Version 0.2 - Sat 22 Oct 2011
Geoff Lewis http://github.com/gslewis/tash
This script provides a basic task manager using bash with sqlite3 for storage. It was written for my particular timesheet reporting needs: a week's worth of daily reports, starting from a given day of the week (Friday!), with tasks associated with projects. It was also written as an exercise in learning bash and sqlite. It is inspired by taskwarrior which I was unable to get to do exactly what I needed.
Name the script whatever you like (I call it 'tash') and place it wherever you like. There are a couple of configuration settings in the script that you may want to modify. The first time tash is run, it will create ~/.tash.db (replace 'tash' with whatever you call the script, minus any .sh suffix).
The basic invocation is:
tash [task_num] [command] [...]
To get a list of commands:
tash help
Adding a new task:
tash add @search Set up search engine
This will add a new task to the project 'search' with the description 'Set up search engine'. If the first word after the 'add' command starts with '@', it represents the project name. Otherwise the task is added to the 'nameless' project.
Getting a list of all tasks:
The listing shows the task number, project, elapsed time and description of each task.
# List 'in progress' tasks
tash
# or
tash list
# List 'complete' tasks
tash list complete
# List all tasks (in progress and complete)
tash list all
# List tasks in the 'search' project
tash list search
(This means you can't have a project called 'all' or 'complete'.)
If you create a task by mistake, use the 'delete' command to delete it.
Getting information about a task:
# For task number 5 ...
tash 5
# or
tash 5 info
This will show all the sessions for the task.
Starting a task:
# For task number 5 ...
tash 5 start
Starts a new session. Does nothing if there is already a session running.
Stopping a task:
# For task number 5 ...
tash 5 stop
# Stop the session with a given duration of 30 minutes
tash 5 stop 30m
# Stop the session with a duration of 90 minutes
tash 5 stop 1.5h
# Stop all running sessions
tash stop
# Stop all running sessions with the given duration
tash stop 15m
If no duration is given, the session duration is the actual duration -- the time elapsed between starting and stopping the task. A stopped task can be restarted, which creates a new session.
Switching tasks:
If you want to stop the current session(s) and start a session for a different task, use the "switch" command:
# Switch to task number 5
tash 5 switch
# Switch to task number 5, stopping the current session at 45 minutes
tash 5 switch 45m
Synonyms for "switch": sw
This is the same as doing a "stop all" followed by a "start".
Recording a session:
You can create a complete session with start time and duration using the "session" command. This saves you from having to "start" and "stop" the task to generate the session. In this case the duration is mandatory and the start time is the current time.
# Create a 15 minute session for task number 5 tash 5 session 15m
Completing a task:
# For task number 5
tash 5 done
# Complete the running task with given duration of 15 minutes
tash 5 done 15m
If a task is running when completed, the running session is closed, as per the 'stop' command. Once a task is completed, it cannot be restarted but can be viewed with the 'list', 'info' and 'report' commands.
Deleting a task:
# To delete task number 5
tash 5 delete
# or to delete tasks 5 6 and 9
tash delete 5 6 9
Synonyms for "delete": rm & remove
Deleting a task removes it and all its sessions from the database. If you have finished a task but still need to include it in reports, use the 'done' command. If you want to discard all completed tasks after having compiled your report, use the 'clean' command.
Generating the weekly report:
# For the current week
tash report
# For one week ago
tash report 1
The report starts from the day designated as the start of the week (see the configuration setting START_OF_WEEK) and shows a daily report for each day showing the time spent on each task during the day.
Discarding completed tasks:
tash clean
This will delete all completed tasks and their sessions and reallocate task numbers. Use this when you have compiled a report and don't need the completed tasks any more. If you want to archive your task history, make a backup of the .tash.db file (or put it under version control).
This script is public domain (2011). If you find any of it remotely useful, feel free to do with it what you will.
Geoff Lewis gsl@gslsrc.net