Do I need to download a new client every patch?

[psi29a]

Huh? Why?

All our binaries (not just source) are hosted by github on the release page. We just use a regular expression to grab a list of all the releases from the page, sort and see if our installed version is the latest, if not warn the user and point them directly to the binary so they can download it and install.

So simple!

[Okulo]

On OSX and Windows this could be useful though.

OSX doesn't use repos? How do users get their software?

[HiPhish]

Depends on the software. obviously there is the Mac App store which is dummy's built-in solution. There are also package managers like MacPorts and Homebrew. Those are mostly used for open-source programs and libraries, things like SDL or Vim that aren't usually used by the average person and use a command-line interface. I use MacPorts very often for libraries or when there is a tool I want to be compiled in a specific way. There is a Vim plugin called YouCompleteme that requires Vim and the plugin to be compiled with the same version of Python, so I couldn't just go and grab some binaries off the internet, I had to instruct MacPorts to build Vim and MacVim with the same version of Python I used for the plugin.

For regular user software thing are decentralised. Every developer has their own website where they host the complete app for download. To keep the app up to date pretty much every application has a built-in auto-updater. There is even a library that provides that feature:
http://sparkle-project.org
It's used in a top of applications and it works perfectly. You can set the application to look for updates on its own, like once a week, or you can check manually. The application will contact its servers and see if there is a newer release. If there is it will open a little windows with release notes and ask if you want to download it, be asked later, or skip the update. if you decide t download it you can still keep working and when you are done and the download is finished you click on "Update and restart" and the application updates itself.

[rab]

It'd be much nicer to just download a patch to the latest version. You could do this with a proper binary patch tool to go from one version to the next that just gets downloaded and run (a bit like game updates used to be) or something simpler built into the launcher like just downloading changed files to bring any old release up to the latest. Might also need a small script per version to do any other non-file things (like update version numbers in registry or installing updated 3rd party pre-reqs).

[psi29a]

No patches, just replace the binaries...

patches make sense for files over 100MiB insize, we're talking about a few MiB here.

Real my lips, no 'patches'. That shit is for closed-source crap.

We don't touch the registry either.

Just download the latest release, install, done. It is THAT simple, really!

[Deonsion]

debian linux fix:

Code: Select all

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:openmw/openmw-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

[psi29a]

Sadly not everyone uses Linux....

Also, that 'fix' only works for Ubuntu and not Debian.

Here is your debian fix:
https://packages.qa.debian.org/o/openmw.html