Provided by: python3-nvchecker_2.12-2_all 
NAME
nvchecker - New version checker for software releases
nvchecker (short for new version checker) is for checking if a new version of some software has been
released.
This is the version 2.0 branch. For the old version 1.x, please switch to the v1.x branch.
DEPENDENCY
• Python 3.7+
• Python library: structlog, platformdirs, tomli (on Python < 3.11)
• One of these Python library combinations (ordered by preference):
• tornado + pycurl
• aiohttp
• httpx with http2 support (experimental; only latest version is supported)
• tornado
• All commands used in your software version configuration files
INSTALL AND RUN
To install:
pip3 install nvchecker
To use the latest code, you can also clone this repository and run:
python3 setup.py install
To see available options:
nvchecker --help
Run with one or more software version files:
nvchecker -c config_file.toml
A simple config file may look like:
[nvchecker]
source = "github"
github = "lilydjwg/nvchecker"
[python-toml]
source = "pypi"
pypi = "toml"
You normally will like to specify some "version record files"; see below.
JSON logging
With --logger=json or --logger=both, you can get a structured logging for programmatically consuming. You
can use --json-log-fd=FD to specify the file descriptor to send logs to (take care to do line buffering).
The logging level option (-l or --logging) doesn't take effect with this.
The JSON log is one JSON string per line. The following documented events and fields are stable,
undocumented ones may change without notice.
event=updated
An update is detected. Fields name, old_version and version are available. old_version maybe null.
event=up-to-date
There is no update. Fields name and version are available.
event=no-result
No version is detected. There may be an error. Fields name is available.
level=error
There is an error. Fields name and exc_info may be available to give further information.
Upgrade from 1.x version
There are several backward-incompatible changes from the previous 1.x version.
1. Version 2.x requires Python 3.7+ to run.
2. The command syntax changes a bit. You need to use a -c switch to specify your software version
configuration file (or use the default).
3. The configuration file format has been changed from ini to toml. You can use the nvchecker-ini2toml
script to convert your old configuration files. However, comments and formatting will be lost, and
some options may not be converted correctly.
4. Several options have been renamed. max_concurrent to max_concurrency, and all option names have their
- be replaced with _.
5. All software configuration tables need a source option to specify which source is to be used rather
than being figured out from option names in use. This enables additional source plugins to be
discovered.
6. The version record files have been changed to use JSON format (the old format will be converted on
writing).
7. The vcs source is removed. (It's available inside lilac at the moment.) A git source is provided.
8. include_tags_pattern and ignored_tags are removed. Use List Options instead.
VERSION RECORD FILES
Version record files record which version of the software you know or is available. They are a simple
JSON object mapping software names to known versions.
The nvtake Command
This command helps to manage version record files. It reads both old and new version record files, and a
list of names given on the commandline. It then update the versions of those names in the old version
record file.
This helps when you have known (and processed) some of the updated software, but not all. You can tell
nvchecker that via this command instead of editing the file by hand.
This command will help most if you specify where you version record files are in your config file. See
below for how to use a config file.
The nvcmp Command
This command compares the newver file with the oldver one and prints out any differences as updates,
e.g.:
$ nvcmp -c sample_source.toml
Sparkle Test App None -> 2.0
test 0.0 -> 0.1
CONFIGURATION FILES
The software version source files are in toml format. The key name is the name of the software. Following
fields are used to tell nvchecker how to determine the current version of that software.
See sample_source.toml for an example.
Configuration Table
A special table named __config__ provides some configuration options.
Relative path are relative to the source files, and ~ and environmental variables are expanded.
Currently supported options are:
oldver Specify a version record file containing the old version info.
newver Specify a version record file to store the new version info.
proxy The HTTP proxy to use. The format is proto://host:port, e.g. http://localhost:8087. Different
backends have different level support for this, e.g. with pycurl you can use socks5h://host:port
proxies.
max_concurrency
Max number of concurrent jobs. Default: 20.
http_timeout
Time in seconds to wait for HTTP requests. Default: 20.
keyfile
Specify a toml config file containing key (token) information. This file should contain a keys
table, mapping key names to key values. See specific source for the key name(s) to use.
Sample keyfile.toml:
[keys]
# https://github.com/settings/tokens
# scope: repo -> public_repo
github = "ghp_<stripped>"
Global Options
The following options apply to every check sources. You can use them in any item in your configuration
file.
prefix Strip the prefix string if the version string starts with it. Otherwise the version string is
returned as-is.
from_pattern, to_pattern
Both are Python-compatible regular expressions. If from_pattern is found in the version string, it
will be replaced with to_pattern.
If from_pattern is not found, the version string remains unchanged and no error is emitted.
missing_ok
Suppress warnings and errors if a version checking module finds nothing. Currently only regex
supports it.
proxy The HTTP proxy to use. The format is proto://host:port, e.g. http://localhost:8087. Different
backends have different level support for this, e.g. with pycurl you can use socks5h://host:port
proxies.
Set it to "" (empty string) to override the global setting.
This only works when the source implementation uses the builtin HTTP client, and doesn't work with
the aur source because it's batched (however the global proxy config still applies).
user_agent
The user agent string to use for HTTP requests.
tries Try specified times when a network error occurs. Default is 1.
This only works when the source implementation uses the builtin HTTP client.
httptoken
A personal authorization token used to fetch the url with the Authorization header. The type of
token depends on the authorization required.
• For Bearer token set : Bearer <Your_bearer_token>
• For Basic token set : Basic <Your_base64_encoded_token>
In the keyfile add httptoken_{name} token.
verify_cert
Whether to verify the HTTPS certificate or not. Default is true.
If both prefix and from_pattern/to_pattern are used, from_pattern/to_pattern are ignored. If you want to
strip the prefix and then do something special, just use from_pattern/to_pattern. For example, the
transformation of v1_1_0 => 1.1.0 can be achieved with from_pattern = 'v(\d+)_(\d+)_(\d+)' and to_pattern
= '\1.\2.\3'. (Note that in TOML it's easiler to write regexes in single quotes so you don't need to
escape \.)
List Options
The following options apply to sources that return a list. See individual source tables to determine
whether they are supported.
include_regex
Only consider version strings that match the given regex. The whole string should match the regex.
Be sure to use .* when you mean it!
exclude_regex
Don't consider version strings that match the given regex. The whole string should match the
regex. Be sure to use .* when you mean it! This option has higher precedence that include_regex;
that is, if matched by this one, it's excluded even it's also matched by include_regex.
sort_version_key
Sort the version string using this key function. Choose among parse_version, vercmp and
awesomeversion. Default value is parse_version. parse_version uses an old version of
pkg_resources.parse_version. vercmp uses pyalpm.vercmp. awesomeversion uses awesomeversion.
ignored
Version strings that are explicitly ignored, separated by whitespace. This can be useful to avoid
some known mis-named versions, so newer ones won't be "overridden" by the old broken ones.
Search in a Webpage
source = "regex"
Search through a specific webpage for the version string. This type of version finding has these fields:
url The URL of the webpage to fetch.
encoding
(Optional) The character encoding of the webpage, if latin1 is not appropriate.
regex A regular expression used to find the version string.
It can have zero or one capture group. The capture group or the whole match is the version string.
When multiple version strings are found, the maximum of those is chosen.
post_data
(Optional) When present, a POST request (instead of a GET) will be used. The value should be a
string containing the full body of the request. The encoding of the string can be specified using
the post_data_type option.
post_data_type
(Optional) Specifies the Content-Type of the request body (post_data). By default, this is
application/x-www-form-urlencoded.
This source supports List Options.
Search in an HTTP header
source = "httpheader"
Send an HTTP request and search through a specific header.
url The URL of the HTTP request.
header (Optional) The header to look at. Default is Location. Another useful header is
Content-Disposition.
regex A regular expression used to find the version string.
It can have zero or one capture group. The capture group or the whole match is the version string.
When multiple version strings are found, the maximum of those is chosen.
method (Optional) The HTTP method to use. Default is HEAD.
follow_redirects
(Optional) Whether to follow 3xx HTTP redirects. Default is false. If you are looking at a
Location header, you shouldn't change this.
Search with an HTML Parser
source = "htmlparser"
Send an HTTP request and search through the body a specific xpath.
url The URL of the HTTP request.
xpath An xpath expression used to find the version string.
post_data
(Optional) When present, a POST request (instead of a GET) will be used. The value should be a
string containing the full body of the request. The encoding of the string can be specified using
the post_data_type option.
post_data_type
(Optional) Specifies the Content-Type of the request body (post_data). By default, this is
application/x-www-form-urlencoded.
NOTE:
An additional dependency "lxml" is required. You can use pip install 'nvchecker[htmlparser]'.
Find with a Command
source = "cmd"
Use a shell command line to get the version. The output is striped first, so trailing newlines do not
bother.
cmd The command line to use. This will run with the system's standard shell (i.e. /bin/sh).
Check AUR
source = "aur"
Check Arch User Repository for updates. Per-item proxy setting doesn't work for this because several
items will be batched into one request.
aur The package name in AUR. If empty, use the name of software (the table name).
strip_release
Strip the release part.
use_last_modified
Append last modified time to the version.
Check GitHub
source = "github"
Check GitHub for updates. The version returned is in date format %Y%m%d.%H%M%S, e.g. 20130701.012212,
unless use_latest_release or use_max_tag is used. See below.
github The github repository, with author, e.g. lilydjwg/nvchecker.
branch Which branch to track? Default: the repository's default.
path Only commits containing this file path will be returned.
use_latest_release
Set this to true to check for the latest release on GitHub.
GitHub releases are not the same with git tags. You'll see big version names and descriptions in
the release page for such releases, e.g. zfsonlinux/zfs's, and those small ones like nvchecker's
are only git tags that should use use_max_tag below.
Will return the release name instead of date.
use_latest_tag
Set this to true to check for the latest tag on GitHub.
This requires a token because it's using the v4 GraphQL API.
query When use_latest_tag is true, this sets a query for the tag. The exact matching method is not
documented by GitHub.
use_max_tag
Set this to true to check for the max tag on GitHub. Unlike use_latest_release, this option
includes both annotated tags and lightweight ones, and return the largest one sorted by the
sort_version_key option. Will return the tag name instead of date.
token A personal authorization token used to call the API.
An authorization token may be needed in order to use use_latest_tag or to request more frequently than
anonymously.
To set an authorization token, you can set:
• a key named github in the keyfile
• the token option
This source supports List Options when use_max_tag is set.
Check Gitea
source = "gitea"
Check Gitea for updates. The version returned is in date format %Y%m%d, e.g. 20130701, unless use_max_tag
is used. See below.
gitea The gitea repository, with author, e.g. gitea/tea.
branch Which branch to track? Default: the repository's default.
use_max_tag
Set this to true to check for the max tag on Gitea. Will return the biggest one sorted by old
pkg_resources.parse_version. Will return the tag name instead of date.
host Hostname for self-hosted Gitea instance.
token Gitea authorization token used to call the API.
To set an authorization token, you can set:
• a key named gitea_{host} in the keyfile, where host is all-lowercased host name
• the token option
This source supports List Options when use_max_tag is set.
Check BitBucket
source = "bitbucket"
Check BitBucket for updates. The version returned is in date format %Y%m%d, e.g. 20130701, unless
use_max_tag is used. See below.
bitbucket
The bitbucket repository, with author, e.g. lilydjwg/dotvim.
branch Which branch to track? Default: the repository's default.
use_max_tag
Set this to true to check for the max tag on BitBucket. Will return the biggest one sorted by old
pkg_resources.parse_version. Will return the tag name instead of date.
use_sorted_tags
If true, tags are queried and sorted according to the query and sort keys. Will return the tag
name instead of the date.
query A query string use to filter tags when use_sorted_tags set (see here for examples). The string
does not need to be escaped.
sort A field used to sort the tags when use_sorted_tags is set (see here for examples). Defaults to
-target.date (sorts tags in descending order by date).
max_page
How many pages do we search for the max tag? Default is 3. This works when use_max_tag is set.
This source supports List Options when use_max_tag or use_sorted_tags is set.
Check GitLab
source = "gitlab"
Check GitLab for updates. The version returned is in date format %Y%m%d, e.g. 20130701, unless
use_max_tag is used. See below.
gitlab The gitlab repository, with author, e.g. Deepin/deepin-music.
branch Which branch to track?
use_max_tag
Set this to true to check for the max tag on GitLab. Will return the biggest one sorted by old
pkg_resources.parse_version. Will return the tag name instead of date.
host Hostname for self-hosted GitLab instance.
token GitLab authorization token used to call the API.
To set an authorization token, you can set:
• a key named gitlab_{host} in the keyfile, where host is all-lowercased host name
• the token option
This source supports List Options when use_max_tag is set.
Check PyPI
source = "pypi"
Check PyPI for updates.
pypi The name used on PyPI, e.g. PySide.
use_pre_release
Whether to accept pre release. Default is false.
NOTE:
An additional dependency "packaging" is required. You can use pip install 'nvchecker[pypi]'.
Check RubyGems
source = "gems"
Check RubyGems for updates.
gems The name used on RubyGems, e.g. sass.
This source supports List Options.
Check NPM Registry
source = "npm"
Check NPM Registry for updates.
npm The name used on NPM Registry, e.g. coffee-script.
To configure which registry to query, a source plugin option is available. You can specify like this:
[__config__.source.npm]
registry = "https://registry.npm.taobao.org"
Check Hackage
source = "hackage"
Check Hackage for updates.
hackage
The name used on Hackage, e.g. pandoc.
Check CPAN
source = "cpan"
Check MetaCPAN for updates.
cpan The name used on CPAN, e.g. YAML.
Check CRAN
source = "cran"
Check CRAN for updates.
cran The name used on CRAN, e.g. xml2.
Check Packagist
source = "packagist"
Check Packagist for updates.
packagist
The name used on Packagist, e.g. monolog/monolog.
Check crates.io
source = "cratesio"
Check crates.io for updates.
cratesio
The crate name on crates.io, e.g. tokio.
Check Local Pacman Database
source = "pacman"
This is used when you run nvchecker on an Arch Linux system and the program always keeps up with a
package in your configured repositories for Pacman.
pacman The package name to reference to.
strip_release
Strip the release part.
Check Arch Linux official packages
source = "archpkg"
This enables you to track the update of Arch Linux official packages, without needing of pacman and an
updated local Pacman databases.
archpkg
Name of the Arch Linux package.
strip_release
Strip the release part, only return part before -.
provided
Instead of the package version, return the version this package provides. Its value is what the
package provides, and strip_release takes effect too. This is best used with libraries.
Check Debian Linux official packages
source = "debianpkg"
This enables you to track the update of Debian Linux official packages, without needing of apt and an
updated local APT database.
debianpkg
Name of the Debian Linux source package.
suite Name of the Debian release (jessie, wheezy, etc, defaults to sid)
strip_release
Strip the release part.
Check Ubuntu Linux official packages
source = "ubuntupkg"
This enables you to track the update of Ubuntu Linux official packages, without needing of apt and an
updated local APT database.
ubuntupkg
Name of the Ubuntu Linux source package.
suite Name of the Ubuntu release (xenial, zesty, etc, defaults to None, which means no limit on suite)
strip_release
Strip the release part.
Check Repology
source = "repology"
This enables you to track updates from Repology (repology.org).
repology
Name of the project to check.
repo Check the version in this repo. This field is required.
subrepo
Check the version in this subrepo. This field is optional. When omitted all subrepos are queried.
This source supports List Options.
Check Anitya
source = "anitya"
This enables you to track updates from Anitya (release-monitoring.org).
anitya distro/package, where distro can be a lot of things like "fedora", "arch linux", "gentoo", etc.
package is the package name of the chosen distribution.
Check Android SDK
source = "android_sdk"
This enables you to track updates of Android SDK packages listed in sdkmanager --list.
android_sdk
The package path prefix. This value is matched against the path attribute in all <remotePackage>
nodes in an SDK manifest XML. The first match is used for version comparisons.
repo Should be one of addon or package. Packages in addon2-1.xml use addon and packages in
repository2-1.xml use package.
channel
Choose the target channel from one of stable, beta, dev or canary. This option also accepts a
comma-separated list to pick from multiple channels. For example, the latest unstable version is
picked with beta,dev,canary. The default is stable.
host_os
Choose the target OS for the tracked package from one of linux, macosx, windows. The default is
linux. For OS-independent packages (e.g., Java JARs), this field is ignored.
This source supports List Options.
Check Sparkle framework
source = "sparkle"
This enables you to track updates of macOS applications which using Sparkle framework.
sparkle
The url of the sparkle appcast.
Check Pagure
source = "pagure"
This enables you to check updates from Pagure.
pagure The project name, optionally with a namespace.
host Hostname of alternative instance like src.fedoraproject.org.
This source returns tags and supports List Options.
Check APT repository
source = "apt"
This enables you to track the update of an arbitrary APT repository, without needing of apt and an
updated local APT database.
pkg Name of the APT binary package.
srcpkg Name of the APT source package.
mirror URL of the repository.
suite Name of the APT repository release (jessie, wheezy, etc)
repo Name of the APT repository (main, contrib, etc, defaults to main)
arch Architecture of the repository (i386, amd64, etc, defaults to amd64)
strip_release
Strip the release part.
Note that either pkg or srcpkg needs to be specified (but not both) or the item name will be used as pkg.
Check Git repository
source = "git"
This enables you to check tags or branch commits of an arbitrary git repository, also useful for
scenarios like a github project having too many tags.
git URL of the Git repository.
use_commit
Return a commit hash instead of tags.
branch When use_commit is true, return the commit on the specified branch instead of the default one.
When this source returns tags (use_commit is not true) it supports List Options.
Check container registry
source = "container"
This enables you to check tags of images on a container registry like Docker.
container
The path for the container image. For official Docker images, use namespace library/ (e.g.
library/python).
registry
The container registry host. Default: docker.io
registry and container are the host and the path used in the pull command. Note that the docker command
allows omitting some parts of the container name while this plugin requires the full name. If the host
part is omitted, use docker.io, and if there is no slash in the path, prepend library/ to the path. Here
are some examples:
┌──────────────────────────────────┬───────────┬──────────────────────────┐
│ Pull command │ registry │ container │
├──────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ docker pull │ quay.io │ prometheus/node-exporter │
│ quay.io/prometheus/node-exporter │ │ │
├──────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ docker pull nvidia/cuda │ docker.io │ nvidia/cuda │
├──────────────────────────────────┼───────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ docker pull python │ docker.io │ library/python │
└──────────────────────────────────┴───────────┴──────────────────────────┘
This source returns tags and supports List Options.
Check ALPM database
source = "alpm"
Check package updates in a local ALPM database.
alpm Name of the package.
repo Name of the package repository in which the package resides. If not provided, nvchecker will use
repos value, see below.
repos An array of possible repositories in which the package may reside in, nvchecker will use the first
repository which contains the package. If not provided, core, extra, community and multilib will
be used, in that order.
dbpath Path to the ALPM database directory. Default: /var/lib/pacman. You need to update the database
yourself.
strip_release
Strip the release part, only return the part before -.
provided
Instead of the package version, return the version this package provides. Its value is what the
package provides, and strip_release takes effect too. This is best used with libraries.
NOTE:
An additional dependency "pyalpm" is required.
Check ALPM files database
source = "alpmfiles"
Search package files in a local ALPM files database. The package does not need to be installed. This can
be useful for checking shared library versions if a package does not list them in its provides.
pkgname
Name of the package.
filename
Regular expression for the file path. If it contains one matching group, that group is returned.
Otherwise return the whole file path. Paths do not have an initial slash. For example,
usr/lib/libuv\\.so\\.([^.]+) matches the major shared library version of libuv.
repo Name of the package repository in which the package resides. If not provided, search all
repositories.
strip_dir
Strip directory from the path before matching. Defaults to false.
dbpath Path to the ALPM database directory. Default: /var/lib/pacman. You need to update the database
yourself with pacman -Fy.
Check Open Vsx
source = "openvsx"
Check Open Vsx for updates.
openvsx
The extension's Unique Identifier on open-vsx.org, e.g. ritwickdey.LiveServer.
Check Visual Studio Code Marketplace
source = "vsmarketplace"
Check Visual Studio Code Marketplace for updates.
vsmarketplace
The extension's Unique Identifier on marketplace.visualstudio.com/vscode, e.g.
ritwickdey.LiveServer.
Combine others' results
source = "combiner"
This source can combine results from other entries.
from A list of entry names to wait results for.
format A format string to combine the results into the final string.
Example:
[entry-1]
source = "cmd"
cmd = "echo 1"
[entry-2]
source = "cmd"
cmd = "echo 2"
[entry-3]
source = "combiner"
from = ["entry-1", "entry-2"]
format = "$1-$2"
Manually updating
source = "manual"
This enables you to manually specify the version (maybe because you want to approve each release before
it gets to the script).
manual The version string.
Extending
It's possible to extend the supported sources by writing plugins. See plugin for documentation.
2.12 2023-11-10 NVCHECKER(1)