Task runner with YAML config written in Go

Task (aka Taskfile) is a task runner written in Go, which is similar to GNU Make, but in my opinion is a lot easier to use as you specify your tasks in yaml.

Originally posted on blog.ruanbekker.com

What to expect

In this post we will go through a quick demonstration using Task, how to install Task, as well as a couple of basic examples to get you up and running with Task.

Install

For mac, installing task::

$ brew install go-task/tap/go-task

For linux, installing task:

$ sh -c "$(curl --location https://taskfile.dev/install.sh)" -- -d -b /usr/local/bin

Or manual installation for arm as an example:

$ pushd /tmp
$ wget https://github.com/go-task/task/releases/download/v3.7.0/task_linux_arm.tar.gz
$ tar -xvf task_linux_arm.tar.gz
$ sudo mv task /usr/local/bin/task
$ sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/task
$ popd

Verify that task is installed:

$ task --version
Task version: v3.7.0

For more information check the installation page:

• https://taskfile.dev/#/installation

Usage

Task uses a default config file: Taskfile.yml in the current working directory where you can provide context on what your tasks should do.

For a basic hello-world example, this task helloworld will echo out hello, world!:

version: '3'

tasks:
  helloworld:
    cmds:
      - echo "hello, world!"

Which we call using the application task with the argument of the task name:

$ task helloworld
task: [helloworld] echo "hello, world!"
hello, world!

For a example using environment variables, we can use it in two ways:

• per task
• globally, across all tasks

For using environment variables per task:

version: '3'

tasks:
  helloworld:
    cmds:
      - echo "hello, $WORD!"
    env:
      WORD: world

Results in:

$ task helloworld
task: [helloworld] echo "hello, $WORD!"
hello, world!

For using environment variables globally across all tasks:

version: '3'

env:
  WORD: world

tasks:
  helloworld:
    cmds:
      - echo "hello, $WORD!"
    env:
      GREETING: hello

  byeworld:
    cmds:
      - echo "$GREETING, $WORD!"
    env:
      GREETING: bye

Running our first task:

$ task helloworld
task: [helloworld] echo "hello, $WORD!"
hello, world!

And running our second task:

$ task byeworld
task: [byeworld] echo "$GREETING, $WORD!"
bye, world!

To store your environment variables in a .env file, you can specify it as the following in your Taskfile.yml:

version: '3'

dotenv: ['.env']

tasks:
  helloworld:
    cmds:
      - echo "hello, $WORD!"
    env:
      GREETING: hello

  byeworld:
    cmds:
      - echo "$GREETING, $WORD!"
    env:
      GREETING: bye

And in your .env:

WORD=world

Then you should see your environment variables referenced from the .env file:

$ task helloworld
task: [helloworld] echo "hello, $WORD!"
hello, world!

To run both tasks with one command, you can specify dependencies, so if we define a task with zero commands but just dependencies, it will call those tasks and execute them:

version: '3'

env:
  WORD: world

tasks:
  helloworld:
    cmds:
      - echo "hello, $WORD!"
    env:
      GREETING: hello

  byeworld:
    cmds:
      - echo "$GREETING, $WORD!"
    env:
      GREETING: bye

  all:
    deps: [helloworld, byeworld]

So when we run the all task:

$ task all
task: [helloworld] echo "hello, $WORD!"
hello, world!
task: [byeworld] echo "$GREETING, $WORD!"
bye, world!

For more usage examples, have a look at their documentation:

• https://taskfile.dev/#/usage

Thanks

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