How to do a search that matches all todo's except a specific one?

Question

I want to find all todo's except type TASK without having to list all the other types.

I tried the following but no luck:

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands '( ("h" "Everything not a task"
 ( (todo "-TASK")))))

Gives an empty list.

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands '( ("h" "Everything not a task"
 ( (todo ".*|-TASK")))))

Gives me everything, also TASK

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands '( ("h" "Everything not a task"
 ( (todo "TODO|-TASK")))))

Gives me all TODO, and not TASK but I don't want to also maintain the list of types here.

kfoley · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-03 20:12:36Z

4

This should return all todo's except those with a today keyword of TASK

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands '( ("h" "Everything not a task"
                                     ( (tags-todo "+TODO<>\"TASK\"")))))

you could also use

(setq org-agenda-custom-commands '( ("h" "Everything not a task"
                                     ( (tags-todo "/-TASK")))))

This is based on the documentation here.

answered Mar 3 '17 at 19:39

kfoley

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Would that also include my INPROGEsS todos? – Max Rydahl Andersen Mar 3 '17 at 19:44
Trying to grok that syntax while I'm still on mobile. – Max Rydahl Andersen Mar 3 '17 at 19:47
Maybe I misunderstood, is TASK a tag or a TODO keyword that you're trying to avoid? This will pull all TODO's except those that are a TODO keyword of TASK – kfoley Mar 3 '17 at 20:03
It's basically just +TODO<>"TASK" , see "Limit tags and properties searches by TODO state" on orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/advanced-searching.html – kfoley Mar 3 '17 at 20:04
it is a TODO Keyword. now at laptop and I can see it works - so thats great :) I now just wonder what the meaning of +/- syntax is that is described in org-mode manual. I haven't seen the <> before, but seems good ;) – Max Rydahl Andersen Mar 3 '17 at 20:05

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