How to add task dependencies to custom rake tasks that don't allow for the normal rake task behaviour around setting task dependencies.

Rakefile

# Example Rakefile that demonstrates how to add task dependencies
# to custom rake tasks that don't allow for the normal rake task
# behaviour around setting task dependencies.

require 'cucumber/rake/task'

# here's the task that I want to run before any of my cucumber tasks (see below)
namespace :stub do
  desc "Start stub required by features"
  task :start do
    puts "Starting stub"
    # `command to start stub`
  end
end

namespace :cuke do
  Cucumber::Rake::Task.new(:all, "Run all the features") do |t|
    t.libs << 'lib'
  end
    
  Cucumber::Rake::Task.new(:wip, "Run only wip features") do |t|
    t.libs << 'lib'
  end
  
  #here's the magic:
  
  # 1) select all tasks that begin with the "cuke:" namespace
  tasks_in_cuke_namespace = Rake.application.tasks.select {|task| task.name.start_with? "cuke:"}
  
  # 2) call #enhance on each of those tasks, passing an array of task dependencies
  tasks_in_cuke_namespace.each do |task|
    task.enhance ["stub:start"]
  end
end

That looks quite cool...

Good post on adding after-hooks the rake way: http://www.dan-manges.com/blog/modifying-rake-tasks