[vlc-devel] Future of the update mechanism
Felix Paul Kühne
fkuehne.videolan at googlemail.com
Wed Jul 29 18:02:12 CEST 2009
Hello guys,
as most of you known, we are experiencing some problems with the
current update mechanism. Some people want to replace it with a simple
panel showing the URL of the latest version. This is something I don't
really like as it is quite unfriendly for the user. As my roommate put
it, the PC is there to do stuff for me and I'm not there to stuff for
it => it's obviously a lot easier to let VLC download the binary
without web-browser contact.
Ideally, it should also install the update, restart VLC and delete the
old version plus installer.
That's exactly what Sparkle [1] does on the Mac. This is a drop-in
update framework depending on a so-called "appcast", which would need
to be saved on a plain http server. Basically, it's just a XML file.
This framework uses SSL connections to the update and download servers
and matches a DSA-encrypted sha1 hash against the downloaded
installation before installation. Additionally, it allows html-based
release notes in its update window. [...]
It's BSD-style licensed and used by many GPLed apps on the Mac, most
importantly Adium, Handbrake and Transmission as well as almost 500
other.
Anyway, are there political or technical reasons which would prevent
me / us from using this framework on the Mac to improve the current
situation?
Best regards,
Felix
[1] http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/
--
VideoLAN
Felix Paul Kühne
Co-Developer of VLC's Mac OS X port
http://www.videolan.org/vlc
More information about the vlc-devel
mailing list