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https://github.com/vslavik/winsparkle

App update framework for Windows, inspired by Sparkle for macOS
https://github.com/vslavik/winsparkle

appcast software-update sparkle update windows

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App update framework for Windows, inspired by Sparkle for macOS

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README 

        
[![Crowdin](https://badges.crowdin.net/winsparkle/localized.svg)](https://crowdin.com/project/winsparkle)



 About

-------



WinSparkle is a plug-and-forget software update library for Windows

applications. It is heavily inspired by the Sparkle framework for OS X

written by Andy Matuschak and others, to the point of sharing the same 

updates format (appcasts) and having very similar user interface.



See https://winsparkle.org for more information about WinSparkle.



Documentation: [wiki](https://github.com/vslavik/winsparkle/wiki) and

the [winsparkle.h header](https://github.com/vslavik/winsparkle/blob/master/include/winsparkle.h).



 Using prebuilt binaries

-------------------------



The easiest way to use WinSparkle is to either download the prebuilt `WinSparkle.dll`

binary from releases or use the `WinSparkle` [NuGet package](https://www.nuget.org/packages/WinSparkle/).

Prebuilt binaries are available for x86, x64 and arm64 platforms.



 Bindings

----------



WinSparkle has a C API that makes it easy to use from many modern languages in addition to C/C++. In addition to that, several bindings for popular languages exist:



* [How to use with C#/.NET](https://github.com/vslavik/winsparkle/wiki/Basic-Setup#managed-code--net--c-applications)

* [Python](https://pypi.org/project/pywinsparkle/)

* [Go](https://github.com/abemedia/go-winsparkle)

* [Pascal](https://github.com/vslavik/winsparkle/tree/master/pascal) binding bundled with WinSparkle



 Building from sources

-----------------------



If you prefer to build WinSparkle yourself, you can do so.  You'll have to

compile from a git checkout; some of the dependencies are included as git

submodules.



Check the sources out and initialize the submodules:



    $ git clone https://github.com/vslavik/winsparkle.git

    $ cd winsparkle

    $ git submodule init

    $ git submodule update



To compile the library, just open `WinSparkle.sln` (or the one corresponding to

your compiler version) solution and build it.



At the moment, projects for Visual C++ (2010 and up) are provided, so you'll

need that (Express/Community edition suffices). In principle, there's nothing

in the code preventing it from being compiled by other compilers.



There are also unsupported CMake build files in the cmake directory.



 DSA signatures

---------------



WinSparkle uses exactly same mechanism for signing and signature verification

as [Sparkle Project](https://sparkle-project.org/documentation/#dsa-signatures)

does. Its tools and verification methods are fully compatible.



You may use any compatible way to sign your update.

To achieve this, you need to sign SHA1 (in binary form) of your update file

with DSA private key, using SHA1 digest.



WinSparkle provides tools to generate keys and sign the update using OpenSSL.



You need `openssl.exe` available on Windows to use those tools (available as

[precompiled binary][OpenSSL binaries]).



Alternatively, you can generate keys and sign your updates even on macOS or Linux,

using [tools provided by Sparkle project](https://github.com/sparkle-project/Sparkle/tree/master/bin).



#### Prepare signing with DSA signatures:



 - First, make yourself a pair of DSA keys. This needs to be done only once.

 WinSparkle includes a tool to help: `bin\generate_keys.bat`

 - Back up your private key (dsa_priv.pem) and keep it safe. You don’t want

 anyone else getting it, and if you lose it, you may not be able to issue any

 new updates.

 - Add your public key (dsa_pub.pem) to your project either as Windows resource,

 or any other suitable way and provide it using WinSparkle API.



#### Sign your update



When your update is ready (e.g. `Updater.exe`), sign it and include signature

to your appcast file:



 - Sign: `bin\sign_update.bat Updater.exe dsa_priv.pem`

 - Add standard output of previous command as `sparkle:dsaSignature` attribute

 of `enclosure` node of your appcast file.

 Alternatively `sparkle:dsaSignature` can be a child node of `enclosure`.



 Where can I get some examples?

--------------------------------



Download the sources archive and have a look at the

[examples/](https://github.com/vslavik/winsparkle/tree/master/examples) folder.



 Using latest development versions

-----------------------------------



If you want to stay at the bleeding edge and use the latest, not yet released,

version of WinSparkle, you can get its sources from public repository.

WinSparkle uses git and and the sources are hosted on GitHub at

https://github.com/vslavik/winsparkle



WinSparkle uses submodules for some dependencies, so you have to initialize

them after checking the tree out:



    $ git clone https://github.com/vslavik/winsparkle.git

    $ cd winsparkle

    $ git submodule init

    $ git submodule update



Then compile WinSparkle as described above; no extra steps are required.



[OpenSSL source]: https://www.openssl.org/source/

[OpenSSL binaries]: https://wiki.openssl.org/index.php/Binaries