Search code examples
rubyrake

How do I return early from a rake task?

I have a rake task where I do some checks at the beginning, if one of the checks fails I would like to return early from the rake task, I don't want to execute any of the remaining code.

I thought the solution would be to place a return where I wanted to return from the code but I get the following error

unexpected return
Solution

  • A Rake task is basically a block. A block, except lambdas, doesn't support return but you can skip to the next statement using next which in a rake task has the same effect of using return in a method.

    task :foo do
  puts "printed"
  next
  puts "never printed"
end

    Or you can move the code in a method and use return in the method.

    task :foo do
  do_something
end

def do_something
  puts "startd"
  return
  puts "end"
end

    I prefer the second choice.