RAKE — Ruby Make

Supporting Rake version: 0.7.x

This package contains Rake, a simple ruby build program with capabilities similar to make.

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 sythesize 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.

Download

The latest version of rake can be found at

• rubyforge.org/project/showfiles.php?group_id=50

Installation

Normal Installation

You can install rake with the following command.

% ruby install.rb

from its distribution directory.

GEM Installation

Download and install rake with the following.

gem install --remote rake

Running the Rake Test Suite

If you wish to run the unit and functional tests that come with Rake:

• CD into the top project directory of rake.
• Type one of the following:

  rake                  # If you have a version of rake installed
  ruby -Ilib bin/rake   # If you do not have a version of rake installed.

Online Resources

Rake References

• Rake Documentation Home: docs.rubyrake.org
• Rake Project Page: rubyforge.org/projects/rake
• Rake API Documents: rake.rubyforge.org

Presentations and Articles about Rake

• Jim Weirich’s 2003 RubyConf presentation: onestepback.org/articles/buildingwithrake/
• Martin Fowler’s article on Rake: martinfowler.com/articles/rake.html

Road Map

• If you want to see how to invoke rake to build your projects, read on.
• If you want to see the format of a Rakefile, see doc/rakefile.rdoc.
• If you want to see the original announcement of rake, see doc/rational.rdoc.
• If you want to see a glossary of terms, see doc/glossary.rdoc.

Simple Example

Once installed, you can run rake as follows …

% rake [options ...]  [VAR=VALUE ...]  [tasks...]

Type "rake —help" for an up-to-date option summary.

Invoking rake without any options or targets causes rake to look for a rakefile and invoke the default task in that rakefile.

For example, given a simple rakefile like this …

task :default => [:test]

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

The command

$ rake

will invoke the default task. As default satisfies its prerequisites, the test task will run the unit tests for the package.

Other Make Reinvisionings …

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/bras.html — Bras, one of earliest implementations of "make in a scripting language".
• www.a-a-p.org — Make in Python
• www.aromatic.com/tools/jam.txt — JAM, Java Automated Make
• ant.apache.org — The Ant project
• ppt.perl.org/commands/make/index.html — Make from the Perl Power Tools implementation.
• search.cpan.org/search?query=PerlBuildSystem — The Perl Build System
• make.rubyforge.org — Rant, another Ruby make tool.

Credits

Ryan Dlugosz

For the initial conversation that sparked Rake.

nobu.nokada@softhome.net

For the initial patch for rule support.

Tilman Sauerbeck <tilman@code-monkey.de>

For the recursive rule patch.

License

Rake is available under an MIT-style license.

:include: MIT-LICENSE

Support

The Rake homepage is rake.rubyforge.org. You can find the Rake RubyForge page at rubyforge.org/projects/rake.

Feel free to submit commits or feature requests. If you send a patch, remember to update the corresponding unit tests. If fact, I prefer new feature to be submitted in the form of new unit tests.

For other information, feel free to ask on the ruby-talk mailing list (which is mirrored to comp.lang.ruby) or contact mailto:jim@weirichhouse.org.

Usage

Rake is invoked from the command line using:

% rake [<em>options</em> ...]  [<em>VAR</em>=<em>VALUE</em>]  [<em>targets</em> ...]

Options are:

name=value

Set the environment variable name to value during the execution of the rake command. You can access the value by using ENV[‘name’].

—classic-namespace (-n)

Import the Task, FileTask, and FileCreateTask into the top-level scope to be compatible with older versions of Rake. Alternatively you can include the line require ‘rake/classic_namespace’ in your Rakefile to get the classic behavior.

—dry-run (-n)

Do a dry run. Print the tasks invoked and executed, but do not actually execute any of the actions.

—help (-H)

Display some help text and exit.

—libdir directory (-I)

Add directory to the list of directories searched for require.

—nosearch (-N)

Do not search for a Rakefile in parent directories.

—prereqs (-P)

Display a list of all tasks and their immediate prerequisites.

—quiet (-q)

Do not echo commands from FileUtils.

—rakefile filename (-f)

Use filename as the name of the rakefile. The default rakefile names are rakefile and Rakefile (with rakefile taking precedence). If the rakefile is not found in the current directory, rake will search parent directories for a match. The directory where the Rakefile is found will become the current directory for the actions executed in the Rakefile.

—require name (-r)

Require name before executing the Rakefile.

—tasks (-T)

Display a list of the major tasks and their comments. Comments are defined using the "desc" command.

—trace (-t)

Turn on invoke/execute tracing. Also enable full backtrace on errors.

—usage (-h)

Display a usage message and exit.

—verbose (-v)

Echo the Sys commands to standard output.

—version (-V)

Display the program version and exit.

In addition, any command line option of the form VAR=VALUE will be added to the environment hash ENV and may be tested in the Rakefile.

Rakefile Format

See doc/rakefile.rdoc for details on the Rakefile format.

Other stuff

Warranty

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