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I recently found myself following a development pattern:

• Do something over and over
• Get tired of doing something over and over
• Write hacky batch file or Ruby script to do something over and over
• Decide to share this with others
• Realize that my hacky script is too quirky/context-dependent to work well for others without massive explanation
• Re-write hacky script as a Rake task
• Move on to Real Work, eventually to discover that I’m doing something over and over.

Now I try to short-circuit the process and go straight to a Rake task.

Yesterday I wanted to add numerous tickets to a Trac project. I was going through some code, and running down a list of requests, and wanted a simple way to add tickets to Trac from the command line. Trac is Web-based, and new tickets are posted through a form, so, if nothing else, one should be able to use Net::HTTP.

I thought to ask on ruby-talk if anyone had, or knew of, any Rake tasks for Trac, and mentioned in passing that a quick Google did not turn up any Rake task cookbook site.

But that was then; Jim Weirich (Rake's creator) thought this a good idea, and created this very thing: The Rake Task Cookbook.

So, go dig up those handy, clever Rake tasks you've been hoarding and post them up on the task cookbook.