Re: [linux-minidisc] [PATCH 1/3] This patch enables a self-update of qhimd-transfer via internet. You can configure the update files (installer file etc.) in the updater.txt. A sample config is here:

[Adrian Glaubitz <glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de>]

Hi,

this updater is actually a very nice idea which we can use once we
have reached the first the stable release. For the time being, the
upstream version has no stable release cycle yet, so there would be
too many updates with short release cycles IMHO.


On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 02:38:01PM +0100, Philipp Neuser wrote:
> +void checkForUpdate()
> +Downloads the new Updater-File from the Internet, URL given in the updater.txt and compares the versions.

I think this could be achieved in an easier and more robust way. One
could use the same mechanism that Debian uses in it's watch file to
check for new updates:

<http://wiki.debian.org/DEHS>

The idea is that the the Debian servers who use the watch file or,
in our case, the Windows and Mac versions of the software, try to
download the latest version of the software package by simply
generating a versioned filename according to a regexp pattern.

For example, in kcemu, the KC85 emulator I maintain in Debian, we have
a very simple watch file, just two lines:

======================================================================
version=3
http://sf.net/kcemu/KCemu-(.+)\.tar\.gz
======================================================================

So, in QHiMDTransfer, that mechanism could work like this:

- version number is read from version.h which is created through git
  (I don't know at the moment how this works, but kcemu does it to
  generate and display the current version in the about dialog, so it
  shouldn't be that difficult)

- with the power of regexp, check for a more recent version of
  QHiMDTransfer on the server as mentioned above

- retrieve the URL for download

In general, all necessary configuration should be save using the
mechanism provided by Qt (i.e. QSettings). We are already using
that to remember the last upload directory, for example.

I haven't checked the rest of the code yet, so this is just my first
remark. Will check more later.


Thanks,

Adrian