions ). A Windows user not being able to install software shouldn't be a big problem because pretty much the only place that a Windows user would not have administrator privileges would be at work. If you are a Windows user and find yourself in this situation of not being able to install Cygwin to use ChkBk, maybe you should ask your boss for a linux desktop or something :)
topCurrently, the only operating systems that ChkBk has been tested on are Ubuntu Linux, OpenBSD, Debian GNU/Linux, Mandrakelinux 10.1, Red Hat Linux, and Windows XP with Cygwin. However, there is no reason it shouldn't work on any GNU/Lniux system. ChkBk works on Mac OS X, but you need to choose the "alt" install not "bin" for now...I'm working on it.
Unfortunately, I have found ChkBk not to work correctly on PC-BSD 1.0 Rc1 which runs FreeBSD 6.0. This is due to FreeBSD's implementation of the tput command. Supposedly, a work around for this is to install the OpenBSD source for tput, but I have been unsuccessful in doing this with the 6.0 Release of FreeBSD so far. This may work on older versions of FreeBSD, however. I'm still investigating.
As of right now, printing under Windows using the print feature in ChkBk will be a pain to set up as it uses the UNIX lpr command. I have plans to allow a custom print command, but it may be a while before any Windows specific printing is enabled. For now, you are probably better off printing to a file and then using wordpad to print that file. When using wordpad, printing in landscape with 1" margins worked best for me.
topShort list:
Well, I thought I would keep with the standard UNIX tradition of making names for things as short as possible and not really being words at all ;)
topThanks goes to these sites for helping promote ChkBk and other Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) projects: