Updating EXE file from server…

I need to update my application from a central server.

The application checks always if i开发者_如何学编程t is a correct version, against the server installation.

So when it is not, I need it to update itself.

So how can I copy the EXE if it is running? What solution do I have?

I rename the current running exe to MyTempExe.exe, copy the new exe to the correct location (request elevated privileges if necessary) and then run a separate app to restart the main app. On start up I check for MyTempExe.exe delete it if it's there.

The reason I use a separate app for the restart is I don't have a set time frame for the app to close down and need to wait for it to finish whatever it's doing, on shutdown it writes information to disk about its current state that the updated app will use to resume where the old one left off.

I don't know if it's the best solution but it's the one I use.

As you can see by all the answers there is no set way to do this, so I thought I would add the way we have successfully done this.

1. We never run an application directly from the network.
2. We run the application from the local machine and have it copy from the network on startup.

We do this using an application launcher. It downloads an XML file that contains CRC and Version Resource Values for the application files. The XML File is created during the deployment process, in a FinalBuilder Script.

The application then compares the XML File to local content, and copies down needed files. Finally we then launch the application in question. This has worked well for deploying an application that serves around 300 local users. Recently we switch from a file copy to an HTTP download as we found problems with remote user disconnecting drives.

We still still build installations (With Innosetup) to get the basic required files deployed.

Package your app with an installer such as Inno. Download and execute the installer. Have the installer search for and kill your app, or instruct the user to close it. The setup will replace your .exe, and if the app can't be killed or the user is non-cooperative, it'll issue a re-start notice.

• Download new EXE to TEMP
• Create Batch from EXE, content:

taskkill /PID %process id of running EXE%

copy %new EXE% %running EXE%

%EXE%

• all values in %...% are placeholders
• execute batch from the running EXE
• delete batch

I use TMS TWebUpdate myself, for software updates. The advantage is that there a bunch of extra actions you can put into the script, if you need anything other than plain EXE updates.

I have two components at work the application executable itself and a web-service (SOAP) which provides version details and file downloads.

The application calls a method on the SOAP service to ask for the number of files in the project (project is identified by using the application.exename usually).

The soap service gets its info from an INI file, which has entries like:

[ProjectName]

NumberOfFiles=2

File1=myapp.exe;1.0.0.1

File2=mydll.dll;1.0.0.2

You just update this file at the same time as uploading your new files.

The process of updating the application this:

1. Get number of files available on the web service

2. For each file, the application asks for the name and version number from the SOAP server.

3. The application compares this information to its own version info and decides if the file needs updating, building a local list of files that need updating.

4. For each file that needs updating the application downloads the file to filename.ext.new

5. Finally, the application renames all filename.ext to filename.ext.old and renames filename.ext.new to filename.ext and then restarts itself. (No real need for an external app to restart your own program).

Note 1, that you may have to ask for elevation to replace files, depending on where you install your files.

Note 2: be kind to your users, think carefully before you force updates on users.

Note 3: You cannot delete a running exe, but you can rename it and then restart the new version.

Edit===

For some reference data files which cannot contain version information resources, you can have entires like File99=MyDataFile;1.1.2011 the 3 elements to the version number indicates to the client that it should check against the file date/stamp.

You could have a separate update executable whose task is to check the server version, download an updated executable if necessary, and then run the local executable.

Or you could have one executable running in two different modes: 1. on startup, check for an update, if there is one, download the executable to a download directory, run it and quit. 2. The new executable would check if it's running from the installation directory, if not, it would copy itself there, overwriting the old version, start the copy from there, and quit.

My way is the other way round: If a new version is online, promt the user to update. If he want's to (or is forced to...) I end the app and start a new exe (updater). this updater loads the update and replaces the old exe (not running). then it starts the new exe. ready. (You can of course replace other files too.) BUT: Using an Installer like InnoSetup gives you more possibilities and doesn't mix up with the regular uninstaller, so it is really better...

You can do this without running another application. Push the updates to the client from the server while running, storing in a temporary directory on the client. When you want to upgrade move all your running files to another temporary directory, move the new files into the original application directory, and just restart the application using the standard executable name on shutdown.

I upgrade client applications running on unattended machines automatically this way.