Updates

A copy installed with newen --install updates itself from Newen’s releases. Installing always waits for you.

When it checks

20 seconds after start, every 4 hours, and when the window comes back into focus or the computer wakes if the last check is over an hour old. Check for updates in Settings › System checks at once.

What it does

1. Finds a newer version. Settings says Version 0.2.4 is available. With Install updates automatically on (the default), it downloads in the background; otherwise Download. Skip this version stops offering it, unless the release is marked as required.
2. Downloads and verifies. The release’s manifest is signed with Ed25519 and is checked before it is read; every file is checked against its SHA-256 and size, and one that does not match is deleted. A download that was cut off resumes.
3. Waits for you. Version 0.2.4 is ready to install: Restart to update, in Settings, in the account menu, or the sidebar’s Relaunch to update. If agents are working, Newen asks: Wait for agents, Update anyway or Cancel.
4. Starts the new version on trial. If it fails to start twice before it has run for a minute, the previous version comes back and the bad one is marked.

Newen never installs an older version than the one it has, nor a release older than one it was offered before.

What’s new

With Show what’s new on, a release’s announcement shows before you restart into it and once after. The notes stay in the account menu. Play videos in What’s new appears where Cisco’s OpenH264 codec is available, and downloads it from Cisco only once you turn it on.

The log

Every check, download, install, roll-back and error is a line in updates.log in Newen’s data folder (the newest 200 lines; no addresses or tokens).

Note

A build from source, or one run from a target folder, never checks: Built from source — update with git pull. A copy that was not installed says Run newen –install to keep it up to date.