App restart after update

[Trevor DeVore]

On Jun 17, 2008, at 1:49 AM, Bill Vlahos wrote:

> My application can update itself by downloading and placing the new  
> version in the appropriate spot. To utilize the new version the user  
> has to quit the old version and relaunch it which brings up the new  
> version.
>
> An example of this is Firefox which downloads the new file, expands  
> it, quits the running application, and then relaunches the new one  
> (and I presume deletes the old version).
>
> Quitting the application after the download is easy but how do I  
> have the computer automatically relaunch it?
>
> I would need this for Macintosh and Windows and Linux.

Hey Bill,

Are you replacing the executable when you install the new version or  
just the stacks? I ask because if you are just replacing stacks then  
you just need to unload all stacks from memory and reinitialize  
everything.

If you do need to quit the application and relaunch a new executable  
then email me off-list and I can send you the relevant parts of the  
GLX Application Framework that relaunch an executable on Mac and  
Windows. I just finished up some updates to this area of the code.

I don't have anything for Linux but the Sparkle framework (OS X only)  
uses a script for relaunching that may be portable to Linux. I've  
wanted to switch to a script on OS X (I use a small launcher app I  
made in XCode for relaunching right now) so it would be interesting to  
take a look at it again.

Regards,

-- 
Trevor DeVore
Blue Mango Learning Systems
ScreenSteps: http://www.screensteps.com
Developer Resources: http://revolution.bluemangolearning.com