[Ifeffit] ifeffit updater

[Matt Newville]

Hi Peter,

On Wed, 17 Sep 2003, Peter Pfalzer wrote:

> The idea of having an updater is great!
> I downloaded and installed it right away, but I'm not sure if it's doing 
> the right thing.
> Every time I start one of the programs (athena, gifeffit,...) the 
> updater accesses the internet and tells me that there are updates 
> available. I click on "install updates" and it's downloading and 
> unpacking a .exe and a .lib file.
> Nothing else seems to change. The version number of ifeffit printed out 
> by the "about"-function of athena is still 1.2.2 and on every new start 
> of the programs the "updates available" notice pops up again.
> Am I doing something wrong?

Hmm, it sounds like you're doing everything right.  It also seems
like it's mostly working, but not actually installing the updates.

Here's what is supposed to happen (once the updater program is
installed):
  1. try to download and read the 'latest version number' from
       http://cars9.uchicago.edu/ifeffit/updates/update.dat
     currently, this reads '001'.  If you're not connected to 
     the internet, it should time-out.
  2. read the local current 'update value' from the file 
     IFEFFIT_DIR/updates/update.dat, where IFEFFIT_DIR is the 
     directory Ifeffit got installed to.
  3. if it could read both values and the web version is greater 
     than the local version, it pops up the display saying that
     updates are available.  If the local version and web version
     are the same, the updater is done.

  4. if updates are needed and you click the 'install' button, it 
     tries to downloads zip file(s) named
       http://cars9.uchicago.edu/ifeffit/updates/ifup_XXX.zip
     where XXX is the update level.  The program shows its progress 
     in a text window, so you should see it trying to download and 
     then unpack these zip files.  For ifup_001.zip, it should 
     unpack these files:  
        ifeffit_10.exp
        ifeffit_10.lib
        ifeffit_10.dll
        updates/ifup_001.txt

  5. It then deletes the local copy of the zip file, and displays 
     the contents of updates/ifup_001.txt, which reads
   Update #1 applies changes between 1.2.2 and 1.2.3:
    - setting path_index now makes the selected path 'the current path', 
      and re-evaluates defined variables and path parameters to use
      that path's values for reff, degen, etc.
    - fixed error with spline() passing pre1,pre2 to pre_edge()
   
  6. finally, it writes the current version to the local file 
     updates/update.dat.
 
If more than 1 update is needed, it will download and upack them in
order.  In the batch files that launch the ifeffit applications, the
updater is now run just before each ifeffit application.

Given all that, and your symptoms, I'm not sure where the trouble is 
happening.  It sounds like it is trying to download the zip file, so 
it's getting pretty far.  Some things to look for are:
  1. does the IFEFFIT_DIR/updates directory exist?  If so, is there
     a file update.dat?  What does it contain?

  2. you could try downloading 
      http://cars9.uchicago.edu/ifeffit/updates/ifup_001.zip
    and unpacking it (relative to the main Ifefffit dir) by hand.
    Does that work?  As this overwrites ifeffit_10.dll, athena  
    should report that it's using ifeffit 1.2.3. 

    What are the size and date for ifeffit_10.dll?

  3.If that works, you could try writing '001' to 
       IFEFFIT_DIR/updates/update.dat
    That should stop the updater from trying to install updates.
    Of course, the problem might return at the next update, so 
    this isn't a very good long-term solution.

Hope that helps, and sorry for the trouble.  Is anyone else having
this problem?  If so, please let me know, either here or through
private email.

--Matt