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Tauri

Updater

Automatically update your Tauri app with an update server or a static JSON.

Supported Platforms

This plugin requires a Rust version of at least 1.77.2

Platform Level Notes
windows
linux
macos
android
ios

Setup

Install the Tauri updater plugin to get started.

Use your project’s package manager to add the dependency:

npm run tauri add updater

Signing updates

Tauri’s updater needs a signature to verify that the update is from a trusted source. This cannot be disabled.

To sign your updates you need two keys:

  1. The public key, which will be set in the tauri.conf.json to validate the artifacts before the installation. This public key can be uploaded and shared safely as long as your private key is secure.
  2. The private key, which is used to sign your installer files. You should NEVER share this key with anyone. Also, if you lose this key you will NOT be able to publish new updates to the users that have the app already installed. It is important to store this key in a safe place!

To generate the keys the Tauri CLI provides the signer generate command. You can run this to create the keys in the home folder:

npm run tauri signer generate -- -w ~/.tauri/myapp.key

Building

While building your update artifacts, you need to have the private key you generated above in your environment variables. .env files do not work!

export TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY="Path or content of your private key"
# optionally also add a password
export TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD=""

After that, you can run Tauri build as usual and Tauri will generate the update bundles and their signatures. The generated files depend on the createUpdaterArtifacts configuration value configured below.

{
"bundle": {
"createUpdaterArtifacts": true
}
}

On Linux, Tauri will create the normal AppImage inside the target/release/bundle/appimage/ folder:

  • myapp.AppImage - The standard app bundle. It will be re-used by the updater.
  • myapp.AppImage.sig - The signature of the updater bundle.

On macOS, Tauri will create a .tar.gz archive from the application bundle inside the target/release/bundle/macos/ folder:

  • myapp.app - The standard app bundle.
  • myapp.app.tar.gz - The updater bundle.
  • myapp.app.tar.gz.sig - The signature of the update bundle.

On Windows, Tauri will create the normal MSI and NSIS installers inside the target/release/bundle/msi/ and target/release/bundle/nsis folders:

  • myapp-setup.exe - The standard app bundle. It will be re-used by the updater.
  • myapp-setup.exe.sig - The signature of the update bundle.
  • myapp.msi - The standard app bundle. It will be re-used by the updater.
  • myapp.msi.sig - The signature of the update bundle.

Tauri Configuration

Set up the tauri.conf.json in this format for the updater to start working.

KeysDescription
createUpdaterArtifactsSetting this to true tells Tauri’s app bundler to create updater artifacts. If you’re migrating your app from an older Tauri version, set it to "v1Compatible" instead. This setting will be removed in v3 so make sure to change it to true once all your users are migrated to v2.
pubkeyThis has to be the public key generated from the Tauri CLI in the step above. It cannot be a file path!
endpointsThis must be an array of endpoint URLs as strings. TLS is enforced in production mode. Tauri will only continue to the next url if a non-2XX status code is returned!
dangerousInsecureTransportProtocolSetting this to true allows the updater to accept non-HTTPS endpoints. Use this configuration with caution!

Each updater URL can contain the following dynamic variables, allowing you to determine server-side if an update is available.

  • {{current_version}}: The version of the app that is requesting the update.
  • {{target}}: The operating system name (one of linux, windows or darwin).
  • {{arch}}: The architecture of the machine (one of x86_64, i686, aarch64 or armv7).
tauri.conf.json
{
"bundle": {
"createUpdaterArtifacts": true
},
"plugins": {
"updater": {
"pubkey": "CONTENT FROM PUBLICKEY.PEM",
"endpoints": [
"https://releases.myapp.com/{{target}}/{{arch}}/{{current_version}}",
// or a static github json file
"https://github.com/user/repo/releases/latest/download/latest.json"
]
}
}
}

installMode on Windows

On Windows there is an additional optional "installMode" config to change how the update is installed.

tauri.conf.json
{
"plugins": {
"updater": {
"windows": {
"installMode": "passive"
}
}
}
}
  • "passive": There will be a small window with a progress bar. The update will be installed without requiring any user interaction. Generally recommended and the default mode.
  • "basicUi": There will be a basic user interface shown which requires user interaction to finish the installation.
  • "quiet": There will be no progress feedback to the user. With this mode the installer cannot request admin privileges by itself so it only works in user-wide installations or when your app itself already runs with admin privileges. Generally not recommended.

Server Support

The updater plugin can be used in two ways. Either with a dynamic update server or a static JSON file (to use on services like S3 or GitHub gists).

Static JSON File

When using static, you just need to return a JSON containing the required information.

KeysDescription
versionMust be a valid SemVer, with or without a leading v, meaning that both 1.0.0 and v1.0.0 are valid.
notesNotes about the update.
pub_dateThe date must be formatted according to RFC 3339 if present.
platformsEach platform key is in the OS-ARCH format, where OS is one of linux, darwin or windows, and ARCH is one of x86_64, aarch64, i686 or armv7.
signatureThe content of the generated .sig file, which may change with each build. A path or URL does not work!

When using custom targets the provided target string is matched against the platforms key instead of the default OS-ARCH value.

The required keys are "version", "platforms.[target].url" and "platforms.[target].signature"; the others are optional.

{
"version": "",
"notes": "",
"pub_date": "",
"platforms": {
"linux-x86_64": {
"signature": "",
"url": ""
},
"windows-x86_64": {
"signature": "",
"url": ""
},
"darwin-x86_64": {
"signature": "",
"url": ""
}
}
}

Note that Tauri will validate the whole file before checking the version field, so make sure all existing platform configurations are valid and complete.

Dynamic Update Server

When using a dynamic update server, Tauri will follow the server’s instructions. To disable the internal version check you can overwrite the Tauri’s version comparison, this will install the version sent by the server (useful if you need to roll back your app).

Your server can use variables defined in the endpoint URL above to determine if an update is required. If you need more data, you can include additional request headers in Rust to your liking.

Your server should respond with a status code of 204 No Content if there is no update available.

If an update is required, your server should respond with a status code of 200 OK and a JSON response in this format:

KeysDescription
versionThis Must be a valid SemVer, with or without a leading v, meaning that both 1.0.0 and v1.0.0 are valid.
notesNotes about the update.
pub_dateThe date must be formatted according to RFC 3339 if present.
urlThis Must be a valid URL to the update bundle.
signatureThe content of the generated .sig file, which may change with each build. A path or URL does not work!

The required keys are "url", "version" and "signature"; the others are optional.

{
"version": "",
"pub_date": "",
"url": "",
"signature": "",
"notes": ""
}

Checking for Updates

The default API for checking updates and installing them leverages the configured endpoints and can be accessed by both JavaScript and Rust code.

import { check } from '@tauri-apps/plugin-updater';
import { relaunch } from '@tauri-apps/plugin-process';
const update = await check();
if (update) {
console.log(
`found update ${update.version} from ${update.date} with notes ${update.body}`
);
let downloaded = 0;
let contentLength = 0;
// alternatively we could also call update.download() and update.install() separately
await update.downloadAndInstall((event) => {
switch (event.event) {
case 'Started':
contentLength = event.data.contentLength;
console.log(`started downloading ${event.data.contentLength} bytes`);
break;
case 'Progress':
downloaded += event.data.chunkLength;
console.log(`downloaded ${downloaded} from ${contentLength}`);
break;
case 'Finished':
console.log('download finished');
break;
}
});
console.log('update installed');
await relaunch();
}

For more information see the JavaScript API documentation.

Note that restarting your app immediately after installing an update is not required and you can choose how to handle the update by either waiting until the user manually restarts the app, or prompting him to select when to do so.

When checking and downloading updates it is possible to define a custom request timeout, a proxy and request headers.

import { check } from '@tauri-apps/plugin-updater';
const update = await check({
proxy: '<proxy url>',
timeout: 30 /* seconds */,
headers: {
Authorization: 'Bearer <token>',
},
});

Runtime Configuration

The updater APIs also allows the updater to be configured at runtime for more flexibility. For security reasons some APIs are only available for Rust.

Endpoints

Setting the URLs that should be requested to check updates at runtime allows more dynamic updates such as separate release channels:

use tauri_plugin_updater::UpdaterExt;
let channel = if beta { "beta" } else { "stable" };
let update_url = format!("https://{channel}.myserver.com/{{{{target}}}}-{{{{arch}}}}/{{{{current_version}}}}");
let update = app
.updater_builder()
.endpoints(vec![update_url])?
.build()?
.check()
.await?;

Public key

Setting the public key at runtime can be useful to implement a key rotation logic. It can be set by either the plugin builder or updater builder:

tauri_plugin_updater::Builder::new().pubkey("<your public key>").build()
use tauri_plugin_updater::UpdaterExt;
let update = app
.updater_builder()
.pubkey("<your public key>")
.build()?
.check()
.await?;

Custom target

By default the updater lets you use the {{target}} and {{arch}} variables to determine which update asset must be delivered. If you need more information on your updates (e.g. when distributing a Universal macOS binary option or having more build flavors) you can set a custom target.

import { check } from '@tauri-apps/plugin-updater';
const update = await check({
target: 'macos-universal',
});

Allowing downgrades

By default Tauri checks if the update version is greater than the current app version to verify if it should update or not. To allow downgrades, you must use the updater builder’s version_comparator API:

use tauri_plugin_updater::UpdaterExt;
let update = app
.updater_builder()
.version_comparator(|current, update| {
// default comparison: `update.version > current`
update.version != current
})
.build()?
.check()
.await?;

Windows before exit hook

Due to a limitation of Windows installers, Tauri will automatically quit your application before installing updates on Windows. To perform an action before that happens, use the on_before_exit function:

use tauri_plugin_updater::UpdaterExt;
let update = app
.updater_builder()
.on_before_exit(|| {
println!("app is about to exit on Windows!");
})
.build()?
.check()
.await?;

Permissions

By default all potentially dangerous plugin commands and scopes are blocked and cannot be accessed. You must modify the permissions in your capabilities configuration to enable these.

See the Capabilities Overview for more information and the step by step guide to use plugin permissions.

src-tauri/capabilities/default.json
{
"permissions": [
...,
"updater:default",
]
}

Default Permission

This permission set configures which kind of updater functions are exposed to the frontend.

Granted Permissions

The full workflow from checking for updates to installing them is enabled.

  • allow-check
  • allow-download
  • allow-install
  • allow-download-and-install

Permission Table

Identifier Description

updater:allow-check

Enables the check command without any pre-configured scope.

updater:deny-check

Denies the check command without any pre-configured scope.

updater:allow-download

Enables the download command without any pre-configured scope.

updater:deny-download

Denies the download command without any pre-configured scope.

updater:allow-download-and-install

Enables the download_and_install command without any pre-configured scope.

updater:deny-download-and-install

Denies the download_and_install command without any pre-configured scope.

updater:allow-install

Enables the install command without any pre-configured scope.

updater:deny-install

Denies the install command without any pre-configured scope.


© 2024 Tauri Contributors. CC-BY / MIT