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Update Sources

Applies to
Windows
MacOS
Linux

An update source tells UpdateManager where to look for your releases.{channel}.json feed and the packages it references. When you pass a plain URL or file path to the UpdateManager constructor, Velopack picks a simple source for you, but you can also construct a source explicitly to get authentication, prereleases, and provider-specific behaviour.

// these two are equivalent
var mgr = new UpdateManager("https://the.place/you-host/updates");
var mgr = new UpdateManager(new SimpleWebSource("https://the.place/you-host/updates"));

All built-in sources live in the Velopack.Sources namespace.

Built-in sources​

SimpleWebSource​

Reads the feed and packages over HTTP(S) from a static location (a web server, S3 bucket, Azure Blob container, etc). This is what new UpdateManager("https://...") resolves to.

new SimpleWebSource("https://the.place/you-host/updates");

SimpleFileSource​

Reads the feed and packages from a local directory. This is what new UpdateManager("C:\\path") (any non-HTTP path) resolves to. Useful for testing or for apps that update from a network/USB share.

new SimpleFileSource(new DirectoryInfo(@"C:\my-updates"));

GithubSource​

Reads releases from a GitHub repository's Releases.

new GithubSource("https://github.com/yourName/yourRepo", accessToken: null, prerelease: false);
  • prerelease — if true, GitHub pre-releases are also considered.
  • accessToken — required for private repositories. Without a token, public download URLs are used and you are subject to GitHub's unauthenticated rate limit of 60 requests per hour per IP. When supplied, the token is sent as an Authorization: Bearer {token} header.

GitlabSource​

Reads releases from a GitLab repository.

new GitlabSource("https://gitlab.com/yourName/yourRepo", accessToken: "...", upcomingRelease: false);

The access token is required (it is a non-nullable parameter) and is sent as a PRIVATE-TOKEN header.

GiteaSource​

Reads releases from a Gitea repository.

new GiteaSource("https://gitea.com/yourName/yourRepo", accessToken: null, prerelease: false);

Behaves like GithubSource: a token is required for private repositories, and the unauthenticated rate limit is 60 requests per hour per IP. When supplied, the token is sent as an Authorization: token {token} header.

VelopackFlowSource​

Reads releases from the hosted Velopack Flow service.

new VelopackFlowSource(); // defaults to https://api.velopack.io/

Custom sources​

If none of the built-in sources fit (for example you authenticate with a custom scheme, or fetch the feed from a private API), you can implement IUpdateSource yourself and pass it to UpdateManager.

A note on S3 and other backends​

There is no S3Source (or Azure/etc) in the library. The vpk CLI can upload releases to S3, Azure, and others, but those backends serve plain static files — so on the client you read them with SimpleWebSource (pointing at the bucket/container URL). S3 is a deploy-side concept only.