`task config` does not report an error if it cannot write to .taskrc

[echo-bravo-yahoo]

~ ❯ task context define test project:personal
Are you sure you want to add 'context.test.read' with a value of 'project:personal'? (yes/no) y
Are you sure you want to add 'context.test.write' with a value of 'project:personal'? (yes/no) y
Context 'test' defined (read, write). Use 'task context test' to activate.
~ ❯ task context test
Context 'test' not found.
~ ❯ task context list | grep test
~ ❯ task context delete test
Do you want to delete context 'test'? (yes/no) y
Context 'test' not found.
~ ❯ task --version
3.1.0
~ ❯ task diag
task 3.1.0
   Platform: Darwin

Compiler
    Version: Apple LLVM 15.0.0 (clang-1500.3.9.4)
       Caps: +stdc +stdc_hosted +LP64 +c8 +i32 +l64 +vp64 +time_t64
 Compliance: C++17

Build Features
      CMake: 3.30.2
    libuuid: libuuid + uuid_unparse_lower
 Build type: Release

Configuration
       File: /Users/.../.taskrc (found), 5192 bytes, mode 100644
       Data: /Users/.../.task (found), dir, mode 40755
         GC: Enabled
    $EDITOR: nvim
Hooks
     System: Disabled
   Location: /Users/.../.task/hooks
             (-none-)

Tests
   Terminal: 416x114
 Broken ref: Scanned 2814 tasks for broken references:
             No broken references found
~ ❯ vim ~/.taskrc
~ ❯ task context list | grep manualtest
manualtest         read  project:personal                                       no
~ ❯ task context delete manualtest
Do you want to delete context 'manualtest'? (yes/no) yes
Context 'manualtest' deleted.
~ ❯ task context list | grep manualtest
~ ❯ 

I don't appear to be able to create contexts in v3.1.0 from the CLI. Some other useful information:

• I recently upgraded to taskwarrior v3
• I'm using taskchampion-server to sync
• I have many old-style contexts (read only) in my task rc and no new-style contexts
  • I actually can't find any migration docs - what sent me down this rabbit hole in the first place was wanting to migrate my contexts to the newer definition style

[djmitche]

I don't know much about contexts, but this does work for me. As the vim ~/.taskrc suggests, task context define just adds some lines to .taskrc. Is it not adding them, or are they not being interpreted correctly?

[echo-bravo-yahoo]

They were not being added (despite the command exiting successfully). I can't reproduce on this computer, will try again tonight on the other computer. I did end up making this tiny test harness, though, that might be helpful for some people to generate minimal repros:

mkdir ~/.task-debug && \
echo -e "data.location=~/.task-debug\nnews.version=3.1.0" >> ~/.taskrc-debug && \
TASKRC=~/.taskrc-debug task list

[djmitche]

Is the .taskrc writeable? I see a link to #3613 where .taskrc appears to be read-only, so worth asking.

If the .taskrc modification fails silently, that would be a bug!

I actually can't find any migration docs - what sent me down this rabbit hole in the first place was wanting to migrate my contexts to the newer definition style

I didn't realize there was any migration to do. What is the "older definition style"? As I said, I don't know much about contexts!

[djmitche]

       File: /Users/.../.taskrc (found), 5192 bytes, mode 100644

I can't figure out what that 1 means. It's not in chmod(2) on my system..

[echo-bravo-yahoo]

So, "old" contexts look like:

context.home=project:home

Taskwarrior appears to convert this internally to a "new" context with only its read behavior defined:

context.home.read=project:home
context.home.write=

If I wanted newly-created tasks in this context to have certain properties, I could edit it to be:

context.home.read=project:home
context.home.write=project:home priority:L

This isn't really documented anywhere I could find, so I've sort of sussed this out from interacting with it on several computers with several versions of taskwarrior.

[echo-bravo-yahoo]

Maybe this is a WSL/linux permission intersection issue? The computer that was not behaving well was ubuntu-in-windows; maybe @martiege has a similar setup?

[djmitche]

Oh, intersting --

    Version: Apple LLVM 15.0.0 (clang-1500.3.9.4)

had me assuming this was a mac..

A PR to add documentation for those formats, either to the manpages here, or to https://github.com/GothenburgBitFactory/tw.org, would be great!

[echo-bravo-yahoo]

Ah, sorry - I recently migrated to taskwarrior 3 on a linux computer, a WSL computer, a mac, and an android phone, and the issues I was having were either on the mac or the WSL computer, but neither are reproducible now (I just checked the WSL setup, and it's working fine) and I grabbed the logs from the mac.

This is especially perplexing because I version control my taskrc, and I rolled it backwards/forwards and couldn't get it to repro at any recent commit...

[echo-bravo-yahoo]

I think this issue can probably be closed for now (can't repro, can't fix, and i'm unblocked). I'll take a look at the docs site for contexts and see if I can get a PR up sometime soon. Thanks!

~/w/wildflower/valley main !2 ❯ ls -la ~/.taskrc
-rw-r--r-- 1 foo foo 5192 Aug 30 16:06 /home/foo/.taskrc
~/w/wildflower/valley main !2 ❯ chmod -w ~/.taskrc
~/w/wildflower/valley main !2 ❯ t context define test +test
Are you sure you want to add 'context.test.read' with a value of '+test'? (yes/no) y
Are you sure you want to add 'context.test.write' with a value of '+test'? (yes/no) y
Context 'test' defined (read, write). Use 'task context test' to activate.
~/w/wildflower/valley main !2 ❯ echo $?
0
~/w/wildflower/valley main !2 ❯ t context test
Context 'test' not found.
~/w/wildflower/valley main !2 ❯ chmod +w ~/.taskrc
~/w/wildflower/valley main !2 ❯ t context define test +test
Are you sure you want to add 'context.test.read' with a value of '+test'? (yes/no) y
Are you sure you want to add 'context.test.write' with a value of '+test'? (yes/no) y
Context 'test' defined (read, write). Use 'task context test' to activate.
~/w/wildflower/valley main !2 ❯ t context test
Context 'test' set. Use 'task context none' to remove.

Ok, so there definitely is a "fails silently" bug here. figured since the repro was easy enough i'd test it, and sure enough... :)

[djmitche]

OK, nice! I can repro that too, with the simpler task config:

⸩ chmod -w .taskrc
⸩ echo foo=bar >> .taskrc 
bash: .taskrc: Permission denied
⸩ task config foo bar
Are you sure you want to add 'foo' with a value of 'bar'? (yes/no) yes
TASKRC override: /home/dustin/p/taskwarrior/.taskrc
Config file /home/dustin/p/taskwarrior/.taskrc modified.
⸩ grep foo= .taskrc 
⸩ 

I'll mark this as a bug and add it to the backlog.