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Getting Started¶

Get task the easy way¶

or compile from source;

Quick Setup¶

Build the task program according to the directions in the INSTALL file. This transcript illustrates a typical installation:

% ls
task-1.9.2.tar.gz
% gunzip task-1.9.2.tar.gz
% tar xf task-1.9.2.tar
% cd task-1.9.2
% ./configure
...
% make
...
% make install     # (may require sudo, depending on --prefix)

(For those of you wishing to build task from source on Cygwin, see the FAQ for details on which components you'll need to install, but don't forget - task is a standard part of the Cygwin distribution, so you need only build from source if you want to.)

You need to make sure that the installed task program is in your PATH environment variable.

Task reads a configuration file - called .taskrc in your home directory - and stores pending and completed tasks in in a directory specified in the configuration file.

The simplest way to get a configuration file and task directory is to run task. On startup, task will check to see if it can find the configuration file and task directory, and if not found, will ask you whether it may create both.

% task version

A configuration file could not be found in /home/bob/.taskrc

Would you like a sample .taskrc created, so task can proceed? (y/n) y
Done.

[then task will show version information]

30-second Tutorial¶

For the excessively lazy. Add two tasks:

% task add Read task documents later
% task add priority:H Pay bills

Easy. See that second one has a High priority? Now let's look at those tasks:

% task ls

ID Project Pri Description
 2         H   Pay bills
 1             Read task documents later

They are ordered by priority. Let's mark number 2 as done:

% task 2 done
% task ls

ID Project Pri Description
 1             Read task documents later

Gone. Now let's delete that remaining task, because, well, why bother now we are already using task:

% task delete 1
% task ls
No matches

Easy. But now consider checking out what task can really do...