cake

Display basic information about the current app and available commands

$ cake

$ cake routes

$ cake cache clear_all

$ cake schema_cache build --connection [connection]

$ cake schema_cache clear

$ cake schema_cache clear [table_name]

$ cake server

$ cake console

cake [options] [<target> ...]

--version
    Display version information

--info
    Display additional build information

--debug
    Enables debug logging

--verbosity quiet|minimal|normal|verbose|diagnostic
    Set logging verbosity level

--script <path>
    Use specified build script

--target <target>
    Run specific target(s)

--dry-run
    Perform dry run without execution

--showdescription
    Show task descriptions

--lock
    Use tool lock file

Cake (C# Make) is a free, open-source build orchestration tool using a C# domain-specific language (DSL).

It enables developers to write cross-platform build scripts in idiomatic C#, avoiding brittle shell scripts or Makefiles. Cake supports tasks, dependencies, logging, and extensibility via NuGet addins.

Designed for .NET ecosystem but versatile for any command-line workflows, it runs on Linux, Windows, macOS via .NET runtime. Scripts are compiled for performance and type-safety, with features like parallel execution, conditional tasks, and globbing.

Ideal for CI/CD pipelines in tools like Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins. Install via dotnet tool or bootstrapper.

Requires .NET SDK/runtime (6.0+); scripts need #addin and #tool directives for dependencies; not installed by default on Linux.

Linux: dotnet tool install -g Cake.Tool or use bootstrapper script.

Task("Hello") => { Information("Cake!"); }; RunTarget("Hello");

Developed since 2014 by Patrik Svensson as .NET-friendly alternative to FAKE; reached v1.0 in 2017; now maintained by Cake Team with 3.x series supporting modern .NET.

make(1), ninja(1), dotnet(1), msbuild(1)