recsel

Query and filter GNU recutils database records

TLDR

Select all records from a recfile

$ recsel [file.rec]

Select records matching a condition

$ recsel -e "[field] = '[value]'" [file.rec]

Select records with multiple conditions

$ recsel -e "[field1] = '[value]' && [field2] > [number]" [file.rec]

Select specific fields only

$ recsel -p [field1],[field2] [file.rec]

Select records from a specific type

$ recsel -t [record_type] [file.rec]

Count matching records

$ recsel -c -e "[condition]" [file.rec]

Sort records by a field

$ recsel -S [field] [file.rec]

SYNOPSIS

recsel [options] [-e expression] [-t type] [file...]

recsel is part of GNU Recutils, a set of tools for managing plain-text databases using the rec format. It selects and prints records from recfiles based on expressions and criteria.Recfiles are human-readable text files where each record is a collection of named fields separated by blank lines. The format is simple, versionable with git, and editable with any text editor.Selection expressions support comparison operators (=, !=, <, >, <=, >=), logical operators (&&, ||, !), pattern matching (~), and field existence checks. Expressions operate on field values within each record.Output can be restricted to specific fields with -p, sorted with -S, and limited with -n. The tool handles multiple record types within a single file using -t.

PARAMETERS

-e expression

Select records matching the expression

-t type

Select records of specified type only

-p fields

Print only specified fields (comma-separated)

-P fields

Print specified fields without record separators

-c, --count

Print count of matching records

-C, --collapse

Collapse multiple field values into one

-S field

Sort records by specified field

-G field

Group records by specified field

-n max

Return at most max records

-R random

Return random records

-d, --print-descriptors

Print record descriptors

EXPRESSION SYNTAX

field = "value": Exact string matchfield ~ "pattern": Regular expression matchfield < number: Numeric comparisonfield && field2: Logical AND#field: Field exists!#field: Field does not exist

CAVEATS

Field names and string values in expressions must follow recutils quoting rules. Strings with spaces require quotes.Numeric comparisons require fields to contain valid numbers. Non-numeric values cause comparison failures.Large recfiles may be slow to process compared to proper databases, but the simplicity and portability often outweigh performance concerns for moderate data sizes.