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Quick Start

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 existent command-line knowledge.

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

Installing psake​

Via PowerShell​

To install psake use the built-in PowerShell package manager.

Launch PowerShell and run the following command.

# PowerShellGet
Install-Module psake

# PSResourceGet
Install-PSResource psake

Via Chocolatey​

choco install psake

Via NuGet​

You can download through the various mechanisms available for NuGet

psake - nuget.org

Via GitHub​

You can also download ZIP files of the project "binaries" from GitHub by selecting the appropriate release.

What can psake be used for?​

You can use psake for many things, building software, deploying software, back-end processing, etc... psake is written in PowerShell, so you have access to the entire .NET framework.

How does psake work?​

psake is a domain specific language to create builds using a dependency pattern just like Ant, NAnt, Rake or MSBuild.

You create a build script using PowerShell that consists of Tasks which are simply function calls. Each Task function can define dependencies on other Task functions.

In the example script below, Task Compile depends on Tasks Clean and Init, which means that before Task Compile can execute, both tasks Clean and Init have to execute. psake ensures that this is done.

Task Compile -Depends Init,Clean {
   "compile"
}

Task Clean -Depends Init {
   "clean"
}

Task Init {
   "init"
}

psake reads in your build script and executes the Task functions that are defined within it and enforces the dependencies between tasks. The great thing about psake is that it is written in PowerShell and that means you have the power of .NET and all the features of PowerShell at your disposal within your build script. Not to mention that you don't have to pay the XML bracket tax anymore.

Who is using psake?​

The following is a list (at the time of writing) of projects who are using psake to orchestrate their build process.