= RAKE -- Ruby Make
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 and publishing to FTP or SSH sites. (Formerly
tasks for building RDoc and Gems were included in rake but they're now
available in RDoc and RubyGems respectively.)
* 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
* http://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[http://rake.rubyforge.org/files/doc/command_line_usage_rdoc.html]
* For details on writing Rakefiles, see
doc/rakefile.rdoc[http://rake.rubyforge.org/files/doc/rakefile_rdoc.html].
* For the original announcement of Rake, see
doc/rational.rdoc[http://rake.rubyforge.org/files/doc/rational_rdoc.html].
* For a glossary of terms, see
doc/glossary.rdoc[http://rake.rubyforge.org/files/doc/glossary_rdoc.html].
== Development
=== Source Repository
Rake is currently hosted at github. The github web page is
http://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 'flexmock' gem
* 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
Feature requests and bug reports can be made here
* https://github.com/jimweirich/rake/issues
Issues and bug reports can also be tracked here:
* http://www.pivotaltracker.com/projects/28469
== Online Resources
=== Rake References
* Rake Documentation Home: http://docs.rubyrake.org
* Rake Project Page: http://rubyforge.org/projects/rake
* Rake API Documents: http://rake.rubyforge.org
* Rake Source Code Repo: http://github.com/jimweirich/rake
* Rake Git Repo Clone URL: git://github.com/jimweirich/rake.git
* Rake Issue Tracking: http://www.pivotaltracker.com/projects/28469
* Rake Bug Reports: https://github.com/jimweirich/rake/issues
=== Presentations and Articles about Rake
* Jim Weirich's 2003 RubyConf presentation:
http://onestepback.org/articles/buildingwithrake/
* Martin Fowler's article on Rake: http://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.
* http://directory.fsf.org/bras.html -- Bras, one of earliest
implementations of "make in a scripting language".
* http://www.a-a-p.org -- Make in Python
* http://www.aromatic.com/tools/jam.txt -- JAM, Java Automated Make
* http://ant.apache.org -- The Ant project
* http://ppt.perl.org/commands/make/index.html -- Make from the Perl
Power Tools implementation.
* http://search.cpan.org/search?query=PerlBuildSystem -- The Perl Build System
* http://make.rubyforge.org -- Rant, another Ruby make tool.
== Credits
[<b>Ryan Dlugosz</b>] For the initial conversation that sparked Rake.
[<b>nobu.nokada@softhome.net</b>] For the initial patch for rule support.
[<b>Tilman Sauerbeck <tilman@code-monkey.de></b>] For the recursive rule patch.
== License
Rake is available under an MIT-style license.
:include: MIT-LICENSE
== Support
The Rake homepage is http://rake.rubyforge.org. You can find the Rake
RubyForge page at http://rubyforge.org/projects/rake.
Feel free to submit commits or feature requests. If you send a patch,
remember to update the corresponding unit tests. In 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
Author:: Jim Weirich <jim.weirich@gmail.com>
Requires:: Ruby 1.8.6 or later
License:: Copyright 2003-2008 by Jim Weirich.
Released under an MIT-style license. See the 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 merchantibility and fitness for a particular
purpose.
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