thanks for this nice tutorial. really made my day.

Hi,
I have multiple rake files(like xyz.rake, abc.rake)..i want to execute them in order (like 1.xvz.rake 2.abc.rake)...how do i achieve this??...using shell script???...then how???

**@Deeez**: If you want to execute a rakefile with an unusual name, you can do it using the `-f` parameter:

$ rake -f first.rake

You have either to define the `:default` task in such a rakefile or pass task name explicitly:

$ rake -f first.rake task_name

The easiest way to run multiple rake files is to combine `rake` command invocations:

$ rake -f first.rake && rake -f second.rake

`&&` symbol means that the next file will be executed only if the previous one has finished its job successfully.

Hi all

i have a question about "how can run the n tasks defined into .rake file in sequential order ?"

thanks

**@sas gho**: As far as I'm concerned, there's no straightforward way to achieve this. At least, I'll try to give you a few hints.

If you know the task list in advance, you can chain their execution:

$ rake first && rake second && rake third

Or create a task depending on them:

task :grouping => [:first, :second, :third]

You can also run them inside another task's definition:

['first', 'second', 'third'].each do |task|
Rake::Task[task].invoke
end

Keep in mind that **invoke** runs a task only if it wasn't run before. If you want to force running it, use **execute** instead or combine **invoke** with the **reenable** method. **execute** also has a drawback, it runs the task regardless of dependencies.

If you rather want to build the task list dynamically, then **Rake.application.tasks** may be of use. It's accessible from the Rakefile. Remember to use the **.scope** task's property in case you're interested in tasks belonging to the specific namespace.

Great tutorial - Explains everything i needed for a novis. Good Job :)

Thanks for the tutorial - the Rake documentation is not so clear for newbies to Rake. Good job.

Thanks for a great intro to Rakefiles, saved me a lot of head scratching!

Nice tutorial, excellent to start with!

Many thanks for it, highly appreciated!:)

task :my_first_question
if uptodate?(:your_blog_entry, :rake_version_in_2011)
tell(:me).please!
end
end

Can you give me links how to continue my studies on Rake please?

Thanks again,

gezope

**@gezope**

> uptodate?

Yes, it seems that all examples present in the tutorial still work. Rake is under development and it has changed a little bit ([changelist](https://github.com/jimweiri... since I wrote the article, though most of the concepts remain the same.

> Can you give me links how to continue my studies on Rake please?

* Take a look at Jim Weirich's (Rake's author) [presentation](http://onestepback.org/arti...
* I also learned a lot from Martin Fowler's [article](http://martinfowler.com/art...

How can I join some scripts in the same rakefile, is there some special sintaxis for that_, do you have an example, please.
thanks

**@Rosario**

I guess you want to split your rakefile into many smaller files and include them when necessary?

In general, rakefiles are regular Ruby files, so you can just `require` them:

require 'another_rakefile'

task :default do
puts 'Default task'
end

In simple cases, it will work like a charm. You can even refer to tasks defined in external rakefile:

task :default => :external do
...

However, external file gets loaded exactly when you put the `require` command. Perhaps you would like to refer the `default` task in `another_rakefile`. To achieve this, use the `import` method provided by Rake:

import 'another_rakefile'

task :default do
puts 'Default task'
end

Then you will be able to refer to the `default` task in `another_rakefile`, like this:

# This is another_rakefile

task :another => :default do
puts 'Default first!'
end

I hope this is the answer you were looking for.

This is by far the best rake tutorial I've seen for a beginner to understand the basics.
I do hope you write more. Thank you!

Thanks, I'm really glad that you enjoy this Rake tutorial so much.

I was really surprised when I found out that it was even translated into Russian: http://habrahabr.ru/blogs/h...

Thanks for the nice tutorial! It's a clear and simple way to start understanding this Rake business which has always seemed so mysterious to me.

can you send Rake software to me.

Well, you can download Rake from the Internet for free. If you have Ruby gems installed, simply type in following command:

gem install rake

If you don't have a working Internet connection on your machine, you can download the latest version of Rake from http://rubyforge.org/frs/?g... using other machine. Save the file (e.g. rake-0.8.7.gem) in your filesystem, open the terminal and change current directory to the one containing rake-0.8.7.gem file. Then type in:

gem install rake-0.8.7.gem

This one should work. However, if you don't have Ruby gems installed, you can install Rake from source. Download rake-0.8.7.tgz file from http://rubyforge.org/frs/?g..., then save it in your local filesystem. Open the terminal and change current directory to the one containing rake-0.8.7.tgz file. Then type in:

tar xzvf rake-0.8.7.tgz

Then:

cd rake-0.8.7

And then:

ruby install.rb

That's all you should know about Rake installation.