The difference between rake db:migrate and rake db:reset is pretty clear to me. The thing which I don't understand is how rake db:schema:load is different from the former two.
Just to be sure that I am on the same page:
rake db:migrate - Runs the migrations which haven't been run yet.rake db:reset - Clears the database (presumably does a rake db:drop + rake db:create + rake db:migrate) and runs migration on a fresh database.db:migrate runs (single) migrations that have not run yet.
db:create creates the database
db:drop deletes the database
db:schema:load creates tables and columns within the existing database following schema.rb. This will delete existing data.
db:setup does db:create, db:schema:load, db:seed
db:reset does db:drop, db:setup
db:migrate:reset does db:drop, db:create, db:migrate
Typically, you would use db:migrate after having made changes to the schema via new migration files (this makes sense only if there is already data in the database). db:schema:load is used when you setup a new instance of your app.
I just checked the source and the dependencies are like this now:
db:create creates the database for the current env
db:create:all creates the databases for all envs
db:drop drops the database for the current env
db:drop:all drops the databases for all envs
db:migrate runs migrations for the current env that have not run yet
db:migrate:up runs one specific migration
db:migrate:down rolls back one specific migration
db:migrate:status shows current migration status
db:rollback rolls back the last migration
db:forward advances the current schema version to the next one
db:seed (only) runs the db/seed.rb file
db:schema:load loads the schema into the current env's database
db:schema:dump dumps the current env's schema (and seems to create the db as well)
db:setup runs db:create db:schema:load db:seed
db:reset runs db:drop db:setup
db:migrate:redo runs (db:migrate:down db:migrate:up) or (db:rollback db:migrate) depending on the specified migration
db:migrate:reset runs db:drop db:create db:migrate
For further information please have a look at https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/v3.2.12/activerecord/lib/active_record/railties/databases.rake (for Rails 3.2.x) and https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/v4.0.5/activerecord/lib/active_record/railties/databases.rake (for Rails 4.0.x)