Software Update Plugin

Added in version 1.2.0.

The Software Update Plugin allows receiving notifications about new releases of OctoPrint or installed plugins which registered with it and – if properly configured – also applying the found updates.

It comes bundled with OctoPrint.

First Steps

Out of the box the Software Update Plugin will be able to notify you of any updates that might be available for your OctoPrint installation or any plugins that registered themselves with it. In order for automatic restarts after updates to work, you should configure the restart commands for OctoPrint and the whole server.

Out of the box the plugin should already be ready to update your OctoPrint installation to current stable release versions, but you can also switch to one of the available release candidate channels or outright git commit tracking via the plugin’s configuration dialog. To open this dialog, fire up OctoPrint’s Settings Dialog, navigate to the Software Update section therein and once you are there click on the little wrench icon in the upper right corner.

Software Update plugin configuration dialog

Fig. 21 The Software Update plugin configuration dialog

There you can adjust the following settings:

  • OctoPrint version tracking: Whether you want to track OctoPrint releases or every commit. Usually you want to select “Release” here which is also the default, unless you are a developer.

  • Tracked branch (if tracking is set to “Github Commit”): The branch that will be tracked if you set version tracking to “Github Commit”.

  • OctoPrint ``pip`` target (if tracking is set to “Release” or “Github Commit”): The argument that will be provided to pip when updating OctoPrint. Usually you don’t want to change this from its default value of https://github.com/OctoPrint/OctoPrint/archive/{target_version}.zip.

  • OctoPrint checkout folder (if tracking is set to “Local checkout”): This must be the path to OctoPrint’s git checkout folder (/home/pi/OctoPrint for OctoPi or manual installs following the Raspberry Pi setup guide). Note that since OctoPrint 1.3.6 you will no longer need to set this to be able to update to releases, only if you want to be able to update against some bleeding edge git branch.

  • Enable ``pip`` update checks: Whether to have OctoPrint automatically check for updates of the pip tool that is used for updating most components.

  • Version cache TTL: The “time to live” of the cache OctoPrint will use to temporarily persist the version information for the various components registered with the plugin, so that they don’t have to be queried from the internet every time you load the page. Defaults to 24h, you usually shouldn’t need to change that value.

  • Show notifications to users: Whether to display update notifications (without “Update now” button) to users that cannot apply updates.

  • Minimum free disk space: The minimum amount of free disk space needed in order to allow software updates to be run.

More settings are available by editing the corresponding section in config.yaml.

Restart commands for OctoPrint and the whole server can be configured under Settings > Server.

Command line usage

The functionality of the Software Update Plugin is also available on OctoPrint’s command line interface under the plugins sub command. It’s possible to check for updates via octoprint plugins softwareupdate:check and to apply available updates via octoprint plugins softwareupdate:update. Please see the corresponding --help pages for details:

$ octoprint plugins softwareupdate:check --help
Usage: octoprint plugins softwareupdate:check [OPTIONS] [TARGETS]...

  Check for updates.

  If any TARGETs are provided, only those components will be checked.

  Examples:
  - octoprint plugins softwareupdate:check
      This will check all components for available updates,
      utilizing cached version information.
  - octoprint plugins softwareupdate:check --force
      This will check all components for available updates,
      ignoring any cached version information even if it's
      still valid.
  - octoprint plugins softwareupdate:check octoprint
      This will only check OctoPrint itself for available
      updates.

Options:
  --force  Ignore the cache for the update check
  --help   Show this message and exit.

$ octoprint plugins softwareupdate:update --help
Usage: octoprint plugins softwareupdate:update [OPTIONS] [TARGETS]...

  Apply updates.

  If any TARGETs are provided, only those components will be updated.

  Examples:
  - octoprint plugins softwareupdate:update
      This will update all components with a pending update
      that can be updated.
  - octoprint plugins softwareupdate:update --force
      This will force an update of all registered components
      that can be updated, even if they don't have an updated
      pending.
  - octoprint plugins softwareupdate:update octoprint
      This will only update OctoPrint and leave any further
      components with pending updates at their current versions.

Options:
  --force  Update even if already up to date
  --help   Show this message and exit.

Configuring the Plugin

plugins:
  softwareupdate:
    # configured version check and update methods
    checks:
      # "octoprint" is reserved for OctoPrint
      octoprint:
        # this defines a version check that will check against releases
        # published on OctoPrint's Github repository and pip as update method
        # against the release archives on Github - this is the default
        type: github_release
        user: foosel
        repo: OctoPrint
        method: pip
        pip: 'https://github.com/OctoPrint/OctoPrint/archive/{target_version}.zip'

      # further checks may be defined here

    # pip command, if another one than the automatically detected one should be
    # used - should normally NOT be necessary and hence set
    pip_command: /path/to/pip

    # the time-to-live of the version cache, in minutes, defaults to 24h
    cache_ttl: 1440

    # whether to show update notifications to users that cannot apply updates
    notify_users: true

    # whether to ignore the system throttled state reported by the pisupport plugin and
    # allow updating even when the system is not running stable - really not recommended
    ignore_throttled: false

    # minimum free storage in MB for updates to be enabled
    minimum_free_storage: 150

    # URL from which to fetch check overlays
    check_overlay_url: https://plugins.octoprint.org/update_check_overlay.json

    # time to live of the overlay cache, defaults to 6h
    check_overlay_ttl: 360

    # global credentials to provide to version checks
    credentials:

      # GitHub API token to use for the github_release and github_commit version checks.
      # Helpful if you regularly run into rate limit issues with the GitHub API using
      # the default anonymous access. Use a personal access token:
      #   https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token
      # Unset by default
      github:

      # Bitbucket user name and password, used by the bitbucket_commit version check if
      # provided, but only if the check doesn't specify credentials on its own.
      # Unset by default
      bitbucket_user:
      bitbucket_password:

Version checks

Version check types are configured through the type parameter. The following types are currently recognized:

  • github_release: Checks against releases published on Github. Additional config parameters:

    • user: (mandatory) Github user the repository to check belongs to

    • repo: (mandatory) Github repository to check

    • prerelease: True or False, default False, set to True to also include releases on Github marked as prerelease.

    • prerelease_branches: Prerelease channel definitions, optional. List of:

      • branch: Branch associated with the channel, acts as ID

      • name: Human readable name of the release channel

      • commitish: List of values to check against target_commitish field in Github release data - release will only be included if the values match. Defaults to being unset, in which case the branch will be matched.

      Added in version 1.2.16.

    • stable_branch: Stable channel definition, optional. Structure:

      • branch: Branch associated with the channel, acts as ID

      • name: Human readable name of the release channel

      • commitish: List of values to check against target_commitish field in Github release data - release will only be included if the values match. Defaults to being unset, in which case the branch will be matched.

      Added in version 1.2.16.

    • prerelease_channel: Release channel to limit updates to. If set only those releases will be included if their target_commitish matches the ones associated with the release channel identified by this, either included in prerelease_channels or the stable_channel. Only taken into account if prerelease is true. .. versionadded:: 1.2.16

    • release_compare: Method to use to compare between current version information and release versions on Github. One of python (version comparison using pkg_resources.parse_version, newer version detected if remote > current), semantic (version comparison using semantic_version package, newer version detected if remote > current) and unequal (string comparison, newer version detected if remote != current).

  • github_commit: Checks against commits pushed to Github. Additional config parameters:

    • user: (mandatory) Github user the repository to check belongs to

    • repo: (mandatory) Github repository to check

    • branch: Branch of the Github repository to check, defaults to master if not set.

    • current: Current commit hash. Will be updated automatically.

  • bitbucket_commit: Checks against commits pushed to Bitbucket. Additional config parameters:

    • user: (mandatory) Bitbucket user the repository to check belongs to

    • repo: (mandatory) Bitbucket repository to check

    • branch: Branch of the Bitbucket repository to check, defaults to master if not set.

    • current: Current commit hash. Will be updated automatically.

    • api_user: (mandatory only for private repositories) Bitbucket user name (not email address). Requires api_password to be set. Hint: This is used for the check only. For the actual download you might register your public SSH key as access key for the according repo and configure this as pip URL in config.yaml: git+ssh://git@bitbucket.org/my_user/my_repo.git@{target_version}

    • api_password: (mandatory only for private repositories) App password. Requires api_user to be set. Important: Never use your actual Bitbucket login password. Generate a new app password. App passwords are user specific on Bitbucket.

    Added in version 1.3.5.

  • git_commit: Checks a local git repository for new commits on its configured remote. Additional config parameters:

    • checkout_folder: (mandatory) The full path to the folder with a valid git repository to check.

  • pypi_release: Checks pypi.org for new releases of a specified package. Additional config parameters:

    • package: (mandatory) Name of the package which to check.

    Added in version 1.4.0.

  • httpheader: Checks an HTTP header on a defined URL for changes. This can be used for easy checks against things like ETag or Last-Modified headers. Additional config parameters:

    • header_url or url: (mandatory) URL to check. url can be used to avoid duplication in case of updater methods such as single_file_plugin.

    • header_name: (mandatory) HTTP header to check, case-insensitive, e.g. ETag or Last-Modified.

    • header_method: HTTP request method to use for the check, defaults to HEAD.

    • header_prefix: Prefix to use for the obtained value in the version display. If not provided header_name will be used. If set to an empty string, no prefix will be added.

    Added in version 1.4.1.

  • jsondata: Checks the provided JSON endpoint for changes. The JSON endpoint must return an object with the property version, which should contain the latest version, e.g. {"version":"1.2.3"}. Additional config parameters:

    • jsondata: (mandatory) URL from which to fetch the JSON data

    Added in version 1.4.1.

  • command_line: Uses a provided script to determine whether an update is available. Additional config parameters:

    • command: (mandatory) The full path to the script to execute. The script is expected to return a 0 return code if an update is available and to return the display name of the available version as the final and optionally the display name of the current version as the next to final line on stdout.

  • python_checker: Can only be specified by plugins through the hook. Additional config parameters:

    • python_checker: (mandatory) A Python callable which returns version information and whether the current version is up-to-date or not, see below for details.

  • always_current: Always reports that no update is necessary. Useful for debugging software update mechanisms during development. Additional config parameters:

    • current_version: Version to report for both local and remote version.

    Added in version 1.3.7.

  • never_current: Always reports that an update is necessary. Useful for debugging software update mechanisms during development. Additional config parameters:

    • local_version: Current local version. Defaults to 1.0.0.

    • remote_version: Remote version to offer update to. Defaults to 1.0.1.

    Added in version 1.3.7.

Update methods

Update methods are specified via the method parameter. Some update methods are assigned implicitly through the presence of their mandatory configuration parameters. The following methods are currently supported:

  • pip: Update by pip install``ing the supplied URL. May contain a placeholder ``{target} which will be the most recent version specifier as retrieved from the update check. Additional config parameters:

    • pip: The URL to use for installing. Presence implies method: pip.

    • pip_command: The command to use for installing. Defaults to the pip instance belong to OctoPrint’s environment.

    • pip_cwd: The working directory to use for installing. Defaults to the current working directory.

    • force_reinstall: Whether to force reinstallation of the package. Defaults to false. Helpful for development and version checks that don’t guarantee a Python package version change (e.g. commit based version checks like git_commit, github_commit, bitbucket_commit).

    Changed in version 1.8.0: Added force_reinstall parameter.

  • single_file_plugin: Update a single file plugin by re-downloading it from a configured URL. Additional config parameters:

    • url: (mandatory) The URL from which to install the single file plugin. Must be a single self contained python file.

  • update_script: Update by executing a script. Additional config parameters:

    • update_script: (mandatory) The path of the script to run. May contain placeholders {target} (for the most recent version specified as retrieved from the update check), {branch} for the branch to switch to access the release, {folder} for the working directory of the script and {python} for the python executable OctoPrint is running under. Presence implies method: update_script.

    • update_folder or checkout_folder: (mandatory) The working directory. checkout_folder can be used to avoid duplication in case of check types such as git_commit.

  • python_updater: Update by executing a custom python callable. Additional config parameters:

    • python_updater: (mandatory) Can only be specified by plugins through the hook. A Python callable which performs the update, see below for details. Presence implies method: python_updater.

  • sleep_a_bit: Does nothing but block for a configurable duration and log a countdown in the meantime. Useful for debugging software update mechanisms during development.

    Added in version 1.3.7.

Note

To allow default configurations for multiple update methods, if more than one of the above update method specific settings is set the one to use can be selected by setting the property method to the method specific setting in question.

Example

The following example defines both pip and update_script. By setting to method to pip, the Software Update plugin is instructed to use that as update method.

plugins:
  softwareupdate:
    checks:
      octoprint:
        type: github_release
        user: foosel
        repo: OctoPrint
        method: pip
        pip: 'https://github.com/OctoPrint/OctoPrint/archive/{target_version}.zip'
        update_script: '{python} "/path/to/octoprint-update.py" --python="{python}" "{folder}" "{target}"'
        checkout_folder: /path/to/octoprint/checkout/folder

Common configuration patterns

Example for a setup that allows “bleeding edge” updates of OctoPrint under OctoPi (the update_script gets configured correctly automatically by the plugin itself):

plugins:
  softwareupdate:
    checks:
      octoprint:
        type: github_commit
        user: foosel
        repo: OctoPrint
        branch: devel
        method: update_script
        update_folder: /home/pi/OctoPrint

Plugin installed via pip and hosted on Github under https://github.com/someUser/OctoPrint-SomePlugin, only releases should be tracked:

plugins:
  softwareupdate:
    checks:
      some_plugin:
        type: github_release
        user: someUser
        repo: OctoPrint-SomePlugin
        pip: 'https://github.com/someUser/OctoPrint-SomePlugin/archive/{target}.zip'

The same, but declaring three release channels “Stable”, “Maintenance RCs” (tagged on rc/maintenance or master, id rc/maintenance) and “Devel RCs” (tagged on rc/maintenance, rc/devel or master, id rc/devel), but with “Stable” active:

plugins:
  softwareupdate:
    checks:
      some_plugin:
        type: github_release
        user: someUser
        repo: OctoPrint-SomePlugin
        stable_branch:
          name: Stable
          branch: master
          commitish:
          - master
        prerelease_branches:
        - name: Maintenance RCs
          branch: rc/maintenance
          commitish:
          - rc/maintenance
          - master
        - name: Devel RCs
          branch: rc/devel
          commitish:
          - rc/devel
          - rc/maintenance
          - master
        pip: 'https://github.com/someUser/OctoPrint-SomePlugin/archive/{target}.zip'

And now with “Maintenance RCs” active (note the prerelease and prerelease_channel settings):

plugins:
  softwareupdate:
    checks:
      some_plugin:
        type: github_release
        user: someUser
        repo: OctoPrint-SomePlugin
        stable_branch:
          name: Stable
          branch: master
          commitish:
          - master
        prerelease_branches:
        - name: Maintenance RCs
          branch: rc/maintenance
          commitish:
          - rc/maintenance
          - master
        - name: Devel RCs
          branch: rc/devel
          commitish:
          - rc/devel
          - rc/maintenance
          - master
        prerelease: True
        prerelease_channel: rc/maintenance
        pip: 'https://github.com/someUser/OctoPrint-SomePlugin/archive/{target}.zip'

The same plugin again, but tracking all commits pushed to branch devel (thus allowing “bleeding edge” updates):

plugins:
  softwareupdate:
    checks:
      some_plugin:
        type: github_commit
        user: someUser
        repo: OctoPrint-SomePlugin
        branch: devel
        pip: 'https://github.com/someUser/OctoPrint-SomePlugin/archive/{target}.zip'

Single file plugin hosted in a gist https://gist.github.com/someUser/somegist and updated whenever there are changes:

plugins:
  softwareupdate:
    checks:
      some_plugin:
        type: httpheader
        header_name: ETag
        url: 'https://gist.github.com/someUser/somegist/raw/some_plugin.py'
        method: single_file_plugin

The same but updated when a version.json hosted alongside gets updated with a new version can be found at

plugins:
  softwareupdate:
    checks:
      some_plugin:
        type: jsondata
        jsondata: 'https://gist.github.com/someUser/somegist/raw/version.json'
        url: 'https://gist.github.com/someUser/somegist/raw/some_plugin.py'
        method: single_file_plugin

Note that for gist hosted single file plugins, you need to use the “Raw” install link but should remove the commit identifier. E.g. https://gist.githubusercontent.com/<user>/<gistid>/raw/my_plugin.py instead of https://gist.githubusercontent.com/<user>/<gistid>/raw/<commit>/my_plugin.py. Note that these URLs will be cached by Github for a bit, so an update will not be immediately picked up.

Global credentials

Added in version 1.5.0.

Starting with OctoPrint 1.5.0, the Software Update Plugin supports supplying a GitHub API token to use for the github_release and github_commit version check types, to work around possible rate limit problems if a lot of checks are to be made from a single external IP. You may create a personal access token and configure that as plugins.softwareupdate.credentials.github via config.yaml in order to get a higher rate limit than with purely anonymous access.

Additionally, the username and password to use with the bitbucket_commit version check type may also be configured via plugins.softwareupdate.credentials.bitbucket_user and plugins.softwareupdate.credentials.bitbucket_password respectively.

None of these configuration options are currently exposed on the UI and can only be used via config.yaml or the config command line interface.

Events

plugin_softwareupdate_update_succeeded

An update succeeded.

Payload:

  • target: update target

  • from_version: version from which was updated

  • to_version: version to which was updated

plugin_softwareupdate_update_failed

An update failed.

Payload:

  • target: update target

  • from_version: version from which was updated

  • to_version: version to which was updated

Hooks

octoprint.plugin.softwareupdate.check_config

update_config_hook(*args, **kwargs)

Returns additional check configurations for the Software Update plugin.

Handlers should return a Python dict containing one entry per check. Usually this will probably only be the check configuration for the plugin providing the handler itself, using the plugin’s identifier as key.

The check configuration must match the format expected in the configuration (see description above). Handlers may also utilize the python_checker and python_updater properties to return Python callables that take care of performing the version check or the update.

python_checker is expected to be a callable matching signature and return value of the get_latest methods found in the provided version checkers in src/octoprint/plugins/softwareupdate/version_checks. python_updater is expected to be a callable matching signature and return value of the perform_update methods found in the provided updaters in src/octoprint/plugins/softwareupdate/updaters.

Example

The example single-file-plugin updates itself from Github releases published at the (fictional) repository https://github.com/someUser/OctoPrint-UpdatePluginDemo.

def get_update_information(*args, **kwargs):
    return dict(
        updateplugindemo=dict(
            displayName=self._plugin_name,
            displayVersion=self._plugin_version,

            type="github_release",
            current=self._plugin_version,
            user="someUser",
            repo="OctoPrint-UpdatePluginDemo",

            pip="https://github.com/someUser/OctoPrint-UpdatePluginDemo/archive/{target}.zip"
        )
    )

__plugin_hooks__ = {
"octoprint.plugin.softwareupdate.check_config": get_update_information
}
Returns:

A dictionary of check configurations as described above

Return type:

dict

Helpers

version_checks

version_checks module of the Software Update plugin, allows reusing the bundled version check variants from plugins (e.g. wrapped in a python_checker).

updaters

updaters module of the Software Update plugin, allows reusing the bundled updater variants from plugins (e.g. wrapped in a python_updater).

exceptions

exceptions module of the Software Update plugin.

util

util module of the Software Update plugin.

Source Code

The source of the Software Update plugin is bundled with OctoPrint and can be found in its source repository under src/octoprint/plugins/softwareupdate.