01 -- Introduction

Chapter 1—Introduction

Introduction

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

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

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