README - rake: Ruby Standard Library Documentation

# RAKE – Ruby Make¶ ↑

home

  github.com/ruby/rake

bugs

  github.com/ruby/rake/issues

docs

  ruby.github.io/rake

## Description¶ ↑

Rake is a Make-like program implemented in Ruby. Tasks and dependencies are specified in standard Ruby syntax.

Rake has the following features:

- Rakefiles (rake’s version of Makefiles) are completely defined in standard Ruby syntax. No XML files to edit. No quirky Makefile syntax to worry about (is that a tab or a space?)

- Users can specify tasks with prerequisites.

- Rake supports rule patterns to synthesize implicit tasks.

- Flexible FileLists that act like arrays but know about manipulating file names and paths.

- A library of prepackaged tasks to make building rakefiles easier. For example, tasks for building tarballs. (Formerly tasks for building `RDoc`, Gems, and publishing to FTP were included in rake but they’re now available in `RDoc`, RubyGems, and rake-contrib respectively.)

- Supports parallel execution of tasks.

## Installation¶ ↑

### Gem Installation¶ ↑

Download and install rake with the following.

    gem install rake

## Usage¶ ↑

### Simple Example¶ ↑

First, you must write a “Rakefile” file which contains the build rules. Here’s a simple example:

    task default: %w[test]

    task :test do
      ruby "test/unittest.rb"
    end

This Rakefile has two tasks:

- A task named “test”, which – upon invocation – will run a unit test file in Ruby.

- A task named “default”. This task does nothing by itself, but it has exactly one dependency, namely the “test” task. Invoking the “default” task will cause Rake to invoke the “test” task as well.

Running the “rake” command without any options will cause it to run the “default” task in the Rakefile:

    % ls
    Rakefile     test/
    % rake
    (in /home/some_user/Projects/rake)
    ruby test/unittest.rb
    ....unit test output here...

Type “rake –help” for all available options.

## Resources¶ ↑

### Rake Information¶ ↑

- Rake command-line

- Writing Rakefiles

- The original Rake announcement

- Rake glossary

### Presentations and Articles about Rake¶ ↑

- Avdi Grimm’s rake series:

  1. Rake Basics

  2. Rake File Lists

  3. Rake Rules

  4. Rake Pathmap

  5. File Operations

  6. Clean and Clobber

  7. MultiTask

- Jim Weirich’s 2003 RubyConf presentation

- Martin Fowler’s article on Rake: martinfowler.com/articles/rake.html

## Other Make Re-envisionings …¶ ↑

Rake is a late entry in the make replacement field. Here are links to other projects with similar (and not so similar) goals.

- directory.fsf.org/wiki/Bras – Bras, one of earliest implementations of “make in a scripting language”.

- www.a-a-p.org – Make in Python

- ant.apache.org – The Ant project

- search.cpan.org/search?query=PerlBuildSystem – The Perl Build System

- www.rubydoc.info/gems/rant/0.5.7/frames – Rant, another Ruby make tool.

## Credits¶ ↑

Jim Weirich

  Who originally created Rake.

Ryan Dlugosz

  For the initial conversation that sparked Rake.

Nobuyoshi Nakada <nobu@ruby-lang.org>

  For the initial patch for rule support.

Tilman Sauerbeck <tilman@code-monkey.de>

  For the recursive rule patch.

Eric Hodel

  For aid in maintaining rake.

Hiroshi SHIBATA

  Maintainer of Rake 10 and later

## License¶ ↑

Rake is available under an MIT-style license.

Copyright © Jim Weirich

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

# Other stuff¶ ↑

Author

  Jim Weirich <jim.weirich@gmail.com>

Requires

  Ruby 2.0.0 or later

License

  Copyright Jim Weirich. Released under an MIT-style license. See the MIT-LICENSE file included in the distribution.

## Warranty¶ ↑

This software is provided “as is” and without any express or implied warranties, including, without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

## Historical¶ ↑

Rake was originally created by Jim Weirich, who unfortunately passed away in February 2014. This repository was originally hosted at github.com/jimweirich/rake, however with his passing, has been moved to ruby/rake.

You can view Jim’s last commit here: github.com/jimweirich/rake/tree/336559f28f55bce418e2ebcc0a57548dcbac4025

You can read more about Jim at Wikipedia.

Thank you for this great tool, Jim. We’ll remember you.