cleidigh / icloud-addressbook-query

Integrate mutt with iCloud-synced Address Book

icloud-addressbook-query.py is a short python script to get e-mail address from the Mac OS X Contacts application when it is synced with iCloud (although it could easily be adapted for a non-synced Contacts). It is primarily intended to be used for address lookup in Mutt, and the output format reflects this.

Usage

Place icloud-addressbook-query.py somewhere in your $PATH. Then use the following configuration in your muttrc:

set query_command = "icloud-addressbook-query.py '%s'"

SQLite and Write-Ahead-Logging

I hardlink the AddressBook.abcddb file into a git repository which is pushed to my linux VM where mutt and icloud-addressbook-query.py are run from. If you have a similar setup to this (i.e. some method of synchronising the AddressBook.abcddb file to another computer) then you may run into an odd bug whereby more recent changes to your Contacts do not seem to be available to icloud-addressbook-query.py.

As of version 3.7.0, SQLite implements atomic commits using a new method known as "Write-Ahead-Logging" (WAL). If you look in ~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/Sources/* on more recent versions of OS X (possibly since Mountain Lion) you will notice that instead of just AddressBook.abcddb there is now also AddressBook.abcddb-wal and AddressBook.abcddb-shm; the latter is an index to the WAL file which improves the performance of reading it. The source of the aforementioned bug is that by default SQLite allows the WAL file to grow and will only perform a checkpoint (move the WAL file transactions into the main database) when either of the following conditions occur:

• when the last database connection on a database file closes; or
• when a COMMIT causes the WAL file to be 1000 pages more in size

On OS X, there are always several processes with open connections to AddressBook.abcddb: lsof currently shows sharingd, CalendarAgent, soagent, DataDetectorsDynamicData, Mail and Messages. The first criterion above will therefore never trigger, and it takes quite some time for the second to result in a checkpoint. This is the cause of recent changes to Contacts not being available to icloud-addressbook-query.py.

The simple solution to this is to manually tell SQLite to checkpoint whenever you run into this issue. You can do this with the following command:

% sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/AddressBook/Sources/[SOURCE]/AddressBook.abcddb \
>     'pragma wal_checkpoint(FULL);'

Of course, it is possible to have this done automatically by whatever synchronising solution you use (such as a git pre-commit hook).

-- Andrew Ho [email protected]