Getting started¶

Getting Started and How to Call One Task from Another in official documentation

Getting started¶

Open the working directory in terminal (I suggest you to use ./working_dir)

First install Taskfile according to the instructions from the official site. I use the Install Script
and it works just fine.

To create a new taskfile in the directory run a command:
task --init
A new file, Taskfile.yaml, will appear. Open this file in any text editor.
Its content will look like this:

# https://taskfile.dev

version: '3'

vars:
  GREETING: Hello, World!

tasks:
  default:
    cmds:
      - echo "{{.GREETING}}"
    silent: true

If you'll run a command task with no arguments, Taskfile will run the deafult
task, hence it's name.

To make your own task, type it below the exisiting one. Mind indentations,
so that task name should be indented the same amount as the default task
name and so on. The result should look like this:

# https://taskfile.dev

version: '3'

vars:
  GREETING: Hello, World!

tasks:
  default:
    cmds:
      - echo "{{.GREETING}}"
    silent: true

  first-task:
    cmds:
      - echo "My first task runs fine"

Now try running task first-task. It should execute the command that you have
written in cmds section.

By the way:

You can print out the list of all tasks with task -a command.
It's a good practice to add this command to the default task,
so you can call it simply typing task.

tasks:
  default:
    cmds:
      - echo "{{.GREETING}}"
      - task -a
    silent: true

So far so good. Now let's add the description to our task. First it's a good
practice to know what the task's doing. Also, even if the task is self-explanatory,
a description allows Taskfile shell completion to work. For simple tasks like this
just add a dummy desc: _ line:

  first-task:
    desc: _
    cmds:
      - echo "My first task runs fine"

Now let's add more tasks. First of them will be almost exactly the same as before:

  get-started:
    desc: _
    cmds:
      - echo "Call any task to get started"

The next task is a little bit special: it calls another two tasks.
Note that calling tasks goes like this: - task: taskname in cmds section.

  calling-tasks:
    desc: one task can call another tasks, like this one does
    cmds:
      - task: get-started
      - task: first-task

Try running this task:
task calling-tasks
It should call two other tasks that you have written before.
Voila! Now we can chain tasks and combine them to fit our needs.

Note:

In example taskfiles you can find ci-flow task that calls another tasks
exactly like you've just learned to do. This task is there for test purposes:
you can run it to make sure that all other tasks run properly.
This is an example or real-world Taskfile applicantion.
You can make your ci-flow task to call the task sequence for ci-flow:
build, test, deploy and any intermediate steps.

Note:

You can use shell commands in task to call another task, like this:
- task taskname
but it's not recommended. It will work in simple situations when all the
tasks are in one Taskfile in your working directory and no environment
variables are involved. But in more complex setups it may lead to confusion,
so please consider using the native task: taskname method.

Even with this basic toolset Taskfile can make life much easier.
But there's much more to it, as you'll see.

Next chapter