Updating Solely Required Files

Get help with compiling or installing the game, and discuss announcements of new official releases.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

Post Reply
Mithhlothden
Posts: 1
Joined: August 11th, 2010, 2:03 pm

Updating Solely Required Files

Post by Mithhlothden »

Is there a way to update the game by downloading just the updated files, rather than the whole 250-odd MB game?
User avatar
norbert
Posts: 368
Joined: June 14th, 2009, 6:57 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: Updating Solely Required Files

Post by norbert »

Mithhlothden wrote:Is there a way to update the game by downloading just the updated files, rather than the whole 250-odd MB game?
Threads that go into this already exist. See for example:
http://forum.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=31014
http://forum.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=30777
http://forum.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=30200
http://forum.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10516
http://forum.wesnoth.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=30253
User avatar
Captain_Wrathbow
Posts: 1664
Joined: June 30th, 2009, 2:03 pm
Location: Guardia

Re: Updating Solely Required Files

Post by Captain_Wrathbow »

The short answer is, no. There's currently no good way of doing this, unfortunately.
User avatar
Zarel
Posts: 700
Joined: July 15th, 2009, 8:24 am
Location: Minnesota, USA
Contact:

Re: Updating Solely Required Files

Post by Zarel »

Captain_Wrathbow wrote:The short answer is, no. There's currently no good way of doing this, unfortunately.
You mean the short answer is yes, but it's not worth the effort.
Proud creator of the :whistle: smiley | I prefer the CC-0 license.
User avatar
Captain_Wrathbow
Posts: 1664
Joined: June 30th, 2009, 2:03 pm
Location: Guardia

Re: Updating Solely Required Files

Post by Captain_Wrathbow »

I guess you're referring to that it's possible to individually download each necessary file? :hmm:
So... sure, if you want to be technical. :P It's not like anyone's going to do that, though. :roll:
User avatar
thespaceinvader
Retired Art Director
Posts: 8414
Joined: August 25th, 2007, 10:12 am
Location: Oxford, UK
Contact:

Re: Updating Solely Required Files

Post by thespaceinvader »

The short answer is yes, if you know how to work SVN and compile. If you don't know what either of those means, the short answer is almost certainly no.
http://thespaceinvader.co.uk | http://thespaceinvader.deviantart.com
Back to work. Current projects: Catching up on commits. Picking Meridia back up. Sprite animations, many and varied.
User avatar
Zarel
Posts: 700
Joined: July 15th, 2009, 8:24 am
Location: Minnesota, USA
Contact:

Re: Updating Solely Required Files

Post by Zarel »

Captain_Wrathbow wrote:I guess you're referring to that it's possible to individually download each necessary file? :hmm:
So... sure, if you want to be technical. :P It's not like anyone's going to do that, though. :roll:
Refer to what TSI wrote. A lot of people (I'd guess most of the devs) do "that".
Proud creator of the :whistle: smiley | I prefer the CC-0 license.
User avatar
pauxlo
Posts: 1047
Joined: September 19th, 2006, 8:54 pm

Re: Updating Solely Required Files

Post by pauxlo »

As this topic comes again over and over, could we maybe add some clarifying text somewhere (I think FPI is not the right location ... didn't we have a "frequently proposed good ideas" somewhere?), like this:
How can I download only the changed files between two versions?

For now, there is one possibility which comes near this: You could track the sources with SVN, and when a new version comes out, update to the relevant version and compile from the sources. The update than changes only changed files (and even downloads only the differences), so you have quite less network traffic. The downside would be that you need more disk space (at least double the source size), and that you have to compile yourself, which is not quite easy (dependent on platform).

It would be possible to create an installable package which only updates all changed files between two versions, and so has a lot smaller download size than a full download, since most files (and certainly most "big" files like music) don't change.
But for now, nobody has done this, and the developers don't see this as a priority (nobody wants to do this). If you want to do this (and preferable make it automatizable) for one or more of our platforms, contact the developers (and/or the packagers for your platform) via IRC or on the mailing list.
(This could need some polishing.)
User avatar
Iris
Site Administrator
Posts: 6797
Joined: November 14th, 2006, 5:54 pm
Location: Chile
Contact:

Re: Updating Solely Required Files

Post by Iris »

A sticky in this very forum (and linked from the FAQ) would be fine once I revise/edit your proposal.

EDIT: There it goes!

Feel free to comment on it here, in case anything needs to be corrected/added/etc.
Author of the unofficial UtBS sequels Invasion from the Unknown and After the Storm.
User avatar
norbert
Posts: 368
Joined: June 14th, 2009, 6:57 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Re: Updating Solely Required Files

Post by norbert »

shadowmaster wrote:Feel free to comment on it here, in case anything needs to be corrected/added/etc.
I have a somewhat on-topic question. Currently, the wesnothd and wesnoth executables contain some static directory information. For example, wesnothd contains the path to var/run/wesnothd, and both executables contain the locations of the preferences and share folders. I'm wondering if it's possible for the developers to put these paths in an editable configuration file that resides in a standard, unchangeable location. (The location would be different for each OS, but would never change on these OSes.)

If this would be implemented, I think I can create a package that will only contain and update/add the files that were changed between two releases. (At least on Debian-like systems.) I've already been able to find out which files were changed and added/removed between 1.8.4 and 1.9.0 by using a simple bash script (with cmp, find, and other commands). It shouldn't be that difficult to move those files into an archive and create another script that will ask the user some questions and copy files to the appropriate locations.

For now, with those paths (--prefix; --with-preferences-dir; probably others) in the executables, I don't think it's possible to create something that would work for everyone. So, I'm wondering if it would be possible to put those paths in a separate configuration file...
m0ta
Posts: 18
Joined: March 26th, 2009, 11:58 am

Re: Updating Solely Required Files

Post by m0ta »

I guess in-game updating would still be next to impossible without running wesnoth as root, right?
User avatar
pauxlo
Posts: 1047
Joined: September 19th, 2006, 8:54 pm

Re: Updating Solely Required Files

Post by pauxlo »

Yes, in-game-updating is not the aim of this proposal, only having a "smaller installer" which installs only changed files.
Post Reply