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psake is a build automation tool written in PowerShell. It avoids the angle-bracket tax associated with executable XML by leveraging the PowerShell syntax in your build scripts. psake has a syntax inspired by rake (aka make in Ruby) and bake (aka make in Boo), but is easier to script because it leverages your existing command-line knowledge.

psake is pronounced sake – as in Japanese rice wine. It does NOT rhyme with make, bake, or rake.

Step 1: Download and extract the project

You will need to "unblock" the zip file before extracting - PowerShell by default does not run files downloaded from the Internet. Just right-click the zip and click on "properties" and click on the "unblock" button.

Step 2: CD into the directory where you extracted the project (where the psake.psm1 file is)

Import-Module .\psake.psm1

If you encounter the following error "Import-Module : ...psake.psm1 cannot be loaded because the execution of scripts is disabled on this system." Please see "get-help about_signing" for more details.

1. Run PowerShell as administrator
2. Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Get-Help Invoke-psake -Full

• this will show you help and examples of how to use psake

Step 3: Run some examples

CD .\examples

Invoke-psake

• This will execute the "default" task in the "psakefile.ps1"

Invoke-psake .\psakefile.ps1 Clean

• will execute the single task in the psakefile.ps1 script

Step 4: Set your PATH variable

If you wish to use the psake command from outside of the install folder, add the folder install directory to your PATH variable.

Step 5: (With VS2017) Install the VSSetup dependency

psake uses VSSetup to locate msbuild when using Visual Studio 2017. The VSSetup PowerShell module must be installed prior to compiling a VS2017 project with psake. Install instructions for VSSetup can be found here and here.

You can find all the information about each release of psake in the releases section.

If you'd like to get involved with psake, we have discussion groups over at Google: psake-dev psake-users

Anyone can fork the main repository and submit patches, as well. And lastly, the wiki and issues list are also open for additions, edits, and discussion.

Also check out the psake-contrib project for scripts, modules and functions to help you with a build.

psake is released under the MIT license.