Updates

An install that can update itself does so automatically: about a second after launch a background child process checks once for a newer release (it never blocks the UI, and failures are silent). Only a patch release is installed silently; a minor or major release is announced in the status line only.

Which installs those are is the table below — in short: an npm install can (on Windows too), the curl installer’s can (Linux / macOS only), and a hand-unpacked zip or a source build cannot.

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Updating, by how you installed

How you installed	Automatic	By hand
Linux / macOS (the shell installer)	✅ patch installed silently; minor/major announced	qialike upgrade
Windows · npm	✅ patches installed silently (same rule as Linux/macOS)	qialike upgrade, or npm i -g @qialike/cli@latest yourself (quit qialike first)
Windows · manual zip	❌ never	qialike upgrade --check to see the version → download the new .zip → quit qialike → replace qialike.exe
Built from source	❌ never touched	git pull, then rebuild

Why most Windows installs have no automatic update: the shell installer cannot run there (it is bash) and a running .exe cannot be replaced (POSIX swaps a live ELF with mv; Windows has no equivalent) — so the installer’s copies AND hand-unpacked ones are announce-only. An npm install is the one exception: npm is its own updater and needs no bash, so that channel updates itself on Windows under the usual rule — when the background check finds a patch it runs npm install -g @qialike/cli@<version> (an exact version, not @latest, so npm cannot resolve its way to something newer than the release you were told about). The running session keeps the old build; the new one takes effect on the next launch. Minor and major releases are still announced only, and setting qialike-update.auto to "notify" makes even patches announce-only.

That is why qialike upgrade has two behaviours on Windows: an npm copy really installs (through npm), while a hand-unpacked copy only reports the version and prints the two download links (GitCode primary, gitcode mirror) — its layout has no file to swap in place, so downloading the new .zip, quitting qialike and replacing qialike.exe is how it moves forward.

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What automatic updates require

That something owns the binary: the curl installer’s copy in ~/.dsh/bin (Linux/macOS) or the copy under npm’s global prefix (including Windows). The two layouts nobody owns are never replaced: a checkout build, and a binary unpacked from the zip by hand — they only receive a notice (the version plus the download links), and --check only reports.

Note

The install directory is fixed at ~/.dsh/bin and deliberately does not follow $DSH_HOME, so an install placed elsewhere — and not managed by npm — is not updated either. See Install.

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Turning it off, or switching to notice-only

The qialike-update.auto setting — a section of ~/.dsh/settings.yaml, registered by the updater — takes:

Value	Meaning
true (default)	Patch releases are installed silently; minor / major releases are announced only.
false	No check at all.
"notify"	Check and announce, never install.

Two environment variables override it: QIALIKE_DISABLE_AUTOUPDATE=1 disables automatic updating globally, and QIALIKE_ALWAYS_NOTIFY_UPDATE=1 forces notice-only. See Config for the exact YAML and the rest of the environment variables.

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Updating by hand

qialike upgrade              # move to the newest release
qialike upgrade <version>    # install a specific version (v-prefix accepted)
qialike upgrade --check      # report only, install nothing

/upgrade does the same from inside the TUI. Whether these can actually install depends on who owns the binary, not on the platform:

• An npm copy is replaced by npm (on Windows too); qialike upgrade --check additionally prints npm i -g @qialike/cli@latest.
• The ~/.dsh/bin copy is replaced by the installer (POSIX only — on Windows the installer is bash and a running .exe cannot be swapped).
• A copy nobody owns (a checkout build, a hand-placed binary) is refused with a suggestion to reinstall through the installer. The one exception is a hand-unpacked copy ON WINDOWS, where the platform gate comes first and hands over the download links instead.

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Where the update requests go

Version checks and downloads go to GitCode (canonical), the gitcode mirror, or qialike.cn — the same hosts the installer uses; see Install → Download sources and fallback.

Note

qialike has no analytics or telemetry of its own, and this automatic check is one of its three kinds of outbound request. See Config → Data and responsibility for the harness’s feedback-gated telemetry, and how to switch it off.

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Next steps

• Install — the installer, the archives, and Windows’ npm / manual routes
• Commands — the CLI surface, including qialike upgrade and qialike plugin
• Config — settings, environment variables and telemetry