RAKE — Ruby Make

Supporting Rake version: 0.8.7.

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 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, gems and RDoc output are provided.
• Supports parallel execution of tasks.

Installation

Gem Installation

Download and install rake with the following.

   gem install rake

Normal Installation

You can download the source tarball of the latest version of Rake from

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

Extract the tarball and run

  % ruby install.rb

from its distribution directory.

Usage

Simple Example

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

  task :default => [: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.

More Information

• For details on Rake’s command-line invocation, read doc/command_line_usage.rdoc
• For details on writing Rakefiles, see doc/rakefile.rdoc.
• For the original announcement of Rake, see doc/rational.rdoc.
• For a glossary of terms, see doc/glossary.rdoc.

Development

Source Repository

Rake is currently hosted at github. The github web page is github.com/jimweirich/rake. The public git clone URL is

• git://github.com/jimweirich/rake.git

Running the Rake Test Suite

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

• Install the ‘session’ gem in order to run the functional tests.
• 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.
  

Issues and Bug Reports

Bugs, features requests and other issues can be logged at

• onestepback.org/redmine/projects/show/rake

You will need an account to before you can post issues. Register at onestepback.org/redmine/account/register. Or you can send me an email (at jim dot weirich at gmail dot com)

Online Resources

Rake References

• Rake Documentation Home: docs.rubyrake.org
• Rake Project Page: rubyforge.org/projects/rake
• Rake API Documents: rake.rubyforge.org
• Rake Source Code Repo: github.com/jimweirich/rake
• Rake Git Repo Clone URL: git://github.com/jimweirich/rake.git

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

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

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 jim dot weirich at gmail.com.

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.