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Ruan Bekker
Ruan Bekker

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Task runner with YAML config written in Go

#tutorial #go #yaml #devops

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
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For linux, installing task:

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

$ task --version Task version: v3.7.0
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For more information check the installation page:

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

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

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

$ task helloworld task: [helloworld] echo "hello, $WORD!" hello, world!
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And running our second task:

$ task byeworld task: [byeworld] echo "$GREETING, $WORD!" bye, world!
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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
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And in your .env:

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

$ task helloworld task: [helloworld] echo "hello, $WORD!" hello, world!
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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]
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So when we run the all task:

$ task all task: [helloworld] echo "hello, $WORD!" hello, world! task: [byeworld] echo "$GREETING, $WORD!" bye, world!
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For more usage examples, have a look at their documentation:

Thanks

Thanks for reading, if you like my content, check out my website or follow me at @ruanbekker on Twitter.

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