Example file download rake task

Rakefile

require 'rake'
# http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/net/http/rdoc/classes/Net/HTTP.html
require 'net/http'

desc "this is a test"
task :testing_rake do
  puts "Hello from rake!"
end

namespace :remote_file do
  desc "Get a file from a remote server"
  task :fetch do
    # based on http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/2469
    # http://farm1.static.flickr.com/92/218926700_ecedc5fef7_o.jpg
    Net::HTTP.start("farm1.static.flickr.com") do |http|
      resp = http.get("/92/218926700_ecedc5fef7_o.jpg")
      open("fun.jpg", "w") { |file| file.write(resp.body) }
    end
  end
end