Taskrc(5)¶

taskrc(5) User Manuals taskrc(5)

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

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

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

$HOME/.taskrc

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

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

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

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

If task is run without an existing configuration file it will ask if it should create a default, sam?
ple .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:

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

where:

<name-of-configuration-variable>
is one of the variables described below

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

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.

Note that task is flexible about the values used to represent Boolean items. You can use "on",
"yes", "y", "1", "true", "t", "+", "enabled". Anything else means "off".

EDITING
You can edit your .taskrc file by hand if you wish, or you can use the 'config' command. To perma?
nently set a value in your .taskrc file, use this command:

$ task config nag "You have higher priority tasks!"

To delete an entry, use this command:

$ task config nag

Task will then use the default value. To explicitly set a value to blank, and therefore avoid using
the default value, use this command:

$ task config nag ""

Task will also display all your settings with this command:

$ task config

and in addition, will also perform a check of all the values in the file, warning you of anything it
finds amiss.

CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
Valid variable names and their default values are:

FILES
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

Note that you can use the ~ shell meta character, which will be properly expanded.

locking=on
Determines whether task uses file locking when accessing the pending.data and completed.data
files. Defaults to "on". Solaris users who store the task data files on an NFS mount may need
to set locking to "off". Note that there is danger in setting this value to "off" - another
program (or another instance of task) may write to the task.pending file at the same time.

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

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

editor=vi
Specifies which text editor you wish to use for when the 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".

MISCELLANEOUS
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 local?
ized strings and proceed. It is an error to specify a locale for which there is no strings
file.

confirmation=yes
May be "yes" or "no", and determines whether task will ask for confirmation before deleting a
task or doing bulk changes. The default value is "yes".

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".

annotations=full

report.X.annotations=full
Controls the display of annotations in reports. Defaults to full - all annotations are dis?
played. Set to "sparse" only the last (newest) 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.
The default value is "full".

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

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 confirmation variable is "no".

This is useful for preventing large-scale unintended changes.

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 started or com?
pleted 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. It is a gentle reminder that you are contradicting your own priority set?
tings.

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. The default value is "no".

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. The default value is "no".

search.case.sensitive=yes
May be yes or no, and determines whether keyword lookup and substitutions on the description
and annotations are done in a case sensitive way. Defaults to yes.

_forcecolor=no
Task shuts off color automatically when the output is not sent directly to a a TTY. For exam?
ple, this command:

$ task list > file

will not use any color. To override this, use:

$ task rc._forcecolor=yes list > file

blanklines=yes
Turning this value off causes task to generate a more vertically compact output.

shell.prompt=task>
The task shell command uses this value as a prompt. You can change it to any string you like.

debug=off
Task has a debug mode that causes diagnostic output to be displayed. Typically this is not
something anyone would want, but when reporting a bug, debug output can be useful. It can
also help explain how the command line is being parsed, but the information is displayed in a
developer-friendly, not a user-friendly way.

alias.rm=delete
Task supports command aliases. This alias provides an alternate name (rm) for the delete com?
mand. You can use aliases to provide alternate names for any of task's commands.

DATES
dateformat=m/d/Y

dateformat.report=m/d/Y

dateformat.holiday=YMD

report.X.dateformat=m/d/Y
This is a string of characters that define how task formats date values. 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, reportdateformat formats 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. Entered dates as well as all other displayed dates in reports are
formatted according to dateformat.

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

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

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

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

Examples for other values of reportdateformat:

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

weekstart=Sunday
Determines the day a week starts. Valid values are Sunday or Monday only. The default value is
"Sunday".

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. The default value is "yes".

due=7 This is the number of days into the future that define when a task is considered due, and is
colored accordingly. The default value is 7.

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 dis?
played. The displaying of due dates with details is turned off by setting the variable to
none. The default value is "sparse".

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

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. The
default value is "none".

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

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

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

monthsperline=3
Determines how many months the "task calendar" command renders across the screen. Defaults to
however many will fit. If more months than will fit are specified, task will only show as
many that will fit.

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

fontunderline=on
Determines if font underlines or ASCII dashes should be used to underline headers, even when
color is enabled.

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 colors, depending on your terminal, can be obtained by running the command:

task color

The coloration rules and their defaults are:

color.overdue=bold red The color for overdue tasks.
color.due=bold yellow The color of due tasks.
color.pri.H=bold The color of priority:H tasks.
color.pri.M=on yellow The color of priority:M tasks. No default value.
color.pri.L=on green The color of priority:L tasks. No default value.
color.pri.none=white on blue The color of priority: tasks. No default value.
color.active=bold cyan The color of active tasks.
color.tagged=yellow The color of tagged tasks.
color.recurring=on red The color for recurring tasks.

To disable a coloration rule for which there is a default, set the value to nothing, for exam?
ple:
color.tagged=

See the task-color(5) man pages for color details.

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

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

color.project.X=on green
Colors any task assigned to project X.

color.keyword.X=on blue
Colors any task where the description or any annotation contains X.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is possible to apply a specific color to every other task in a report, which can make it
easier to visually separate tasks. This is especially useful when tasks are displayed over
multiple lines due to long descriptions or annotations.

color.alternate=on rgb253
Color of alternate tasks.

SHADOW FILE
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 main?
taining a current file for use by programs like GeekTool, Conky or Samurize.

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

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.

DEFAULTS
default.project=foo
Provides a default project name for the task add command, if you don't specify one. The
default is blank.

default.priority=M
Provides a default priority for the task add command, if you don't specify one. The default
is blank.

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

default.command=list project:foo

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

$ task
[task list project:foo]

ID Project Pri Description
1 foo H Design foo
2 foo Build foo

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

task overdue

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

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.

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

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

report.X.filter
This adds a filter to the report X so that only tasks matching the filter criteria are dis?
played in the generated report.

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 DATES section
for details on the sequence placeholders.

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

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

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

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

list Lists all tasks matching the specified criteria.

ls Short listing of all tasks matching the specified criteria.

minimal
Minimal listing of all tasks matching the specified criteria.

newest Shows the newest tasks.

oldest Shows the oldest tasks.

overdue
Lists overdue tasks matching the specified criteria.

active Lists active tasks matching the specified criteria.

completed
Lists completed tasks matching the specified criteria.

recurring
Lists recurring tasks matching the specified criteria.

waiting
Lists all waiting tasks matching the specified criteria.

all Lists all tasks matching the specified criteria.

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

CREDITS & COPYRIGHTS
task was written by P. Beckingham <paul@beckingham.net>.
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.

SEE ALSO
task(1), task-tutorial(5), task-faq(5) task-color(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 taskrc(5)

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