This article is outdated and may not work correctly for current operating systems or software.
TaskWarrior is an open source time management tool that is an improvement on the Todo.txt application and it's clones. Due to the fact that the average person uses multiple devices/platforms in their daily schedule, it is critical to have the ability to have a centralized repository where the data can be accessed and updated from any device. This tutorial will focus on setting up both the server, called TaskServer (taskd), and the client, called TaskWarrior (task), allowing multiple client devices to access and exchange data securely.
It possesses the following features:
Unlimited Tasks
Task Prioritizing
Search/Filtering
Tagging
Automatic Syncing
Automatic Backup
Full Control & Privacy
Encrypted Communication
A Debian 9 x64 server instance.
A sudo user.
Domain name pointed to Vultr instance (taskd.example.com)
Log in as a regular user who has permission to use the sudo command. Update the system as follows:
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
Use Debian's advanced package tool (apt) to install the TaskServer (taskd).
sudo apt install taskd -y
In order for TaskServer (taskd) to communicate and sync with TaskWarrior (task) clients, you will need to use the generation scripts found under /usr/share/taskd/pki/ to generate server and client certificates/keys. Elevate to the root user using the command below and change directory to /usr/share/taskd/pki/.
sudo su -
cd /usr/share/taskd/pki/
Use the nano program to create a vars file in order to generate a self-signed Root CA.
nano vars
Add the following text below into the vars file. Change ORGANIZATION, CN, COUNTRY, STATE and LOCALITY to your satisfaction.
BITS=4096
EXPIRATION_DAYS=365
ORGANIZATION="Vultr.com Inc."
CN=taskd.example.com
COUNTRY=US
STATE="New York"
LOCALITY="New York"
Generate the self-signed Root CA & cert, server key & cert and server revocation list (optional).
./generate.ca
./generate.server
./generate.crl
These commands will create the following files (ca.cert.pem, ca.key.pem, server.cert.pem, server.key.pem and server.crl.pem) inside the /usr/share/taskd/pki/ directory. In order for TaskServer (taskd) to start, the ownership and permissions on the certificates and keys generated must be modified to allow TaskServer (taskd) to access them. Run the commands below to change them.
chown Debian-taskd.Debian-taskd ca.cert.pem ca.key.pem server.cert.pem server.crl.pem server.key.pem
chmod 400 ca.cert.pem ca.key.pem server.cert.pem server.crl.pem server.key.pem
Configure the TaskServer (taskd) daemon configuration file. Type the following commands below.
export TASKDDATA=/var/lib/taskd
cd $TASKDDATA
ln -s /usr/share/taskd/pki/ca.cert.pem .
ln -s /usr/share/taskd/pki/server.cert.pem .
ln -s /usr/share/taskd/pki/server.crl.pem .
ln -s /usr/share/taskd/pki/server.key.pem .
taskd init
taskd config server 0.0.0.0:53589
taskd config --force ca.cert $TASKDDATA/ca.cert.pem
taskd config --force server.cert $TASKDDATA/server.cert.pem
taskd config --force server.crl $TASKDDATA/server.crl.pem
taskd config --force server.key $TASKDDATA/server.key.pem
taskd config log /var/log/taskd/taskd.log
taskd config pid.file /var/run/taskd.pid
mkdir /var/log/taskd
chown Debian-taskd.Debian-taskd /var/log/taskd
Edit the TaskServer (taskd) systemd file and replace the ExecStart=/usr/bin/taskd server --data /var/lib/taskd --log=- line with ExecStart=/usr/bin/taskd server --data /var/lib/taskd.
nano /lib/systemd/system/taskd.service
Enable and start the TaskServer (taskd) daemon.
systemctl enable taskd
systemctl start taskd
TaskServer (taskd) is now installed and setup on your Debian 9 instance.
/etc/pki/taskd/ directory with /usr/share/taskd/pki/ directory.If you need additional reading material, refer to the TaskWarrior (task) documentation here for basic usage and other related topics.