How can i create a people file using the terminal?

System: BeOS, Haiku, Zeta

To create a People File using the Terminal you need to do following steps:

First we need to create a file using as source file for our people file. You can use a textfile (with ZETA over the right mousebutton menu, select "new" and "Textfile" ) or you create this file over terminal too.

To create the file over the terminal we use the shell tool touch:

touch /boot/home/people/person_name


Then we add the filetype (Mime Type) of a people file into this file:

addattr -t MIME BEOS:TYPE application/x-person /boot/home/people/person_name


The people file is ready and we can include person informations into it. To do this we use the shell tool addattr, the same we use to add the filetype.

addattr -t string META:name Name /boot/home/people/person_name
addattr -t string META: birthday Birthday /boot/home/people/person_name
addattr -t string META:address Adress /boot/home/people/person_name
addattr -t string META:city City /boot/home/people/person_name
addattr -t string META:country Country /boot/home/people/person_name
addattr -t string META:state State /boot/home/people/person_name
addattr -t string META:zip ZIP code /boot/home/people/person_name
addattr -t string META:hphone Phone number /boot/home/people/person_name
addattr -t string META:cphone Handy numer /boot/home/people/person_name
addattr -t string META:email EMail /boot/home/people/person_name
addattr -t string META:group Group /boot/home/people/person_name


- With META:name we add the Name of the person.
- With META:birthday we add the Birth date of the person.
- With META:address we add the Adress of the person.
- With META:city we add the City there the person live.
- With META:country we add the Country there the person live
- With META:state we add the State there the person live.
- With META:zip we add the ZIP code of the City.
- With META:hphone we add the private Phone numbery of the person.
- With META:cphone we add the mobile phone number (handy) of the person.
- With META:email we add the Email adress of the person-
- With META:group we add the Group there the person will add to (example: family, friends, company).

Finaly we have create a people file with the most importand informations. There are many other informations you can add into the people file, but we dont explain this into this tutorial.

Some informations about the person are split with free space (example: first name and surname), here you need to set the information between quotation mark:

addattr -t string META:name "first Name Surname" /boot/home/people/person_name

The same for the name of the people file:

addattr -t MIME BEOS:TYPE application/x-person /boot/home/people/"person name"

addattr -t string META:name "first Name Surname" /boot/home/people/"person name"



Tutorial and translation by Christian Albrecht (Lelldorin) Juli 2007
Make available by BeSly, the BeOS, Haiku and Zeta knowledgebase.