Server update files

In order to provide automatic updates, server and client have to refer to an UPDATE_FILES option variable. For clients the UPDATE_FILES option variable specifies the files to be updated when connecting the client to the server. For the server, the option variable refers to the directory containing update files.

The update mechanism depends on the last update time stamps in update files and client files to be updated. Updates are made only, when the server's update file is newer than the clients file. In order to request a user interaction, the option variable UPDATE_MODE can be set to:

accept - update files always when those are newer

ignore - never update files

ask - ask before updating newer files

Default is ask . The ask option becomes difficult, when update requests happen in start-up phase (e.g. of ode), because the is no possibility for message input and output. In this case accept or ignore should be defined.

Update files may be stored as packed files ( .zip or .ozi ), which will be unpacked automatically when being downloaded to the client.