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Chromium Updater User Manual

This is the user manual for Chromium Updater.

[TOC]

Error codes

The updater setup process can exit with the following error codes:

  • UNABLE_TO_ELEVATE_METAINSTALLER = 113: This error code indicates that the updater setup failed to elevate itself when trying to install a system app.

Dynamic Install Parameters

needsadmin

needsadmin is one of the install parameters that can be specified for first installs via the metainstaller tag. needsadmin is used to indicate whether the application needs admin rights to install.

For example, here is a command line for the Updater on Windows that includes:

UpdaterSetup.exe --install --tag="appguid=YourAppID&needsadmin=False"

In this case, the updater client understands that the application installer needs to install the application on a per-user basis for the current user.

needsadmin has the following supported values:

  • true: the application supports being installed systemwide and once installed, is available to all users on the system.
  • false: the application supports only user installs.
  • prefers: the application installation is first attempted systemwide. If the user refuses the UAC prompt however, the application is then only installed for the current user. The application installer needs to be able to support the installation as system, or per-user, or both modes.

installdataindex

installdataindex is one of the install parameters that can be specified for first installs on the command line or via the metainstaller tag.

For example, here is a typical command line for the Updater on Windows:

UpdaterSetup.exe /install "appguid=YourAppID&appname=YourAppName&needsadmin=False&lang=en&installdataindex =verboselog"

In this case, the updater client sends the installdataindex of verboselog to the update server.

The server retrieves the data corresponding to installdataindex=verboselog and returns it back to the updater client.

The updater client writes this data to a temporary file in the same directory as the application installer.

The updater client provides the temporary file as a parameter to the application installer.

Let's say, as shown above, that the update server responds with these example file contents:

{"logging":{"verbose":true}}

The updater client will now create a temporary file, say c:\my path\temporaryfile.dat (assuming the application installer is running from c:\my path\YesExe.exe), with the following file contents:

\xEF\xBB\xBF{"logging":{"verbose":true}}

and then provide the file as a parameter to the application installer:

"c:\my path\YesExe.exe" --installerdata="c:\my path\temporaryfile.dat"
  • Notice above that the temp file contents are prefixed with an UTF-8 Byte Order Mark of EF BB BF.
  • For MSI installers, a property will passed to the installer: INSTALLERDATA="pathtofile".
  • For exe-based installers, as shown above, a command line parameter will be passed to the installer: --installerdata="pathtofile".
  • For Mac installers, an environment variable will be set: INSTALLERDATA="pathtofile".
  • Ownership of the temp file is the responsibility of the application installer. The updater will not delete this file.
  • This installerdata is not persisted anywhere else, and it is not sent as a part of pings to the update server.

Application Commands

The Application Command feature allows installed Updater-managed products to pre-register and then later run command lines (elevated for system applications). The command lines can also include replaceable parameters substituted at runtime.

For more information, please see the functional spec.