task(1) User Manuals task(1)
NAME
task - A command line todo manager.
SYNOPSIS
task <filter> <command> [ <mods> | <args> ]
task --version
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 other-
wise 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.
FILTER
The <filter> consists of zero or more search criteria that select tasks. For example, to list all tasks belonging to the 'Home' project:
task project:Home list
You can specify multiple filter terms, each of which further restrict the result:
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 character
sequence '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.
Note that a filter may have zero terms, which means that all tasks apply to the command. This can be dangerous, and this special case is
confirmed, and cannot be overridden. For example, this command:
task modify +work
This command has no filter, and will modify all tasks. Are you sure? (yes/no)
will add the 'work' tag to all tasks, but only after confirmation.
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 which would be combined with an implicit
'and'.
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
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/
SUBCOMMANDS
Taskwarrior supports different kinds of commands. There are read commands, write commands, miscellaneous commands and script helper com-
mands. 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.
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.
task --version
This is the only conventional command line argument that Taskwarrior supports, and is intended for add-on scripts to verify the ver-
sion number of an installed Taskwarrior without invoking the mechanisms that create default files.
task <filter>
With no command specified, the default command is run, and the filter applied.
task <filter> active
Shows all tasks matching the filter that are started but not completed.
task <filter> all
Shows all tasks matching the filter, including parents of recurring tasks.
task <filter> blocked
Shows all tasks matching the filter, that have dependencies on other tasks.
task <filter> burndown.daily
Shows a graphical burndown chart, by day. Note that 'burndown' is an alias to the 'burndown.daily' report.
task <filter> burndown.weekly
Shows a graphical burndown chart, by week.
task <filter> burndown.monthly
Shows a graphical burndown chart, by month.
task calendar [due|<month> <year>|<year>] [y]
Shows a monthly calendar with due tasks marked. Shows one horizontal line of months. If the 'y' argument is provided, will show at
least one complete year. If a year is provided, such as '2012', then that full year is shown. If both a month and a year are spec-
ified ('6 2012') then the months displayed begin at the specified month and year. If the 'due' argument is provided, will show the
starting month of the earliest due task.
task colors [sample | legend]
Displays all possible colors, a named sample, or a legend containing all currently defined colors.
task columns
Displays all supported columns and formatting styles. Useful when creating custom reports.
task <filter> completed
Shows all tasks matching the filter that are completed.
task <filter> count
Displays only a count of tasks matching the filter.
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.
task <filter> ghistory.annual
Shows a graphical report of task status by year.
task <filter> ghistory.monthly
Shows a graphical report of task status by month. Note that 'ghistory' is an alias to 'ghistory.monthly'.
task help
Shows the long usage text.
task <filter> history.annual
Shows a report of task history by year.
task <filter> history.monthly
Shows a report of task history by month. Note that 'history' is an alias to 'history.monthly'.
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. This can also be
achieved directly:
task project:Home modify priority:H
This command is mainly of use to external scripts.
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.
This command is mainly of use to external scripts.
task <filter> information
Shows all data and metadata for the specified tasks. This is the only means of displaying all aspects of a given task, including
the change history.
task <filter> list
Provides a standard listing of tasks matching the filter.
task <filter> long
Provides the most detailed listing of tasks matching the filter.
task <filter> ls
Provides a short listing of tasks matching the filter.
task <filter> minimal
Provides a minimal listing of tasks matching the filter.
task <filter> newest
Shows the newest tasks matching the filter.
task <filter> next
Shows a page of the most urgent tasks, sorted by urgency, which is a calculated value.
task <filter> oldest
Shows the oldest tasks matching the filter.
task <filter> overdue
Shows all incomplete tasks matching the filter that are beyond their due date.
task <filter> projects
Lists all project names that are currently used by pending tasks, and the number of tasks for each.
task <filter> recurring
Shows all recurring tasks matching the filter.
task <filter> unblocked
Shows all tasks that do not have dependencies, matching the filter.
task <filter> waiting
Shows all waiting tasks matching the filter.
WRITE SUBCOMMANDS
task add <mods>
Adds a new pending task to the task list.
task <filter> annotate <mods>
Adds an annotation to an existing task.
task <filter> append <mods>
Appends description text to an existing task.
task <filter> delete <mods>
Deletes the specified task from task list.
task <filter> denotate <mods>
Deletes an annotation for the specified task. If the provided description matches an annotation exactly, the corresponding annota-
tion is deleted. If the provided description matches annotations partly, the first partly matched annotation is deleted.
task <filter> done <mods>
Marks the specified task as done.
task <filter> duplicate <mods>
Duplicates the specified task and allows modifications.
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 modify-
ing tasks, but is provided for exceptional circumstances. Use carefully.
task import <file> [<file> ...]
Imports tasks in the JSON format. The standard task release comes with a few example scripts, such as import-yaml.pl.
task log <mods>
Adds a new task that is already completed, to the task list.
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.
task <filter> modify <mods>
Modifies the existing task with provided information.
task <filter> prepend <mods>
Prepends description text to an existing task.
task pull <URL>
Overwrites the task database with those files found at the URL. (See 'merge' command for valid URL syntax.)
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.)
task <filter> start <mods>
Marks the specified tasks as started.
task <filter> stop <mods>
Removes the start time from the specified task.
MISCELLANEOUS SUBCOMMANDS
Miscellaneous subcommands either accept no command line arguments, or accept non-standard arguments.
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
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.
This command also performs a diagnostic scan of your data files looking for common problems, such as duplicate UUIDs.
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.
task logo
Displays the Taskwarrior logo.
task reports
Lists all supported reports. This includes the built-in reports, and any custom reports you have defined.
task shell
Launches an interactive shell with all the task commands available.
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.
task <filter> stats
Shows statistics of the tasks defined by the filter.
task <filter> summary
Shows a report of aggregated task status by project.
task <filter> tags
Show a list of all tags used. Any special tags used are highlighted.
task timesheet [weeks]
Shows a weekly report of tasks completed and started.
task undo
Reverts the most recent action. Obeys the confirmation setting.
task version
Shows the taskwarrior version number.
HELPER SUBCOMMANDS
task _columns
Displays only a list of supported columns.
task _commands
Generates a list of all commands, for autocompletion purposes.
task _config
Lists all supported configuration variables, for completion purposes.
task <filter> _ids
Shows only the IDs of matching tasks, in the form of a list.
task <filter> _projects
Shows only a list of all project names used.
task <filter> _tags
Shows only a list of all tags used, for autocompletion purposes.
task <filter> _urgency
Displays the urgency measure of a task.
task _version
Shows only the taskwarrior version number.
task _zshcommands
Generates a list of all commands, for zsh autocompletion purposes.
task <filter> _zshids
Shows the IDs and descriptions of matching tasks.
ATTRIBUTES AND METADATA
ID Tasks can be specified uniquely by IDs, which are simply the index of the task in the data file. The ID of a task may therefore
change, but only when a command is run that displays IDs. When modifying tasks, it is safe to rely on the last displayed ID.
Always run a report to check you have the right ID for a task. IDs can be given to task as a sequence, for example,
task 1,4-10,19 delete
+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
+next Elevates task so it appears on 'next' report
project:<project-name>
Specifies the project to which a task is related to.
priority:H|M|L or priority:
Specifies High, Medium, Low and no priority for a task.
due:<due-date>
Specifies the due-date of a task.
recur:<frequency>
Specifies the frequency of a recurrence of a task.
until:<end-date-of-recurrence>
Specifies the Recurrence end-date of a task.
fg:<color-spec>
Specifies foreground color. Deprecated.
bg:<color-spec>
Specifies background color. Deprecated.
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.
wait:<wait-date>
Date until task becomes pending.
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.
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.
ATTRIBUTE MODIFIERS
Attribute modifiers improve filters. Supported modifiers are:
before (synonyms under, below)
after (synonyms over, above)
none
any
is (synonym equals)
isnt (synonym not)
has (synonym contains)
hasnt
startswith (synonym left)
endswith (synonym right)
word
noword
For example:
task due.before:eom priority.not:L list
The 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 after modifier is the inverse of the before modifier.
The 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 any modifier requires that the attribute has a value, but any value will suffice.
The is modifier requires an exact match with the value.
The isnt modifier is the inverse of the is modifier.
The 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 hasnt modifier is the inverse of the has modifier.
The 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 endswith modifier matches against the right, or end of an attribute.
The 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 noword modifier is the inverse of the word modifier.
EXPRESSIONS AND OPERATORS
You can use the following operators in filter expressions:
and or xor Logical operators
< <= = != >= > Relational operators
( ) 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 con-
tains 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
SPECIFYING DATES AND FREQUENCIES
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 dateformat in the taskwarrior configuration file.
Exact specification
task ... due:7/14/2008
ISO-8601
task ... due:20120314T223000Z
Relative wording
task ... due:today
task ... due:yesterday
task ... due:tomorrow
Day number with ordinal
task ... due:23rd
task ... due:3wks
task ... due:1day
task ... due:9hrs
Start of (work) week (Monday), calendar week (Sunday or Monday), month, quarter and year
task ... due:sow
task ... due:soww
task ... due:socw
task ... due:som
task ... due:soq
task ... due:soy
End of (work) week (Friday), calendar week (Saturday or Sunday), month, quarter and year
task ... due:eow
task ... due:eoww
task ... due:eocw
task ... due:eom
task ... due:eoq
task ... due:eoy
At some point or later
task ... wait:later
task ... wait:someday
This sets the wait date to 1/18/2038.
Next occurring weekday
task ... due:fri
FREQUENCIES
Recurrence periods. Taskwarrior supports several ways of specifying the frequency of recurring tasks.
daily, day, 1da, 2da, ...
Every day or a number of days.
weekdays
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and skipping weekend days.
weekly, 1wk, 2wks, ...
Every week or a number of weeks.
biweekly, fortnight
Every two weeks.
monthly, month, 1mo, 2mo, ...
Every month.
quarterly, 1qtr, 2qtrs, ...
Every three months, a quarter, or a number of quarters.
semiannual
Every six months.
annual, yearly, 1yr, 2yrs, ...
Every year or a number of years.
biannual, biyearly, 2yr
Every two years.
COMMAND ABBREVIATION
All taskwarrior commands may be abbreviated as long as a unique prefix is used, for example:
$ task li
is an unambiguous abbreviation for
$ task list
but
$ task l
could be list, ls or long.
Note that you can restrict the minimum abbreviation size using the configuration setting:
abbreviation.minimum=3
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:
$ task add "quoted ' quote"
$ task add escaped ' quote
The argument -- (a double dash) tells taskwarrior to treat all other args as description:
$ task add -- project:Home needs scheduling
In other situations, the shell sees spaces and breaks up arguments. For example, this command:
$ task 123 modify /from this/to that/
is broken up into several arguments, which is corrected with quotes:
$ task 123 modify "/from this/to that/"
It is sometimes necessary to force the shell to pass quotes to Taskwarrior intact, so you can use:
$ task add project:'Three Word Project' description
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:
task rc:<path-to-alternate-file> ...
Specifies an alternate configuration file.
The environment variable overrides the default and the command line
specification of the .taskrc file.
task rc.<name>:<value> ...
task rc.<name>=<value> ... Specifies individual configuration file overrides.
TASKDATA=/tmp/.task task ...
The environment variable overrides the default, the command line, and the 'data.location' configuration setting of the task data
directory.
MORE EXAMPLES
For examples please see the task tutorial man page at
man task-tutorial
or the online documentation starting at
<http://taskwarrior.org/projects/taskwarrior/wiki>
Note that the online documentation is more detailed and more current than this man page.
FILES
~/.taskrc
User configuration file - see also taskrc(5). Note that this can be overridden on the command line or by the TASKRC environment
variable.
~/.task
The default directory where task stores its data files. The location can be configured in the configuration variable 'data.loca-
tion', or overridden with the TASKDATA environment variable..
~/.task/pending.data
The file that contains the tasks that are not yet done.
~/.task/completed.data
The file that contains the completed "done" tasks.
~/.task/undo.data
The file that contains the information to the "undo" command.
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.
SEE ALSO
taskrc(5), task-tutorial(5), task-faq(5), task-color(5), task-sync(5)
For more information regarding taskwarrior, see the following:
The official site at
<http://taskwarrior.org>
The official code repository at
<git://tasktools.org/task.git/>
You can contact the project by emailing
<support@taskwarrior.org>
REPORTING BUGS
Bugs in taskwarrior may be reported to the issue-tracker at
<http://taskwarrior.org>
task 2.0.0 2012-03-17 task(1)