taskwarrior Documentation

1. Project Overview & Quickstart (GothenburgBitFactory/taskwarrior) Copy Chapter

File: README.md Copy Chapter

Taskwarrior Copy Chapter

Taskwarrior is a command line task list management utility with a multitude of
features, developed as a portable open source project
with an active and quite vast ecosystem of tools, hooks and
extensions.

Install Copy Chapter

Taskwarrior is packaged on a wide range of Linux/Unix systems, Mac OS and
Windows. Check out the latest available
packages in repositories of your OS distribution of choice on
Repology.

Alternatively, you can build Taskwarrior from source.

Documentation Copy Chapter

The online documentation, downloads, news and
more are available on our website, taskwarrior.org.

Community Copy Chapter

Taskwarrior has a lively community on many places on the internet.

Best place to ask questions is our discussions forum on
Github. For
other support options, take a look at
taskwarrior.org/support

For code contributions, please use pull requests.
See Contributing to Taskwarrior for more details.

Contributing Copy Chapter

Your contributions are especially welcome.
Whether it comes in the form of code patches, ideas, discussion, bug reports, encouragement or criticism, your input is needed.
See further development documentation in doc/devel.

Sponsoring Copy Chapter

Taskwarrior is a result of work of mostly small group of volunteers, and has been in development since 2006.

If you are a happy Taskwarrior user, please consider sponsoring us through
Github Sponsors.

Every sponsorship matters, as it directly increases the number of hours core
developers can contribute to the project and makes the project more sustainable.

License Copy Chapter

Taskwarrior is released under the MIT license.
For details check the LICENSE file.

File: doc/devel/contrib/branching.md Copy Chapter

Software development typically requires a standardized branching model, to manage complexity and parallel efforts.
The branching model can be a source of confusion for developers, so this document describes how branching is used.

We use the following branching model:

• develop is the current development branch. All work is done here, and upon
  release it will be branched to a release branch. While develop is not
  stable, we utilize CI to ensure we're at least not merging improvements that
  break existing tests, and hence should be relatively safe. We still recommend
  making backups when using the development branch.

• The most recent minor release is in a branch named after the release, e.g., 2.7.0.
  This branch is used for bug-fixes of the latest release.

File: doc/devel/contrib/coding_style.md Copy Chapter

Coding Style

The coding style used for the Taskwarrior is based on the Google C++ Style Guide, with small modifications in the line length.

Automatic formatting

In order to have consistancy and automatic formatting pre-commit is used to apply clang-format and black are used.
In order to set them up locally please run:

pip install pre-commit
pre-commit install

For more information refer to the quick-start of pre-commit.
The setup is also included in the CI, hence if one can not install it automatically then the CI will take care for it in the PR.

Rust Copy Chapter

Rust code should be formatted with rustfmt and generally follow Rust style guidelines.

File: doc/devel/contrib/development.md Copy Chapter

Developing Taskwarrior

Satisfy the Requirements: Copy Chapter

• CMake 3.22 or later
• gcc 7.0 or later, clang 6.0 or later, or a compiler with full C++17 support
• libuuid (if not on macOS)
• Rust 1.64.0 or higher (hint: use https://rustup.rs/ instead of using your system's package manager)

Install Optional Dependencies: Copy Chapter

• python 3 (for running the test suite)
• pre-commit (for applying formatting changes locally)
• clangd or ccls (for C++ integration in many editors)
• rust-analyzer (for Rust integration in many editors)

Obtain and Build Code: Copy Chapter

The following documentation works with CMake 3.14 and later.
Here are the minimal steps to get started, using an out of source build directory and calling the underlying build tool over the CMake interface.
See the general CMake man pages or the cmake-documentation for more,

Basic Building Copy Chapter

git clone https://github.com/GothenburgBitFactory/taskwarrior
cd taskwarrior
git submodule init
git submodule update
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo
cmake --build build

Other possible build types can be Release and Debug.
This will build several executables, but the one you want is probably src/task, located in the build directory.
When you make changes, just run the last line again.

Building a specific target Copy Section

For only building the task executable, use

cmake --build build --target task_executable

Building in parallel Copy Section

If a parallel build is wanted use

cmake --build build -j <number-of-jobs>

Building with clang as compiler Copy Section

cmake -S . -B build-clang\
    -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang\
    -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++
cmake --build build-clang

Run the Test Suite: Copy Chapter

For running the test suite ctest is used.
Before one can run the test suite the task_executable must be built.
After that also the test_runner target must be build, which can be done over:

cmake --build build --target test_runner

Again you may also use the -j <number-of-jobs> option for parallel builds.

Now one can invoke ctest to run the tests.

ctest --test-dir build

This would run all the test in serial and might take some time.

Running tests in parallel Copy Section

ctest --test-dir build -j <number-of-jobs>

Further it is adviced to add the --output-on-failure option to ctest, to recieve a verbose output if a test is failing as well as the --rerun-failed flag, to invoke in subsequent runs only the failed ones.

Running specific tests Copy Section

For this case one can use the -R <regex> or --tests-regex <regex> option to run only the tests matching the regular expression.
Running only the cpp tests can then be achieved over

ctest --test-dir build -R cpp

or running the variant_* tests

ctest --test-dir build -R variant

Repeating a test case Copy Section

In order to find sporadic test failures the --repeat flag can be used.

ctest --test-dir build -R cpp --repeat-until-fail 10

There are more options to ctest such as --progress, allowing to have a less verbose output.
They can be found in the ctest man page.

Note that any development should be performed using a git clone, and the current development branch.
The source tarballs do not reflect HEAD, and do not contain the test suite.
Follow the GitHub flow for creating a pull request.

Using a Custom Version of TaskChampion Copy Chapter

To build against a different version of Taskchampion, modify the requirement in src/taskchampion-cpp/Cargo.toml.

To build from a local checkout, replace the version with a path dependency, giving the path to the directory containing TaskChampion's Cargo.toml:

taskchampion = { path = "path/to/taskchampion" }

File: doc/devel/contrib/first_time.md Copy Chapter

Welcome, Open Source Contributor

Welcome, potential new Open Source contributor! This is a guide to show you exactly how to make a contribution, and will lead you through the entire process.

There are many people who wish to start contributing, but don't know how or where to start.
If this might be the case for you, then please read on, this guide is for you.
Because we want you to join in the fun with Open Source - it can be fun and rewarding, improve your skills, or just give you a way to contribute back to a project.

How to Help Copy Chapter

Help is needed in all areas of Taskwarrior development - design, coding, testing, support and marketing.
Applicants must be friendly.
Perhaps you are looking to help, but don't know where to start.
Perhaps you have skills we are looking for, here are ways you may be able to help:

• Use Taskwarrior, become familiar with it, and make suggestions.
  We get great feedback from both new users and veteran users.
  New users have a fresh approach that we can no longer achieve, while veteran users develop clever and crafty ways to use the product.

• Report bugs and odd behavior when you see it.
  We don't necessarily know it's broken, unless you tell us.

• Suggest enhancements.
  We get lots of these, and it's great.
  Some really good ideas have been suggested and implemented.
  Sure, some are out of scope, or plain crazy, but the stream of suggestions is fascinating to think about.

• Participate in the bug tracking database, to help others and maybe learn something yourself.

• Proofread the documentation and man pages.

• Improve the documentation.

• Improve the man pages.

• Help improve the tutorials.
  Make your own tutorial.

• Confirm a bug.
  Nothing gets fixed without confirmation.

• Refine a bug.
  Provide relevant details, elaborate on the behavior.

• Fix a bug.
  Send a patch.
  For this you'll need to know some C++ or Rust, and understand the GitHub flow.
  See Developing Taskwarrior for more information.
  We welcome all bug fixes, provided the work is done well and doesn't create other problems or introduce new dependencies.
  We recommend talking to us before starting: we are happy to help you out!

• Write a unit test.
  Unit tests are possibly the most useful contributions of all, because they not only improve the quality of the code, but prevent future regressions, therefore maintaining quality of subsequent releases.
  Plus, broken tests are a great motivator for us to fix the causal defect.
  You'll need Python skills.

• Spread the word.
  Help others become more effective at managing tasks.
  Share your methodology, to inspire others.

• Encouragement.
  Tell us what works for you, and what doesn't.
  It's all good.

• Donate! Help offset costs.

Please remember that we need contributions from all skillsets, however small.
Every contribution helps.

File: doc/devel/contrib/README.md Copy Chapter

Contributing To Taskwarrior

• Welcome, Open Source Contributor
• Developing Taskwarrior
• Coding Style
• Branching Model
• Rust and C++
• Releasing Taskwarrior

File: doc/devel/contrib/releasing.md Copy Chapter

Releasing Taskwarrior

To release Taskwarrior, follow this process:

• Examine the changes since the last version, and update src/commands/CmdNews.cpp accordingly.
  There are instructions at the top of the file. This is typically only required for minor and major
  versions.
• Create a release PR
  • Update version in CMakeLists.txt
  • Update Changelog
  • get this merged
• On develop after that PR merges, create a release tarball:
  • git clone . release-tarball
  • cd release-tarball/
  • cmake -S. -Bbuild
  • make -Cbuild package_source
  • copy build/task-*.tar.gz elsewhere and delete the release-tarball dir
  • NOTE: older releases had a test-*.tar.gz but it's unclear how to generate this
• Update stable to the released commit and push upstream
• Tag the commit as vX.Y.Z and push the tag upstream
• Find the tag under https://github.com/GothenburgBitFactory/taskwarrior/tags and create a release from it
  • Give it a clever title if you can think of one; refer to previous releases
  • Include the tarball from earlier
• Update https://github.com/GothenburgBitFactory/tw.org (but see https://github.com/GothenburgBitFactory/tw.org/pull/1269)
  • Add a new item in content/news
  • Update data/projects.json with the latest version and a fake next version for "devel"
  • Update data/releases.json with the new version, linking to the GitHub release. Get the sha256 from the file you copied earlier.
• Update various things, in a new PR:
  • cargo update
  • git submodule update --remote --merge

File: doc/devel/contrib/rust-and-c++.md Copy Chapter

Rust and C++

Taskwarrior has historically been a C++ project, but as of taskwarrior-3.0.0, the storage backend is now provided by a Rust library called TaskChampion.

TaskChampion Copy Chapter

TaskChampion implements storage and access to "replicas" containing a user's tasks.
It defines an abstract model for this data, and also provides a simple Rust API for manipulating replicas.
It also defines a method of synchronizing replicas and provides an implementation of that method in the form of a sync server.

Other applications, besides Taskwarrior, can use TaskChampion to manage tasks.
Taskwarrior is just one application using the TaskChampion interface.

Taskwarrior's use of TaskChampion Copy Chapter

Taskwarrior's interface to TaskChampion is in src/taskchampion-cpp.
This links to taskchampion as a Rust dependency, and uses cxx to build a C++ API for it.
That API is defined, and documented, in src/taskchampion-cpp/src/lib.rs, and available in the tc namespace in C++ code.

File: doc/devel/rfcs/cli.md Copy Chapter

title: "Taskwarrior - Command Line Interface" Copy Chapter

Work in Progress Copy Chapter

This design document is a work in progress, and subject to change. Once finalized, the feature will be scheduled for an upcoming release.

CLI Syntax Update

The Taskwarrior command line syntax is being updated to allow more consistent and predictable results, while making room for new features.

Adding support for arbitrary expressions on the command line has become complicated because of the relaxed syntax of Taskwarrior. While the relaxed syntax allows for a very expressive command line, it also creates ambiguity for the parser, which needs to be reduced.

With some limited and careful changes it will be possible to have a clear and unambiguous command line syntax, which means a predictable and deterministic experience.

It should be stated that for straightforward and even current usage patterns, the command line will likely not change for you. Another goal is to not require changes to 3rd-party software, where possible. Only the more advanced and as-yet unintroduced features will require a more strict syntax. This is why now is an ideal time to tighten the requirements.

Argument Types Copy Chapter

The argument types supported remain the same, adding some new constructs.

• Config file override

  • rc:<file>

• Configuration override

  • rc:<name>:<value> Literal value
  • rc:<name>=<value> Literal value
  • rc:<name>:=<value> Calculated value

• Tag

  • +<tag>
  • -<tag>
  • '+tag one' Multi-word tag

• Attribute modifier

  • rc:<name>.<modifier>:<value>
  • Modifier is one of:
    • before
    • after
    • under
    • over
    • above
    • below
    • none
    • any
    • is
    • isnt
    • equals
    • not
    • contains
    • has
    • hasnt
    • left
    • right
    • startswith
    • endswith
    • word
    • noword

• Search pattern

  • //

• Substitution

  • /<from>/<to>/
  • /<from>/<to>/g

• Command

  • add
  • done
  • delete
  • list
  • etc.

• Separator

  • --

• ID Ranges

  • [-&ltid>][,[-&ltid>]...]

• UUID

  • ``

• Everything Else

  • <word>
  • '<word> <word> ...'

New Command Line Rules Copy Chapter

Certain command line constructs will no longer be supported, and this is imposed by the new rules:

1. Each command line argument may contain only one instance of one argument type, unless that type is <word>.

   text Copy

   task add project:Home +tag Repair the thing     # Good
   task add project:Home +tag 'Repair the thing'   # Good
   task add 'project:Home +tag Repair the thing'   # Bad

   Putting two arguments into one quoted arg makes that arg a <word>.

2. If an argument type contains spaces, it must either be quoted or escaped.

   text Copy

   task add project:'Home & Garden' ...    # Good
   task add 'project:Home & Garden' ...    # Good
   task add project:Home\ \&\ Garden ...   # Good
   task add project:Home' & 'Garden ...    # Good
   task add project:Home \& Garden ...     # Bad

   The parser will not combine multiple arguments, for example:

   text Copy

   task '/one two/' list   # Good
   task /one two/ list     # Bad
   task /'one two'/ list   # Bad, unless ' is part of the pattern

3. By default, no calculations are made, unless the := eval operator is used, and if so, the whole argument may need to be quoted or escaped to satisfy Rule 1.

   text Copy

   task add project:3.project+x         # Literal
   task add project:=3.project+x        # DOM reference + concatenation

4. Bare word search terms are no longer supported.
   Use the pattern type argument instead.

   text Copy

   task /foo/ list     # Good
   task foo list       # Bad

5. Expressions must be a series of arguments, not a quoted string.

   text Copy

   task urgency \< 5.0 list     # Good
   task 'urgency < 5.0 list'    # Bad

Other Changes Copy Chapter

Aside from the command line parser, there are other changes needed:

• Many online documents will need to be modified.

• Filters will be automatically parenthesized, so that every command line will now looke like:

  text Copy

  task [overrides] [(cli-filter)] [(context-filter)] [(report-filter)] command [modifications]

• There will be more errors when the command line is not understood.

• Ambiguous ISO date formats are dropped.

  text Copy

  YYYYMMDD     # Bad
  YYYY-MM-DD   # Good
  
  hhmmss       # Bad
  hh:mm:ss     # Good

• The tutorial videos will be even more out of date, and will be replaced by a large number of smaller demo 'movies'.

File: doc/devel/rfcs/client.md Copy Chapter

title: "Taskwarrior - Creating a Taskserver Client" Copy Chapter

Creating a Taskserver Client

A Taskserver client is a todo-list manager.
It may be as simple as a program that captures a single task, as complex as Taskwarrior, or anything in between.
It can be a mobile client, a web application, or any other type of program.

This document describes how such a client would interact with the server.

A client to the Taskserver is a program that manages a task list, and wishes to exchange data with the server so that the task list may be shared.

In order to do this, a client must store tasks locally, upload local changes, download remote changes, and apply remote changes to the local tasks.

The client must consider that there may be no network connectivity, or no desire by the user to synchronize.

The client will need proper credentials to talk to the server.

Requirements Copy Chapter

In this document, we adopt the convention discussed in Section 1.3.2 of RFC1122 of using the capitalized words MUST, REQUIRED, SHOULD, RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL to define the significance of each particular requirement specified in this document.

In brief: "MUST" (or "REQUIRED") means that the item is an absolute requirement of the specification; "SHOULD" (or "RECOMMENDED") means there may exist valid reasons for ignoring this item, but the full implications should be understood before doing so; and "MAY" (or "OPTIONAL") means that this item is optional, and may be omitted without careful consideration.

Taskserver Account Copy Chapter

A Taskserver account must be created.
This process creates a storage area, and generates the necessary credentials.

Credentials Copy Chapter

A Taskserver client needs the following credentials in order to communicate with a server:

• Server address and port
• Organization name
• User name
• Password
• Certificate
• Key

The server address and port are the network location of the server.
An example of this value is:

foo.example.com:53589

In addition to a DNS name, this can be an IPv4 or IPv6 address.

The organization name is an arbitrary grouping, and is typically 'PUBLIC', reflecting the individual nature of server accounts.
Future capabilities will provide functionality that support groups of users, called an organization.

The user name is the full name.
This will be the name used to identify other users in an organization, in a future release.
Example 'John Doe'.

The password is a text string generated by the server at account creation time.
It should be considered a secret.

The certificate is an X.509 PEM file generated by the server at account creation time.
This is used for authentication.
It should be considered a secret.

The key is an X.509 PEM file generated by the server at account creation time.
This is used for encryption.
It should be considered a secret.

These credentials need to be stored on the client, and used during the sync operation.

Description of a Taskserver Client Copy Chapter

This section describes how a client might behave in order to facilitate integration with the Taskserver.

Encryption Copy Chapter

The Taskserver only communicates using encryption.
Therefore all user data is encrypted while in transit.
The Taskserver currently uses GnuTLS to support this encryption, and therefore supports the following protocols:

• SSL 3.0
• TLS 1.0
• TLS 1.1
• TLS 1.2

The client may use any library that supports the above.

Configuration Copy Chapter

The client needs to store configuration, which matches the credentials needed for Taskserver communication.
See section 2.1 "Credentials".

The credentials may not be modified by the user without losing server access.

The server:port data may need to be changed automatically following a redirect response from the server.
See section 5 "Server Errors".

Local Storage Copy Chapter

The client needs to store task data locally.
The client will need to be able to find tasks by their UUID and overwrite them.
Uploaded and downloaded task changes will use the Taskwarrior Data Interchange Format.

Local Changes Copy Chapter

Whenever local data is modified, that change MUST be synced with the server.
But this does not have to occur immediately, in fact the client SHOULD NOT assume connectivity at any time.

A client SHOULD NOT also assume that the server is available.
If the server is not available, the local changes should be retained, and the sync operation repeated later.

Ideally the client will give the user full control over sync operations.
Automatically syncing after all local modifications is not recommended.
If a client performs too many sync operations, the server MAY revoke the certificate.

Effectively, the client should maintain a separate list of tasks changed since the last successful sync operation.

Note that tasks have a "modified" attribute, which should be updated whenever a change is made.
This attribute contributes to conflict resolution on the server.

Remote Changes Copy Chapter

When a server sends remote changes to a client, in the response to a sync request, the changes have already been merged by the server, and therefore the client should simply store them intact.

Based on the UUID in the task, the client can determine whether a task is new (and should be added to the local list of tasks), or whether it represents a modification (and should overwrite it's existing entry).

The client MUST NOT perform any merges.

Sync Key Copy Chapter

Whenever a sync is performed, the server responds by sending a sync key and any remote changes.
The sync key is important, and should be included in the next sync request.
The client is REQUIRED to store the sync key in every server response message.

If a client omits the sync key in a sync message, the response will be a complete set of all tasks and modifications.

Data Integrity Copy Chapter

Although a task is guaranteed to contain at least 'entry', 'description' and 'uuid' attributes, it may also contain other known fields, and unknown user-defined fields.
An example might be an attribute named 'estimate'.

If a task is received via sync that contains an attribute named 'estimate', then a client has the responsibility of preserving the attribute intact.
If that data is shown, then it is assumed to be of type 'string', which is the format used by JSON for all values.

Conversely, if a client wishes to add a custom attribute, it is guaranteed that the server and other clients will preserve that attribute.

Using this rule, two clients of differing capabilities can exchange data and still maintain custom attributes.

This is a requirement.
Any client that does not obey this requirement is broken.

Synchronizing Copy Chapter

Synchronizing with the Taskserver consists of a single transaction.
Once an encrypted connection is made with the server, the client MUST compose a sync request message.
This message includes credentials and local changes.
The response message contains status and remote changes, which MUST be stored locally.

Establishing Encrypted Connection Copy Chapter

All communication with the Taskserver is encrypted using the certificate and key provided to each user.
Using the 'server' configuration setting, establish a connection.

Sync Request Copy Chapter

See sync request message.
A sync request MUST contain a sync key if one was provided by a previous sync.
A sync request MUST contain a list of modified tasks, in JSON format (see Task JSON), if local modifications have been made.

Sync Response Copy Chapter

A sync response WILL contain a 'code' and 'status' header variable, WILL contain a sync key in the payload, and MAY contain a list of tasks from the server in JSON format (see Task JSON).

Server Messages Copy Chapter

There are cases when the server needs to inform the user of some condition.
This may be anticipated server downtime, for example.
The response message is typically not present, but may be present in the header, containing a string:

...
message: Scheduled maintenance 2013-07-14 08:00UTC for 10 minutes.
...

If such a message is returned by the server, it SHOULD be made available to the user.
This is a recommendation, not a requirement.

Server Errors Copy Chapter

The server may generate many errors (See Protocol), but the following is a list of the ones most in need of special handling:

• 200 Success
• 201 No change
• 301 Redirect
• 430 Access denied
• 431 Account suspended
• 432 Account terminated
• 5xx Error

The 200 indicates success, and that a change was recorded.
The 201 indicates success but no changes were necessary.
The 301 is a redirect message indicating that the client MUST re-request from a new server.
The 43x series messages are account-related.
Any 5xx series code is a server error of some kind.
All errors consist of a code and a status message:

code: 200
status: Success

Examples Copy Chapter

Here are examples of properly formatted request and response messages.
Note that the messages are indented for clarity in this document, but is not the case in a properly formatted message.
Also note that newline characters U+000D are not shown, but are implied by the separate lines.
Because some messages have trailing newline characters, the text is delimited by the 'cut' markers:

foo

The example above illustrates text consisting of:

U+0066   f
U+006F   o
U+006F   o
U+000D   newline
U+000D   newline

Note that these values are left unspecified, but should be clear from the context, and the message format spec:

<size>
<organization>

First Sync Copy Chapter

The first time a client syncs, there is (perhaps) no data to upload, and no sync key from a previous sync.

<size>type: sync
org: <organization>
user: 
key: 
client: task 2.3.0
protocol: v1

Note the double newline character separating header from payload, with an empty payload.

Request: Sync No Data Copy Chapter

Ordinarily when a client syncs, there is a sync key from the previous sync response to send.
This example shows a sync with no local changes, but a sync key from a previous sync.

<size>type: sync
org: <organization>
user: 
key: 
client: task 2.3.0
protocol: v1

2e4685f8-34bc-4f9b-b7ed-399388e182e1

Request: Sync Data Copy Chapter

This sync request shows a sync key from the previous sync, and a locally modified task.

<size>type: sync
org: <organization>
user: 
key: 
client: task 2.3.0
protocol: v1

2e4685f8-34bc-4f9b-b7ed-399388e182e1
{"description":"An example","uuid":"8ad2e3db-914d-4832-b0e6-72fa04f6e331",...}

Response: No Data Copy Chapter

If a sync results in no downloads to the client, the response will look like this.

<size>type: response
client: taskd 1.0.0
protocol: v1
code: 200
status: Ok

45da7110-1bcc-4318-d33e-12267a774e0f

Note that there is a sync key which must be stored and used in the next sync request, but there are no remote changes to store.

Response: Remote Data Copy Chapter

This shows a sync response providing a new sync key, and a remote change to two tasks.

<size>type: response
client: taskd 1.0.0
protocol: v1
code: 200
status: Ok

45da7110-1bcc-4318-d33e-12267a774e0f
{"description":"Test data","uuid":"8ad2e3db-914d-4832-b0e6-72fa04f6e331",...}
{"description":"Test data2","uuid":"3b6218f9-726a-44fc-aa63-889ff52be442",...}

Note that the sync key must be stored for the next sync request.

Note that the two changed tasks must be stored locally, and if the UUID in the tasks matches local tasks, then the local tasks must be overwritten.

Response: Error Copy Chapter

<size>type: response
client: taskd 1.0.0
protocol: v1
code: 431
status: Account suspended

Note the double newline character separating header from payload, with an empty payload.

Response: Relocate Copy Chapter

<size>type: response
client: taskd 1.0.0
protocol: v1
code: 301
status: Redirect
info:

Note the 'info' field will contain a ':' string that should be used for all future sync requests.
This indicates that a user account was moved to another server.

Note the double newline character separating header from payload, with an empty payload.

Response: Message Copy Chapter

Occasionally the server will need to convey a message, and will include an additional header variable containing that message.

The server protocol states that the message SHOULD be shown to the user.
This message will be used for system event messages, used rarely, and never used for advertising or promotion.

<size>type: response
client: taskd 1.0.0
protocol: v1
code: 200
status: Ok
message: Scheduled maintenance 2013-07-14 08:00UTC for 10 minutes.

45da7110-1bcc-4318-d33e-12267a774e0f

Note that the same message will likely be included in consecutive responses.

Reference Implementation Copy Chapter

The Taskserver 1.1.0 codebase contains a reference implementation of an SSL/TLS client and server program, which communicate text strings.

taskd.git/src/tls/Makefile             # To build the example
taskd.git/src/tls/README               # How to run the example
taskd.git/src/tls/TLSClient.cpp        # TLS client code
taskd.git/src/tls/TLSClient.h
taskd.git/src/tls/TLSServer.cpp        # TLS Server code
taskd.git/src/tls/TLSServer.h
taskd.git/src/tls/c.cpp                # Client program
taskd.git/src/tls/s.cpp                # Server program
taskd.git/src/tls/text.cpp             # Text manipulation
taskd.git/src/tls/text.h               # Text manipulation

The Taskwarrior codebase, version 2.4.0, is the reference implementation.

task.git/src/TLSClient.cpp             # TLS client code
task.git/src/TLSClient.h
task.git/src/commands/CmdSync.cpp      # Sync implementation
task.git/src/commands/CmdSync.h

2. Official Technical Reference & Guides (GothenburgBitFactory/tw.org) Copy Chapter

File: README.md Copy Chapter

taskwarrior.org Site Repository

This repository contains the content of taskwarrior.org, the website for the Taskwarrior project.

Contributing Copy Chapter

To clone this repository, run

git clone https://github.com/GothenburgBitFactory/tw.org

For minor changes, it is perfectly fine to simply change the relevant Markdown files and make a pull request.

For more complex changes, here is how to build the documentation locally:

1. Install hugo.
2. Run
   shell Copy

   hugo server -D -w

   This defaults to running a web server on http://localhost:1313.
   If you are running on an external host, try
   shell Copy

   hugo server -D -w --bind 0.0.0.0 -b http://<hostname>

Updating Taskwarrior Versions Copy Chapter

To record a new release of Taskwarrior, run bin/tw-release vX.Y.Z and make a PR for the result.

File: content/docs/commands/_get.md Copy Chapter

title: "Taskwarrior - _get" Copy Chapter

_get

The _get command is a DOM accessor.
You can use this command to extract any piece of information stored by taskwarrior.
For example to obtain the description of task 12:

$ task _get 12.description
Buy some milk

You can specify multiple data items:

$ task _get 12.description 12.project
Buy some milk Kitchen

You can use UUIDs:

$ task _get a360fc44-315c-4366-b70c-ea7e7520b749.description
Buy some milk

The _get command makes it easy to map between ID and UUID:

$ task _get 12.uuid
a360fc44-315c-4366-b70c-ea7e7520b749
$ task _get a360fc44-315c-4366-b70c-ea7e7520b749.id
12

The _get command is a helper command, which means it is more useful for scripts and extensions than command line use.

See Also

• DOM
• export command

File: content/docs/commands/_index.md Copy Chapter

title: "Taskwarrior - What's next?" layout: single Copy Chapter

Commands

Commands Copy Chapter

Here are the commands alphabetically.
Version-specific features are labelled with the version in which they were first available.

• add - Add a new task
• annotate - Add an annotation to a task
• append - Append words to a task description
• calc {{< label >}}2.4.0{{< /label >}} - Expression calculator
• config - Modify configuration settings
• context - Manage contexts
• count - Count the tasks matching a filter
• delete - Mark a task as deleted
• denotate - Remove an annotation from a task
• done - Complete a task
• duplicate - Clone an existing task
• edit - Launch your text editor to modify a task
• execute - Execute an external command
• export - Export tasks in JSON format
• help - Show high-level help, a cheat-sheet
• import - Import tasks in JSON form
• log - Record an already-completed task
• logo - Show the Taskwarrior logo
• modify - Modify one or more tasks
• prepend - Prepend words to a task description
• purge {{< label >}}2.6.0{{< /label >}} - Completely removes tasks, rather than change status to deleted
• start - Start working on a task, make active
• stop - Stop working on a task, no longer active
• synchronize - Syncs tasks with other instances
• undo - Revert last change
• version - Version details and copyright

Customizable Reports Copy Chapter

Customizable reports can be modified to suit your needs.
They all work in same manner, and mostly differ by the columns shown, the filter applied, and the sorting performed.

Because all the customizable reports work in the same way, the list report is the only report discussed.

• active - Started tasks
• all - Pending, completed and deleted tasks
• blocked - Tasks that are blocked by other tasks
• blocking - Tasks that block other tasks
• completed - Tasks that have been completed
• list - Pending tasks
• long - Pending tasks, long form
• ls - Pending tasks, short form
• minimal - Pending tasks, minimal form
• newest - Most recent pending tasks
• next - Most urgent tasks
• oldest - Oldest pending tasks
• overdue - Overdue tasks
• ready - Pending, unblocked, scheduled tasks
• recurring - Pending recurring tasks
• unblocked - Tasks that are not blocked
• waiting - Hidden, waiting tasks

Fixed Reports Copy Chapter

The fixed reports have minimal customization, typically only color.

• burndown.daily - Burndown chart, by day
• burndown.monthly - Burndown chart, by month
• burndown.weekly - Burndown chart, by week
• calendar - Calendar and holidays
• colors - Demonstrates all supported colors
• columns - List of report columns and supported formats
• commands {{< label >}}2.5.0{{< /label >}} - List of commands, with their behaviors
• diagnostics - Show diagnostics, for troubleshooting
• ghistory.annual - History graph, by year
• ghistory.monthly - History graph, by month
• ghistory.weekly {{< label >}}2.6.0{{< /label >}} - History graph, by week
• ghistory.daily {{< label >}}2.6.0{{< /label >}} - History graph, by day
• history.annual - History report, by year
• history.monthly {{< label >}}2.6.0{{< /label >}} - History report, by month
• history.weekly {{< label >}}2.6.0{{< /label >}} - History report, by week
• history.daily - History report, by day
• ids - Filtered list of task IDs
• information - All attributes shown
• projects - Filtered list of projects, with task counts
• reports - List of available reports
• show - Filtered list of configuration settings
• stats - Filtered statistics
• summary - Filtered project summary
• tags - Filtered list of tags
• timesheet - Weekly timesheet report
• udas - Details of all defined UDAs
• uuids - Filtered list of UUIDs

Helper Commands Copy Chapter

Helper commands all begin with an underscore, and they exist to provide support for third party add-ons, such as shell completion scripts.

Helper commands generate no extraneous output, and are therefore easy to parse.
Helper commands are not intended for regular use, but there is no reason for that to stop you.

• _aliases - List of active aliases
• _columns - List of supported columns
• _commands - List of supported commands
• _config - List of configuration setting names
• _context - List of defined context names
• _get - DOM accessor
• _ids - Filtered list of task IDs
• _projects - Filtered list of project names
• _show - List of name=value configuration settings
• _tags - Filtered list of tags in use
• _udas - List of configured UDA names
• _unique - {{< label >}}2.5.0{{< /label >}} List of unique values for the specified attribute
• _urgency - Filtered list of task urgencies
• _uuids - Filtered list of pending UUIDs
• _version - Task version (and optional git commit)
• _zshattributes - Zsh formatted task attribute list
• _zshcommands - Zsh formatted command list
• _zshids - Zsh formatted ID list
• _zshuuids - Zsh formatted UUID list

File: content/docs/commands/_unique.md Copy Chapter

title: "Taskwarrior - _unique" Copy Chapter

_unique

The _unique command generates a filtered list of unique values for a given attribute.
For example, to generate the list project names:

$ task _unique project
Home
Home.Garden
Work

In addition to project, any attribute can be specified, for example, task status:

$ task _unique status
pending
deleted
completed

There

Filters Copy Chapter

You can specify a filter, to consider a subset of tasks, for example, here we see that the Home.Garden project has only pending tasks:

$ task project:Home.Garden _unique status
pending

Limitations Copy Chapter

• Date attributes are presented in raw epoch form.
  This is a helper command, after all.

See Also Copy Chapter

Other ways of generating unique lists include:

• _aliases command
• _config command
• _context command
• _ids command
• _projects command
• _show command
• _tags command
• _udas command
• _uuids command

File: content/docs/commands/add.md Copy Chapter

title: "Taskwarrior - Add Command" Copy Chapter

add

The add command is the primary means of creating tasks.
The simplest task requires only a description:

$ task add Fix the leaky plumbing

You can enter the description as above, just by including the words as command line arguments.
You can also provide quoted strings:

$ task add "Don't forget to shut off the main water valve first"

In this example the double-quotes hide the single unclosed quote in "Don't".

You can also enter multi-line descriptions using quoted strings:

$ task add "Five syllables here
Seven more syllables there
Are you happy now?"

It is a good idea to quote task descriptions to avoid some problems with the shell, although not necessary.
The (outer) quotes are not considered part of the description, in fact Taskwarrior never sees them because the shell removes them first.
Dealing with shell issues is covered in detail in the Escaping Shell Characters page.

Other Attributes Copy Chapter

In addition to a description, other attributes may be provided in the following manner:

$ task add Find the adjustable wrench project:Home priority:H

This example sets a project and a priority, to a new task.
Note that the order of the words in the task description are preserved, but there is no need to put the project and priority at the end of the command - they may appear anywhere on the line.
Here are two equivalent commands to illustrate this:

$ task add Find the project:Home adjustable priority:H wrench
$ task add project:Home priority:H Find the adjustable wrench

In addition to project and priority, you may set the entry timestamp, start timestamp, due date, tags, recurrence frequency, until date, and status.
You cannot add annotations while creating a task because it interferes with the task description.
You may specify anything else except the ID and UUID.
These are created automatically.

Limitations Copy Chapter

• There is no way to simultaneously add a task and annotate it.
  Annotations must be applied to existing tasks.

See Also Copy Chapter

Other ways of creating tasks include:

• log command
• duplicate command
• import command

File: content/docs/commands/append.md Copy Chapter

title: "Taskwarrior - Append Command" Copy Chapter

append

The append command is a way to add words to the end of a task description:

$ task add Fix plumbing
$ task 1 append before the house floods

While adding words to the end of the description, the append command can also update other attributes:

$ task 1 append and before winter project:Home +repair
$ task 1 list

ID Age  Project Tags   Description                                            Urg
-- ---- ------- ------ ------------------------------------------------------ ----
 1 4min Home    repair Fix plumbing before the house floods and before winter  1.8

See Also Copy Chapter

Other ways of modifying task descriptions include:

• modify command
• prepend command

File: content/docs/commands/burndown.md Copy Chapter

title: "Taskwarrior - Burndown Command" Copy Chapter

burndown.weekly (or .daily or .monthly)

The burndown command shows a chart that depicts the number of pending, active and completed tasks over different time periods.

This report makes it easy to gauge progress on a project, if a project is specified in the filter.
With a filter, you can see the chart for any set of tasks.

Alias Copy Chapter

There is an alias specified, by default, named burndown that expands to burndown.weekly.
This could be overridden to show either burndown.monthly or burndown.daily reports instead.

Convergence Copy Chapter

The burndown report tries to predict when the tasks matching the filter will all be completed.
With version {{< label >}}2.5.1{{< /label >}} the following approach is used:

The filtered tasks are scanned to see if a peak number of pending tasks exists.
If the peak number of pending tasks is any time in the last three days, then more tasks are being added than are being completed.
In this case, it is not possible to predict when that will change, and therefore when the tasks will all be completed.

In the case where a peak has occurred more than three days ago, and the number of pending tasks has been dropping since, a net fix rate can be determined, which is the average number of tasks completed per day.
This rate is shown on the chart.

If a net fix rate is known, then it can be determined how long it might take to complete all the remaining matching tasks.
This duration is added to the current date, and a predicted completion date can be calculated.
This date is shown on the chart.

This approach is based on a common pattern, which is that projects tend to move from a planning phase to an execution phase.
This simply means that tasks tend to be created earlier in the process, and completed later in the process.
This tends to create a peak number of pending tasks.

With the convergence date based on a recent completion rate and count, the estimated completion date is just an estimate, and it's accuracy is unknown, but is related to consistency in the size of tasks, consistency in your time spent completing tasks.
A more sophisticated approach such as Evidence-Based Scheduling (EBS) would take into consideration estimates, actual time, and your task history.

In earlier releases, the convergence algorithm tried too hard and got it wrong too often.
Let's not mention that.

See Also Copy Chapter

Related topics include:

• history command

File: content/docs/commands/calc.md Copy Chapter

title: "Taskwarrior - Calc Command" Copy Chapter

calc

Taskwarrior has a calc command that exposes the algebraic expression evaluator used by all other commands and filters.
This is handy for quick calculations from the command line, but combined with DOM access, can be very useful.

Numbers Copy Chapter

This can be used to perform basic mathematics using the +, -, * and /
operators:

$ task calc 1+2*3
7

In the above example, care was taken to not allow that * operator to be expanded by the shell into a list of file in the current directory.
The best solution to this is to simply quote the expression.

In addition to integers, you can use real numbers and scientific notation:

$ task calc '1.23e-4.5 ^ 2'
1.5129e-8

In addition to exponentiation, ^, there is the % modulus operator.

Boolean Copy Chapter

The and, or, xor, ==, !==, =, !=, !, ~, !~, <=, <, >=, and > operators allow Boolean expressions:

$ task calc true and false
false
$ calc true or false
true
$ calc true xor true
false
$ calc '1 < 2 and -1 < 0'
true

A number can be converted to a Boolean value with a double negative:

$ task calc '!!3'
true

Otherwise, type conversions are automatic.

Text Copy Chapter

Text, or strings, can be manipulated in more limited ways, for example there is concatenation:

$ task calc foo + bar
foobar

Multiplication is supported in the form of replication:

$ task calc 'x * 40'
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

There is support for regular expressions, using the ~ match and !~ no-match operator:

$ task calc 'foo ~ f'
true
$ task calc 'foo !~ z'
true
$ task calc '"The quick brown fox" ~ "q"'
true

Again, you'll need to protect the ~ and !~ characters from interpretation by the shell, and in the last example, to protect the spaces in the sentence.

Dates Copy Chapter

With date support, basic date synonyms like now, today, yesterday and tomorrow are supported:

$ task calc now
2014-06-28T12:44:07
$ task calc today
2014-06-28T00:00:00

Dates can be added, subtracted and compared, and combined with durations:

$ task calc tomorrow + 2 weeks - 1d
2014-07-12T00:00:00

The expression evaluator understand ISO-8601 date formats, and in fact supports over 40 of them.
For example when does week 40 start in 2014?

$ task calc 2014W40
2014-09-28T00:00:00

When is the FIFA World Cup final, which starts at 4pm in Brasil local time, shown in the EST (local) time zone?

$ task calc 2014-07-13T16:00:00-03:00
2014-07-13T15:00:00

Durations Copy Chapter

A duration is either the difference between dates, or a specified interval.
Durations can be summed:

$ task calc 12h + 25m +30s
PT12H25mPT30S

Subtracting dates yields a duration, here answering the question of how much time is there between the end of this month (June 2014) and the end of the year:

$ task calc eoy-eom
P184DT1H

Note that the '1H' corresponds to the extra hour gained when summer time ends.

When does the 32-bit time_t problem (Unix Epoch, Y2K38) arrive?

$ task calc later-now
P23Y209DT11H55M11S

Looks like we have 23 years to deal with that.
More importantly though, how long until the FIFA World Cup final?

$ task calc 2014-07-13T15:00:00-03:00 - now
P15DT1H11M46S

Durations are shown using the ISO-8601 designated format, using only precise units, that is, not in years or months.

DOM Access Copy Chapter

The expression evaluator has access to the Taskwarrior DOM, which is a complete source of task information.
This information can be accessed and used in an expression using regular Taskwarrior DOM references:

$ task calc '1.urgency > 2.urgency'
false

Because of DOM access, the calc command can mimic the _get helper command.
In what year did I enter task 100?

$ task calc 100.entry.year
2012

What week was that?

$ task calc 100.entry.week
30

Calc Utility Copy Chapter

Taskwarrior has a standalone calc utility that has the same features, except for DOM access.
This utility is used for testing, but has a few interesting features of its own.

Calc Postfix Copy Chapter

Internally, the expression evaluator converts infix expressions (1 + 2 * 3) to postfix (1 2 3 * +), which is easier to implement and optimize, but calc exposes this:

$ calc --postfix '1 2 3 * +'
7

Calc Debugging Copy Chapter

There is also support for a --debug command line option, which displays the stack operations as the expression is evaluated in postfix form.

$ calc --postfix --debug '1 2 3 * +'
[0] eval push '1'
[1] eval push '2'
[2] eval push '3'
[3] eval pop '3'
[2] eval pop '2'
[1] eval operator '*'
[1] eval result push '6'
[2] eval pop '6'
[1] eval pop '1'
[0] eval operator '+'
[0] eval result push '7'
7

You can see that the processing begins by pushing the three values on to the stack, then two are popped when the * binary operator is encountered.
The two value are multiplied, and the result, 6 is pushed back.

Next the + binary operator is encountered, which pops two values off the stack, the sum, 7, is pushed back.

The number in brackets is the stack size before the operation is performed.

If there is a problem found with the Taskwarrior expression evaluator, it can be verified and tested in this way, using the calc utility.

File: content/docs/commands/columns.md Copy Chapter

title: "Taskwarrior - Columns Command" Copy Chapter

columns

The columns command shows a list of all the supported columns available for inclusion in a custom report.
Each column may have multiple formats, and there are examples shown of each of those formats.

As an example, a due date can be shown in various ways.
It can be formatted according to the dateformat configuration setting.
It can also be shown as a Julian date, a POSIX epoch, in ISO-8601 format, as an 'age' value or as a 'countdown' value.

Each column has a default format, so if the custom report specifies:

report.my_list.columns=...,due,...

Then the default format is used.
Other formats can be used like this:

report.my_list.columns=...,due.iso,...

Here is sample output for the columns command:

/* Detailed source-code truncated for AI context efficiency. */

File: content/docs/commands/count.md Copy Chapter

title: "Taskwarrior - Count Command" Copy Chapter

count

The count command simply counts tasks:

$ task count
249

By default, all tasks are counted, which includes completed, deleted and pending.
If you want to count just the pending tasks, add a filter:

$ task status:pending count
32

If a context is active, the count command obeys it.

See Also Copy Chapter

Other ways of counting tasks include:

• _unique command