tashk, the unix todo.txt manager

tashk is a minimal CLI for dealing with todo.txt files. It assumes POSIX utilities (sh, cat, grep, sed, etc), and deeply integrates with git.

Rather than implementing new functionality, tashk focuses on being a wrapper for various POSIX utilities and providing an interface for easy transactional synchronisation via git.

It is intended as an alternative to todo-cli with the benefit of not relying on bash, and an alternative to Dropbox workflows which rely on storing files on "the Cloud" (Dropbox's computers), by supporting automatic synchronisation with a remote git repository. However, it is not compatible with todo-cli and should not be used as a drop-in replacement. tashk help should tell you everything you need to know.

In summary, it's like todo.sh but more pass-like. It's mostly feature complete, aside from perhaps more flag options which I'll throw in as I need them.

LICENSE

If you want to use this for something that can't be GPL'd: Firstly, why would you use this? Secondly, drop me an email, I'm willing to negotiate an exception.

Getting started

Make a git repository somewhere.
Set $TASHK_DIR to its location.
Put your todo.txt file in there.

Bugs

Probably many.

Tips and Tricks

How can I make this run faster?

Internally, the commands are wrappers for various POSIX utilities that would probably be faster if they made use of GNU/BSD extensions. I haven't gotten around to detecting/toggling the use of said extensions.

Feel free to edit the script to your liking in the meantime.

How do I receive changes from a remote location?

tashk git pull origin. I plan on making this something tashk does automatically for you, but I'm still thinking about how that should be handled.

How can I automatically write my changes to a remote location?

In the Git directory of $TASHK_DIR (by default, $TASHK_DIR/.git/), put something like this in hooks/post-commit:

git push origin

And, of course, set origin to be a private git repo. It can be github, gitlab, whatever, but ideally it should be a bare repository on a computer you own or a VPS you have root access on.

The caveat to this, of course, is that it means all commits get pushed immediately, meaning that it's a real headache to try and rewrite git history. (On top of rewriting git history being a whole headache in and of itself.) This isn't as much a problem since this is a personal organisation program, so I hope you aren't using a public repo...

How can I do that periodically?

In your crontab/cron.d/systemd script pile, put:

tashk git push origin

Then configure your system to do that command however often you please to automatically write your changes to origin whenever a certain time occurs. Be sure to have some way of authenticating yourself to the remote repository. Haven't figured it out yet...

NOTE: cron acts funny, since it's not "really" you when it runs commands. be sure to explicitly set $TASHKDIR in the crontab.

How do I do that whenever...

I think you get the picture from the last two tips. Git is really neat. Just run tashk git push origin and it'll push your changes to your super cool open source dropbox alternative.

TODO (heh)

add command-specific flags
better help
man pages
pretty listing
better arg support
extension system

dther/tashk