Activity Log Storage

The activity log is the central data structure in pace. It is a record of all activities, intermissions, and tasks that you have tracked. This document describes how pace stores and manages activity logs.

Storage Format

When using pace offline the activity log is stored in a file in the TOML format. The file is named activities.pace.toml and is located in the pace data directory. The pace data directory is platform-specific and is typically located in the user’s home directory. The file is a list of activity log entries, each of which is a TOML table.

Here is an example of an activity log entry with an activity and an intermission:

[01HQR3QRXEYK51T6N0D85G5668]
description = "My Task"
begin = "2024-02-28T16:01:13+01:00"
end = "2024-02-28T16:02:40+01:00"
duration = 87
kind = "activity"
tags = ["test", "my", "lawn"]
status = "ended"

[01HQR3RTH6XJKMW4PFD2XFNK71]
description = "My Task"
begin = "2024-02-28T16:01:48+01:00"
end = "2024-02-28T16:02:17+01:00"
duration = 29
kind = "intermission"
parent-id = "01HQR3QRXEYK51T6N0D85G5668"
status = "ended"

The activity log entry is identified by a unique identifier. The identifier is a ULID (Universally Unique Lexicographically Sortable Identifier). The ULID is used to uniquely identify the activity log entry and to establish relationships between activity log entries.

Storage Location

The pace data directory is platform-specific and is typically located in the user’s home directory. The pace data directory is used to store the activity log and other pace data. The pace data directory is determined by the following rules:

• On Linux, the pace data directory is $XDG_DATA_HOME/pace or $HOME/.local/share/pace.
• On Windows, the pace data directory is {FOLDERID_LocalAppData}/pace.
• On MacOS, the pace data directory is $HOME/Library/Application Support/org.pace-rs.pace.

The pace data directory is used to store the activity log and other pace data. The activity log is stored in the file activities.pace.toml in the pace data directory.

Pace also uses a configuration directory to store configuration files. The configuration directory is platform-specific and is typically located in the user’s home directory. The configuration directory is determined by the following rules:

• On Linux, the configuration directory is $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pace or $HOME/.config/pace/pace.toml.
• On Windows, the configuration directory is {FOLDERID_RoamingAppData}/pace/config/pace.toml.
• On MacOS, the configuration directory is $HOME/Library/Application Support/org.pace-rs.pace/config/pace.toml.

The configuration directory is used to store configuration files. The configuration file is named pace.toml and is located in the configuration directory.

PACE_HOME

You can override the pace data directory and the configuration directory by setting the PACE_HOME environment variable. The PACE_HOME environment variable is used to override the default pace data directory and the configuration directory.