Skip to main content

Updates

An installed WayLo updates itself from the Harness release server, updates.harnessautomation.com. Nothing installs by itself unless you turn on automatic updates: WayLo checks for new releases every few hours, and you decide when to install them.

note

This needs a WayLo installed with the current installer (the one-liner or a .run from 0.4.27 on). A source checkout, or an install made by the older installer, shows a note instead. Run the one-liner once to move an older install over.

From the toolbar​

The toolbar's update button (⤓) shows the installed version and whether a newer one is available. A dot on the button means there is one.

  1. Open the toolbar and click the update button.
  2. Click Install <version>, read the warning, then Install now.
  3. WayLo restarts on the new version. Your session disconnects for a few seconds and reconnects by itself, with no need to log in again.
  4. The panel then says Updated to <version>. If the new version didn't pass its checks, it says so, and the version you had is running again.

Check now asks the release server straight away rather than waiting for the next scheduled check.

What happens during an update​

Every release is signed. Before anything in a downloaded update runs, it is checked against the signing keys this machine already trusts, and a file that doesn't match is refused. Then:

  1. The new release is unpacked next to the running one, in ~/.local/share/waylo/releases/<version>. WayLo keeps running meanwhile.
  2. WayLo stops, ~/.config/waylo is backed up, and the current link is switched to the new release.
  3. The new release starts, and has to come up, answer on its port, and keep running for a few seconds.
  4. If any of that fails, the previous release and its settings are put back and started again. This is automatic.

Settings (waylo.env, the certificate, settings.json) live outside the release, so updates never change them. Desktop clients keep trusting the same certificate.

Nobody logged in? WayLo runs inside the desktop session. An update applied with no session running (from a terminal over SSH, say) switches to the new release and stops there. The new version starts at the next desktop login.

Automatic updates​

Tick Install updates automatically in the update panel to have WayLo install new releases as soon as it finds them. A session in progress drops for a few seconds when that happens, so leave this off on a machine people work on remotely during the day. The setting is auto_update in ~/.config/waylo/settings.json.

From a terminal​

waylo-update status # installed and previous version, last result
waylo-update rollback # back to the previous release
waylo-update apply waylo-<version>-linux-x64.run # install a .run you downloaded (the .run.sig must be next to it)

Run these as the desktop user, never with sudo. Logs of every install, update and rollback are in ~/.local/state/waylo/log/.

The latest stable .run and its signature can be downloaded from https://updates.harnessautomation.com/install/waylo/latest/linux-x64.run (add .sig for the signature). This is useful for a machine with no internet access.