Stopping a Disabled task doesn't make sense. And it doesn't change the state.

[lynxbat]

❯ build/bin/snapctl task list                                                                                                            ⏎ ✭
ID                   NAME                        STATE       HIT     MISS    FAIL    CREATED         LAST FAILURE
0c9ad69d-f8a2-409c-b162-de6f3e3bd4d5     Task-0c9ad69d-f8a2-409c-b162-de6f3e3bd4d5   Disabled    10      0   10      2:16PM 6-30-2016    Publish call error: Post http://127.0.0.1:8086/write

❯ build/bin/snapctl task stop 0c9ad69d-f8a2-409c-b162-de6f3e3bd4d5                                                                         ✭
Task stopped:
ID: 0c9ad69d-f8a2-409c-b162-de6f3e3bd4d5

❯ build/bin/snapctl task list                                                                                                              ✭
ID                   NAME                        STATE       HIT     MISS    FAIL    CREATED         LAST FAILURE
0c9ad69d-f8a2-409c-b162-de6f3e3bd4d5     Task-0c9ad69d-f8a2-409c-b162-de6f3e3bd4d5   Disabled    10      0   10      2:16PM 6-30-2016    Publish call error: Post http://127.0.0.1:8086/write

[geauxvirtual]

Looking at the code, it seems an error should be thrown for trying to execute an action on a task in a state that does not support that action. Something like the following.

--- intelsdi-x/snap » build/bin/snapctl task stop 79300219-ad4a-4c17-851e-3e431cf8839d
Error stopping task:
error 0: Disabled tasks cannot be stopped.

[jcooklin]

it seems an error should be thrown for trying to execute an action on a task in a state that does not support that action

I agree.