This tip describes how to write a rake task in a gem, then use it in another Ruby gem or Rails app.

Create a rake task in a gem

Create a lib/tasks directory in your gem. Create a rake task in that directory with the same syntax it would have in the Rakefile. The file should have the .rake extension.

Now include the rake task in the Rakefile for the gem by using import. For example: import "./lib/tasks/downloader.rake".

Use the rake task in another gem

In the second gem, create a Rakefile for the project and load it using the load method. As an example, we can load the “downloader” rake file from the corenlp gem ¹ with this snippet:

spec = Gem::Specification.find_by_name 'corenlp'
load "#{spec.gem_dir}/lib/tasks/downloader.rake"

Verify the task shows up when running rake -T (make sure the task has a description!) and can be invoked as expected.

Use the rake task in a Rails app

We used load in the Rakefile for a Rails app in the same way. Working with the Railtie ² could be another way to include the task.

Conclusion

Sharing rake tasks between Ruby apps keeps your code DRY. If you found this tip useful let me know! Thanks for checking it out.

1. CoreNLP gem ↩

2. Railtie API docs ↩