taskwarrior/doc/man/taskrc.5

.TH taskrc 5 2010-01-03 "task 1.9.0" "User Manuals"

.SH NAME
taskrc \- Configuration file for the task(1) command

.SH SYNOPSIS
.B $HOME/.taskrc
.br
.B task rc:<directory-path>/.taskrc

.SH DESCRIPTION
.B task
obtains its configuration data from a file called
.I .taskrc
\&. This file is normally located in the user's home directory:

.RS
$HOME/.taskrc
.RE

The default location can be overridden using the
.I rc:
attribute when running task:

.RS
$ task rc:<directory-path>/.taskrc
.RE

Individual option can be overridden by using the
.I rc.<name>: 
attribute when running task:

.RS
$ task rc.<name>:<value> ...
.RE

If
.B task
is run without an existing configuration file it will ask if it should create a default, sample
.I .taskrc
file in the user's home directory.

The task configuration file consists of a series of "assignments" in each line. The "assignments" have the syntax:

.RS
<name-of-configuration-variable>=<value-to-be-set>
.RE

where:
.RS
.TP
<name-of-configuration-variable>
is one of the variables described below

.TP
<value-to-be-set>
is the value the variable is to be set to.
.RE

and set a configuration variable to a certain value. The equal sign ("=") is used to separate the variable
name from the value to be set.

The hash mark, or pound sign ("#") is used as a "comment" character. It can be used to annotate the
configuration file. All text after the character to the end of the line is ignored.

.SH CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
Valid variable names and their default values are:

.SS FILES

.TP
.B data.location=$HOME/.task
This is a path to the directory containing all the task files. By default, it is set up to be ~/.task,
for example: /home/paul/.task

.TP
.B locking=on
Determines whether task uses file locking when accessing the pending.data and completed.data files.
Default to "on". Solaris users who store the task data files on an NFS mount may need to set locking
to "off". Note that setting this value to "off" is dangerous. It means that another program may write
to the task.pending file when task is attempting to do the same.

.SS TERMINAL
.TP
.B curses=on
Determines whether task uses ncurses to establish the size of the window you are
using, for text wrapping.

.TP
.B defaultwidth=80
The width of tables used when ncurses support is not available. Defaults to 80.

.TP
.B editor=vi
Specifies which text editor you wish to use for when the
.B task edit <ID>
command is used. Task will first look for this configuration variable. If found, it is used.
Otherwise task will look for the $VISUAL or $EDITOR environment variables, before it defaults
to using "vi".

.SS MISCELLANEOUS

.TP
.B locale=en-US
The locale is a combination of ISO 639-1 language code and ISO 3166 country
code.  If not specified, task will assume en-US.  If specified, task will locate
the correct file of localized strings and proceed.  It is an error to specify a
locale for which there is no strings file.

.TP
.B confirmation=yes
May be "yes" or "no", and determines whether task will ask for confirmation before deleting a task or doing bulk changes.

.TP
.B echo.command=yes
May be "yes" or "no", and causes task to display the ID and description of any task when you run the start, stop, do, undo or delete commands. The default value is "yes". 

.TP
.B annotations=full
.TP
.B report.X.annotations=full
Controls the output of annotations in reports. Defaults to full - all annotations are displayed. Set to "sparse" only the last (youngest) annotation is displayed and if there are more than one present for a task a "+" sign is added to the description. Set to "none" the output of annotations is disabled and a "+" sign will be added if there are any annotations present.

.TP
.B next=2
Is a number, defaulting to 2, which is the number of tasks for each project that are shown in the 
.B task next
command.

.TP
.B bulk=2
Is a number, defaulting to 2.  When more than this number of tasks are modified in a single command, confirmation will be required, unless the
.B confirmation
variable is "no".

.TP
.B nag=You have higher priority tasks.
This may be a string of text, or blank. It is used as a prompt when a task is completed
that is not considered high priority. The "task next" command lists important tasks, and
completing one of those does not generate this nagging. Default value is: You have higher
priority tasks.

.TP
.B complete.all.projects=yes
May be yes or no, and determines whether the tab completion scripts consider all the
project names you have used, or just the ones used in active tasks.

.TP
.B complete.all.tags=yes
May be yes or no, and determines whether the tab completion scripts consider all the
tag names you have used, or just the ones used in active tasks.

.SS DATES

.TP
.B dateformat=m/d/Y
.TP
.B dateformat.report=m/d/Y
.TP
.B dateformat.holiday=YMD
.TP
.B report.X.dateformat=m/d/Y
This is a string of characters that define how task formats dates. The precedence order
for the configuration variable is report.X.dateformat then reportdateformat then dateformat.
While report.X.dateformat only formats the due date in reports, does reportdateformat format
the due date both in reports and "task info". If both of these are not set then dateformat
will be applied to the due date. Input dates as well as all other dates in reports are formatted
according to dateformat.

The default value is: m/d/Y.  The string should contain the characters

.RS
.RS
m  minimal-digit month,   for example 1 or 12
.br
d  minimal-digit day,     for example 1 or 30
.br
y  two-digit year,        for example 09
.br
D  two-digit day,         for example 01 or 30
.br
M  two-digit month,       for example 01 or 12
.br
Y  four-digit year,       for example 2009
.br
a  short name of weekday, for example Mon or Wed
.br
A  long name of weekday,  for example Monday or Wednesday
.br
b  short name of month,   for example Jan or Aug
.br
B  long name of month,    for example January or August
.br
V  weeknumber,            for example 03 or 37
.RE
.RE

.RS
The string may also contain other characters to act as spacers, or formatting. Examples for other
values of dateformat:
.RE

.RS
.RS
.br
d/m/Y  would use for input and output 24/7/2009
.br
yMD    would use for input and output 090724
.br
M-D-Y  would use for input and output 07-24-2009
.RE
.RE

.RS
Examples for other values of reportdateformat:
.RE

.RS
.RS
.br
a D b Y (V)  would do an output as "Fri 24 Jul 2009 (30)"
.br
A, B D, Y    would do an output as "Friday, July 24, 2009"
.br
vV a Y-M-D   would do an output as "v30 Fri 2009-07.24"
.RE
.RE

.TP
.B weekstart=Sunday
Determines the day a week starts. Valid values are Sunday or Monday only.

.TP
.B displayweeknumber=yes
Determines if week numbers are displayed when using the "task calendar" command.
The week number is dependent on the day a week starts.

.TP
.B due=7
This is the number of days into the future that define when a task is considered due,
and is colored accordingly. Defaults to 7.

.TP
.B calendar.details=sparse
If set to full running "task calendar" will display the details of tasks with due dates
that fall into the calendar period. The corresponding days will be color-coded in the
calendar. If set to sparse only the corresponding days will be color coded and no details
will be displayed. The displaying of due dates with details is turned off by setting the
variable to none.

.TP
.B calendar.details.report=list
The report to run when displaying the details of tasks with due date when running the
"task calendar" command.

.TP
.B calendar.holidays=full
If set to full running "task calendar" will display holidays in the calendar by color-coding
the corresponding days. A detailed list with the dates and names of the holidays is also shown.
If set to sparse only the days are color-coded and no details on the holidays will be
displayed. The displaying of holidays is turned off by setting the variable to none.

.TP
.B Holidays
Holidays are entered either directly in the .taskrc file or via an include file that is specified
in .taskrc. For each holiday the name and the date is required to be given:

.RS
.RS
.br
holiday.towel.name=Day of the towel
.br
holiday.towel.date=20100525
.br
holiday.sysadmin.name=System Administrator Appreciation Day
.br
holiday.sysadmin.date=20100730
.RE
.RE

.RS
Dates are to be entered according to the setting in the dateformat.holiday variable.
.RE

.TP
.B monthsperline=2
Determines how many months the "task calendar" command renders across the screen.
Defaults to however many will fit. If more months that will fit are specified,
task will only show as many that will fit.

.SS COLOR CONTROLS

.TP
.B color=on
May be "on" or "off". Determines whether task uses color. When "off", task will
use dashes (-----) to underline column headings.

.TP
.B fontunderline=on
Determines if font underlines or ASCII dashes should be used to underline
headers.

Task has a number of coloration rules. They correspond to a particular attribute
of a task, such as it being due, or being active, and specifies the automatic
coloring of that task. A list of valid color, depending on your terminal, can be
obtained by running the command

.RS
.B task color
.RE

.RS
The coloration rules and their defaults are:
.RE

.RS
.RS
.B color.overdue=bold_red
The color for overdue tasks.
.br
.B color.due=bold_yellow
The color of due tasks.
.br
.B color.pri.H=bold
The color of priority:H tasks.
.br
.B color.pri.M=on_yellow
The color of priority:M tasks.
.br
.B color.pri.L=on_green
The color of priority:L tasks.
.br
.B color.pri.none=white on_blue
The color of priority: tasks.
.br
.B color.active=bold_cyan
The color of active tasks.
.br
.B color.tagged=yellow
The color of tagged tasks.
.br
.B color.recurring=on_red
The color for recurring tasks.
.RE
.RE

.RS
The value for the coloration rules may be one optional foreground color and one optional
color. For example, the value may be
.RE

.RS
.RS
bold_red on_bright_yellow
.RE
.RE

.RS
Certain attributes like tags, projects and keywords can also have their own coloration rules.
.RE

.RS
.TP
.B color.tag.X=yellow
Colors any task that has the tag X.

.TP
.B color.project.X=on_green
Colors any task assigned to project X.

.TP
.B color.keyword.X=on_blue
Colors any task where the description contains X.

.TP
.B color.header=green
Colors any of the messages printed prior to the report output.

.TP
.B color.message=green
Colors any of the messages printed after the report output.

.TP
.B color.footnote=green
Colors any of the messages printed last.

.TP
.B color.calendar.today=black on cyan
Color of today in calendar.

.TP
.B color.calendar.due=black on green
Color of days with due tasks in calendar.

.TP
.B color.calendar.overdue=black on red
Color of days with overdue tasks in calendar.

.TP
.B color.calendar.weekend=bright white on black
Color of weekend days in calendar.

.TP
.B color.calendar.holiday=black on bright yellow
Color of holidays in calendar.

.TP
.B color.calendar.weeknumber=black on white
Color of weeknumbers in calendar.
.RE

.SS SHADOW FILE

.TP
.B
shadow.file=$HOME/.task/shadow.txt
If specified, designates a file path that will be automatically written to by task,
whenever the task database changes. In other words, it is automatically kept up to date.
The shadow.command configuration variable is used to determine which report is written
to the shadow file. There is no color used in the shadow file. This feature can be useful
in maintaining a current file for use by programs like GeekTool, Conky or Samurize.

.TP
.B
shadow.command=list
This is the command that is run to maintain the shadow file, determined by the
.I shadow.file
configuration variable. The format is identical to that of
.I default.command
\&. Please see the corresponding documentation for that command.

.TP
.B
shadow.notify=on
When this value is set to "on", task will display a message whenever the shadow
file is updated by some task command.

.SS DEFAULTS

.TP
.B
default.project=foo
Provides a default project name for the
.I task add
command.

.TP
.B
default.priority=M
Provides a default priority for the
.I task add
command.

.TP
.B
default.command=list
Provides a default command that is run every time task is invoked with no arguments.
For example, if set to:

.RS
.RS
default.command=list project:foo
.RE
.RE

.RS
then task will run the "list project:foo" command if no command is specified. This means that
by merely typing
.RE

.RS
.RS
$ task
.br
[task list project:foo]
.br
\&
.br
ID Project Pri Description
 1 foo     H   Design foo
 2 foo         Build foo
.RE
.RE

.SS REPORTS

The reports can be customized by using the following configuration variables.
The output columns, their labels and the sort order can be set using the
corresponding variables for each report. Each report name is used as a
"command" name. For example

.TP
.B task overdue

.TP
.B report.X.description
The description for report X when running the "task help" command.

.TP
.B report.X.columns
The columns that will be used when generating the report X. Valid columns are:
id, uuid, project, priority, entry, start, due, recur, recur_indicator, age,
age_compact, active, tags, tag_indicator, description, description_only.
The IDs are separated by commas.

.TP
.B report.X.labels
The labels for each column that will be used when generating report X. The labels
are a comma separated list.

.TP
.B report.X.sort
The sort order of the tasks in the generated report X. The sort order is specified
by using the column ids post-fixed by a "+" for ascending sort order or a "-" for
descending sort order. The sort IDs are separated by commas

.TP
.B report.X.filter
This adds a filter to the report X so that only tasks matching the filter criteria
are displayed in the generated report.

.TP
.B report.X.dateformat
This adds a dateformat to the report X that will be used by the "due date" column. If
it is not set then reportdateformat and dateformat will be used in this order. See the
.B DATES
section for details on the sequence placeholders.

.TP
.B report.X.annotations
GThis adds the possibility to control the output of annotations for a task in a report. See
the
.B annotations
variable for details on the possible values.

.TP
.B report.X.limit
An optional value to a report limiting the number of displayed tasks in the
generated report.

.TP
Task comes with a number of predefined reports in its default configuration file. These reports are:

.TP
.B long
Lists all task, all data, matching the specified criteria.

.TP
.B list
Lists all tasks matching the specified criteria.

.TP
.B ls
Minimal listing of all tasks matching the specified criteria.

.TP
.B newest
Shows the newest tasks.

.TP
.B oldest
Shows the oldest tasks.

.TP
.B overdue
Lists overdue tasks matching the specified criteria.

.TP
.B active
Lists active tasks matching the specified criteria.

.TP
.B completed
Lists completed tasks matching the specified criteria.

.TP
.B recurring
Lists recurring tasks matching the specified criteria.

.TP
.B waiting
Lists all waiting tasks matching the specified criteria.

.TP
.B all
Lists all tasks matching the specified criteria.

.TP
.B next
Lists all tasks with upcoming due dates matching the specified criteria.

.SH "CREDITS & COPYRIGHTS"
task was written by P. Beckingham <paul@beckingham.net>.
.br
Copyright (C) 2006 \- 2010 P. Beckingham

This man page was originally written by Federico Hernandez.

task is distributed under the GNU General Public License.  See
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.txt for more information.

.SH SEE ALSO
.BR task(1),
.BR task-tutorial(5),
.BR task-faq(5)
.BR task-color(5)

For more information regarding task, the following may be referenced:

.TP
The official site at
<http://taskwarrior.org>

.TP
The official code repository at
<git://tasktools.org/task.git/>

.TP
You can contact the project by writing an email to
<support@taskwarrior.org>

.SH REPORTING BUGS
.TP
Bugs in task may be reported to the issue-tracker at
<http://taskwarrior.org>