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 respectively.)
Supports parallel execution of tasks.
Download and install rake with the following.
gem install rake
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.
Rake command-line
Writing Rakefiles
The original Rake announcement
Rake glossary
Avdi Grimm's rake series:
Martin Fowler's article on Rake: martinfowler.com/articles/rake.html
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.
Who originally created Rake.
For the initial conversation that sparked Rake.
For the initial patch for rule support.
For the recursive rule patch.
For aid in maintaining rake.
Maintainer of Rake 10.X and Rake 11.X
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.
Jim Weirich <jim.weirich@gmail.com>
Ruby 1.9.3 or later
Copyright Jim Weirich. Released under an MIT-style license. See the MIT-LICENSE file included in the distribution.
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.
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.