Deploy, test, and build software to solve realworld automation challenges using Rake
About This Book

• Solve real-world automation challenges with human readable code
  
• Build or deploy an application package quickly
  
• Easy-to-follow instructions to speed up tasks and manage them efficiently
  
  

Who This Book Is For
If you are a developer who is acquainted with the Ruby language and want to speed up writing the code concerned with files, then this book is for you. To start reading this book, a basic knowledge of Ruby is required; however, an extensive experience with the language is not necessary.

What You Will Learn

• Use the rake command-line tool efficiently
  
• Learn Rake's language to write clear custom tasks
  
• Run tasks in parallel to speed up the overall runtime of the tasks used
  
• Work with file transformations to manage file tasks
  
• Refactor a Rake project with the rules, prerequisites, and other technical features built into Rake tools
  
• Configure a scheduler to run recurring tasks on a server
  
• Configure continuous integration with Rake using a Jenkins example
  
• Integrate Rake with the Rails web framework to write Rails-specific rake tasks
  
  

In Detail
Rake is a build automation tool written in Ruby. It allows you to specify tasks and describe dependencies as well as group tasks in a namespace. Rake uses Ruby's anonymous function blocks to define various tasks, allowing the use of the Ruby syntax. Rake's goal is to automate build processes quickly and expressively.

"Rake Task Management Essentials" is a practical guide that covers the latest techniques in building, testing, and debugging rake tasks to solve real-world automation challenges. The book starts with a basic knowledge of Rake, allowing you to solve repetitive tasks. Then it provides you with information about processes performed with files, which is crucial for understanding the application of the tool. It includes demonstrations to show you how tasks can be run in parallel and how they can be applied in practice. Thereafter, it integrates Rake with Ruby with the help of simple and clear examples. By the end of this book, you will know how Rake has changed the programming world, especially in the Ruby community.