@todesktop/updater

ToDesktop's updater for Electron apps (and other Node apps) that ToDesktop builds: it checks for updates, verifies them against the signed release, downloads them and puts them in place, following the update policy in your todesktop.ts. A Node-API addon; npm installs the build for your platform (macOS universal, Linux x64 and arm64 with glibc 2.28 or later, Windows x64 and arm64) from an optional dependency, with the todesktop-updater sidecar beside it.

Proprietary: see LICENSE.

Electron

npm install @todesktop/updater

In the main process, before anything else:

const { app } = require('electron');
const { requestedHook, startUpdates } = require('@todesktop/updater/electron');

// Started by the installer or uninstaller for a lifecycle hook: do it, exit.
if (requestedHook()) app.exit(0);

app.whenReady().then(() => {
  const updates = startUpdates(app);
  updates.onChange((state) => {
    // idle, checking, available, downloading, ready, error, blocked, managed
    if (state.status === 'ready') updates.restart();
  });
});

startUpdates(app) runs your build's policy (when to check, download and install); restart() quits through app.quit(), so your shutdown code runs, and the new version starts after the app exits. Builds that ToDesktop didn't make (electron .) have no identity: updates stay off and say why. Types are in index.d.cts.

The sidecar

Updates the app can't do while it runs (replacing a macOS app bundle after it quits) are finished by todesktop-updater, which is also the helper that asks for an administrator when the app is installed where the user can't write. The updater looks for it beside the app's executable: Contents/MacOS on macOS, beside YourApp.exe on Windows and the executable on Linux.

• Without one there, startUpdates() uses the copy from the npm package, which must be outside the asar: unpack the platform package (electron-builder unpacks it by itself; with Electron Forge add asar: { unpack: '**/node_modules/@todesktop/updater-*/**' }).

• For installs that need an administrator to update (a macOS app in /Applications owned by another user, say), copy it beside the executable. With electron-builder:

  {
    "asarUnpack": ["node_modules/@todesktop/updater-*/**"],
    "mac": {
      "extraFiles": [
        {
          "from": "node_modules/@todesktop/updater-darwin-universal/todesktop-updater",
          "to": "MacOS/todesktop-updater"
        }
      ]
    },
    "win": {
      "extraFiles": [
        {
          "from": "node_modules/@todesktop/updater-win32-${arch}-msvc/todesktop-updater.exe",
          "to": "todesktop-updater.exe"
        }
      ]
    },
    "linux": {
      "extraFiles": [
        {
          "from": "node_modules/@todesktop/updater-linux-${arch}-gnu/todesktop-updater",
          "to": "todesktop-updater"
        }
      ]
    }
  }

  (${arch} is x64 or arm64.) require('@todesktop/updater/electron').sidecarPath() says which copy the app uses.

Ship it unsigned: ToDesktop signs it with your certificate along with the rest of the app, and refuses a Windows build whose todesktop-updater.exe isn't the hardened one from this package.

Other Node apps

const { Updates } = require('@todesktop/updater');
const updates = Updates.fromCurrentExe(); // or Updates.fromAppDir(dir)
updates.start();

Versions

The package's version is the ToDesktop runtime version, shared with the todesktop-updater and tauri-plugin-todesktop crates; the updater sends it with every request (x-td-runtime-version). ToDesktop's servers keep working with every runtime version.