Update Notifications

Outdated, find new version here: https://sharg.vercel.app/usr/html/about_update_notifications.html

Outdated software is a huge issue in science workflows. Especially when the software is not part of the packaging provided by the operating system, it tends to be installed once and never updated.

We provide update notifications as a convenient service to app users so that they immediately see when a new version is available. When we assume that an application is being run by its developer we nag the developer to also keep their checkout of the SeqAn library up-to-date. This ensures new features get to app developers faster, applications have fewer bugs, and we receive fewer bug reports on outdated versions.

How it works

Upon starting an application using the seqan3::argument_parser, it is determined whether the app is built in release mode (we assume a user is running it) or in debug mode (we assume the developer is running it).

We then send a web-request to our server with the following:

• The application name and its version
• The SeqAn version that the application was built with
• The operating system type (Linux, macOS, Windows or BSD)
• The CPU type (32 or 64bit)

But we send at most one request per day [we keep track of this by saving a timestamp to .config/seqan/app_name].

If a newer app version is registered in our database (or can be automatically determined), we inform the user about it. If the app is running in debug mode and the SeqAn version is outdated, we assume the user is the app developer and inform them about it.

Privacy Implications

Only the information listed above is transmitted; no data is gathered about the usage of the app, and, of course, no information regarding your input/output files is transmitted. All our code is open source so this can be verified at any time.

The server does a simple form of non-personalised data aggregation that gives us a better overview of which apps are most commonly used and how well new SeqAn versions are picked up. This helps the SeqAn project a lot, also in acquiring funding. The web-server that receives the requests currently logs IP-Addresses as part of its standard behaviour, however, we are working on removing this behaviour.

We may publish aggregated and anonymised usage data irregularly, but the original data is never shared with a third party.

How to turn it on/off

You are asked about your preference in regard to the version check the first time you run an application. You may choose to always or never perform checks, or be asked every time. You can also specify that you don't (or do) want to perform the check (regardless of any previous choice) by passing this argument to your program: --version-check 0 (or 1 to activate it).

Users may opt-out of the version check globally (for all apps on their computer) by setting the environment variable SEQAN3_NO_VERSION_CHECK.

Application developers may opt-out of the version check for their app permanently (independent of user choice) by passing seqan3::update_notifications::off as the fourth argument to seqan3::argument_parser. See the respective API documentation.