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Updates

CANExplorer finds new versions on its GitHub releases and installs them from within the application.

An update is available

Finding updates

  • At start, CANExplorer looks for a new release, at most once a day and a few seconds after the window opened. When it finds one, a notification and the ⬆ Update button in the top bar announce it.
  • ⋮ → Check for Updates… (or Check for updates in the command palette, or Check now in the preferences) looks at once and shows the result.

The dialog shows the new version, its release date and its release notes. Skip this version stops the automatic check from announcing it (a manual check still offers it, and newer versions are announced again); Later closes the dialog; Release page opens the release on GitHub.

In Preferences → Updates, Check at start turns the automatic check off, and Pre-releases also offers release candidates and other pre-releases (versions such as 1.1.0-rc1).

Installing

Install and restart downloads the new version, verifies it and installs it the way this copy was installed:

Installed from The update
Windows setup (setup.exe) The new setup runs silently into the same folder, for the current user or for all users as before (all users asks for administrator rights), closes CANExplorer and starts the new version
AppImage The AppImage file is replaced by the new one and started
Debian package (.deb) The new package is installed with pkexec apt-get install, which asks for your password, and the new version is started
macOS disk image (.dmg) After CANExplorer quit, the app in its folder (usually Applications) is replaced by the one of the new disk image and started
Zip archive, or from source Not installed automatically: the dialog offers the release page (from source: git pull and uv sync)

Every download is checked against the SHA256SUMS.txt of the release before it is installed, so incomplete or damaged downloads are never installed. Downloads only come from GitHub. Settings, workspaces and recent files are kept, as they are not stored with the application.

Close open connections and save your work before installing: CANExplorer quits to let the update replace it.

Offline and restricted networks

The check needs access to api.github.com and the download to github.com and objects.githubusercontent.com. Without them, the automatic check fails silently and a manual check shows the error. Behind a proxy, set HTTPS_PROXY (e.g. https://proxy.example.com:8080) before starting CANExplorer.