Updates

How updates work#

1. A few seconds after Revue starts, it checks for a newer release. After that it checks again every hour.
2. When there's one, Revue downloads and installs it in the background, while you keep working.
3. A green Restart to update to … button appears in the title bar.
4. Click it to restart into the new version now, or just keep going: the new version starts the next time you open Revue.

Where to see the version and check by hand#

Open Settings → About. The Updates card shows:

• Version … · followed by what the updater is doing: Not checked yet, Checking for updates…, You're on the latest version, Revue … is available, Installing Revue …, or Revue … is installed. Restart to use it.
• What's new, what changed in each version (see What's new in a version).
• Check now, to check right away.
• Install updates automatically, the switch for automatic installs.

You can also get there from the status bar at the bottom of the window:

• Click the version number (Revue …, tooltip About Revue and updates).
• When there's news, a highlighted Update … available or Restart to update to … appears next to it. Click it to open Settings → About.

The About card below it has Releases (the release page, with each version's notes and downloads) and Source.

Turning automatic updates off#

1. Open Settings → About.
2. Turn off Install updates automatically.

Revue still checks for new versions and tells you about them. It just doesn't install them on its own. When there's a new version:

1. A green Update to … button appears in the title bar (tooltip Download and install).
2. Click it. It shows Updating to … while it downloads and installs.
3. Then click Restart to update to ….

Turning the switch back on installs a waiting update straight away.

Advanced: defaults and timing

What	Value
Install updates automatically	On
First check	About 8 seconds after start
Later checks	Every hour while Revue runs
Checking can be turned off	No: only installing is optional
Download timeout	2 minutes

• A check never runs while one is already running, while an update is installing, or once an update is installed and waiting for a restart.
• Pre-releases count as older than the release with the same number (0.24.0-rc1 is older than 0.24.0).
• Only newer versions are offered. Revue never goes back to an older one.
• The setting is saved as auto_update in the settings file.

What gets installed, per system#

Revue downloads the same files the release page offers, for your system, and replaces itself in place:

Replacing a program that's running is safe on every system, Windows included. The running Revue keeps going on the old version until it restarts.

Restart to update to … starts the new version and closes the old one.

Advanced: where updates come from

• Revue asks the project's Forgejo for its latest release: https://forgejo.cleangame.dev/api/v1/repos/thatrichan/revue/releases/latest.
• It downloads the file for your system from that release's attachments, over HTTPS.
• The new program is first written next to the old one, then swapped in. If anything fails along the way, the old one stays whole.
• The request sends nothing about you: no account, no ID. The server sees an ordinary download, with the user agent revue-updater.
• Systems with no release build (Linux or Windows on ARM, BSDs) can't update themselves. Check now says no release builds for this platform. Build Revue from source there: see Building from source and contributing.

When Revue can't update itself#

Revue replaces its own program file, so it needs to be allowed to write there. The standard installs all allow it:

• Linux: task install from the release archive puts Revue in ~/.local/bin. An AppImage replaces its own file, so keep it in a folder you can write to.
• Windows: the installer puts it in your own AppData\Local\Programs\Revue.
• macOS: Revue.app in Applications.

When Revue lives somewhere only an administrator can change, or a package manager keeps it up to date, it doesn't try. That's the case for the apt, dnf and pacman packages (/usr/bin), Nix, Scoop, and copies in /usr/local/bin or /opt. (Homebrew is fine: Revue updates itself there, and Homebrew knows to let it.) The Updates card then says This install is managed by a package manager, so Revue doesn't update itself: update it with that package manager., and Install updates automatically is off.

Update Revue the same way you installed it: with your package manager, or by downloading the new release and installing it again. Revue keeps telling you when a new version is out.

Troubleshooting a failed update

Message	What it means
Couldn't install …: writing to …	Revue can't write to its own folder. See above.
update check failed: HTTP …	The release server answered with an error. Try Check now later.
checking for updates: …	No connection to the release server.
download failed: HTTP …	The download didn't go through. Try again with Check now and Update to ….
the release archive has no Revue executable	The release file isn't what Revue expected. Download the release by hand from Releases.
no release builds for this platform	There's no release for your system.

A failed check or install doesn't stop Revue in any way. It tries again at the next check.

Trying a version without installing it#

Starting Revue with --immutable runs it on a throwaway copy of your settings and data. In that mode it never installs updates (Update to … doesn't appear), though it still checks. See Command line and environment variables.

What's new in a version#

The first time Revue starts after an update, What's new opens on its own, at Since you last used Revue: the changes of every version installed since the one you used last, newest first, all of them, not only the latest. It opens as a tab, always the first one of the tab bar, before every other tab (tabs dragged around never go before it). When Revue was started to open a pull request (a link, revue <url>), that pull request stays on screen, and What's new waits in its tab.

The list on its left goes through every version of Revue, newest first. The versions new to you are marked with a dot. Pick one to see its changes, or move through them:

• ↑ / ↓ (or K / J, ← / →), or the Newer and Older buttons: the version above or below.
• Page Up / Page Down: ten at a time. Home / End: the top or the bottom of the list.
• Close it like any tab: its ✕, a middle click on it, or Ctrl+W (Cmd+W on macOS). Alt+← / Alt+→ go back to where you were and to it again.

Open it any time (it switches to its tab when it's open already):

• The search palette (Ctrl+K, Cmd+K on macOS): type What's new or Changelog.
• Settings → About, the What's new button on the Updates card.

Each change starts with the part of Revue it's about, in bold (Slack:, Diff:…). The same list is on each release page, under Changes: click Releases in Settings → About.

Advanced: when it opens on its own

• Revue remembers the version it last started as, on each computer on its own (seen_version in this computer's settings file, never synced): your computers update one by one.
• What's new opens when the version starting is newer than that one. It doesn't on a first start (there's nothing to compare with), or after going back to an older version.
• The changes are built into Revue: it shows them offline too.