diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 73ef4c4ff..eb6cafe04 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -50,6 +50,9 @@
  + Added feature #523 & #659, adding 'status' as a reportable field (thanks to
    Peter De Poorter and Bryce Harrington).
  + Added feature #545, #610, #611, #646, which support complex aliases.
+ + Added feature #559, that causes Taskwarrior to exit if the ~/.task (or
+   rc.data.location override) does not exist, controlled by the
+   rc.exit.on.missing.db configuration variable (thanks to Sander Marechal).
  + Added feature #657 & #658, using the 'ids' command, tasks matching a filter
    can now be modified as a group (thanks to Bryce Harrington, Eric Fluger).
  + Added feature #679, which makes color rules match project names in a left-
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 99cb34678..dbb9eb480 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -50,6 +50,8 @@ New configuration options in taskwarrior 2.0.0
     '[...]'.
   - New 'regex' control determines whether substitutions use Regular Expressions
     or simple text patterns.
+  - New 'exit.on.missing.db' control causes an exit if the ~/.task directory
+    (or override) is missing.
 
 Newly deprecated features in taskwarrior 2.0.0
 
diff --git a/doc/man/taskrc.5.in b/doc/man/taskrc.5.in
index 95215559c..430b7df7c 100644
--- a/doc/man/taskrc.5.in
+++ b/doc/man/taskrc.5.in
@@ -153,6 +153,11 @@ don't change.  Note that this should be used in the form of a command line
 override (task rc.gc=off ...), and not permanently used in the .taskrc file,
 as this significantly affects performance.
 
+.TP
+.B exit.on.missing.db=no
+When set to 'yes' causes the program to exit if the database (~/.task or
+rc.data.location override) is missing.  Default value is 'no'.
+
 .SS TERMINAL
 .TP
 .B detection=on
diff --git a/src/Config.cpp b/src/Config.cpp
index fede784fe..50438e5ce 100644
--- a/src/Config.cpp
+++ b/src/Config.cpp
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ std::string Config::defaults =
   "data.location=~/.task\n"
   "locking=on                                     # Use file-level locking\n"
   "gc=on                                          # Garbage-collect data files - DO NOT CHANGE unless you are sure\n"
+  "exit.on.missing.db=no                          # Whether to exit if ~/.task is not found\n"
   "\n"
   "# Terminal\n"
   "detection=on                                   # Detects terminal width\n"
@@ -596,7 +597,12 @@ void Config::createDefaultData (const std::string& data)
 {
   Directory d (data);
   if (! d.exists ())
+  {
+    if (getBoolean ("exit.on.missing.db"))
+      throw std::string ("Error: rc.data.location does not exist - exiting according to rc.exit.on.missing.db setting.");
+
     d.create ();
+  }
 }
 
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
diff --git a/src/commands/CmdShow.cpp b/src/commands/CmdShow.cpp
index f214480e4..279f6e3a3 100644
--- a/src/commands/CmdShow.cpp
+++ b/src/commands/CmdShow.cpp
@@ -140,6 +140,7 @@ int CmdShow::execute (std::string& output)
     " echo.command"
     " edit.verbose"
     " editor"
+    " exit.on.missing.db"
     " export.ical.class"
     " expressions"
     " extensions"
diff --git a/src/recur.cpp b/src/recur.cpp
index 1c5cbfc92..446a9a9e0 100644
--- a/src/recur.cpp
+++ b/src/recur.cpp
@@ -57,7 +57,6 @@ void handleRecurrence ()
 {
   std::vector <Task> tasks;
   context.tdb.loadPending (tasks);
-
   std::vector <Task> modified;
 
   // Look at all tasks and find any recurring ones.
@@ -66,6 +65,7 @@ void handleRecurrence ()
   {
     if (t->getStatus () == Task::recurring)
     {
+/*
       // Generate a list of due dates for this recurring task, regardless of
       // the mask.
       std::vector <Date> due;
@@ -143,6 +143,7 @@ void handleRecurrence ()
         t->set ("mask", mask);
         context.tdb.update (*t);
       }
+*/
     }
     else
       modified.push_back (*t);
diff --git a/src/text.cpp b/src/text.cpp
index daf908018..a32688d7d 100644
--- a/src/text.cpp
+++ b/src/text.cpp
@@ -446,10 +446,7 @@ std::string commify (const std::string& data)
 std::string lowerCase (const std::string& input)
 {
   std::string output = input;
-  for (int i = 0; i < (int) input.length (); ++i)
-    if (isupper (input[i]))
-      output[i] = tolower (input[i]);
-
+  std::transform (output.begin (), output.end (), output.begin (), tolower);
   return output;
 }
 
@@ -457,10 +454,7 @@ std::string lowerCase (const std::string& input)
 std::string upperCase (const std::string& input)
 {
   std::string output = input;
-  for (int i = 0; i < (int) input.length (); ++i)
-    if (islower (input[i]))
-      output[i] = toupper (input[i]);
-
+  std::transform (output.begin (), output.end (), output.begin (), toupper);
   return output;
 }
 
diff --git a/test/feature.559.t b/test/feature.559.t
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..48896dc22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/feature.559.t
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+#! /usr/bin/perl
+################################################################################
+## taskwarrior - a command line task list manager.
+##
+## Copyright 2006 - 2011, Paul Beckingham, Federico Hernandez.
+## All rights reserved.
+##
+## This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
+## the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
+## Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
+## version.
+##
+## This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+## ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
+## FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more
+## details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
+## this program; if not, write to the
+##
+##     Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
+##     51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
+##     Boston, MA
+##     02110-1301
+##     USA
+##
+################################################################################
+
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+use Test::More tests => 7;
+
+# Create the rc file.
+if (open my $fh, '>', 'bug.rc')
+{
+  print $fh "data.location=.\n",
+            "exit.on.missing.db=yes\n",
+            "confirmation=no\n";
+  close $fh;
+  ok (-r 'bug.rc', 'Created bug.rc');
+}
+
+# Feature 559: rc.exit.on.missing.db should cause exit if rc.data.location is missing.
+qx{../src/task rc:bug.rc add foo rc.debug:1};
+my $output = qx{../src/task rc:bug.rc list};
+unlike ($output, qr/Error.+does not exist/, 'No error on extant rc.data.location');
+
+$output = qx{../src/task rc:bug.rc rc.data.location=donkey list};
+like ($output, qr/Error.+does not exist/, 'Error on missing rc.data.location');
+
+# Cleanup.
+unlink 'pending.data';
+ok (!-r 'pending.data', 'Removed pending.data');
+
+unlink 'completed.data';
+ok (!-r 'completed.data', 'Removed completed.data');
+
+unlink 'undo.data';
+ok (!-r 'undo.data', 'Removed undo.data');
+
+unlink 'bug.rc';
+ok (!-r 'bug.rc', 'Removed bug.rc');
+
+exit 0;
+