updates

Updates

rCommander looks for new versions by itself, tells you when one is there, and installs it when you say so - or, if you choose, when you quit or while it is idle.

Checking

• By default rCommander checks once a day, the first time a few minutes after it starts (Settings -> Updates: Check for updates by itself, Hours between checks). Help -> Check for updates... checks at once, whatever the setting says.
• A check downloads one small public file per channel from the release host (GitHub). It sends nothing but the user agent rCommander/<version>: no cookie, no installation id, nothing about your system or how you use it. The host sees your address, the time and the version.
• Channels: Stable offers releases only; Beta also offers pre-releases and the release that follows them. Nothing older than the version you run is ever offered.
• Proxy: empty uses the system's proxy (Windows Internet options, HTTPS_PROXY, NO_PROXY), direct uses none, or give http(s)://host:port. A proxy that asks for a login is not supported; copy the download address and fetch the file yourself.
• Mirror: Update source can name an https:// folder serving the same files. Its updates are checked against rCommander's built-in key all the same.

What is checked before anything is installed

• The update description is signed with rCommander's release key, which is built into the program. An unsigned, re-signed, outdated or replayed description is refused.
• Every archive is checked for its size and SHA-256 before it is unpacked.
• The database is copied before the update.

Installing

When an update is there, the status line says so. Install (on the notice or on the Updates settings page) downloads it, checks it, closes rCommander, swaps the program files and starts the new version, which opens your folders and tabs again. The first start after an update shows what is new (Show what is new after an update).

• On Windows the running rcommander.exe is moved aside, which Windows allows even while the file is in use; the new files take its place.
• On Linux and macOS the unpacked folder or rCommander.app is replaced the same way.
• If the new version does not start, or ends before it has proven itself, the next start puts the old version and the database copy back by itself.

What runs while rCommander restarts ends with it: terminals and their programs, open SSH sessions.

Installing by itself

Install updates by themselves:

• Off (default): you install.
• When quitting: a new version is downloaded in the background and installed as rCommander ends; the next start runs it.
• When idle: also restarts into it once nothing has happened for Minutes without input before an idle update (30): no input, no job in the queue, no terminal or SSH session, no open dialog.

A version whose install failed is never installed by itself again; you can still install it by hand.

Afterwards

After a proven update only the newest database copy stays, and after Days to keep the database copy after an update (14) it goes too; 0 keeps it for good. Files of the previous version that Windows still holds (for example by an rcommander mcp an MCP client started) are removed once they are free.

Assistants (MCP)

An assistant can ask which version runs and whether an update is there (update_status, update_check). Downloading and installing an update is always your decision in the window; no MCP tool can do it, and the update settings cannot be changed over MCP.

Updating by hand

Download the archive for your system from GitHub Releases, check it against SHA256SUMS, close rCommander and replace the program folder. On Windows, also close an MCP client that started rcommander mcp without a window running: that process runs the same file until its client ends.