Release candidates 1 & 2 were discussed, indirectly, in the pre-release announcement. I'm about to push release candidate 3, which should be the final release candidate before the real and true legacy release! It's just that we broke an awful lot of the task APIs in the process. And I want to alert you to the changes before the push.

We didn't have to make breaking changes. We could have spent a few versions introducing aliases, parallel features, and the like. Then, obsolete and remove them over time. But, we're way behind and, given the state of things, it was a reasonable option. There were a lot of inconsistent styles, naming, and patterns that were causing trouble.

I hope, now, you won't have to visit the docs every time you use a task, but, rather, once! You'll see the same "kinds" of breaking changes throughout, here is a summary

• Changed boolean properties to a, usually, positively-named method (depends on defaults/language)

  foo = true
  

  do_foo
  

• Changed all property/method names, where appropriate, to use underscores (_) where there would normally be a "space"

  delaysign
  

  delay_sign
  

• Removed old, custom options parameters when the task supports the built-in, general parameters property

  options = ["/foo"]
  

  parameters = ["/foo"]
  

• Quoted all paths and values that might have spaces (this is internal and will only be visible when verbose logging)

  $ rake foo 
  running command "foo.exe" -param1 path/to/foo with spaces
  

  $ rake foo
  running command "foo.exe" -param1 "path/to/foo with spaces"
  

Breaking Changes

aspnetcompiler

• replaced the clean, debug, delay_sign, fixed_names, force, & updateable properties with methods of the same name

assemblyinfo

• replaced the com_visible property with a method of the same name
• removed the use method that allowed setting both input_file & output_file at the same time, use an assignment like input_file = output_file = foo

csc

• replaced the debug & optimize properties with methods of the same name
• replaced the delaysign property with the method delay_sign
• renamed the keycontainer and keyfile properties to use underscores: key_container & key_file
• renamed the output property to out to match the CLI reference

docu

• renamed the output_location property to output_path

fluentmigrator

• removed the show_help method, use $ fluentm.exe /? on the command line
• replaced the output, verbose, & preview properties with methods of the same name
• renamed the output & output_filename properties to out & output_path to match the CLI reference

ilmerge

• removed the resolver property for resolving the installed command path
• added the assemblies array property instead of using the general parameters property (use assemblies = ["foo", "bar"] instead of parameters = ["foo", "bar"])
• renamed the output property to out to match the CLI reference
• removed the automatic resolution of an installed ilmerge command, you must provide it yourself or put it on the PATH

msbuild

• removed infrequently used "special" switches like max_cpu_count, use other_switches instead (like other_switches = {:max_cpu_count => 4})
• removed support for "plain" switches (without values), use the general parameters property (like parameters = ["/noconsolelogger"])

msdeploy

• removed the entire task... it's unmaintainable due to version/platform explosion! Use exec & msbuild to make and execute msdeploy packages. But, be careful, msdeploy always return exit code 0 (so it cannot be depended on to stop a task).

mstest

• replaced the options property with the general parameters property

mspec

• replaced the html_output property with a general results_path hash property that supports :xml & :html (like results_path = {:html => "path/to/results"})

nchurn

• replaced all property-setting methods with properties of the same name (sorry, folks, I liked the style, too, but it has no place in the overall style yet!)
• split the functionality of the churn method supporting integers XOR percentages into two properties: churn and churn_percent
• changed the env_path property to an array to support multiple assignment and renamed it env_paths

ncoverconsole

• renamed the cover_assemblies property to include_assemblies (and included pairs include_foo & exclude_foo)
• renamed the testrunner property to test_runner
• replaced the register_dll property with a no_registration method

nugetinstall

• replaced the no_cache, prerelease, & exclude_version properties with methods of the same names

nugetpack

• replaced the symbols property with a method of the same name
• renamed the output & base_folder properties to output_directory & base_path to match the CLI reference

nugetpush

• renamed the apikey property to api_key

nunit

• removed the options property, use the general parameters property instead

nuspec

• removed leftover property aliases: licenseUrl, projectUrl, iconUrl, requireLicenseAcceptance, use the underscore named properties instead
• replaced the require_license_acceptance property with a method of the same name
• changed the authors, owners, & tags properties to be arrays of the same names to support multiple values
• renamed/repurposed the pretty_formatting? query method to pretty_formatting setter method
• removed the working_directory property and, instead, use the output_file's entire path

output

• renamed the keep_to property to preserve
• renamed the directories property to dirs

plink

• replaced the verbose property with a method of the same name

specflow

• removed the options property, use the general parameters property instead
• renamed the projects property to project and, in general, changed this task to work on one project at a time

sqlcmd

• replaced the trusted_connection & batch_abort properties with methods of the same name
• set trusted_connection & batch_abort off by default, the user must explicitly require them
• removed the automatic resolution of an installed sqlcmd command, you must provide it yourself or put it on the PATH

vssget

• removed the entire task... if you really need it, use exec, but I recommend switching to a modern source control tool :)

xunit

• this task now only runs on one assembly at a time (like the real CLI app), removed the assemblies property and skip_test_failures method
• replaced the html_output property with a general results_path hash property that supports :html and :xml (like, results_path = {:xml => "path/to/xml/output"})
• removed the options property, use the general parameters property instead

zip

• shortened many property/method names... directories_to_zip, additional_files, & flatten_zip to dir, files, & flatten
• combined the functionality of the output_path & output_file property so you can provide just an output_path