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Chocolatey Automatic Package Updater Module

This PowerShell module implements functions that can be used to automate Chocolatey package updates.

To learn more about Chocolatey automatic packages, please refer to the relevant documentation.

Features

• Use only PowerShell to create automatic update script for given package.
• Automatically downloads installers and provides/validates checksums for x32 and x64 versions.
• Verifies URLs, nuspec versions, remote Chocolatey existence etc.
• Can use global variables to change functionality.
• Sugar functions for Chocolatey package maintainers.
• Update single package or any subset of previously created AU packages with a single command.
• Multithread support when updating multiple packages.
• Plugin system when updating everything, with the few integrated plugins to send email notifications, save results to gist and push updated packages to git repository.

Installation

Use one of the following methods:

• PowerShell 5+: Install-Module au.
• Chocolatey: cinst au.
• Download latest 7z package or latest build artifact.

AU module requires minimally PowerShell version 4: $host.Version -ge '4.0'

To quickly start using AU, fork au-packages-template repository and rename it to au-packages.

NOTE: All module functions work from within specific root folder. The folder contains all of your Chocolatey packages.

Creating the package updater script

The AU uses update.ps1 script that package maintainers should create in the package directory. No templates are used, just plain PowerShell.

To write the package update script, it is generally required to implement 2 functions: au_GetLatest and au_SearchReplace.

au_GetLatest

This function is used to get the latest package information.

As an example, the following function uses Invoke-WebRequest to download a page (#1). After that it takes a href attribute from the first page link that ends with .exe word as a latest URL for the package (#2). Then it conveniently splits the URL to get the latest version for the package (#3), a step that is highly specific to the URL but very easy to determine.

function global:au_GetLatest {
     $download_page = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $releases #1 
     $regex   = '.exe$'
     $url     = $download_page.links | ? href -match $regex | select -First 1 -expand href #2
     $version = $url -split '-|.exe' | select -Last 1 -Skip 2 #3
     return @{ Version = $version; URL32 = $url }
}

The returned version is later compared to the one in the nuspec file and if remote version is higher, the files will be updated. The returned keys of this HashTable are available via global variable $global:Latest (along with some keys that AU generates). You can put whatever data you need in the returned HashTable - this data can be used later in au_SearchReplace.

au_SearchReplace

Function returns HashTable containing search and replace data for any package file in the form:

    @{
        file_path1 = @{
            search1 = replace1
            ...
            searchN = replaceN
        }
        file_path2 = @{ ... }
        ...
    }

Search and replace strings are operands for PowerShell replace operator. You do not have to write them most of the time however, they are rarely changed.

File paths are relative to the package directory. The function can use $global:Latest variable to get any type of information obtained when au_GetLatest was executed along with some AU generated data such as PackageName, NuspecVersion etc.

The following example illustrates the usage:

function global:au_SearchReplace {
    @{
        "tools\chocolateyInstall.ps1" = @{
            "(^[$]url32\s*=\s*)('.*')"      = "`$1'$($Latest.URL32)'"           #1
            "(^[$]checksum32\s*=\s*)('.*')" = "`$1'$($Latest.Checksum32)'"      #2
        }
    }
}

Here, line of the format $url32 = '<package_url>' in the file tools\chocolateyInstall.ps1 will have its quoted string replaced with latest URL (#1). The next line replaces value of the variable $checksum32 on the start of the line with the latest checksum that is automatically injected in the $Latest variable by the AU framework (#2). Replacement of the latest version in the nuspec file is handled automatically.

NOTE: The search and replace works on lines, multiple lines can not be matched with single regular expression.

Update

With above functions implemented calling the Update-Package (alias update) function from the AU module will update the package when needed.

You can then update the individual package by running the appropriate update.ps1 script from within the package directory:

PS C:\chocolatey\dngrep> .\update.ps1
dngrep - checking updates using au version 2016.9.14
nuspec version: 2.8.15.0
remote version: 2.8.16.0
New version found
Automatic checksum started
Downloading dngrep 32 bit
  from 'https://github.com/dnGrep/dnGrep/releases/download/v2.8.16.0/dnGREP.2.8.16.x86.msi'

Download of dnGREP.2.8.16.x86.msi (3.36 MB) completed.
Package downloaded and hash calculated for 32 bit version
Downloading dngrep 64 bit
  from 'https://github.com/dnGrep/dnGrep/releases/download/v2.8.16.0/dnGREP.2.8.16.x64.msi'

Download of dnGREP.2.8.16.x64.msi (3.39 MB) completed.
Package downloaded and hash calculated for 64 bit version
Updating files
  dngrep.nuspec
    updating version:  2.8.15.0 -> 2.8.16.0
  tools\chocolateyInstall.ps1
    (^[$]url32\s*=\s*)('.*') = $1'https://github.com/dnGrep/dnGrep/releases/download/v2.8.16.0/dnGREP.2.8.16.x86.msi'
    (^[$]url64\s*=\s*)('.*') = $1'https://github.com/dnGrep/dnGrep/releases/download/v2.8.16.0/dnGREP.2.8.16.x64.msi'
    (^[$]checksum32\s*=\s*)('.*') = $1'CE4753735148E1F48FE0E1CD9AA4DFD019082F4F43C38C4FF4157F08D346700C'
    (^[$]checksumType32\s*=\s*)('.*') = $1'sha256'
    (^[$]checksum64\s*=\s*)('.*') = $1'025BD4101826932E954AACD3FE6AEE9927A7198FEEFFB24F82FBE5D578502D18'
    (^[$]checksumType64\s*=\s*)('.*') = $1'sha256'
Attempting to build package from 'dngrep.nuspec'.
Successfully created package 'dngrep.2.8.16.0.nupkg'
Package updated

This is best understood via the example - take a look at the real life package installer script and its AU updater.

Checks

The update function does the following checks:

• The $Latest.Version will be checked to match a valid nuspec pattern.
• Any hash key that starts with the word Url, will be checked for existence and MIME textual type, since binary is expected here.
• If the remote version is higher then the nuspec version, the Chocolatey site will be checked for existence of this package version (this works for unpublished packages too). This allows multiple users to update same set of packages without a conflict. Besides, this feature makes it possible not to persist state between the updates as once the package is updated and pushed, the next update will not push the package again. To persist the state of updated packages you can use for instance Git plugin which saves the updated and published packages to the git repository.
• The regex patterns in au_SearchReplace will be checked for existence.

If any of the checks fails, package will not get updated. This feature releases you from the worries about how precise is your pattern match in both au_ functions - if for example, a vendor site changes, the package update will fail because of the wrongly parsed data.

For some packages, you may want to disable some of the checks by specifying additional parameters of the update function (not all can be disabled):

Parameter	Description
NoCheckUrl	Disable URL checks
NoCheckChocoVersion	Disable the Chocolatey site check
ChecksumFor none	Disable automatic checksum

Automatic checksums

When new version is available, the update function will by default download both x32 and x64 versions of the installer and calculate the desired checksum. It will inject this info in the $global:Latest HashTable variable so you can use it via au_SearchReplace function to update hashes. The parameter ChecksumFor can contain words all, none, 32 or 64 to further control the behavior.

You can disable this feature by calling update like this:

update -ChecksumFor none

You can define the hash algorithm by returning corresponding ChecksumTypeXX hash keys in the au_GetLatest function:

return @{ ... ChecksumType32 = 'sha512'; ... }

If the checksum is actually obtained from the vendor's site, you can provide it along with its type (SHA256 by default) by returning corresponding ChecksumXX hash keys in the au_GetLatest function:

return @{ ... Checksum32 = 'xxxxxxxx'; ChecksumType32 = 'md5'; ... }

If the ChecksumXX hash key is present, the AU will change to checksum verification mode - it will download the installer and verify that its checksum matches the one provided. If the key is not present, the AU will calculate hash with the given ChecksumTypeXX algorithm.

NOTE: This feature works by monkey patching the Get-ChocolateyWebFile helper function and invoking the chocolateyInstall.ps1 afterwards for the package in question. This means that it downloads the files using whatever method is specified in the package installation script.

Force update

You can force the update even if no new version is found by using the parameter Force (or global variable $au_Force). This can be useful for testing the update and bug fixing, recalculating the checksum after the package was created and already pushed to Chocolatey or if URLs to installer changed without change in version.

The version of the package will be changed so that it follows chocolatey fix standard where current date is added in the revision component of the package version in the format yyyyMMdd. More precisely,

• chocolatey "fix version" always goes in to the Revision part of the package version.
• existing "fixed versions" are changed to contain the current date.
• if Revision part is present in the package version and it is not in the chocolatey fix standard form, AU will keep the existing version but notify about it.

Example:

PS C:\chocolatey\cpu-z.install> $au_Force = $true; .\update.ps1
cpu-z.install - checking updates
nuspec version: 1.77
remote version: 1.77
No new version found, but update is forced
Automatic checksum started
...
Updating files
  cpu-z.install.nuspec
    updating version using Chocolatey fix notation: 1.77 -> 1.77.0.20160814
...

Global variables

To avoid changing the ./update.ps1 when troubleshooting or experimenting you can set up any already unset update parameter via global variable. The names of global variables are the same as the names of parameters with the prefix au_. As an example, the following code will change the update behavior so that URL is not checked for existence and MIME type and update is forced:

$au_NoCheckUrl = $au_Force = $true
./update.ps1

This is the same as if you added the parameters to update function inside the ./update.ps1 script:

update -NoCheckUrl -Force

however, its way easier to setup global variable with manual intervention on multiple packages.

Reusing the AU updater with metapackages

Metapackages can reuse an AU updater of its dependency by the following way:

• In the dependent updater, instead of calling the update directly, use construct:

    if ($MyInvocation.InvocationName -ne '.') { update ... }
  

• In the metapackage updater dot source the dependent updater and override au_SearchReplace.

This is best understood via example - take a look at the cpu-z AU updater which uses the updater from the cpu-z.install package on which it depends. It overrides the au_SearchReplace function and the update call but keeps the au_GetLatest.

Updating all packages

You can update all packages and optionally push them to the Chocolatey repository with a single command. Function Update-AUPackages (alias updateall) will iterate over update.ps1 scripts and execute each in a separate thread. If it detects that a package is updated it will optionally try to push it to the Chocolatey repository and may also run configured plugins.

For the push to work, specify your Choocolatey API key in the file api_key in the script's directory (or its parent directory) or set the environment variable $Env:api_key. If none provided cached nuget key will be used.

The function will search for packages in the current directory. To override that, use global variable $au_Root:

PS> $au_root = 'c:\chocolatey_packages`
PS> $Options = @{
    Timeout = 10
    Threads = 15
    Push    = $true
}
PS> updateall -Options $Options

Updating 6 automatic packages at 2016-09-16 22:03:33
Push is enabled
   copyq is updated to 2.6.1 and pushed 
   dngrep had errors during update
       Can't validate URL 'https://github.com/dnGrep/dnGrep/releases/download/v2.8.16.0/dnGREP.2.8.16.x64.msi'
       Exception calling "GetResponse" with "0" argument(s): "The operation has timed out"
   eac has no updates
   pandoc has no updates
   plantuml has no updates
   yed had errors during update
       Can't validate URL 'https://www.yworks.com'
       Invalid content type: text/html

Finished 6 packages after .32 minutes.
1 updated and 1 pushed.
2 errors - 2 update, 0 push.

Use updateall parameter Name to specify package names via glob, for instance updateall [a-d]* would update only packages which names start with the letter 'a' trough 'd'. Add Push among options to push successfully built packages to the chocolatey repository.

Take a look at the real life example of the update script.

Plugins

It is possible to specify a custom user logic in Options parameter - every key that is of type [HashTable] will be considered plugin with the PowerShell script that is named the same as the key. The following code shows how to use 5 integrated plugins:

    $Options = [ordered]@{
        Timeout = 100
        Threads = 15
        Push    = $true
          
        # Save text report in the local file report.txt
        Report = @{
            Type = 'text'
            Path = "$PSScriptRoot\report.txt"
        }
        
        # Then save this report as a gist using your api key and gist id
        Gist = @{
            ApiKey = $Env:github_api_key
            Id     = $Env:github_gist_id
            Path   = "$PSScriptRoot\report.txt"
        }

        # Persist pushed packages to your repository
        Git = @{
            User = ''
            Password = $Env:github_api_key
        }
        
        # Then save run info which can be loaded with Import-CliXML and inspected
        RunInfo = @{
            Path = "$PSScriptRoot\update_info.xml"
        }

        # Finally, send an email to the user if any error occurs and attach previously created run info
        Mail = if ($Env:mail_user) {
                @{
                   To          = $Env:mail_user
                   Server      = 'smtp.gmail.com'
                   UserName    = $Env:mail_user
                   Password    = $Env:mail_pass
                   Port        = 587
                   EnableSsl   = $true
                   Attachment  = "$PSScriptRoot\$update_info.xml"
                   UserMessage = 'Save attachment and load it for detailed inspection: <code>$info = Import-CliXCML update_info.xml</code>'
                }
        } else {}
    }

The plugins above - Report, Gist,Git,RunInfo and Mail - are executed in the given order (hence the [ordered] flag) and AU passes them given options and saves the run results.

To add custom plugins, specify additional plugin search path via $Options.PluginPath. Plugin is a normal PowerShell script and apart from parameters given in its HashTable the AU will send it one more parameter $Info that contains current run info. The name of the script file must be the same as that of the key which value is used to pass the parameters to the plugin. If a key with the value of type [HashTable] doesn't point to existing PowerShell script it is not considered to be an AU plugin.

To temporary disable plugins use updateall option NoPlugins or global variable $au_NoPlugins. To temporary exclude the AU package from updateall procedure add _ prefix to the package directory name.

For more information take a look at the wiki section about plugins.

Make a script

Its desirable to put everything in a single script update_all.ps1 so it can be scheduled and called with the given options. Rename update_all_default.ps1 and uncomment and set the options you need.

To make a local scheduled task, use the following code in the directory where your update_all.ps1 script is found to install it:

$At = '03:00'
schtasks /create /tn "Update-AUPackages" /tr "powershell -File '$pwd\update_all.ps1'" /sc daily /st $At

Its preferable to run the updater on AppVeyor.

Other functions

Apart from the functions used in the updating process, there are few suggars for regular maintenance of the package:

• Test-Package
  Quickly cpack and install the package from the current directory.

• Push-Package (alias pp)
  Push the latest package using your API key.

• Get-AuPackages (alias gau or lsau)
  Returns the list of the packages which have update.ps1 script in its directory and which name doesn't start with '_'.