task isn't sorting correctly in version 3.42.1

[bartdorlandt]

Description

I updated go-task to the latest version via homebrew

task --version
Task version: 3.42.1 (Homebrew)

I expected the listing to act the same as before. (using --sort none)

Instead the sorting is acting up, where the order is changed using the default, and when using --sort none. The alphanumeric is behaving as expected.

NOTE: order expected is [up, down, remove:volumes]

Output, plain task

❯ task
task: Available tasks for this project:
* down:                 Stop the ghost and db services
* up:                   Start the ghost and db services
* remove:volumes:       Remove the ghost and db services
task: Task "default" does not exist

task -l

❯ task -l
task: Available tasks for this project:
* down:                 Stop the ghost and db services
* up:                   Start the ghost and db services
* remove:volumes:       Remove the ghost and db services

task -l --sort none

❯ task -l --sort none
task: Available tasks for this project:
* down:                 Stop the ghost and db services
* up:                   Start the ghost and db services
* remove:volumes:       Remove the ghost and db services

task -l --sort alphanumeric

❯ task -l --sort alphanumeric
task: Available tasks for this project:
* down:                 Stop the ghost and db services
* remove:volumes:       Remove the ghost and db services
* up:                   Start the ghost and db services

Using shell fish.

Version

3.42.1

Operating system

Mac OS X 15.3.2 (24D81)

Experiments Enabled

No response

Example Taskfile

# https://taskfile.dev

version: '3'

tasks:
  # default:
  #   cmd: task -l --sort none
  #   silent: true

  up:
    desc: Start the ghost and db services
    cmds:
      - docker compose --env-file .env up -d --remove-orphans

  down:
    desc: Stop the ghost and db services
    cmds:
      - docker compose --env-file .env down

  remove:volumes:
    desc: Remove the ghost and db services
    cmds:
      - docker compose --env-file .env down --volumes

[trulede]

@bartdorlandt the default behaviour is AlphaNumericWithRootTasksFirst (which is observed in your report) and that was also linked to the CLI option "none". I've created a PR which adds a sorter for the CLI option "none" which does not sort the tasks.

[bartdorlandt]

@trulede , Just to verify that AlphaNumericWithRootTasksFirst is actually the default... Because the outputs are different.

the default order was:

* down:                 Stop the ghost and db services
* up:                   Start the ghost and db services
* remove:volumes:       Remove the ghost and db services

while the AlphaNumeric is:

* down:                 Stop the ghost and db services
* remove:volumes:       Remove the ghost and db services
* up:                   Start the ghost and db services

[trulede]

@bartdorlandt as it is implemented now (it was recently changed), default sorting is "AlphaNumericWithRootTasksFirst" which is what you are seeing (root tasks are apparently those without an : in the name). Then you have the choice of AlphaNumeric or None.

[bartdorlandt]

That makes complete sense. The tasks with ":" are indeed below the other tasks. Thank you for clarifying and the quick fix. Awesome!

[pd93]

root tasks are apparently those without an : in the name

Correct. Just to expand on this, "root tasks" are any tasks without a parent namespace. Namespaces are separated by colons in Task and can come from includes or by manually adding a : separator in a task name.

The reason for this sorting is that when sorting just alphanumerically, other tasks get sorted by namespace since tasks in the same namespace have the same prefix, but since root tasks have no prefix, they get mixed in randomly amongst the other namespaces which feels weird, so we group them at the top.