Qt Installer Framework: Auto Update

I just found a pretty nice implementation on GitHub:

https://github.com/ioriayane/TheArtOfQt2/blob/master/src/HelloWorld/maintenancetool.cpp

It takes care of handling Windows, MacOS and Linux. + It is written to use in QML / Qt Quick bindings (+ example).

It has some Japanese comments, but is Apache 2.0 licensed, so freely to use (following Apache 2.0 requirement).

What I do, is run the maintenance tool using QProcess, and then check the output. It has a mode where it doesn't run the GUI but only outputs update information if available.

Note that I set the working directory to the application's path when the applications starts, so I can just run maintenancetool.

QProcess process;
process.start("maintenancetool --checkupdates");

// Wait until the update tool is finished
process.waitForFinished();

if(process.error() != QProcess::UnknownError)
{
    qDebug() << "Error checking for updates";
    return false;
}

// Read the output
QByteArray data = process.readAllStandardOutput();

// No output means no updates available
// Note that the exit code will also be 1, but we don't use that
// Also note that we should parse the output instead of just checking if it is empty if we want specific update info
if(data.isEmpty())
{
    qDebug() << "No updates available";
    return false;
}

// Call the maintenance tool binary
// Note: we start it detached because this application need to close for the update
QStringList args("--updater");
bool success = QProcess::startDetached("maintenancetool", args);

// Close the application
qApp->closeAllWindows();

In the latest Qt Installer Framework 4.1 --checkupdates returns nothing, use ch or check-updates instead.

Commands:
  in, install - install default or selected packages - <pkg ...>
  ch, check-updates - show available updates information on maintenance tool
  up, update - update all or selected packages - <pkg ...>
  rm, remove - uninstall packages and their child components - <pkg ...>
  li, list - list currently installed packages - <regexp>
  se, search - search available packages - <regexp>
  co, create-offline - create offline installer from selected packages - <pkg ...>
  pr, purge - uninstall all packages and remove entire program directory