Rake is a utility similar to make in Unix. You can say Rake is the make of ruby - the R uby m AKE. Rails defines a number of tasks to help you.
rake db:fixtures:load - Load fixtures into the current environment's database. Load specific fixtures using FIXTURES=x,y
rake db:migrate - Migrate the database through scripts in db/migrate. Target specific version with VERSION=x
rake db:schema:dump - Create a db/schema.rb file that can be portably used against any DB supported by AR.
rake db:schema:load - Load a schema.rb file into the database.
rake db:sessions:clear - Clear the sessions table.
rake db:sessions:create - Creates a sessions table for use with CGI::Session::ActiveRecordStore.
rake db:structure:dump - Dump the database structure to a SQL file.
rake db:test:clone - Recreate the test database from the current environment's database schema.
rake db:test:clone_structure - Recreate the test databases from the development structure.
rake db:test:prepare - Prepare the test database and load the schema.
rake db:test:purge - Empty the test database.
rake doc:appBuild the app HTML Files.
rake doc:clobber_app - Remove rdoc products.
rake doc:clobber_plugins - Remove plugin documentation.
rake doc:clobber_rails Remove rdoc products.
rake doc:plugins - Generate documation for all installed plugins.
rake doc:rails - Build the rails HTML Files.
rake doc:reapp - Force a rebuild of the RDOC files
rake doc:rerails - Force a rebuild of the RDOC files
rake log:clear - Truncates all *.log files in log/ to zero bytes
rake rails:freeze:edge - Lock this application to latest Edge Rails. Lock a specific revision with REVISION=X.
rake rails:freeze:gems - Lock this application to the current gems (by unpacking them into vendor/rails)
rake rails:unfreeze - Unlock this application from freeze of gems or edge and return to a fluid use of system gems
rake rails:update - Update both scripts and public/javascripts from Rails.
rake rails:update:javascripts - Update your javascripts from your current rails install.
rake rails:update:scripts - Add new scripts to the application script/ directory.
rake stats - Report code statistics (KLOCs, etc) from the application.
rake test - Test all units and functionals
rake test:functionals - Run tests for functionalsdb:test:prepare
rake test:integration - Run tests for integrationdb:test:prepare
rake test:plugins - Run tests for pluginsenvironment
rake test:recent - Run tests for recentdb:test:prepare
rake test:uncommitted - Run tests for uncommitteddb:test:prepare
rake test:units - Run tests for unitsdb:test:prepare
rake tmp:cache:clear - Clears all files and directories in tmp/cache
rake tmp:clear - Clear session, cache, and socket files from tmp/
rake tmp:create - Creates tmp directories for sessions, cache, and sockets
rake tmp:sessions:clear - Clears all files in tmp/sessions
rake tmp:sockets:clear - Clears all ruby_sess.* files in tmp/sessions