You can specify formal arguments in rake by adding symbol arguments to the task call. For example:
require 'rake' task :my_task, :arg1, :arg2 do |t, args| puts "Args were: #{args}" end task :invoke_my_task do Rake.application.invoke_task("my_task[1, 2]") end # or if you prefer this syntax... task :invoke_my_task_2 do Rake::Task[:my_task].invoke(3, 4) end # a task with prerequisites passes its # arguments to it prerequisites task :with_prerequisite, :arg1, :arg2, :needs => :my_task # equivalently... task :with_prerequisite_2, [:arg1, :arg2] => :my_task # to specify default values, # we take advantage of args being a Rake::TaskArguments object task :with_defaults, :arg1, :arg2 do |t, args| args.with_defaults(:arg1 => :default_1, :arg2 => :default_2) puts "Args with defaults were: #{args}" endThen, from the command line:
> rake my_task[1,2] Args were: {:arg1=>"1", :arg2=>"2"} > rake "my_task[1, 2]" Args were: {:arg1=>"1", :arg2=>"2"} > rake invoke_my_task Args were: {:arg1=>"1", :arg2=>"2"} > rake invoke_my_task_2 Args were: {:arg1=>3, :arg2=>4} > rake with_prerequisite[5,6] Args were: {:arg1=>"5", :arg2=>"6"} > rake with_prerequisite_2[7,8] Args were: {:arg1=>"7", :arg2=>"8"} > rake with_defaults Args with defaults were: {:arg1=>:default_1, :arg2=>:default_2} > rake with_defaults['x','y'] Args with defaults were: {:arg1=>"x", :arg2=>"y"}As demonstrated in the second example, if you want to use spaces, the quotes around the target name are necessary to keep the shell from splitting up the arguments at the space.
Casiano Rodriguez León 2015-01-07