taskctl - concurrent task runner, developer's routine tasks automation toolkit

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Simple modern alternative to GNU Make. taskctl is concurrent task runner that allows you to design you routine tasks and development pipelines in nice and neat way in human-readable format (YAML, JSON or TOML). Given a pipeline (composed of tasks or other pipelines) it builds a graph that outlines the execution plan. Each task my run concurrently or cascade. Beside pipelines, each single task can be started manually or triggered by built-in filesystem watcher.

Features

• human-readable configuration format (YAML, JSON or TOML)
• concurrent tasks execution
• highly customizable execution plan
• cross platform
• import local or remote configurations
• integrated file watcher (live reload)
• customizable execution contexts
• different output types
• embeddable task runner
• interactive prompt
• handy autocomplete
• and many more...

tasks:
  lint:
    command:
      - golint $(go list ./... | grep -v /vendor/)
      - go vet $(go list ./... | grep -v /vendor/)
  
  test:
    allow_failure: true
    command: go test ./....
        
  build:
    command: go build -o bin/app ./...
    env: 
      GOOS: linux
      GOARCH: amd64
    before: rm -rf bin/*

pipelines:
  release:
    - task: lint
    - task: test
    - task: build
      depends_on: [lint, test]

According to this plan lint and test will run concurrently, build will start only when both lint and test finished.

Contents

• Getting started
  • Installation
  • Usage
• Configuration
  • Global configuration
  • Example
• Tasks
  • Pass CLI arguments to task
  • Task's variations
  • Task's variables
  • Storing task's output
  • Conditional execution
• Pipelines
• Filesystem watchers
  • Patterns
• Contexts
• Output formats
• Embeddable task runner
  • Runner
  • Scheduler
• FAQ
  • How does it differ from go-task/task?
• Autocomplete
• Similar projects
• How to contribute?
• License

Getting started

Install

MacOS

brew tap taskctl/taskctl
brew install taskctl

Linux

sudo wget https://github.com/taskctl/taskctl/releases/latest/download/taskctl_linux_amd64 -O /usr/local/bin/taskctl
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/taskctl

Ubuntu Linux

sudo snap install --classic taskctl

deb/rpm:

Download the .deb or .rpm from the releases page and install with dpkg -i and rpm -i respectively.

Windows

scoop bucket add taskctl https://github.com/taskctl/scoop-taskctl.git
scoop install taskctl

Installation script

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/taskctl/taskctl/master/install.sh | sh

From sources

git clone https://github.com/taskctl/taskctl
cd taskctl
go build -o taskctl .

Docker images

Docker images available on Docker hub

Usage

• taskctl - run interactive task prompt
• taskctl pipeline1 - run single pipeline
• taskctl task1 - run single task
• taskctl pipeline1 task1 - run one or more pipelines and/or tasks
• taskctl watch watcher1 watcher2 - start one or more watchers

Configuration

taskctl uses config file (tasks.yaml or taskctl.yaml) where your tasks and pipelines stored. Config file includes following sections:

• tasks
• pipelines
• watchers
• contexts
• variables

Config file may import other config files, directories or URLs.

import:
- .tasks/database.yaml
- .tasks/lint/
- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/taskctl/taskctl/master/docs/example.yaml

Example

Config file example

Global configuration

taskctl has global configuration stored in $HOME/.taskctl/config.yaml file. It is handy to store system-wide tasks, reusable contexts, defaults etc.

Tasks

Task is a foundation of taskctl. It describes one or more commands to run, their environment, executors and attributes such as working directory, execution timeout, acceptance of failure, etc.

tasks:
    lint:
        allow_failure: true
        command:
          - golint $(go list ./... | grep -v /vendor/)
          - go vet $(go list ./... | grep -v /vendor/)
          
    build:
        command: go build ./...
        env: 
          GOOS: linux
          GOARCH: amd64
        env_file: /data/.env
        after: rm -rf tmp/*
        variations:
          - GOARCH: amd64
          - GOARCH: arm
            GOARM: 7

Task definition takes following parameters:

• command - one or more commands to run
• variations - list of variations (env variables) to apply to command
• context - execution context's name
• env - environment variables. All existing environment variables will be passed automatically
• env_file - env file in k=v format to read variables from
• dir - working directory. Current working directory by default
• timeout - command execution timeout (default: none)
• allow_failure - if set to true failed commands will not interrupt execution (default: false)
• after - command that will be executed after command completes
• before - command that will be executed before task starts
• exportAs - env variable name to store task's output (default: TASK_NAME_OUTPUT, where TASK_NAME is actual task's name)
• condition - condition to check before running task
• variables - task's variables
• interactive - if true provides STDIN to commands (default: false)

Tasks variables

Each task, stage and context has variables to be used to render task's fields - command, dir. Along with globally predefined, variables can be set in a task's definition. You can use those variables according to text/template documentation.

Predefined variables are:

• .Root - root config file directory
• .Dir - config file directory
• .TempDir - system's temporary directory
• .Args - provided arguments as a string
• .ArgsList - array of provided arguments
• .Task.Name - current task's name
• .Context.Name - current task's execution context's name
• .Stage.Name - current stage's name
• .Output - previous command's output
• .Tasks.Task1.Output - task1 last command output

Variables can be used inside task definition. For example:

tasks:
    task1:
        dir: "{{ .Root }}/some-dir"
        command:
          - echo "My name is {{ .Task.Name }}"
          - echo {{ .Output }} # My name is task1
          - echo "Sleep for {{ .sleep }} seconds"
          - sleep {{ .sleep | default 10 }}
          - sleep {{ .sleep }}
        variables:
          sleep: 3

Pass CLI arguments to task

Any command line arguments succeeding -- are passed to each task via .Args, .ArgsList variables or ARGS environment variable.

Given this definition:

lint1:
  command: go lint {{.Args}}

lint2:
  command: go lint {{index .ArgsList 1}}

the resulting command is:

$ taskctl lint1 -- package.go
# go lint package.go

$ taskctl lint2 -- package.go main.go
# go lint main.go

Storing task's output

Task output automatically stored to the variable named like this - .Tasks.TaskName.Output, where TaskName is the actual task's name. It is also stored to TASK_NAME_OUTPUT environment variable. It's name can be changed by a task's exportAs parameter. Those variables will be available to all dependent stages.

Tasks variations

Task may run in one or more variations. Variations allows to reuse task with different env variables:

tasks:
  build:
    command:
      - GOOS=${GOOS} GOARCH=amd64 go build -o bin/taskctl_${GOOS} ./cmd/taskctl
    env:
      GOFLAGS: -ldflags=-s -ldflags=-w
    variations:
      - GOOS: linux
      - GOOS: darwin
      - GOOS: windows

this config will run build 3 times with different GOOS

Task conditional execution

The following task will run only when there are any changes that are staged but not committed:

tasks:
  build:
    command:
      - ...build...
    condition: git diff --exit-code

Pipelines

Pipeline is a set of stages (tasks or other pipelines) to be executed in a certain order. Stages may be executed in parallel or one-by-one. Stage may override task's environment, variables etc.

This pipeline:

pipelines:
    pipeline1:
        - task: start task
        - task: task A
          depends_on: "start task"
        - task: task B
          depends_on: "start task"
        - task: task C
          depends_on: "start task"
        - task: task D
          depends_on: "task C"
        - task: task E
          depends_on: ["task A", "task B", "task D"]
        - task: finish
          depends_on: ["task E"]    

will result in an execution plan like this:

Stage definition takes following parameters:

• name - stage name. If not set - referenced task or pipeline name will be used.
• task - task to execute on this stage
• pipeline - pipeline to execute on this stage
• env - environment variables. All existing environment variables will be passed automatically
• depends_on - name of stage on which this stage depends on. This stage will be started only after referenced stage is completed.
• allow_failure - if true failing stage will not interrupt pipeline execution. false by default
• condition - condition to check before running stage
• variables - stage's variables

Taskctl output formats

Taskctl has several output formats:

• raw - prints raw commands output
• prefixed - strips ANSI escape sequences where possible, prefixes command output with task's name
• cockpit - tasks dashboard

Filesystem watchers

Watcher watches for changes in files selected by provided patterns and triggers task anytime an event has occurred.

watchers:
  watcher1:
    watch: ["README.*", "pkg/**/*.go"] # Files to watch
    exclude: ["pkg/excluded.go", "pkg/excluded-dir/*"] # Exclude patterns
    events: [create, write, remove, rename, chmod] # Filesystem events to listen to
    task: task1 # Task to run when event occurs

Patterns

Thanks to doublestar taskctl supports the following special terms within include and exclude patterns:

Any character with a special meaning can be escaped with a backslash (\).

Contexts

Contexts allow you to set up execution environment, variables, binary which will run your task, up/down commands etc.

contexts:
  local:
    executable:
      bin: /bin/zsh
      args:
        - -c
    env:
      VAR_NAME: VAR_VALUE
    variables:
      sleep: 10
    quote: "'" # will quote command with provided symbol: "/bin/zsh -c 'echo 1'"
    before: echo "I'm local context!"
    after: echo "Have a nice day!"

Context has hooks which may be triggered once before first context usage or every time before task with this context will run.

context:
    docker-compose:
      executable:
        bin: docker-compose
        args: ["exec", "api"]
      up: docker-compose up -d api
      down: docker-compose down api

    local:
      after: rm -rf var/*

Docker context

  alpine:
    executable:
      bin: /usr/local/bin/docker
      args:
        - run
        - --rm
        - alpine:latest
    env:
      DOCKER_HOST: "tcp://0.0.0.0:2375"
    before: echo "SOME COMMAND TO RUN BEFORE TASK"
    after: echo "SOME COMMAND TO RUN WHEN TASK FINISHED SUCCESSFULLY"

tasks:
  mysql-task:
    context: alpine
    command: uname -a

Embeddable task runner

taskctl may be embedded into any go program. Additional information may be found on taskctl's pkg.go.dev page

Runner

t := task.FromCommands("go fmt ./...", "go build ./..")
r, err := NewTaskRunner()
if err != nil {
    return
}
err  = r.Run(t)
if err != nil {
    fmt.Println(err, t.ExitCode, t.ErrorMessage())
}
fmt.Println(t.Output())

Scheduler

format := task.FromCommands("go fmt ./...")
build := task.FromCommands("go build ./..")
r, _ := runner.NewTaskRunner()
s := NewScheduler(r)

graph, err := NewExecutionGraph(
    &Stage{Name: "format", Task: format},
    &Stage{Name: "build", Task: build, DependsOn: []string{"format"}},
)
if err != nil {
    return
}

err = s.Schedule(graph)
if err != nil {
    fmt.Println(err)
}

FAQ

How does it differ from go-task/task?

It's amazing how solving same problems lead to same solutions. taskctl and go-task have a lot of concepts in common but also have some differences.

1. Main is pipelines. Pipelines and stages allows more precise workflow design because same tasks may have different dependencies (or no dependencies) in different scenarios.
2. Contexts allow you to set up execution environment and binary which will run your task.

Autocomplete

Bash

Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile

. <(taskctl completion bash)

ZSH

Add to ~/.zshrc

. <(taskctl completion zsh)

Similar projects

• GNU Make
• go-task/task
• mage
• tusk
• just
• cr
• realize

How to contribute?

Feel free to contribute in any way you want. Share ideas, submit issues, create pull requests. You can start by improving this README.md or suggesting new features Thank you!

License

This project is licensed under the GNU GPLv3 - see the LICENSE.md file for details

Authors

• Yevhen Terentiev - trntv See also the list of contributors who participated in this project.