Module update 

Release and update mechanism: ctx self-update, ctx --version --check, and the passive update notice.

Determinism rule

ctx never updates itself automatically. The passive check only prints a one-line notice to stderr; replacing the binary always requires an explicit ctx self-update invocation.

How updates work

Releases are published by .github/workflows/release.yml: one archive per platform named ctx-<tag>-<target>.tar.gz (.zip on Windows), plus an aggregated SHA256SUMS file. self_update queries the GitHub Releases API, downloads the artifact for the compile-time target, verifies its sha256 against SHA256SUMS, extracts the ctx binary member, and atomically renames it over the running executable. On checksum mismatch the update aborts with an error (exit code 2) and the installed binary is left untouched.

Test hooks (undocumented environment variables)

• CTX_UPDATE_BASE_URL: overrides the GitHub API base URL so integration tests can point at a local mock server (asset download URLs come from the release JSON itself, so the mock controls those too).
• CTX_CACHE_DIR: overrides the passive-check cache directory (default: dirs::cache_dir()/ctx).
• CTX_UPDATE_FORCE_TTY=1: makes the passive check treat stderr as a terminal, so the end-to-end notice path can be exercised from a test where stderr is a pipe.

Structs

Asset

One downloadable asset attached to a release.

Release

A GitHub release: tag (e.g. v0.3.0) plus its assets.

SelfUpdateReport

Result of a self_update run.

Constants

PASSIVE_CHECK_INTERVAL_SECS

How often the passive check may touch the network (24 hours).

Functions

artifact_name

Release artifact file name for a tag and target, mirroring the packaging steps in .github/workflows/release.yml (ctx-<tag>-<target>.tar.gz, .zip for Windows). tag includes the leading v (it is $GITHUB_REF_NAME in the workflow).

cache_dir

Cache directory for the passive-check timestamp: $CTX_CACHE_DIR (test hook) or dirs::cache_dir()/ctx.

check_is_due

True when the 24h interval since the last recorded check has elapsed (or no valid timestamp is recorded). now is unix seconds, injected so tests control the clock.

current_version

The version this binary was built as.

explicit_check

Query the latest release and compare against the running binary.

latest_release

Fetch the latest (non-prerelease, non-draft) release.

parse_release

Parse the GitHub Releases API JSON for one release.

parse_sha256sums

Parse a SHA256SUMS file: one <hex> <name> entry per line (the sha256sum / shasum -a 256 format; a leading * on the name marks binary mode and is stripped). Returns file name -> lowercase hex digest.

passive_check

Passive update check, called from main after the command has finished (ctx self-update and ctx --version invocations skip it entirely).

passive_check_allowed

The passive-check suppression predicate (H3). Pure so the whole gate matrix is unit-testable; env abstracts std::env::var.

record_check

Record now (unix seconds) as the last check attempt.

release_by_tag

Fetch a specific release by tag (e.g. v0.3.0).

release_target

The release target triple this binary was compiled for, or None when the release workflow publishes no artifact for this platform.

self_update

Update the running executable from the GitHub release feed.

update_notice

The stderr notice printed by the passive check, also reused by ctx --version --check.