Vehiculos

Presentation

Vehiculos is a vehicle maintenance logbook with a simple logic: your data belongs to you.

Unlike modern applications that store your information on remote servers and extract your data, Vehiculos saves what you want on your computer, in open and readable formats. You can back up, copy, or modify your files outside the application. If necessary, you can also store this data on another medium or on your cloud storage space.

Installation, Uninstallation, Compilation

If you downloaded the .deb file, double-click it and launch the installation using your default package manager.

The program will install, and you can find it in your applications under the Accessories category.

If you downloaded the .zip file (for Windows), extract it, place the .exe where you prefer, and launch it.

Compilation

Alternatively, compile the program after cloning it from the git repository (or downloading the archive).

Install Dependencies

sudo apt update

sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config libgtk-4-dev libzip-dev

To Compile

gcc -Wall -Wextra *.c -o vehiculos $(pkg-config --cflags --libs gtk4 libzip)

Run the Program

./vehiculos (or double-click the file icon)

Uninstallation

On Linux, in superuser or root mode: `apt purge vehiculos`

Configuration files are standardly located in `home`: `.config/vehiculos`

Getting Started

The Vault

Upon the initial launch of Vehiculos, the application prompts you to configure a vault.

The vault is a directory on your computer (e.g., Documents/Maintenance_Logs/). Within this folder, Vehiculos organizes all your vehicles. You can place this directory on your hard drive, a USB flash drive, or a synchronized folder (such as Nextcloud, Infomaniak, Dropbox).

Adding a Vehicle

Once the vault is created, you will be prompted to create your first vehicle.

You can provide:

• The name (e.g., My Clio, My Mountain Bike)
• The registration or identifier (optional)
• The brand (optional)
• The emoji: choose a visual symbol to identify your vehicle (🚗, 🏍, 🚲, etc.).

You can add as many vehicles as desired within the same vault via the main menu. To switch between vehicles, click the 🔧 Vehicles button at the bottom of the screen.

The Interface

It is divided into three zones:

The Header: displays the name, brand, and registration of the currently selected vehicle.

The Tracking Table: interventions are sorted from newest to oldest.

• ID: unique number of the intervention.
• Date: date of the intervention.
• Description: the operation performed. Older interventions with the same name are displayed in gray.
• KM: mileage at the time of the intervention.
• Diff: number of kilometers traveled since this intervention (provided the current mileage is updated).
• Doc.: a 📎 button to open the associated invoice.
• Notes: additional comments (displayed on multiple lines if necessary).

The Action Bar (bottom): allows updating the mileage, adding an intervention, changing the vehicle, and accessing the main menu.

Managing Interventions

Adding a Performed Intervention

Click the “➕ Intervention” button.

• Type: choose between Maintenance (routine service) or Repair (unplanned failure).
• Date: defaults to the current date; editable by clicking the calendar 📅.
• Mileage: the mileage of the vehicle on the day of the intervention.
• Description: enter the operation (limited to 50 characters). The drop-down menu alongside suggests descriptions previously utilized.
• Notes: maximum 200 characters to detail the operation (part brands, findings, etc.).
• Attach Document: link a document to this intervention: *.jpg, *.jpeg, *.jpe, *.png, *.webp, *.pdf, *.txt, *.md, *.markdown, *.odt, *.ods, *.doc, *.docx, *.xls, *.xlsx

Modifying or Deleting an Intervention

Double-click any row in the table. A dialog window will inquire whether you wish to modify the intervention or delete it permanently.

Scheduling an Intervention

If an intervention must be anticipated (e.g., changing tires in 6 months), use the main menu and select Schedule an Intervention.

The interface is simplified. Enter the future date, the operation, and the estimated mileage.

• In the table, this intervention appears in red for differentiation.
• If the planned date is exceeded without execution, the application indicates it.
• Once the operation is performed, double-click the row and choose Declare Performed. The application then allows inputting the actual mileage, attaching the final invoice, and adding notes.

Updating Current Mileage

The mileage of your vehicle evolves constantly. To maintain accurate data, click the red ✏ KM button at the bottom left.

Enter the current daily mileage. This action allows Vehiculos to calculate the Diff (Differential) field in the table, indicating how many kilometers have been traveled since each intervention.

Exporting Data

Data is useful if it can be shared (e.g., during vehicle resale). The main menu offers these options:

• Simple HTML Export: generates a web page containing the vehicle history for printing or converting to PDF via a web browser.
• Complete Export (ZIP): generates a .zip file containing the web page and subfolders with all associated documents.

Settings

In this section, you can modify the language, date display format, and measurement system (metric or imperial).

After validating these changes, a restart of the program is required via an explicit prompt.

Understanding File Architecture

No obscure database format is utilized. Inside the configured vault directory, the structure is organized as follows:

Directory Tree

📁 My_Vault/
│
├── 📁 My_Car/
│   ├── 📄 vehiculdata.csv
│   ├── 📄 database.csv
│   ├── 📄 mileage.txt
│   ├── 📁 maintenance/ (Contains maintenance documents)
│   └── 📁 repair/      (Contains repair documents)
│
└── 📁 My_Bike/
    ├── 📄 vehiculdata.csv
    └── ...

Note: Files imported via the application are automatically copied to maintenance or repair. To prevent overwriting files with identical names, Vehiculos prefixes the filename with the system date and time stamp (e.g., 20260525143000_invoice.pdf).

The Files

If the application becomes unavailable, or if you wish to process data using Excel, LibreOffice Calc, or a text editor, the files remain accessible. Here is the layout of the three text files within each vehicle directory:

The mileage.txt File

Contains a single line specifying the last recorded mileage.

The vehiculdata.csv File

Contains basic vehicle information separated by the | (vertical bar) symbol.

Vehicle Name | Registration | Brand | Emoji

(Example: My Car|AB-123-CD|Renault Clio|🚗)

The database.csv File

Each line corresponds to an intervention. Fields are separated by the | symbol. The structure is as follows:

Identifier | Vehicle Name | Description | Notes | Mileage | Date | Document_Path

• Identifier: Begins with MAINTEN (maintenance) or REPAIR (repair) followed by a sequential number.
• Notes: Line breaks within the application are encoded as \n within the file to maintain structural continuity. A scheduled row contains the mention “INTERVENTION PLANIFIÉE”.

Manual editing of these files is possible, provided the vertical bar | separations are rigorously preserved.