Task-color(5)¶
task-color(5) User Manuals task-color(5)
NAME
task-color - A color tutorial for the task(1) command line todo manager.
SETUP
The first thing you need is a terminal program that supports color. All terminal programs support
color, but only a few support lots of colors. First tell your terminal program to use color by spec?
ifying the TERM environment variable like this:
TERM=xterm-color
In this example, xterm-color is used - a common value, and one that doesn't require that you use
xterm. This works for most setups. This setting belongs in your shell profile (~/.bash_profile,
~/.bashrc, ~/.cshrc etc, depending on which shell you use). If this is a new setting, you will need
to either run that profile script, or close and reopen the terminal window (which does the same
thing).
Now tell task that you want to use color. This is the default for task, so the following step may be
unnecessary.
$ task config color on
This command will make sure there is an entry in your ~/.taskrc file that looks like:
color=on
Now task is ready.
AUTOMATIC MONOCHROME
It should be mentioned that task is aware of whether it's output is going to a terminal, or to a file
or through a pipe. When task output goes to a terminal, color is desirable, but consider the follow?
ing command:
$ task list > file.txt
Do we really want all those color control codes in the file? Task assumes that you do not, and tem?
porarily sets color to 'off' while generating the output. This explains the output from the follow?
ing command:
$ task config | grep '^color '
color off
it always returns 'off', no matter what the setting.
The reason is that the task output gets piped into grep, and the color is disabled. If you wanted
those color codes, you can override this behavior by setting the _forcecolor variable to on, like
this:
$ task config _forcecolor on
$ task config | grep '^color '
color on
or by temporarily overriding it like this:
$ task rc._forcecolor=on config | grep '^color '
color on
AVAILABLE COLORS
Task has a 'color' command that will show all the colors it is capable of displaying. Try this:
$ task color
The output cannot be replicated here in a man page, but you should see a set of color samples. How
many you see depends on your terminal program's ability to render them.
You should at least see the Basic colors and Effects - if you do, then you have 16-color support. If
your terminal supports 256 colors, you'll know it!
16-COLOR SUPPORT
The basic color support is provided through named colors:
black, red, blue, green, magenta, cyan, yellow, white
Foreground color (for text) is simply specified as one of the above colors, or not specified at all
to use the default terminal text color.
Background color is specified by using the word 'on', and one of the above colors. Some examples:
green # green text, default background color
green on yellow # green text, yellow background
on yellow # default text color, yellow background
These colors can be modified further, by making the foreground bold, or by making the background
bright. Some examples:
bold green
bold white on bright red
on bright cyan
The order of the words is not important, so the following are equivalent:
bold green
green bold
But the 'on' is important - colors before the 'on' are foreground, and colors after 'on' are back?
ground.
There is an additional 'underline' attribute that may be used:
underline bright red on black
Task has a command that helps you visualize these color combinations. Try this:
$ task color underline bright red on black
You can use this command to see how the various color combinations work. You will also see some sam?
ple colors displayed, like the ones above, in addition to the sample requested.
Some combinations look very nice, some look terrible. Different terminal programs do implement
slightly different versions of 'red', for example, so you may see some unwanted variation due to the
program. The brightness of your display is also a factor.
256-COLOR SUPPORT
Using 256 colors follows the same form, but the names are different, and some colors can be refer?
enced in different ways. First there is by color ordinal, which is like this:
color0
color1
color2
...
color255
This gives you access to all 256 colors, but doesn't help you much. This range is a combination of 8
basic colors (color0 - color7), then 8 brighter variations (color8 - color15). Then a block of 216
colors (color16 - color231). Then a block of 24 gray colors (color232 - color255).
The large block of 216 colors (6x6x6 = 216) represents a color cube, which can be addressed via RGB
values from 0 to 5 for each component color. A value of 0 means none of this component color, and a
value of 5 means the most intense component color. For example, a bright red is specified as:
rgb500
And a darker red would be:
rgb300
Note that the three digits represent the three component values, so in this example the 5, 0 and 0
represent red=5, green=0, blue=0. Combining intense red with no green and no blue yields red. Simi?
larly, blue and green are:
rgb005
rgb050
Another example - bright yellow - is a mix of bright red and bright green, but no blue component, so
bright yellow is addressed as:
rgb550
A soft pink would be addressed as:
rgb515
See if you agree, by running:
$ task color black on rgb515
You may notice that the large color block is represented as 6 squares. All colors in the first
square have a red value of 0. All colors in the 6th square have a red value of 5. Within each
square, blue ranges from 0 to 5 left to right, and within each square green ranges from 0 to 5, top
to bottom. This scheme takes some getting used to.
The block of 24 gray colors can also be accessed as gray0 - gray23, in a continuous ramp from black
to white.
MIXING 16- AND 256-COLORS
If you specify 16-colors, and view on a 256-color terminal, no problem. If you try the reverse,
specifying 256-colors and viewing on a 16-color terminal, you will be disappointed, perhaps even
appalled.
There is some limited color mapping - for example, if you were to specify this combination:
red on gray3
you are mixing a 16-color and 256-color specification. Task will map red to color1, and proceed.
Note that red and color1 are not quite the same.
Note also that there is no bold or bright attributes when dealing with 256 colors, but there is still
underline available.
RULES
Task supports colorization rules. These are configuration values that specify a color, and the con?
ditions under which that color is used. By example, let's add a few tasks:
$ task add project:Home priority:H pay the bills (1)
$ task add project:Home clean the rug (2)
$ task add project:Garden clean out the garage (3)
We can add a color rule that uses a blue background for all tasks in the Home project:
$ task config color.project.Home on blue
We use quotes around "on blue" because there are two words, but they represent one value in the
.taskrc file. Now suppose we which to use a bold yellow text color for all cleaning work:
$ task config color.keyword.clean bold yellow
Now what happens to task 2, which belongs to project Home (blue background), and is also a cleaning
task (bold yellow foreground)? The colors are combined, and the task is shown as "bold yellow on
blue".
Color rules can be applied by project and description keyword, as shown, and also by priority (or
lack of priority), by active status, by being due or overdue, by being tagged, or having a specific
tag (perhaps the most useful rule) or by being a recurring task.
It is possible to create a very colorful mix of rules. With 256-color support, those colors can be
made subtle, and complementary, but without care, this can be a visual mess. Beware!
THEMES
Task supports themes. What this really means is that with the ability to include other files into
the .taskrc file, different sets of color rules can be included.
To get a good idea of what a color theme looks like, try adding this entry to your .taskrc file:
include /usr/local/share/doc/task-1.9.0/themes/dark-256.theme
Better yet, create your own, and share it.
CREDITS & COPYRIGHTS
task was written by P. Beckingham <paul@beckingham.net>.
Copyright (C) 2006 - 2010 P. Beckingham
This man page was originally written by Paul Beckingham.
task is distributed under the GNU General Public License. See http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
for more information.
SEE ALSO
task(1), taskrc(5), task-faq(5) task-tutorial(5)
For more information regarding task, the following may be referenced:
The official site at
<http://taskwarrior.org>
The official code repository at
<git://tasktools.org/task.git/>
You can contact the project by writing an email to
<support@taskwarrior.org>
REPORTING BUGS
Bugs in task may be reported to the issue-tracker at
<http://taskwarrior.org>
task 1.9.0 2010-02-03 task-color(5)