# Running a Rake task without prereqs

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-a-rake-task-without-prereqs/81020>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [January 3, 2007, 2:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-a-rake-task-without-prereqs/81020 "2007-01-03T02:48:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![robertjames](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@robertjames](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robertjames)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 2:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-a-rake-task-without-prereqs/81020/1 "2007-01-03T02:48:06Z")

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Any way to force a rake task to run but skip its prereqs? Sometimes you  
need to do this.

---

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**Author:** ![robertjames](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@robertjames](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robertjames)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 3:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-a-rake-task-without-prereqs/81020/2 "2007-01-03T03:16:55Z")

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Robert J. wrote:

> Any way to force a rake task to run but skip its prereqs? Sometimes you  
> need to do this.
> 
> –  
> Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/).

Probably:

task :without do  
meth()  
end

task :with =\> [preq] do  
meth()  
end

def meth  
# orig. task code  
end

T.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robertjames](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@robertjames](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robertjames)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-a-rake-task-without-prereqs/81020/3 "2007-01-03T03:21:20Z")

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I mean preexisting tasks in Rakefiles.

Trans wrote:

> Probably:
> 
> task :without do  
> meth()  
> end
> 
> task :with =\> [preq] do  
> meth()  
> end
> 
> def meth  
> # orig. task code  
> end

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![robertjames](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@robertjames](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/robertjames)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 5:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-a-rake-task-without-prereqs/81020/4 "2007-01-03T05:15:09Z")

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Robert J. wrote:

> I mean preexisting tasks in Rakefiles.

That’s liable to be “dangerous”. So it’s probably not possible.

T.