AutoUpdate

A simple way to update your Mac app.

What's AutoUpdate

AutoUpdate is a complete "homemade" update solution for the Beam Mac app. It's a simple, basic, pure Swift, update solution that works with sandboxed app, and integrates with the CI to generate update feed.

AutoUpdate contains 3 main components:

• AutoUpdate framework, and more precisely the VersionChecker class, to use in the app to update. It's responsible from checking the update feed (a JSON file), and downloads to disk the update archives.
• UpdateInstaller XPC service, which is not sandboxed, and that will perform the update sequence (Unzip, unquarantine, signature comparison, installation…).
• AppFeedBuilder, a Swift CLI app used to get the current update feed, and to add a new release to it.

Documentation

VersionChecker

You can simply init a VersionChecker instance by providing the URL of an update feed, and keep a reference to it to use AutoUpdate.

if let feed = URL(string: Configuration.updateFeedURL) {
    self.versionChecker = VersionChecker(feedURL: feed, autocheckEnabled: true)
}

The you can observe the state property to know what's going on (it a @Published property, easy to observe from SwiftUI). Then, you'll be able to checkForUpdates(), or performUpdateIfAvailable().

UpdateInstaller features

The UpdateInstaller XPC service provides a unique public method, to initiate update installation, as seen in the UpdateInstallerProtocol.

@objc public protocol UpdateInstallerProtocol {

    /// Gives information to the XPC service to handle unarchiving and installation of the update from outside the sandbox
    /// - Parameters:
    ///   - archiveURL: Archive URL on the file system
    ///   - binaryToReplaceURL: Current binary URL (the one to be updated)
    ///   - appPID: Current binary UNIX PID, used to watch for the app relaunch
    ///   - reply: callback when the XPC service finished the update. Contains a Bool for install success, a String? for error rawValue, and path for updated app if available
    func installUpdate(archiveURL: URL, binaryToReplaceURL: URL, appPID: Int32, reply: @escaping (Bool, String?, String?) -> Void)
}

It will then go through the install sequence:

• Unarchive the update's .zip file
• Unquarantine the downloaded app
• Check the app signature the make sure that they are issued from the same developer team
• Check for app renames to make sure we can install the update (or fallback to a just move the updated app in the Downloads folder)
• Make sure we can replace the existing app where it sits (probably the Application folder), or fallback to a just move the updated app in the Downloads folder. For example if the user is not an administrator.
• Lastly, swap the outdated and updated apps and relaunch the app

AppFeedBuilder usage

USAGE: app-feed-builder <feed-url> <version-name> <version> <build-number> <download-url> [--release-notes-url <release-notes-url>] [--verbose] [--output-path <output-path>]

ARGUMENTS:
  <feed-url>              The feed URL
  <version-name>          The new version name
  <version>               The new version string (like "2.0")
  <build-number>          The new version build number (should be String, can
                          be "dotted")
  <download-url>          The new version download URL. Must be an https URL
                          pointing to a .zip file

OPTIONS:
  --release-notes-url <release-notes-url>
                          The release notes URL to open on a tap on the release
  --verbose
  --output-path <output-path>
                          Specifies the path to write the file
  -h, --help              Show help information.

App Update Feed example

[
   {
      "downloadURL":"https:\/\/github.com\/eLud\/update-proto\/raw\/main\/BeamUpdaterProto_v1.1.zip",
      "publicationDate":641738100,
      "releaseNoteURL":"https:\/\/raw.githubusercontent.com\/eLud\/update-proto\/main\/feed.json",
      "versionName":"Version 1.1",
      "buildNumber":"20230112.121854",
      "version":"1.1"
   },
   {
      "buildNumber":"20230127.171926",
      "versionName":"Beam 2.0",
      "version":"2.0",
      "releaseNoteURL":"https:\/\/raw.githubusercontent.com\/eLud\/update-proto\/main\/feed.json",
      "downloadURL":"https:\/\/github.com\/eLud\/update-proto\/raw\/main\/BeamUpdaterProto_v1.1.zip",
      "publicationDate":727361375.336093
   }
]