Dietpi: Show changelog url along with update message on login.

[msdos]

Creating a feature request:

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe:

• No.

Describe the solution you'd like:

• I just logged in and received this message: dietpi-update = Run now to update DietPi (from v6.15 to v6.16). Since I have a really customized installation, I would like to read the changelog to know if I manual action will be needed before updating.

Describe alternatives you've considered:

• The alternative is going to google and searching for this changelog, because I always forget the exact place to search for this. I believe more people have the same feeling.

Additional context:

• Just change the message from dietpi-update = Run now to update DietPi (from v6.15 to v6.16). to dietpi-update = Run now to update DietPi (from v6.15 to v6.16). Changelog: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Fourdee/DietPi/master/CHANGELOG.txt. The changelog url https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Fourdee/DietPi/master/CHANGELOG.txt can even receive a shortened url from you so you can track who is really clicking on it: since the url is pointed to master, you wouldn't even need to change it (but it's up to you if you want to point this url to a specific commit).

[yumiris]

To expand on the idea, what if dietpi-update could show the changelog when asking the user to confirm their update? Or maybe a new dietpi-changelog command, which in its most basic form would do a curl request to the CHANGELOG.txt file? 🤔

[msdos]

@yumiris I think it gets too complicated for a first implementation. The idea here (specially if using a shortened url with statistics) is to see if people will really use this feature. I think it can be evolved to your idea if more people start using the url.

[yumiris]

@msdos Haha, that's true 😛 - I was thinking it from the perspective that URLs might be difficult for users to manually type (and therefore result in lower statistics). Although using a customised URL (e.g. short.url/dietpi-changelog) might make it easier.

[msdos]

People can copy the url using a mouse. Since it's a message shown in a terminal session, I think it's not for the complete newbie and this won't be a problem.

Can be short.url/dpchangelog or even something along the lines of short.url/HjYeV to be even shorter, but I leave that to DietPi maintainers.

I knew that more people would be interested :laughing:

[yumiris]

That's actually a very valid point. Throughout this entire conversation, I completely forgot that desktop environments are actually a thing (even though I use them daily!).

Yup, keeping it short and succinct should work wonders. 😛

[MichaIng]

@msdos @yumiris
Actually, since the changelog is already downloaded with the update archive (https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/blob/master/CHANGELOG.txt), it would be easiest to offer opening this file into a pager/whiptail dialog?
... ah but you want to see them before downloading the update of course.

Still, since the file is a tiny text file, we could offer to download+view the changelog within die dietpi-update dialog, instead of just [Yes] [No]?
Or would you prefer a URL, e.g. in case of small server screens/for comfortable desktop view?
Of course also both solution together are possible.

[msdos]

I don't know how a pager/whiptail dialog with Do you want to download the changelog for this version at https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/blob/master/CHANGELOG.txt? would work. I'm just afraid of adding another click to the update action and make it more complicated, that's why I just gave the url suggestion. Maybe when updating, you directly shows what comes from that version. A csplit in the changelog take everything before -------------------------------------------------- and show in the dialog before the user saying [Yes] or [No].

[yumiris]

The changelog could be shown in this section rather than a separate one:

More information, but the number of clicks is kept the same. In case of long changelogs, maybe use a scrolling view:

+--------------------------------| DietPi-Update |------------------------------+
|                                                                               |
| Update available   : https://goo.gl/G9ikqn                                    |
| Installed version  : 6.15                                                     |
| Latest version     : 6.16                                                     |
|                                                                               |
| ------------------------------------Notice----------------------------------- |
| The benefit of DietPi is we use standard linux configurations and commands... |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|                                                                               |
| ----------------------------------Change Log--------------------------------- |
| Changes / Improvements / Optimizations:                                       |
| DietPi-Config | WiFi: Added support for applying up-to 5 SSIDs [...]          |
|                                                                               |
|                                 <Scroll Down>                                 |
| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|                                                                               |
| Do you wish to continue and update DietPi to v6.16?                           |
|                                                                               |
|                 <Ok>                                       <Exit>             |
|                                                                               |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Similar to the software selection list in dietpi-software. 😛

[Fourdee]

Great idea, thanks for sharing @msdos @yumiris 👍

If we are to use existing functions, we'd need to do G_WHIP_MENU with:

• Update now
• Read changelog
• OK/Cancel button

Then read changlog will use G_WHIP_VIEWLOG?

---

To support scrolling with G_WHIP_YESNO, needs an additional flag.

[Fourdee]

--scolltext does not indicate any ability to scroll, tab required to use ability to scroll, best avoided. Menu options should be preference.

[Fourdee]

Curl lacks the ability to ignore downloading headers, if the file does not exist on server, always returns 0 due to header DL. wget does not have this issue:

root@DietPi:~# curl --header -k -L https://dietpi.com/test
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<html><head>
<title>404 Not Found</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Not Found</h1>
<p>The requested URL /test was not found on this server.</p>
<hr>
<address>Apache/2.4.25 (Debian) Server at dietpi.com Port 443</address>
</body></html>

Yes would could scrape the returned header for 404, but in bash will be slower than simply using wget and checking exit code.

Although wget will always download a 0 file, if it does not exist, when using -O

[Fourdee]

NB: Remove < v6.0 from changelog (archive it on git using history)
NB: All items need a paragraph entry afterwards.

[Fourdee]

@msdos

A csplit in the changelog take everything before -------------------------------------------------- and show in the dialog before the user saying [Yes] or [No].

Good idea 👍

However, we have alot of users who update from say v6.12 to v6.16, so the whole changelog needs to be shown.

[msdos]

However, we have alot of users who update from say v6.12 to v6.16, so the whole changelog needs to be shown.

You're right.

The proposed solution is nice. Thanks!

[Fourdee]

• 🈯️ All options tested with master and testing branches

Completed.

[Fourdee]

@msdos @yumiris

Thanks guys, great suggestion 👍, will be available once v6.17 is released, updated, then next updates (due to dietpi-update not updating till after the update is completed, eg: the next run)