💡 Today I Learned

Using TaskWarrior on Windows

Table of Content

Install on windows (WSL)

Install on WSL (windows subsystem for linux) with:

sudo apt-get install taskwarrior

If messages are happy then you succeeded.

Type task to see if it's there....

$ task
A configuration file could not be found in

Would you like a sample /home/myuser/.taskrc created, so Taskwarrior can proceed? (yes/no) y
[task next]
No matches.

Add a really plain task

task add buy milk

...this is how it plays out:

$ task add buy milk
Created task 1.

Now see all your tasks...

$ task
[task next]

ID Age Description  Urg
 1 1s  buy milk    0

1 task

See that the current task id for that task is "1". (It's actual primary key is hidden and won't change.)

Mark a task as done

Mark that task as done like this:

task 1 done

Result:

~$ task 1 done
Completed task 1 'buy milk'.
Completed 1 task.

Now -- add a fresh task such as:

task add learn to use task warrior

You'll see (when you run task) that this new task is now listed as number 1.

Add a tag to a task

When adding a new task you can give it a tag like this:

task add learn about tags +tw

(the tag here is "tw" and the task is "learn more about tags")

Add multiple tags to a task

Just list them all with a plus before each:

task add learn more about tags +tw +tags +example

Or add another tag to an existing task like this:

task 1 modify +tw

(Added the tag "tw". Obviously you could've added more than 1 at once, with +tw +fun +easy etc.)

And note you can shorten modify to mod, as I just did:

task 8 mod +bug

(Clearly there are aliases, I haven't worked out details, but can tell you that just m by itself does not work. So they are probably defined somewhere.)

Remove a tag from a task

Remove a tag by using minues (-) e.g.

task 1 modify -tw

(Removed the tag tw from task 1)

Add AND Remove

task 1 modify -tw +tech

(Removed tw and added tech to task 1)

Add a tag to all tasks

If we leave out the number, then we are asking to apply the behaviour to all...

task modify +tw

...and it is careful to make sure we mean it (we have to confirm sort of twice...)....

This command has no filter, and will modify all tasks.  Are you sure? (yes/no) y
	- Tags will be set to 'tw'.

...We say "y" for yes, and then it asks for the next task... we say "a" for "all", and boom it's done.

Ah -- lesson here is that a command can apply to many tasks. THat little number we use is a "filter" saying "where ID = 1".

List tasks with a tag

task list +todo

...lists tasks with todo tag.

Or - list those that have some tags and don't have other tags...

task list +shop -grocery

(things to buy at the shop but that are not grocery items)

...in fact leave out the list command and you get the same...

task list +todo

and

task +shop -grocery

...lists tasks that have/lack those tags.

List all completed tasks

This worked...

task status:completed all

I learned also that I can see all tasks open or closed with:

task all

Mark a task as started

To mark a task as started:

task 21 start

To see a graphical burndown chart of what is pending, started, done

To see a graphical burndown of tasks, with a granularity of day:

	task burndown.daily

List all tasks completed today

Set the priority on a new task

Priorities as H for "High", M for "Medium", L for "Low". And if not assigned it is blank (and empty string).

Set it on a new task, e.g.

task add put out fire priority:H

Or update it on an existing task:

task 1 mod pri:H

...by which I am showing you that pri: works as an alias for priority:

Set 'no priority' to be higher than 'low' priority

As described here taskwarrior priority, priority is a user-defined attribute.

Inline with the talk i watched, here is how you can configure taskwarrior's "priorities" such that "no priority" is higher priority than "low priority" -- like so:

task config -- uda.priority.values  H,M,,L

...it asked me to confirm first, and then it added this line to ".taskrc"

uda.priority.values=H,M,,L

Easy.

.taskrc file: what is in there?

remember it created a .taskrc file for me, automatucally? let's inspect that!

$ cat .taskrc

# [Created by task 2.5.1 9/3/2020 16:31:00]
# Taskwarrior program configuration file.
# For more documentation, see http://taskwarrior.org or try 'man task', 'man task-color',
# 'man task-sync' or 'man taskrc'

# Here is an example of entries that use the default, override and blank values
#   variable=foo   -- By specifying a value, this overrides the default
#   variable=      -- By specifying no value, this means no default
#   #variable=foo  -- By commenting out the line, or deleting it, this uses the default

# Use the command 'task show' to see all defaults and overrides

# Files
data.location=~/.task

# Color theme (uncomment one to use)
#include /usr/share/taskwarrior/light-16.theme
#include /usr/share/taskwarrior/light-256.theme
#include /usr/share/taskwarrior/dark-16.theme
#include /usr/share/taskwarrior/dark-256.theme
#include /usr/share/taskwarrior/dark-red-256.theme
#include /usr/share/taskwarrior/dark-green-256.theme
#include /usr/share/taskwarrior/dark-blue-256.theme
#include /usr/share/taskwarrior/dark-violets-256.theme
#include /usr/share/taskwarrior/dark-yellow-green.theme
#include /usr/share/taskwarrior/dark-gray-256.theme
#include /usr/share/taskwarrior/dark-gray-blue-256.theme
#include /usr/share/taskwarrior/solarized-dark-256.theme
#include /usr/share/taskwarrior/solarized-light-256.theme
#include /usr/share/taskwarrior/no-color.theme

Oh I see -- all the data is in a .tasks directory. Fun fun!!

Sources