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taskwarrior/doc/man/task.1.in
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.TH task 1 2011-03-03 "${PACKAGE_STRING}" "User Manuals"
.SH NAME
task \- A command line todo manager.
NOTE THAT THIS DOCUMENT HAS NOT BEEN FULLY UPDATED FOR THE 2.0 RELEASE.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B task <filter> <command> [ <mods> | <args> ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
Taskwarrior is a command line todo list manager. It maintains a list of tasks
that you want to do, allowing you to add/remove, and otherwise manipulate them.
Taskwarrior has a rich set of subcommands that allow you to do various things
with it.
At the core, taskwarrior is a list processing program. You add text and
additional related parameters and redisplay the information in a nice way. It
turns into a todo list program when you add due dates and recurrence. It turns
into an organized todo list program when you add priorities, tags (one word
descriptors), project groups, etc. Taskwarrior turns into an organized to do
list program when you modify the configuration file to have the output displayed
the way you want to see it.
.SH FILTER
The <filter> consists of zero or more search criteria to select. For example,
to list all tasks belonging to the 'Home' project:
task project:Home list
You can specify multiple filters, each of which further restrict the results:
task project:Home +weekend garden list
This example applies three filters: the 'Home' project, the 'weekend' tag, and
the description or annotations must contain the characters 'garden'. In this
example, 'garden' is translated internally to:
description.contains:garden
as a convenient shortcut. The 'contains' here is an attribute modifier, which
is used to exert more control over the filter than simply absence or presence.
See 'ATTRIBUTE MODIFIERS' for a complete list of modifiers.
More filter examples:
task <command> <mods>
task 28 <command> <mods>
task +weekend <command> <mods>
task project:Home due.before:today <command> <mods>
task ebeeab00-ccf8-464b-8b58-f7f2d606edfb <command> <mods>
By default, filter elements are combined with an implicit 'and' operator,
but 'or' and 'xor' may also be used, provided parentheses are included:
task '(/[Cc]at|[Dd]og/ or /[0-9]+/)' <command> <mods>
The parentheses isolate the logical term from any default command filter or
implicit report filter.
A filter may target specific tasks using ID or UUID numbers. To specify
multiple tasks use one of these forms:
task 1,2,3 delete
task 1-3 info
task 1,2-5,19 modify pri:H
task 4-7 ebeeab00-ccf8-464b-8b58-f7f2d606edfb info
.SH MODIFICATIONS
The <mods> consist of zero or more changes to apply to the selected tasks, such
as:
task <filter> <command> project:Home
task <filter> <command> +weekend +garden due:tomorrow
task <filter> <command> Description/annotation text
task <filter> <command> /from/to/
.SH SUBCOMMANDS
Taskwarrior supports different kinds of commands. There are read commands,
write commands, miscellaneous commands and script helper commands. Read
commands do not allow modification of tasks. Write commands can alter almost
any aspect of a task. Script helper commands are provided to help you write
add-on scripts, for example, shell completion.
.SH READ SUBCOMMANDS
Reports are read subcommands. There are several reports currently predefined in
taskwarrior. The output and sort behavior of these reports can be configured in
the configuration file. See also the man page taskrc(5). There are also other
read subcommands that are not reports.
.TP
.B task <filter> active
Shows all tasks matching the filter that are started but not completed.
.TP
.B task <filter> all
Shows all tasks matching the filter, including parents of recurring tasks.
.TP
.B task <filter> blocked
Shows all blocked tasks, that are dependent on other tasks, matching the filter.
.TP
.B task <filter> burndown.daily
Shows a graphical burndown chart, by day. Note that 'burndown' is an alias to
the 'burndown.daily' report.
.TP
.B task <filter> burndown.weekly
Shows a graphical burndown chart, by week.
.TP
.B task <filter> burndown.monthly
Shows a graphical burndown chart, by month.
.TP
.B task calendar [ y | due [y] | month year [y] | year ]
Shows a monthly calendar with due tasks marked.
.TP
.B task colors [sample | legend]
Displays all possible colors, a named sample, or a legend containing all
currently defined colors.
.TP
.B task columns
Displays all supported columns and formatting styles.
.TP
.B task <filter> completed
Shows all tasks matching the filter that are completed.
.TP
.B task <filter> count
Displays only a count of tasks matching the filter.
.TP
.B task <filter> export
Exports all tasks in the JSON format. Redirect the output to a file, if you
wish to save it, or pipe it to another command or script to convert it to
another format. The standard task release comes with a few example scripts,
such as export-yaml.pl.
.TP
.B task <filter> ghistory.annual
Shows a graphical report of task status by year.
.TP
.B task <filter> ghistory.monthly
Shows a graphical report of task status by month. Note that 'ghistory' is
an alias to 'ghistory.monthly'.
.TP
.B task help
Shows the long usage text.
.TP
.B task <filter> history.annual
Shows a report of task history by year.
.TP
.B task <filter> history.monthly
Shows a report of task history by month. Note that 'history' is
an alias to 'history.monthly'.
.TP
.B task <filter> ids
Applies the filter then extracts only the task IDs and presents them as
a range, for example: 1-4,12. This is useful as input to a task command,
to achieve this:
task $(task project:Home ids) modify priority:H
This example first gets the IDs for the project:Home filter, then sets
the priority to H for each of those tasks.
.TP
.B task <filter> uuids
Applies the filter then extracts only the task UUIDs and presents them as
a comma-separated list. This is useful as input to a task command, to achieve
this:
task $(task project:Home status:completed uuids) modify status:pending
This example first gets the UUIDs for the project:Home and status:completed
filter, then makes each of those tasks pending again.
.TP
.B task <filter> information
Shows all data and metadata for the specified tasks.
.TP
.B task <filter> list
Provides a standard listing of tasks matching the filter.
.TP
.B task <filter> long
Provides the most detailed listing of tasks matching the filter.
.TP
.B task <filter> ls
Provides a short listing of tasks matching the filter.
.TP
.B task <filter> minimal
Provides a minimal listing of tasks matching the filter.
.TP
.B task <filter> newest
Shows the newest tasks matching the filter.
.TP
.B task <filter> next
Shows a page of the most urgent tasks, sorted by urgency, which is a calculated
value.
.TP
.B task <filter> oldest
Shows the oldest tasks matching the filter.
.TP
.B task <filter> overdue
Shows all incomplete tasks matching the filter that are beyond their due date.
.TP
.B task <filter> projects
Lists all project names that are currently used by pending tasks, and the
number of tasks for each.
.TP
.B task <filter> recurring
Shows all recurring tasks matching the filter.
.TP
.B task <filter> unblocked
Shows all tasks that are not blocked by dependencies, matching the filter.
.TP
.B task <filter> waiting
Shows all waiting tasks matching the filter.
.SH WRITE SUBCOMMANDS
.TP
.B task add <mods>
Adds a new task to the task list.
.TP
.B task <filter> annotate <mods>
Adds an annotation to an existing task.
.TP
.B task <filter> append <mods>
Appends description text to an existing task.
.TP
.B task <filter> delete <mods>
Deletes the specified task from task list.
.TP
.B task <filter> denotate <mods>
Deletes an annotation for the specified task. If the provided description
matches an annotation exactly, the corresponding annotation is deleted. If the
provided description matches annotations partly, the first partly matched
annotation is deleted.
.TP
.B task <filter> done <mods>
Marks the specified task as done.
.TP
.B task <filter> duplicate <mods>
Duplicates the specified task and allows modifications.
.TP
.B task <filter> edit
Launches a text editor to let you modify all aspects of a task directly.
In general, this is not the recommended method of modifying tasks, but is
provided for exceptional circumstances. Use carefully.
.TP
.B task import \fIfile
Imports tasks in the JSON format. The standard task release comes with a few
example scripts, such as import-yaml.pl.
.TP
.B task log <mods>
Adds a new task that is already completed, to the task list.
.TP
.B task merge <URL>
Merges two task databases by comparing the modifications that are stored in the
undo.data files. The location of the second undo.data file must be passed on as
argument. URL may have the following syntaxes:
ssh://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/.task/
rsync://[user@]host.xz[:port]/path/to/.task/
[user@]host.xz:path/to/.task/
/path/to/local/.task/
You can set aliases for frequently used URLs in the .taskrc. Further
documentation can be found in task-sync(5) man page.
.TP
.B task <filter> modify <mods>
Modifies the existing task with provided information.
.TP
.B task <filter> prepend <mods>
Prepends description text to an existing task.
.TP
.B task pull <URL>
Overwrites the task database with those files found at the URL.
(See 'merge' command for valid URL syntax.)
.TP
.B task push <URL>
Pushes the task database to a remote another location for distributing the
changes made by the merge command.
(See 'merge' command for valid URL syntax.)
.TP
.B task <filter> start <mods>
Marks the specified tasks as started.
.TP
.B task <filter> stop <mods>
Removes the
.I start
time from the specified task.
.SH MISCELLANEOUS SUBCOMMANDS
Miscellaneous subcommands either accept no command line arguments, or accept
non-standard arguments.
.TP
.B task config [name [value | '']]
Add, modify and remove settings directly in the taskwarrior configuration.
This command either modifies the 'name' setting with a new value of 'value',
or adds a new entry that is equivalent to 'name=value':
task config name value
This command sets a blank value. This has the effect of suppressing any
default value:
task config name ''
Finally, this command removes any 'name=...' entry from the .taskrc file:
task config name
.TP
.B task diagnostics
Shows diagnostic information, of the kind needed when reporting a problem.
When you report a bug, it is likely that the platform, version, and environment
are important. Running this command generates a summary of similar information
that should accompany a bug report.
It includes compiler, library and software information. It does not include
any personal information, other than the location and size of your task data
files.
.TP
.B task execute <external command>
Executes the specified command. Not useful by itself, but when used in
conjunction with aliases and extensions can provide seamless integration.
.TP
.B task logo
Displays the taskwarrior logo.
.TP
.B task reports
Lists all supported reports. This includes the built-in reports, and any custom
reports you have defined.
.TP
.B task shell
Launches an interactive shell with all the task commands available.
.TP
.B task show [all | substring]
Shows all the current settings in the taskwarrior configuration file. If a
substring is specified just the settings containing that substring will be
displayed.
.TP
.B task <filter> stats
Shows statistics of the tasks defined by the filter.
.TP
.B task <filter> summary
Shows a report of task status by project.
.TP
.B task synchronize
Synchronizes task data with the task server, if configured.
.TP
.B task <filter> tags
Show a list of all tags used. Any special tags used are highlighted.
.TP
.B task timesheet [weeks]
Shows a weekly report of tasks completed and started.
.TP
.B task undo
Reverts the most recent action. Obeys the confirmation setting.
.TP
.B task version
Shows the taskwarrior version number.
.SH HELPER SUBCOMMANDS
.TP
.B task _columns
Displays only a list of supported columns.
.TP
.B task _commands
Generates a list of all commands, for autocompletion purposes.
.TP
.B task _config
Lists all supported configuration variables, for completion purposes.
.TP
.B task <filter> _ids
Shows only the IDs of matching tasks, in the form of a list.
.TP
.B task <filter> _projects
Shows only a list of all project names used.
.TP
.B task <filter> _tags
Shows only a list of all tags used, for autocompletion purposes.
.TP
.B task <filter> _urgency
Displays the urgency measure of a task.
.TP
.B task _version
Shows only the taskwarrior version number.
.TP
.B task _zshcommands
Generates a list of all commands, for zsh autocompletion purposes.
.TP
.B task <filter> _zshids
Shows the IDs and descriptions of matching tasks.
.SH ATTRIBUTES AND METADATA
.TP
.B ID
Tasks can be specified uniquely by IDs, which are simply the index of the
task in a report. Be careful, as the IDs of tasks may change after a
modification to the database. Always run a report to check you have the right
ID for a task. IDs can be given to task as a sequences, for example,
.br
.B
task 1,4-10,19 del
.TP
.B +tag|-tag
Tags are arbitrary words associated with a task. Use + to add a tag and - to
remove a tag from a task. A task can have any quantity of tags.
Certain tags (called 'special tags'), can be used to affect the way tasks are
treated. For example, is a task has the special tag 'nocolor', then it is
exempt from all color rules. The supported special tags are:
+nocolor Disable color rules processing for this task
+nonag Completion of this task suppresses all nag messages
+nocal This task will not appear on the calendar
.TP
.B project:<project-name>
Specifies the project to which a task is related to.
.TP
.B priority:H|M|L or priority:
Specifies High, Medium, Low and no priority for a task.
.TP
.B due:<due-date>
Specifies the due-date of a task.
.TP
.B recur:<frequency>
Specifies the frequency of a recurrence of a task.
.TP
.B until:<end-date-of-recurrence>
Specifies the Recurrence end-date of a task.
.TP
.B fg:<color-spec>
Specifies foreground color. Deprecated.
.TP
.B bg:<color-spec>
Specifies background color. Deprecated.
.TP
.B limit:<number-of-rows>
Specifies the desired number of tasks a report should show, if a positive
integer is given. The value 'page' may also be used, and will limit the
report output to as many lines of text as will fit on screen. This defaults
to 25 lines.
.TP
.B wait:<wait-date>
Date until task becomes pending.
.TP
.B depends:<id1,id2 ...>
Declares this task to be dependent on id1 and id2. This means that the tasks
id1 and id2 should be completed before this task. Consequently, this task will
then show up on the 'blocked' report.
.TP
.B entry:<entry-date>
For report purposes, specifies the date that a task was created. The entry
attribute cannot be directly specified using task add, and should not be edited
after creating the task.
.SH ATTRIBUTE MODIFIERS
Attribute modifiers improve filters. Supported modifiers are:
.RS
.B before (synonyms under, below)
.br
.B after (synonyms over, above)
.br
.B none
.br
.B any
.br
.B is (synonym equals)
.br
.B isnt (synonym not)
.br
.B has (synonym contains)
.br
.B hasnt
.br
.B startswith (synonym left)
.br
.B endswith (synonym right)
.br
.B word
.br
.B noword
.RE
For example:
.RS
task due.before:eom priority.not:L list
.RE
The
.I before
modifier is used to compare values, preserving semantics, so project.before:B
list all projects that begin with 'A'. Priority 'L' is before 'M', and
due:2011-01-01 is before due:2011-01-02. The synonyms 'under' and 'below' are
included to allow filters that read more naturally.
The
.I after
modifier is the inverse of the
.I before
modifier.
The
.I none
modifier requires that the attribute does not have a value. For example:
task priority: list
task priority.none: list
are equivalent, and list tasks that do not have a priority.
The
.I any
modifier requires that the attribute has a value, but any value will suffice.
The
.I is
modifier requires an exact match with the value.
The
.I isnt
modifier is the inverse of the
.I is
modifier.
The
.I has
modifier is used to search for a substring, such as:
task description.has:foo list
task foo list
These are equivalent and will return any task that has 'foo' in the description
or annotations.
The
.I hasnt
modifier is the inverse of the
.I has
modifier.
The
.I startswith
modifier matches against the left, or beginning of an attribute, such that:
task project.startswith:H list
task project:H list
are equivalent and will match any project starting with 'H'. Matching all
projects not starting with 'H' is done with:
task project.not:H list
The
.I endswith
modifier matches against the right, or end of an attribute.
The
.I word
modifier requires that the attribute contain the whole word specified, such
that this:
task description.word:bar list
Will match the description 'foo bar baz' but does not match 'dog food'.
The
.I noword
modifier is the inverse of the
.I word
modifier.
.SH EXPRESSIONS AND OPERATORS
You can use the following operators in filter expressions:
and or xor Logical operators
< <= = != >= > Relational operators
+ - Addition, subtraction
! Inversion
~ !~ Match, no match
( ) Precedence
For example:
task due.before:eom priority.not:L list
task '(due < eom or priority != L)' list
Note that the parentheses are required when using a logical operator other than
the 'and' operator. The reason is that some report contains filters that must
be combined with the command line. Consider this example:
task project:Home or project:Garden list
While this looks correct, it is not. The 'list' report contains a filter of:
task show report.list.filter
Config Variable Value
----------------- --------------
report.list.filter status:pending
Which means the example is really:
task status:pending project:Home or project:Garden list
The implied 'and' operator makes it:
task status:pending and project:Home or project:Garden list
This is a precedence error - the 'and' and 'or' need to be grouped using
parentheses, like this:
task status:pending and (project:Home or project:Garden) list
The original example therefore must be entered as:
task '(project:Home or project:Garden)' list
This includes quotes to escape the parentheses, so that the shell doesn't
interpret them and hide them from taskwarrior.
There is redundancy between operators, attribute modifiers and other syntactic
sugar. For example, the following are all equivalent:
task foo list
task /foo/ list
task description.contains:foo list
task description.has:foo list
task 'description ~ foo' list
.SH SPECIFYING DATES AND FREQUENCIES
.SS DATES
Taskwarrior reads dates from the command line and displays dates in the
reports. The expected and desired date format is determined by the
configuration variable
.I dateformat
in the taskwarrior configuration file.
.RS
.TP
Exact specification
task ... due:7/14/2008
.TP
Relative wording
task ... due:today
.br
task ... due:yesterday
.br
task ... due:tomorrow
.TP
Day number with ordinal
task ... due:23rd
.br
task ... due:3wks
.br
task ... due:1day
.br
task ... due:9hrs
.TP
Start of (work) week (Monday), calendar week (Sunday or Monday), month, quarter and year
.br
task ... due:sow
.br
task ... due:soww
.br
task ... due:socw
.br
task ... due:som
.br
task ... due:soq
.br
task ... due:soy
.TP
End of (work) week (Friday), calendar week (Saturday or Sunday), month, quarter and year
.br
task ... due:eow
.br
task ... due:eoww
.br
task ... due:eocw
.br
task ... due:eom
.br
task ... due:eoq
.br
task ... due:eoy
.TP
At some point or later
.br
task ... wait:later
.br
task ... wait:someday
This sets the wait date to 1/18/2038.
.TP
Next occurring weekday
task ... due:fri
.RE
.SS FREQUENCIES
Recurrence periods. Taskwarrior supports several ways of specifying the
.I frequency
of recurring tasks.
.RS
.TP
daily, day, 1da, 2da, ...
Every day or a number of days.
.TP
weekdays
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and skipping weekend days.
.TP
weekly, 1wk, 2wks, ...
Every week or a number of weeks.
.TP
biweekly, fortnight
Every two weeks.
.TP
monthly, month, 1mo, 2mo, ...
Every month.
.TP
quarterly, 1qtr, 2qtrs, ...
Every three months, a quarter, or a number of quarters.
.TP
semiannual
Every six months.
.TP
annual, yearly, 1yr, 2yrs, ...
Every year or a number of years.
.TP
biannual, biyearly, 2yr
Every two years.
.RE
.SH COMMAND ABBREVIATION
All taskwarrior commands may be abbreviated as long as a unique prefix is used,
for example:
.RS
$ task li
.RE
is an unambiguous abbreviation for
.RS
$ task list
.RE
but
.RS
$ task l
.RE
could be list, ls or long.
Note that you can restrict the minimum abbreviation size using the configuration
setting:
.RS
abbreviation.minimum=3
.RE
.SH SPECIFYING DESCRIPTIONS
Some task descriptions need to be escaped because of the shell
and the special meaning of some characters to the shell. This can be
done either by adding quotes to the description or escaping the special
character:
.RS
$ task add "quoted ' quote"
.br
$ task add escaped \\' quote
.RE
The argument \-\- (a double dash) tells taskwarrior to treat all other args
as description:
.RS
$ task add -- project:Home needs scheduling
.RE
In other situations, the shell sees spaces and breaks up arguments. For
example, this command:
.RS
$ task 123 modify /from this/to that/
.RE
is broken up into several arguments, which is corrected with quotes:
.RS
$ task 123 modify "/from this/to that/"
.RE
.SH CONFIGURATION FILE AND OVERRIDE OPTIONS
Taskwarrior stores its configuration in a file in the user's home directory:
~/.taskrc . The default configuration file can be overridden with
.TP
.B task rc:<path-to-alternate-file>
Specifies an alternate configuration file.
.TP
.B task rc.<name>:<value> ...
.B task rc.<name>=<value> ...
Specifies individual configuration file overrides.
.SH MORE EXAMPLES
For examples please see the task tutorial man page at
.RS
man task-tutorial
.RE
or the online documentation starting at
.RS
<http://taskwarrior.org/projects/taskwarrior/wiki>
.RE
.SH FILES
.TP
~/.taskrc
User configuration file - see also taskrc(5).
.TP
~/.task
The default directory where task stores its data files. The location
can be configured in the configuration file.
.TP
~/.task/pending.data
The file that contains the tasks that are not yet done.
.TP
~/.task/completed.data
The file that contains the completed "done" tasks.
.TP
~/.task/undo.data
The file that contains the information to the "undo" command.
.TP
~/.task/backlog.data
The file that contains un-synched tasks, if the task server
is configured.
.TP
~/.task/synch.key
The file that contains the synchronization key, if the task
server is configured.
.SH "CREDITS & COPYRIGHTS"
Copyright (C) 2006 \- 2012 P. Beckingham, F. Hernandez.
Taskwarrior is distributed under the MIT license. See
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php for more information.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR taskrc(5),
.BR task-tutorial(5),
.BR task-faq(5),
.BR task-color(5),
.BR task-sync(5)
For more information regarding taskwarrior, 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 taskwarrior may be reported to the issue-tracker at
<http://taskwarrior.org>
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