Task: Shell is evaluated even before running the task

Created on 20 May 2020 · 7Comments · Source: go-task/task

Task version: v3.0.0-preview3
OS: mac

Hi, thanks for the great work!
Task v3 evaluates shell commands before running the task - for example when running task --list.
This is not the behaviour in v2 and doesn't make sense as a lot of tasks depend on previous tasks.

Example:

version: '3'

tasks:
  foo:
    desc: foo
    cmds:
      - echo $MSG
    env:
      MSG: {sh: 'sleep 10; echo hi'}

Running task --list will sleep for 10 seconds.
In v2 it will just work as expected :)

Same bug occurs under vars: so I guess it has to do with the shell evaluation.
If you point me into a direction that might cause this behaviour I can add a PR to fix it.
Thanks!

bug variables

Source

ronlut

👍1

Most helpful comment

Hi, thanks for the reply.
I don't think it's only a problem with slow variables.
It may fail task --list in various scenarios. If you use vars somewhere in the shell it will fail as when running task --list you don't provide any vars - you just want to know what tasks are available.

ronlut on 2 Jun 2020

👍2

All 7 comments

Hi @ronlut,

It's possible that the behavior is completely different in the v3 branch currently as it was refactored a few days ago (and not yet released on the preview channel). It'd be nice if you could try it.

Or if you don't want to build from source, I plan to release the last v3 preview release soon (before it goes to stable).

andreynering on 20 May 2020

Checked with latest commit on v3 branch - bug still exists.

ronlut on 20 May 2020

👍1

Hi @ronlut,

I just figured out what's happening. Actually this is not a v3 issue, it's also on v2, but only starting on the v2.8.1 release, which was made later in the same day you opened this issue.

This was caused by #276 and #283, i.e. someone couldn't use variables on desc before this patch.

To be honest, I'm not sure about what to do here. That a valid feature request, but comes with this drawback of making stuff slow if you have slow dynamic variables (which people should usually avoid if possible).

andreynering on 31 May 2020