[Texmacs-dev] Auto-update system

[Miguel de Benito Delgado]

Hi all,

  some time ago we implemented basic support for auto-updates using Sparkle 
(MacOS) and WinSparkle (Windows). We are now considering options for Linux.

On 13 Oct, 2013, at 10:25, Joris van der Hoeven <address@hidden> wrote:

> Miguel: sometime soon, we will switch to a new way to distribute binary 
> versions
> of TeXmacs under Linux, making the Qt version the default.  I basically intend
> to distribute binary tarballs only.  It should be possible to manually create
> an update system: the TEXMACS_PATH variable should always contain the location
> where TeXmacs is installed when TeXmacs is running.

I think that writing a complete replacement of the (Win)Sparkle libraries might 
be too much work. In a fork()ed process one has to connect to the server, look 
for updates, display information, download, verify the signature and unpack, 
then tell TeXmacs to close, install the new version and setup it. It's not hard 
but tedious.

If I'm not mistaken, what Dropbox and Google do is they create a small 
repository only with their .rpm package, then configure the package to set up 
this repo in the client machine as part of the installation. This leverages the 
system's package manager and is a lot easier. The difficulty might lie in the 
diversity of distros and package managers, I don't know.

Any thoughts?
--
Miguel de Benito.