Question

I’d like to install a plugin but I’m afraid it’s going to install a lot of unnecessary stuff. I’d like to look at whatever file rake takes it installation instructions from and remove anything unnecessary.

I believe this is the Rakefile. But I’m not sure what happens when rake looks at the rakefile – does it execute the entire rakefile or only parts of the rakefile that are designated as being relevant to this “install” procedure?

Answer 1

a rake file is a collection of tasks, when you call rake with an argument (in this case install) that’s the task that get’s executed. (It’s similar to ant if you come from Java)

So, no, rake does not execute the whole rakefile when you call “rake + task” but only the task chosen. Note that tasks can have dependencies (eg the “test” task may depend on other previous tasks, like creating some folders and stuff for the tests to run).

Lastly, the rake user guide as pointed by other users is useful, but I recommend a more enjoyable read here -> Ruby on Rails Rake tutorial.