Single-file bundles + updates

[Bastien Nocera]

On Sat, 2016-09-17 at 12:10 +0200, Sébastien Wilmet wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> In the "Single-file bundles" section at
> http://flatpak.org/developer.html
> 
> “distributing updates is much more convenient with a hosted
> repository”
> 
> Does that mean that once a single-file bundle is installed, there is
> no
> way for users to get automatic updates, e.g. through gnome-software?
> If
> it is not yet supported, is it planned?

I'm pretty sure it's not planned, as it really would have all the
problems of packages, without any of the benefits of using a
repository, like reducing update sizes.

> I prefer to distribute my app as a single-file bundle, to have
> download
> statistics (it is hosted on SourceForge). Statistics is important to
> me.

There might be a way to process httpd logs to produce those statistics
on the ostree side.

If there was also a way to install a repo from the initial package, it
would make the original installation similar to installing an
application on Windows. For security reasons, you'd probably want the
user to authorise/enable the auto-update feature themselves.

Alternatively, you could check the download logs for the repository
information (.flatpakrepo files).

> (Ideally I would also want to know if the app is often launched).

Fairly certain that would require your application to log that and
phone home.