on-modify hook ignores task start time

[xeruf]

When starting a task with something such as task start 1 21:00, taskwarrior correctly marks the task as started at that time in the past, but timewarrior assumes it to have been started just now.

[lauft]

Interaction between Taskwarrior and Timewarrior is managed by the on-modify.timewarrior hook. Currently the hook script does not extract the start time from the supplied JSON.

To better analyse your issue you could provide a minimal reproducing example JSON, like

# create test environment
export TASKRC=/tmp/taskwarrior/taskrc
export TASKDATA=/tmp/taskwarrior/task
mkdir -p ${TASKDATA}
rm -rf ${TASKDATA:?}/*
:> ${TASKRC}

mkdir -p ${TASKDATA}/hooks
cp path/to/on-modify.dump ${TASKDATA}/hooks # set path to dumper script here!

rm -rf ${TASKDATA:?}/*.data # clean previous runs
# enter the necessary commands to reproduce the issue here, e.g.
task start 1 21:00

# The dumped JSON data is now available at /tmp/on-modify.dump...

The dumper-script:

#!/bin/bash

# The on-modify event is triggered separately for each task modified.

# Input:
# - line of JSON for the original task
# - line of JSON for the modified task, the diff being the modification
read original_task
read modified_task

echo "${original_task}" > /tmp/on-modify.dump
echo "${modified_task}" >> /tmp/on-modify.dump

# Output:
# - JSON, modified or unmodified.
# - Optional feedback/error.
echo "${modified_task}"
echo 'on-modify'

# Status:
# - 0:     JSON accepted, non-JSON is feedback.
# - non-0: JSON ignored, non-JSON is error.
exit 0

[xeruf]

oh, I just realised that the syntax above actually creates an annotation instead of marking the start time.
task 1 modify start:2020-05-06T09:00 seems to be the only working way, but that isn't recognized by the hook either.
I couldn't really find any docs on task-start, what it exactly does, which options it supports, whether you can specify a time. I guess I'm gonna ask in taskwarrior as well.

[xeruf]

It also obviously ignores changes of the start time - the hook doesn't care at all if I change the start time of an active task.

[lauft]

As mentioned above: 😉

Currently the hook script does not extract the start time from the supplied JSON.

[xeruf]

Yeah I know, just wanted to record that separately in case that changes implementation details :)

[xeruf]

Got it fixed, will open a PR soon :)

[xeruf]

Okay, there is still one issue: In Taskwarrior, multiple tasks can be started at the same time - thus a task that is not actually tracked in timewarrior can have its start time modified, which currently totally messes up things. I think we need to check for an exact match and otherwise create a new timetracking - this is tougher than I thought ^^