To FreePBX Users,
Recently we have noticed a couple of concerns in the community, and on the open source bug tracking system about the “module auto update” functionality.
As of today, if the module auto-update feature is enabled for “modules updates”, then FreePBX will download and install all the modules including the ones which were previously removed or uninstalled intentionally by users. This is an annoying behavior because the user has to uninstall/remove the unintended modules again and again.
This functionality has been present in FreePBX for a very long time, and has been a pain point for a while. We would like to ensure that users are able to use their choice of modules without this happening.
To accomplish this, we are changing the “auto-update” functionality in the framework module to use the “upgradeall” method instead of “installall”. This will avoid unintended/unwanted modules from being installed during auto-update.
Please find details below of “upgradeall” vs “installall” fwconsole commands for anyone who is not familiar with the difference:
“fwconsole ma installall” -> This will fetch the module list from the mirror server and install all modules – even if that module is not currently installed.
“fwconsole ma upgradeall” -> This will upgrade the modules which are currently installed. This will not download or install any new modules and should give a more pleasant user experience.
We are always happy to hear feedback about any problems that may inadvertently arise, so please feel free to create a jira issue at issues.freepbx.org, or refer to https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/SUP/How+to+open+a+Feature+Request to see how to raise feature requests to suggest further improvements.
Release
Framework versions 14.0.13.30 and 15.0.16.51, both of which are currently in EDGE.
References
- FREEPBX-21321
- https://community.freepbx.org/t/iotserver-module-cron-and-license
- https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/FPG/Updates
FAQs –
What are the results of these changes to the FreePBX system?
The primary advantage of these new changes is that users are now free to use their choice of modules without unintentional installs of new modules.
“Auto-update” will not install new or uninstalled/removed modules automatically.
Users have better control over which modules are present on his/her system via module admin.
Apart from the above, there should not be any changes to the system behavior.
I am not using the “auto update” feature, so will it affect my manual upgrade process?
These changes are purely applicable to the “auto-update” functionality and will not affect the way manual updates work, either via “Module admin -> Check online “, or via “fwconsole” commands.
How will I get newly created module updates if “auto update” is not installing them automatically?
“Check Online” functionality, as described in https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/FPG/Module+Admin+User+Guide#ModuleAdminUserGuide-CheckingforAvailableUpgrades, will show you the list of available modules on the mirror servers. This will include any newly launched modules as well so you can install them manually, if you wish to try them.
Will these changes affect PBXact as well ?
Yes, PBXAct behavior will be the same as FreePBX when these framework versions are pushed to PBXAct.
When will this change be pushed to the STABLE release?
We have completed some initial testing with positive results but still have more in depth testing to be done before pushing to the STABLE release.
Please refer to https://wiki.freepbx.org/display/FPG/Edge+vs+Stable to know the difference between EDGE vs STABLE.
We will try our best to ensure that these fixes are pushed to the STABLE release as soon as possible.
Thank you for using FreePBX
Best Regards,
Kapil Gupta