Rake (software)

Infobox Software
name = Rake


caption =
developer = Jim Weirich
latest release version = 0.8.2
latest release date = release date|2008|09|09
operating system = cross-platform
genre = Software development tools
license = MIT License
website = http://rake.rubyforge.org

Rake is a software build tool. It is similar to SCons and make, but has a number of differences. The tool is written in the Ruby programming language and the Rakefiles (equivalent of Makefiles in make) use Ruby syntax. It was originated by Jim Weirich.

Rake uses Ruby's anonymous function blocks to define various tasks, allowing the use of the Ruby syntax. There's a library of common tasks available, for example, functions to do common file-manipulation tasks and a library to remove compiled files (the "clean" task). Like Make, Rake can also synthesize tasks based on patterns (for example, automatically building a file compilation task based on filename patterns). Rake is now part of the standard library from Ruby version 1.9.

Example

Below is an example of a simple Rake script to build a C HelloWorld program. file 'hello.o' => ['hello.c'] do sh 'cc -c -o hello.o hello.c' end file 'hello' => ['hello.o'] do sh 'cc -o hello hello.o' end

ee also

* make
* Apache Ant

External links

* [http://rake.rubyforge.org/ Rake documentation]
* [http://rubyforge.org/projects/rake RubyForge project page for Rake]
* [http://martinfowler.com/articles/rake.html Using the Rake build language] by Martin Fowler
* [http://www.railsenvy.com/2007/6/11/ruby-on-rails-rake-tutorial Ruby on Rails Rake tutorial] at railsenvy.com