Bug #6548: Rake doesn't ignore arguments after --

• Status: Closed
• Assignee: drbrain (Eric Hodel)
• Target version: 2.0.0
• ruby -v: ruby 1.9.3p125 (2012-02-16 revision 34643) [x86_64-linux]

[rosenfeld (Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas)]

I've created this issue first in GitHub before I realized that Rake is now part of stdlib:

https://github.com/jimweirich/rake/issues/115

I'll copy it here:

rake some_task -- some_arg

Raises an error after running some_task:

Don't know how to build task some_arg.

[mame (Yusuke Endoh)]

• Status changed from Open to Assigned
• Assignee set to drbrain (Eric Hodel)

I guess rake in stdlib is just a mirror, so it should be first fixed in GitHub.
Anyway I'm assigning this to drbrain because recently he often import the latest Rake maybe from GitHub.

--
Yusuke Endoh [e-mail]

[drbrain (Eric Hodel)]

• Status changed from Assigned to Closed
• Target version changed from 1.9.3 to 2.0.0

Primary development happens on github, so I will close this issue.

I left a comment on the github issue.

[rosenfeld (Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas)]

It seems Jim Weirich doesn't believe this is a bug actually. I'd like to open up this for further discussion on ruby-core list.

Matz, do you have any opinion about how rake should handle "--" in arguments list?

[drbrain (Eric Hodel)]

With all due respect to matz, the final decision should be Jim's.

Jim wrote rake and rake has supported the current behavior for many years. Please respect Jim's decision.

[rosenfeld (Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas)]

It is not a matter of respect. I do respect Jim's opinion, but this is how I see this.

Clearly this is not expected behavior for any script (in Unix, -- means that additional options should be ignored).

Now if rake was independent from Ruby distribution we should be done and I wouldn't arguee about this decision here.

But it is part of stdlib, and as so, I think this should be a Ruby core developers decision.

I don't think it is reasonable to break expecations of how programs should work. I respect Jim's opinion and I'm grateful for all his work, but I just think we should discuss this decision further more. After all rake is bundled with Ruby, it is not just an isolated gem.

[jeremyevans0 (Jeremy Evans)]

rosenfeld (Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas) wrote:

It is not a matter of respect. I do respect Jim's opinion, but this is how I see this.

Clearly this is not expected behavior for any script (in Unix, -- means that additional options should be ignored).

More accurately, in most unix programs, "--" denotes that everything after is treated as an argument instead of an option.

For example "fgrep -n -i foo" searches standard input for foo with -n and -i options, while "fgrep -n -- -i foo" searches for -i in foo with -n option.

What this means for rake is that "rake -- --tasks" should treat "--tasks" as a target/task instead of an option. It doesn't appear to do that ("rake -- --tasks" appears to execute the default task), which may be an issue.

Considering rake is "ruby make", there is an argument to be made that it should operate like make:

$ make -n foo
make: don't know how to make foo
$ make -- -n foo
make: don't know how to make -n

Note that the standard unix "--" behavior is for options handling only, and is unrelated to your example "rake some_task -- some_arg", which doesn't contain options.

Now if rake was independent from Ruby distribution we should be done and I wouldn't arguee about this decision here.

But it is part of stdlib, and as so, I think this should be a Ruby core developers decision.

I don't think it is reasonable to break expecations of how programs should work. I respect Jim's opinion and I'm grateful for all his work, but I just think we should discuss this decision further more. After all rake is bundled with Ruby, it is not just an isolated gem.

I agree with Eric that it should be Jim's decision, unless matz wants to fork rake.

[rosenfeld (Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas)]

Here is my use case. I've developed some gems for testing client-side code, including oojs. I've created an example on how to use it even for non-Ruby/Rails applications.

Then I created a task like "rake oojs:spec -- --name=shopping_cart"

https://github.com/rosenfeld/oojs_assets_enabler

In the original oojs gem, there is actually a generator for it:

https://github.com/rosenfeld/oojs

rails g oojs:spec shopping_cart

For non-Ruby projects, I'd like to be able to do something similar using rake, but I would like to be able to call it like:

rake oojs:spec -- shopping_cart

But this is not possible. What is the expected way to provide some arguments to a rake task not using options?

[drbrain (Eric Hodel)]

Use rake task arguments:

http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/rake-devel/2007-December/000352.html

See also:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=rake+task+arguments

[rosenfeld (Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas)]

Great! Thank you so much, Eric! I'll give it a try as soon as I find some time to work on this again.

[jimweirich (Jim Weirich)]

Actually, the post Eric refers to is a bit out of date. Look for the section "Tasks with Arguments" in the Rakefile writeup on GitHub: https://github.com/jimweirich/rake/blob/master/doc/rakefile.rdoc

[rosenfeld (Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas)]

Thanks for pointing me out to the documentation, Jim, but just knowing
about this feature existence was enough for me to get it working
yesterday night:

https://github.com/rosenfeld/oojs_assets_enabler/commit/a38f67278821a4d7cd1e9c7564d4afa5186c81ef
https://github.com/rosenfeld/grails-oojs/commit/cf35e3f90c1f0835828e4f8f3b116c7b1e02daaa

I'll be talking about oojs and oojspec tomorrow on Rock'n Rails so I
thought it would be better if I fixed this soon :)

http://www.rockandrails.com.br/

Thank you very much Jim and Eric for all your support. And thanks
Jeremy, not only with regards to your excelent Sequel gem which I use
everyday, but also for better explaining the expected behavior of "--"
in Unix programs :)

P.S: Sorry for posting this as an e-mail reply but Redmine was giving me
a 500 error when I tried to update the issue there.

Em 19-10-2012 00:18, jimweirich (Jim Weirich) escreveu:

Issue #6548 has been updated by jimweirich (Jim Weirich).

Actually, the post Eric refers to is a bit out of date. Look for the section "Tasks with Arguments" in the Rakefile writeup on GitHub: https://github.com/jimweirich/rake/blob/master/doc/rakefile.rdoc

Bug #6548: Rake doesn't ignore arguments after --
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/6548#change-31035

Author: rosenfeld (Rodrigo Rosenfeld Rosas)
Status: Closed
Priority: Normal
Assignee: drbrain (Eric Hodel)
Category: lib
Target version: 2.0.0
ruby -v: ruby 1.9.3p125 (2012-02-16 revision 34643) [x86_64-linux]

I've created this issue first in GitHub before I realized that Rake is now part of stdlib:

https://github.com/jimweirich/rake/issues/115

I'll copy it here:

rake some_task -- some_arg

Raises an error after running some_task:

Don't know how to build task some_arg.