[phunkyfish]

In the latest alpha we introduced the idea of official repos. There are added at compile time. E.g. for kodi this is the official kodi repo. LibreElec would have their etc.

As part of this a setting was introduced to allow add-ons from official repos to be updated for any repository to allow supporting beta repos. However, introducing this setting adds complexity and in many ways makes makes official repos less secure. I.e. take dependencies for example, this setting would apply to deps in the official repo, but if another dependency was from a third party repo it would only update from that third party repo.

We can continue down this path but probably more prudent to ask addons devs is there a better way to do this where we don't need this setting. Then the rules would simple. Addons update from their own repos only, the only cross repo auto updates would be from third party repos to official ones.

Is there a better way to do this that keeps things simple?

[pkscout]

I think this is probably the best of a set of not great options.  Since this only affects things that are in the main repo and another repo, I think many people won't need to change that setting at all. In fact, the only valid use case I can really think of is beta testing an addon that is in the main repo.  So I like this path, and I would make two suggestions.

1- Move the option out of the STANDARD tier and into EXPERT tier.  That will hide the option entirely for many folks.
2- While the option for "any repository" is technically correct, I might use "author beta repositories" to be more clear about what the actual use case is.  The help text already talks about beta repos, so this would make that consistent.

My plan is to add instructions in the wiki pages for my addons about betas that indicates people should only install my beta repo and flip that switch while they are testing. After the release, I would advise them to switch it back (and delete the beta repo).  Yes, it's extra steps.  But it's extra steps for people who should be capable of handling a couple extra steps.  I mean, I ask them to turn on debug logging in two places during testing already, and if you can't manage to flip one more EXPERT setting, beta testing probably isn't right for you.  '-)

[emveepee]

Will the change in any way impact users who install from artifacts and self builds from getting future upgrades from the kodi mirror?

Martin

[phunkyfish]

Will the change in any way impact users who install from artifacts and self builds from getting future upgrades from the kodi mirror?

Martin

The plan is that test builds either from artifacts or test builds would be pinned unless manually updated. We could add a setting to restore the old behaviour. But that would be a future change.

[phunkyfish]

@pkscout thanks for the feedback. Originally it was an expert setting but we had some feedback requesting it be put as standard. The reasoning is probably on the original PR. I don’t have an issue with it going back to expert but if the reasoning made sense at the time it probably does now too 😉

As for changing if from Any Repositories I don’t think we should do that. That makes the setting sound more safe than it is. I wouldn’t like users to think it would only update from beta repos. That’s not true, it would update from absolutely any repo.

[emveepee]

The plan is that test builds either from artifacts or test builds would be pinned unless manually updated. We could add a setting to restore the old behaviour. But that would be a future change.

That seems like a step backwards in usability, and potentially security.  Will they as a minimum see the update in the list of available updates?

Martin

[phunkyfish]

That seems like a step backwards in usability, and potentially security.  Will they as a minimum see the update in the list of available updates?

Martin

They will see the update. It’s just they have to click Update button in the Addon Info dialog. The reason for not auto updating is that otherwise there is no way to manually install an old archive.