Programming Ruby 3.3

Using the Rake Build Tool

Another way to structure code that can be easily invoked from the command line is with a useful utility program called Rake. Written by Jim Weirich, Rake was initially implemented as a Ruby version of Make, the Unix build utility. However, calling Rake a build utility is to miss its true power. Really, Rake is an automation tool—it’s a way of putting all those tasks that you perform in a project into one neat and tidy place.

Rake gives you a convenient way to define small tasks and task dependencies, allowing you to say that a particular task requires a different task to run first. Rake also allows you to automate transitions between files based on file extensions, for example, converting all your .csv files to .json ...