task-sync(5) User Manuals task-sync(5)NAMEtask-sync - A discussion and tutorial for the various task(1) data syn‐
chronization capabilities.
INTRODUCTION
Taskwarrior has several sync options, external and internal. If you
wish to sync your data, choose one method only; mixing methods is only
going to lead to problems. Each of the methods discussed have their
own strengths.
ALTERNATIVES
There are three alternatives for syncing data, which are:
1) Version control systems, such as git, hg, svn
2) File hosting systems, such as DropBox
3) Using the Taskserver and the 'sync' command
OPTION 1: VERSION CONTROL SYSTEMS
There are several good, distributed VCS systems (git, hg, ...) and cen‐
tralized VCS systems (svn ...), and they function in a similar fashion
for our purposes.
Setup is straightforward. You place your .task directory under revi‐
sion control. You then need to perform a regular com‐
mit/push/pull/update to make sure that the data is propagated when
needed. You can even do this using shell scripts so that every task
command is preceded by a 'pull' and followed by a 'push'.
Strengths:
- Good data transport mechanisms
- Secure transport options
Weaknesses:
- You need proficiency with VCS tools
- You will need to manually resolve conflicts frequently
- You need to provide the mechanism for making sure copies are up to
date
OPTION 2: FILE HOSTING SERVICES
There are many file hosting services, such as DropBox, Amazon S3,
Google Drive, SkyDrive and more. This technique involves storing your
.task directory in a shared directory under the control of the file
hosting services.
Syncing happens quickly, although it is possible to run into conflict
situations when there is no network connectivity, and the tasks are
modified in two separate locations. This is because the file hosting
service knows only about files, and it has no idea how to merge tasks.
Avoid this problem by never modifying the same task on two machines,
without an intervening sync.
Setup simply involves creating the directory and modifying your
data.location configuration variable like this:
$ task config data.location /path/to/shared/directory
Strengths:
- Always secure
- Good client support
- Easy setup
- Transparent use
Weaknesses:
- Tasks are not properly merged
OPTION 3: TASKSERVER
The Taskserver was designed for this purpose to be secure, fast and
conflict free, allowing data interchange between assorted Taskwarrior
clients, and tolerant of network connectivity problems.
There is a 'sync' command built in to Taskwarrior (provided the GnuTLS
library is installed), and with a server account and client configura‐
tion, syncing is done on demand.
Setup is a matter of creating an account on a Taskserver (see your
Taskserver provider or operate your own - see http://taskwar‐
rior.org/docs/server_setup.html)
Once you have an account, you'll receive a certificate, key, and cre‐
dentials. You'll need to put the certificate and key somewhere like
this:
$ cp <name>.cert.pem ~/.task
$ cp <name>.key.pem ~/.task
Then you configure Taskwarrior, using the provided details:
$ task config taskd.certificate ~/.task/<name>.cert.pem
$ task config taskd.key ~/.task/<name>.key.pem
$ task config taskd.credentials <organization>/<name>/<UUID>
$ task config taskd.server <server domain>:<port>
If you are using a private server, you are likely also using a self-
signed certificate, which means you will need one of the following
additional entries:
$ task config taskd.ca ~/.task/ca.cert.pem
The CA (Certificate Authority) will be used to verify the server cer‐
tificate. Alternatively, you can override the cert verification
process using:
$ task config taskd.trust 'allow all'
This is an insecure option that should be used with caution, because it
directs Taskwarrior to trust any certificate.
After setup, you run a one-time sync initialization, like this:
$ task sync initialize
This will make sure your client and the server are properly in sync to
begin with. From this point on, you never run the 'initialize' command
again, just go about your business, and when you want to sync, run
this:
$ task sync
You'll see a summary of how many tasks were uploaded and downloaded.
You can safely run the command as often as you like. When there are no
changes to sync, nothing happens. If you do not have connectivity,
your task changes accumulate so that when you next run 'sync' with
proper connectivity, the changes are properly handled, in the right
order.
Strengths:
- Always secure
- Minimal bandwidth
- Tolerates connectivity outage
Weaknesses:
- You need to manage your own server, or gain access to a hosted
server.
CREDITS & COPYRIGHTS
Copyright (C) 2006 - 2015 P. Beckingham, F. Hernandez.
Taskwarrior is distributed under the MIT license. See http://www.open‐
source.org/licenses/mit-license.php for more information.
SEE ALSOtask(1), taskrc(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
<https://git.tasktools.org/scm/tm/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 2.5.0 2015-10-21 task-sync(5)
