taskcmd: Let slip the dogs of … command line task organizers

I’ve had it in my head for well over a year now, that the T section would be swamped with task managers. And it looks like the first to do battle will be … taskcmd.

Installing it was the first trick; I don’t recall working directly with npm before, which is part of nodejs in Arch. Ergo …

sudo pacman -S nodejs

and once that’s done …

sudo npm install -g git://github.com/dparpyani/TaskCmd.git

Just task at the command line is enough to get started; you should get a multicolor acknowledgment from taskcmd if all went well.

taskcmd works like some of the other task managers we’ve seen over the years; it keeps a devoted list in your home directory, uses ID numbers to identify and prioritize, and parses commands to manage them.

task add "wash the cat" should yield something like this, if all goes right:

kmandla@6m47421: ~$ task add "wash the cat"
id: 1	priority: none
description: wash the cat
created at: 16/05/2014 8:27 am
saved at: /home/kmandla/.tasks.json

TaskCmd: "wash the cat" successfully added.

Except in color, of course. 😉

taskcmd can prioritize, filter and even prune out tasks depending on their completed or uncompleted state. You can add details and individual projects as well.

I like taskcmd for keeping a straightforward arrangement and for using color (of course), but I find it a little cryptic at times, and the published help pages are sometimes off-kilter from what taskcmd actually does.

I also believe that the directory tree that you’re in — in other words, your $PWD — is part of how taskcmd arranges its notes. Odd though, that I can’t seem to get things like task init to work in the way that the readme pages suggest.

An aside: With as many task organizers as there are out there, relying on task as the executable, and not taskcmd seems to invite confusion. Of course, I’m not a programmer, so I have no blinking clue what I’m talking about, but we wouldn’t want to cause errors, now would we? 😳

All things considered, taskcmd has the potential to be a useful and productive member of your command line arsenal. Now … who’s next? 😈

P.S., in case you were wondering: sudo npm uninstall -g TaskCmd 😉