Keeping every machine up to date
One screen for the whole fleet: what each machine runs, whether anything is behind, and one press to bring it up.
Updates is a fleet screen, not a machine one. The question people open it
for is "is anything behind?", and visiting every machine in turn is not an
answer.
What is on it
- One sentence at the top: whether anything on this fleet needs attention.
- A switch for the workspace: update machines automatically, or not.
- One button that brings everything up.
- A list, sorted so whatever needs doing is at the top. Each machine has a
version and at most one thing to press.
Each machine is described with one of four words — current, behind,
too old, or unknown.
If the workspace is not paying, the list still loads and machines still show as
behind, but there is no Update button — a new build is one of the things a
lapsed seat refuses. See
when a subscription lapses.
Machines update one at a time
Pressing the fleet button walks the list rather than firing at everything at
once. A machine restarts its panel as part of updating.
Updating goes straight from your browser to the machine, like everything
else. We are not in the middle of it.
[!NOTE]
The button is offered on Linux machines. A Mac is listed with its version like
any other, and is updated where it is — beafk update in a terminal.
Where the version comes from
The list paints immediately from what we last heard, then corrects itself a
second later by asking each machine directly. Our copy is only as fresh as the
machine's last report. On a machine whose network to us is broken but whose
network to you is fine, we may have no copy at all while you are one hop away
from it.
Automatic updates
The switch is per workspace. With it on, machines take new releases themselves.
With it off, nothing moves until you press something.
Automatic suits a personal fleet; a team with a change window turns it off.
"Too old"
A machine that has fallen a long way behind is marked too old and cannot be
opened until it is updated. The panel your browser downloads and the machine it
talks to have to understand each other, and past a certain distance they no
longer do. Update it and it comes back.
From the machine itself
sudo beafk update # Linux
beafk update # Mac
Same thing, if you happen to have a shell open.