# 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](https://beafk.app/docs/when-a-subscription-lapses.md).

## 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

```sh
sudo beafk update    # Linux
beafk update         # Mac
```

Same thing, if you happen to have a shell open.

---

beafk documentation · Machines · https://beafk.app/docs/keeping-machines-updated

In this section:
- What the install puts on your machine — https://beafk.app/docs/what-the-install-does.md
- Is the machine all right? — https://beafk.app/docs/is-the-machine-all-right.md
- Keeping every machine up to date — https://beafk.app/docs/keeping-machines-updated.md (this page)
- Disconnecting a machine — https://beafk.app/docs/disconnecting-a-machine.md
- Everything it wrote — https://beafk.app/docs/what-the-install-wrote.md

Every page, one line each: https://beafk.app/docs/llms.txt
All of it in one file: https://beafk.app/docs/llms-full.txt