Tiny task manager for Linux, MacOS and Unix-like systems.
Written as a single Python script.

Installation

Download the script directly (recommended):

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yuriescl/ttm/dev/ttm.py -o ttm
chmod +x ttm
./ttm

Alternative installation methods

Installing through pip

pip install ttm
ttm  # or python -m ttm

Requirements:

• python >=3.8
• ps (usually available by default)

Features:

• No root access required
• Daemon-less
• Easily start, watch, and stop tasks using very simple and direct CLI commands
• Written as a single script built using only the Python standard library - easy to audit and run

Comparison to other popular server task managers:

• systemctl
  • Pros
    • Sophisticated dependency management via WantedBy
    • Works well with system services
    • Usually installed by default in any modern server
    • Many advanced options, useful for fine-grained control of system services
  • Cons
    • Unit files are required every time you need to setup a simple background task
    • Difficult to work with when you're not the root user (systemctl --user is not so simple to use)
    • If not installed in the system, can be difficult to install and setup as a non-privileged user
    • Difficult for beginners and non-sysadmins
• supervisord
  • Pros
    • Very advanced and fine-grained control of tasks, similar to systemctl
  • Cons
    • Not usually installed by default in modern servers
    • Even if installed, usually requires root access
    • Difficult for beginners and non-sysadmins
• pm2
  • Pros
    • Modern codebase (JavaScript)
    • Can be easily installed via npm install pm2
    • Has advanced integration with Node.js programs (cluster mode, load balancing, etc)
    • Widely known and used in Node.js ecosystem
  • Cons
    • Not usually installed by default in modern servers
    • Might not work so well with non-Node.js software
    • Requires node and npm to be installed
    • Might consume more RAM than intended since it's JavaScript
    • Can be a bit difficult to setup and run simple tasks
• docker
  • Pros
    • Quickly spin up a development/production instance given a properly configured Dockerfile
    • Container/Dockerfile can be easily shared accross a development team so everyone can test in same OS environment
    • Widely available and used across many different platforms
    • All dependencies can be installed in the container
  • Cons
    • Requires root access
    • Usually the processes run as the root user, which can lead to major security vulnerabilities
    • Very hard for beginners and non-sysadmins
    • Difficult to run simple tasks that don't need containers

ttm was initially an attempt (after painfully having to deal with the existing options like PM2, systemctl, etc) to have a script I could easily copy to a server and manage simple tasks like a gunicorn server, or a celery worker. After a while, ttm became a very useful tool in day-to-day deployments, so it made sense to make it public.

Examples

Running a script:

$ ttm run ./backup-database.sh --output /backups/database.sql
$ ttm ls
ID   NAME COMMAND                                              UPTIME PID    
1    -    ./backup-database.sh --output /backups/database.sql  2s     742537 
$ ttm stop 1
$ ttm rm 1

Running Django server:

$ ttm run --name mydjangoserver python manage.py runserver
$ ttm rm mydjangoserver
Cannot remove task while it's running.
To stop it, run:
ttm stop mydjangoserver
$ ttm logs mydjangoserver
$ ttm rm mydjangoserver

Development

Environment

poetry env use python3.8
poetry install
poetry shell