http://blog.nrowegt.com/add-output-to-long-running-rake-tasks/

Have you ever worked on an item, tested it thoroughly on a staging environment, done extra dry runs for good measure, been completely satisfied with the results, only to have it hit production and you have no idea whether it’s working properly? I had such an experience recently with a one-off rake task. The following details that, along with what I learned and how to prevent it from happening to your projects.