Perhaps prevent Rake from interpretting tasks beyond --

I extract task arguments directly from ARGV, beyond the -- string.

For example I do:

rake update_date -- _posts/xyz.markdown

And in the code I have the :update_date task extract the filename after --.

But to prevent Rake from interpreting arguments beyond --, I have to rerun it with with_aplication.

unless $_args_filtered || ARGV.empty?
  $_args_filtered = true
  app_args = ARGV.dup.take_while{ |a| a != "--" }

  unless app_args.size == ARGV.size
    Dir.chdir Rake.original_dir

    Rake.with_application do |application|
      application.run(app_args)
    end

    exit
  end
end

This is something I'd like to avoid if possible.

Start by tracing Rake's command-line argument parsing and handling of the -- separator. Compare the current behavior with the reported with_application workaround, then define how arguments after -- should reach the task without being interpreted or requiring a rerun. Done means the example command preserves _posts/xyz.markdown for the task while avoiding the workaround.