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1<!doctype html><html lang=en-us><meta charset=utf-8><meta name=viewport content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1"><link href="data:image/x-icon;base64,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" rel=icon type=image/x-icon><title>Re-Inventing Task Runner That I Actually Used Daily</title><meta name=description content="Couple of months ago I had this brilliant idea of re-inventing the wheel bymaking an alternative for make."><link rel=alternate type=application/rss+xml title="Mitja Felicijan's posts" href=https://mitjafelicijan.com/index.xml><link rel=alternate type=application/rss+xml title="Mitja Felicijan's notes" href=https://mitjafelicijan.com/notes.xml><style>body{padding:1rem;max-width:760px;background:#fff;font-family:times new roman,Times,serif;line-height:1.35rem}hr{margin-block-start:1.5rem}h1,h2,h3{line-height:initial}footer{margin-block-start:3rem}table{max-width:100%;border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:2px;border:1px solid #000;border-left:1px solid #999;border-top:1px solid #999}blockquote{font-style:italic}table thead{background:#eee}td,th{border:1px solid #000;padding:4px;border-right:1px solid #999;border-bottom:1px solid #999;text-align:left}pre{text-wrap:nowrap;overflow-x:auto;margin-block-start:1.5rem;margin-block-end:1.5rem;padding:.5rem 0;border-top:1px solid #000;border-bottom:1px solid #000}pre code{line-height:1.3em}pre,code,pre *,code *{font-family:monospace;font-size:initial!important}img,video,audio{max-width:100%}header{display:flex;flex-direction:row;gap:3rem}nav{display:flex;gap:.75rem}.pstatus-orange{background:gold}.pstatus-green{background:#9acd32}.pstatus-red{background:#cd5c5c}@media only screen and (max-width:600px){header{flex-direction:column;gap:1rem}a{word-wrap:break-word}}</style><header><nav class=main><a href=/>Home</a>
2<a href=https://git.mitjafelicijan.com/ target=_blank>Git</a>
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6<a href=/index.xml target=_blank>RSS</a></nav></header><main><div><h1>Re-Inventing Task Runner That I Actually Used Daily</h1><p>May 31, 2023<div><p>Couple of months ago I had this brilliant idea of re-inventing the wheel by
7making an alternative for make. And so I went. Boldly into the battle. And to my
8big surprise my attempt resulted in not a completely useless piece of software.<p>My initial requirements were quite simple but soon grow into something more
9ambitious. And looking back I should have stuck to the simple version. My
10laziness was on my side this time though. Because I haven’t implemented some of
11the features I now realise I really didn’t need them and they would bog the
12whole program and make it be something it was never meant to be.<p>My basic requirements were following:<ul><li>Syntax should be a tiny bit inspired by Rake and Rakefiles.<li>Should borrow the overall feel of a unit test experience.<li>Using something like Python would be a bit of an overkill.<li>The program must be statically compiled, so it can run on same architecture
13without libc, musl dependencies or things like that.<li>Install ruby for rake is a bit overkill and can not be done with certain
14really lightweight distributions like Alpine Linux. This tool would be usable
15on such lightweight systems for remote debugging.<li>I want to use it for more than just compiling things. I want to use it as an
16entry-point into a project, and I want this to help me indirectly document the
17project as well.<li>It should be an abstraction over bash shell or the default system shell.<ul><li>Each task essentially becomes its own shell instance.</ul><li>Must work on Linux and macOS systems.<li>By default, running <code>erd</code> list all the available tasks (when I use make, I
18usually put a disclaimer that you should check Makefile to see all available
19target).<li>Should support passing arguments when you run it from a shell.<li>Normal variable as the same as environmental variables. There is no
20distinction. Every variable is also essentially an environment variable and
21can be used by other programs.<li>State between tasks is not shared, and this makes this “pure” shell instances.<li>Should be single-threaded for the start and later expanded with <code>@spawn</code>
22command.<li>Variables behave like macros and are preprocessed before evaluation.<li>Should support something like <code>assure</code> that would check if programs like C
23compiler or Python (whatever the project requires) are installed on a machine.</ul><p>Quite a reasonable list of requirements. I do this things already in my
24Makefiles or/and Bash scripts. But I would like to avoid repeating myself every
25time I start working on something new.<p>So I started with the following syntax.<pre tabindex=0 style=background-color:#fff><code><span style=display:flex><span>@env on
26</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
27</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:green># Override the default shell.</span>
28</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@shell <span style=color:#a31515>/bin/</span>bash
29</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
30</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:green># Assure that program is installed.</span>
31</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@assure docker-compose pip python3
32</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
33</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:green># Load local dotenv files (these are then globally available).</span>
34</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@dotenv .env
35</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@dotenv .env.sample
36</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@dotenv some_other_file
37</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
38</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:green># This are local variables but still accessible in tasks.</span>
39</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@var HI = <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;hey&#34;</span>
40</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@var TOKEN = <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;sometoken&#34;</span>
41</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@var EMAIL = <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;m@m.com&#34;</span>
42</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@var PASSWORD = <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;pass&#34;</span>
43</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@var EDITOR = <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;vim&#34;</span>
44</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
45</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@task dev <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;Test chars .:&#39;}{]!//&#34;</span> does
46</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> echo <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;...&#34;</span> $HI
47</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#00f>end</span>
48</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
49</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@task clean <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;Cleans the obj files&#34;</span> does
50</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> rm .obj
51</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#00f>end</span>
52</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
53</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@task greet <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;Greets the user&#34;</span> does
54</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> echo <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;Hi user $TOKEN or $WINDOWID $EMAIL&#34;</span>
55</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#00f>end</span>
56</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
57</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@task stack <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;Starts Docker stack&#34;</span> does
58</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> docker-compose -f stack.yml up
59</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#00f>end</span>
60</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
61</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@task todo <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;Shows all todos in source files and count them&#34;</span> does
62</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> grep -ir <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;TODO|FIXME&#34;</span> . | wc -l
63</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#00f>end</span>
64</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
65</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@task test1 <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;For testing 1&#34;</span> does
66</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> unknown-command
67</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> echo <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;test1&#34;</span>
68</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> ls -lha
69</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#00f>end</span>
70</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>
71</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>@task test2 <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;For testing 2&#34;</span> does
72</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> echo <span style=color:#a31515>&#34;test1&#34;</span>
73</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> ls -lha
74</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> docker-compose -f samples/stack.yml up
75</span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#00f>end</span>
76</span></span></code></pre><p>One thing that I really like about Errand. Yes, this is what it is called. And
77it is available at <a href=https://git.mitjafelicijan.com/errand.git/about/>https://git.mitjafelicijan.com/errand.git/about/</a>. Moving
78on. One thing that I really like is that a task is a persistent shell. By that I
79mean, that the whole task, even if it contains multiple command in one shell.
80In make each line in a target is that and you need to combine lines or add <code>\</code>
81at the end of the line.<pre tabindex=0 style=background-color:#fff><code><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:green># How you do this things in make.</span>
82</span></span><span style=display:flex><span>target:
83</span></span><span style=display:flex><span> source .venv/bin/activate <span style=color:#a31515>\
84</span></span></span><span style=display:flex><span><span style=color:#a31515></span> python script.py
85</span></span></code></pre><p>This solves this problem. Consider each task and what is being executed in that
86task a shell that will only close when all the tasks are completed.<p>By self-documenting I mean that if you are in a directory with <code>Errandfile</code> in,
87if you only type <code>erd</code> and press enter it should by default display all the
88possible targets. In make i was doing this by having a first target be something
89like <code>default</code> that echos the message “Check Makefile for all available target.”
90Because all of the tasks in Errand require a message I use that to display let’s
91call it table of contents.<p>Because I don’t use any external dependencies this whole thing can be statically
92compiled. So that also checked one of the boxes.<p>It works on Linux and on a Mac so that’s also a bonus. I don’t believe this
93would work on Windows machines because of the way that I use shell instances. By
94you could use something like Windows Subsystem for Linux and run it in
95there. That is a valid option.<p>To finish this essay off, how was it to use it in “real life”. I have to be
96honest. Some of the missing features still bother me. <code>@dotenv</code> directive is
97still missing and I need to implement this ASAP.<p>Another thing that needs to happen is support for streaming output. Currently
98commands like <code>docker-compose</code> that runs in foreground mode is not compatible
99with Errand. So commands that stream output are an issue. I need to revisit how
100I initiate shell and how I read stdout and stderr. But that shouldn’t be a
101problem.<p>I have been very satisfied with this thing. I am pleasantly surprised by how
102useful it is. I really wanted to test this in the wild before I commit to it. I
103have more abandoned project than Google and it’s bringing a massive shame to my
104family at this point. So I wanted to be sure that this is even useful. And it
105actually is. Quite surprised at myself.<p>I really need to package this now and write proper docs. And maybe rewrite
106tokeniser. Its atrocious right now. Site to behold! But that is an issue for
107another time.</div></div></main><footer><hr><div><h3>Want to comment or have something to add?</h3>You can write me an email at
108<a href=mailto:m@mitjafelicijan.com>m@mitjafelicijan.com</a> or catch up
109with me
110<a href=https://telegram.me/mitjafelicijan target=_blank>on Telegram</a>.</div><hr><p>This website does not track you. Content is made available under
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