Task is run in the wrong subdirectory

[chimbori]

Description

When I set dir: '{{.USER_WORKING_DIR}}', my tasks are run inside a subdirectory in the current directory, instead of within the directory my shell is in.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 04:33:04 ]————
/…/Bug Reports/Taskfile Backslash Space $ tree .
.
├── sub-directory
│   └── sub-sub-directory with spaces
└── Taskfile.yml

3 directories, 1 file

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 04:33:06 ]————
/…/Bug Reports/Taskfile Backslash Space $ cat Taskfile.yml
version: '3'

tasks:
  tree-parent:
    desc: tree
    dir: '{{.USER_WORKING_DIR}}'
    cmds:
      - echo "{{.USER_WORKING_DIR}}"
      - tree .

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 04:33:09 ]————
/…/Bug Reports/Taskfile Backslash Space $ tree .
.
├── sub-directory
│   └── sub-sub-directory with spaces
└── Taskfile.yml

3 directories, 1 file

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 04:33:13 ]————
/…/Bug Reports/Taskfile Backslash Space $ t tree-parent
task: [tree-parent] echo "/…/Bug Reports/Taskfile Backslash Space"
/…/Bug Reports/Taskfile Backslash Space
task: [tree-parent] tree .
.
└── subdirectory\ with\ spaces

2 directories, 0 files

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 04:33:20 ]————
/…/Bug Reports/Taskfile Backslash Space $

Expected

• When I run t tree-parent (t is an alias for task), I expect it to show the same output as running tree . directly in the same directory.

Actual

• Even though task reports the {{.USER_WORKING_DIR}} correctly, it runs the task in sub-directory instead.

Without dir: '{{.USER_WORKING_DIR}}', this works as expected.

---

I’m also seeing some other wonkiness where task is in fact creating brand new subdirectories on disk. If sub directory with spaces exists on disk, Task creates sub\ directory\ with\ spaces alongside it — the backslashes are present in the actual filename, not escape characters, on macOS. I’m trying to prepare a minimal repro case for it, but ran into this current issue in the process of doing that.

Version

3.43.2

Operating system

macOS

Experiments Enabled

No response

Example Taskfile

version: '3'

tasks:
  tree-parent:
    desc: tree
    dir: '{{.USER_WORKING_DIR}}'
    cmds:
      - echo "{{.USER_WORKING_DIR}}"
      - tree .

[chimbori]

Confirmed that this is a regression in v3.43; unable to repro with v3.42.1

Thanks!

Potentially related to #2195

[pd93]

This was caused by #2186 which has been reverted in 68d5095 and released in v3.43.3.

[chimbori]

Similar to #2208 , this also has NOT been resolved with 3.43.3.

Thanks for taking a look!

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 07:25:04 ]————
/…/BugReports/Taskfile $ tree .
.
└── sub directory with spaces
    ├── sub-sub-directory with spaces
    │   └── Taskfile.yml
    └── Taskfile.yml

3 directories, 2 files
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 07:25:07 ]————
/…/BugReports/Taskfile $ cat sub\ directory\ with\ spaces/Taskfile.yml
version: '3'

tasks:
  tree-parent:
    desc: tree
    dir: '{{.USER_WORKING_DIR}}'
    cmds:
      - echo "{{.USER_WORKING_DIR}}"
      - tree .
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 07:25:12 ]————
/…/BugReports/Taskfile $ cat sub\ directory\ with\ spaces/sub-sub-directory\ with\ spaces/Taskfile.yml
version: '3'

includes:
  parents:
    taskfile: ..
    flatten: true

tasks:
  tree-subdir:
    desc: tree
    cmds:
      - tree .
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 07:25:17 ]————
/…/BugReports/Taskfile $ cd sub\ directory\ with\ spaces/sub-sub-directory\ with\ spaces/
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 07:25:24 ]————
/…/BugReports/Taskfile/sub directory with spaces/sub-sub-directory with spaces $ task tree-parent
task: [tree-parent] echo "/…/BugReports/Taskfile/sub directory with spaces/sub-sub-directory with spaces"
/…/BugReports/Taskfile/sub directory with spaces/sub-sub-directory with spaces
task: [tree-parent] tree .
.

0 directories, 0 files
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 07:25:30 ]————
/…/BugReports/Taskfile/sub directory with spaces/sub-sub-directory with spaces $ task --version
3.43.3
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 07:25:59 ]————

[chimbori]

I see you closed #2208 which is now fixed (thank you!), but commenting here since this bug has not been reopened & is still reproducible at head.

I still see this issue in 3.43.3+fc17343

Thanks for looking into it!

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 11:51:03 ]————
/…/BugReports/Taskfile $ tree .
.
└── sub directory with spaces
    ├── sub-sub-directory with spaces
    │   └── Taskfile.yml
    └── Taskfile.yml

3 directories, 2 files
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 11:51:07 ]————
/…/BugReports/Taskfile $ cat "sub directory with spaces/Taskfile.yml"
version: '3'

tasks:
  tree-parent:
    desc: tree
    # dir: '{{.USER_WORKING_DIR}}'
    cmds:
      - echo "{{.USER_WORKING_DIR}}"
      - tree .
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 11:51:26 ]————
/…/BugReports/Taskfile $ cat "sub directory with spaces/sub-sub-directory with spaces/Taskfile.yml"
version: '3'

includes:
  parents:
    taskfile: ..
    flatten: true

tasks:
  tree-subdir:
    desc: tree
    cmds:
      - tree .
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 11:51:40 ]————
/…/BugReports/Taskfile $ cd "sub directory with spaces/sub-sub-directory with spaces"
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 11:51:49 ]————
/…/BugReports/Taskfile/sub directory with spaces/sub-sub-directory with spaces $ t tree-subdir
task: [tree-subdir] tree .
.
└── Taskfile.yml

1 directory, 1 file
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 11:51:57 ]————
/…/BugReports/Taskfile/sub directory with spaces/sub-sub-directory with spaces $ t tree-parent
task: [tree-parent] echo "/…/BugReports/Taskfile/sub directory with spaces/sub-sub-directory with spaces"
/…/BugReports/Taskfile/sub directory with spaces/sub-sub-directory with spaces
task: [tree-parent] tree .
.
└── Taskfile.yml

1 directory, 1 file
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 11:52:01 ]————
/…/BugReports/Taskfile/sub directory with spaces/sub-sub-directory with spaces $ t --version
3.43.3+fc17343
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————[ 11:52:15 ]————

[pd93]

@chimbori I cannot reproduce this. I've stepped through your repros several times and it works fine for me. In your last comment, I noticed that # dir: '{{.USER_WORKING_DIR}}' is commented out. Is this intentional?

[chimbori]

Without dir: '{{.USER_WORKING_DIR}}', it should run in the same directory where the Taskfile is located, correct? (not in $PWD)

(The reason it’s commented is because I was using the same repro structure for this bug and #2208).

[chimbori]

Found it, no regression! Here’s what was going on: describing it here for others, and/or if you want to consider this for any future changes.

There are two ways to run tasks from a Taskfile higher up in the directory hierarchy.

• If your current (sub)sub-directory has no Taskfile, task will walk up the tree and run tasks from parent/Taskfile.yml in the (parent) directory in which that Taskfile lives.

• If your current (sub)sub-directory has a Taskfile that includes a higher-up Taskfile via taskfile: ../.. & flatten: true, then all the tasks from the parent Taskfile are run in the current directory (sub-sub-directory, not parent).

This behavior is consistent in 3.43 & 3.42.

Thanks for all the investigations, rollbacks, and PRs!