# Testing Rake tasks To make testing Rake tasks a little easier, there is a helper that can be included in lieu of the standard Spec helper. Instead of `require 'spec_helper'`, use `require 'rake_helper'`. The helper includes `spec_helper` for you, and configures a few other things to make testing Rake tasks easier. At a minimum, requiring the Rake helper will redirect `stdout`, include the runtime task helpers, and include the `RakeHelpers` Spec support module. The `RakeHelpers` module exposes a `run_rake_task()` method to make executing tasks simple. See `spec/support/helpers/rake_helpers.rb` for all available methods. Example: ```ruby require 'rake_helper' describe 'gitlab:shell rake tasks' do before do Rake.application.rake_require 'tasks/gitlab/shell' stub_warn_user_is_not_gitlab end describe 'install task' do it 'invokes create_hooks task' do expect(Rake::Task['gitlab:shell:create_hooks']).to receive(:invoke) run_rake_task('gitlab:shell:install') end end end ``` --- [Return to Testing documentation](index.md)