Software Update:updates.xml Format

Background

The updates.xml format is the format used by the AUS server to advertise updates that are available to clients.

Format

A typical updates.xml file looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<updates>
  <update type="minor" version="1.0.4" extensionversion="1.0" 
          detailsURL="http://www.foo.com/1.0.4/whatsnew.html">
    <patch type="partial" url="http://www.foo.com/1.0.4-partial.xpi"
           hashfunction="" hashvalue="" size=""/>
    <patch type="complete" url="http://www.foo.com/1.0.4-complete.xpi"
           hashfunction="" hashvalue="" size=""/>
  </update>
  ..
  <update type="major" version="1.1.2" extensionversion="1.1"
          detailsURL="http://www.foo.com/1.1.2/whatsnew.html">
    <patch type="complete" url="http://www.foo.com/1.1.2-complete.xpi"
           hashfunction="" hashvalue="" size=""/>
  </update>
</updates>

Additional Client Metadata

The client uses this same format to collect a history of installed updates. In the process, it caches the update file locally in two places:

bin/active-update.xml (the update in progress, persisted across sessions) bin/updates.xml (updates performed in the past)

These files may contain additional attributes representing update state stored by the client.