GHRU - GitHub Release Updater for Go applications

GHRU is a Go package that integrates self-updating functionality into your applications. It provides the ability to fetch the latest newer release information (such as tag, name, release notes), and for self-updating with the latest semantic version (semver) from your public GitHub releases.

By default, GHRU skips pre-releases but can be configured to include them. It supports flexible naming conventions and works seamlessly with compressed release assets.

GitHub release file requirements

To ensure compatibility with GHRU, your release files must meet the following criteria:

• Compression Formats: Supported formats auto-detected and include .tar.gz, .tgz, .tar.bz2, and .zip.
• Binary Placement: The binary must be at the top level in the release archive file (not in subdirectories).
• Additional Files: Additional files such as CHANGELOG or README can be included in the archive but will be ignored during self-updates.
• File Naming: Each file must specify the lowercased operating system and architecture in its name, and can optionally include the version number (the format is defined in your config, see below). Examples:
  • app1-linux-amd64.tar.gz
  • app2-darwin-arm64.tar.bz2
  • app3-v1.2.3-windows-amd64.zip
  • windows-amd64.zip

Defining the archive name template

Go templating is used to parse your ArchiveName, which uses the following values which are inherited from the running application:

• {{.OS}} - Operating system (lowercased), eg: linux, darwin, windows etc. (see list)
• {{.Arch}} - Architecture (lowercased), eg: 386, amd64, arm64 etc. (see list)
• {{.Version}} - the tag version of the release

In your ghru.Config{} you must define the ArchiveName, for example "package-{{.OS}}-{{.Arch}}". GHRU will detect the supported file format based on the filename and append this to the ArchiveName, resulting in package-linux-amd64.tar.gz when executed from Linux on amd64 architecture.

Adding the module

go get -u github.com/axllent/ghru/v2

Example usage

// Package main is an example application integrated with GHRU.
// Modify the ghru.Config{} variables to suite your repo.
// AppVersion variable value would typically be compiled into the application.
package main

import (
	"flag"
	"fmt"
	"os"

	"github.com/axllent/ghru/v2"
)

// App version should be set at compile time, for instance as a build argument.
// It has been hardcoded here for demonstration purposes.
var AppVersion = "0.1.2"

func main() {

	c := ghru.Config{
		// GitHub <org>/<repo> - do not use the full URL
		Repo:             "myorg/myapp",
		// Archive filename template
		ArchiveName:      "myapp-{{.OS}}-{{.Arch}}",
		// The name of the binary within the archive, ".exe" is automatically appended for Windows binaries
		BinaryName:       "myapp",
		// The current version from your running application
		CurrentVersion:   AppVersion,
		// Allow pre-releases (default false)
		AllowPreReleases: false,
	}

	// Command line flags
	update := flag.Bool("u", false, "update to latest release")
	showVersion := flag.Bool("v", false, "show current version")

	flag.Parse()

	// Show version and display update information if available
	if *showVersion {
		fmt.Printf("Current version: %s\n", AppVersion)
		release, err := c.Latest()
		if err != nil {
			fmt.Println(err.Error())
			os.Exit(1)
		}

		// The latest version is the same version
		if release.Tag == AppVersion {
			fmt.Println("You are running the latest version.")
			os.Exit(0)
		}

		// A newer release is available
		fmt.Printf("Update available: %s\nRun `%s -u` to update.\n", release.Tag, os.Args[0])

		// Display release notes if available
		if release.ReleaseNotes != "" {
			fmt.Printf("\nRelease notes\n=============\n\n%s\n", release.ReleaseNotes)
		}

		os.Exit(0)
	}

	// Update the application to the latest release
	if *update {
		rel, err := c.SelfUpdate()
		if err != nil {
			fmt.Println(err.Error())
			os.Exit(1)
		}

		fmt.Printf("Updated %s to version %s\n", os.Args[0], rel.Tag)
		os.Exit(0)
	}

	fmt.Println("This is your test application")
}