Unique download urls (for Chocolatey package)

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flcdrg
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Unique download urls (for Chocolatey package)

Post by flcdrg »

Hi there,

I maintain the Chocolatey package for PDF-XChange Editor, which makes it really easy to automatically install and update software.

Chocolatey are now preferring that packages include a hashcode of the referenced binary files as a way of validating that the download has not been tampered with. The Chocolatey package just contains a link to your download URL, it doesn't include the binary.

The problem is that the download URLs for PDF-XChange Editor don't change when a new version is released, which means that if someone tries to use Chocolatey to install it when a new version has been published (but the Chocolatey package metadata hasn't been updated) then they'll get an error indicating the hashes don't match.

If it was possible for you to publish downloads which contained the version number in the URL, this would avoid that problem. eg. something like:

https://www.pdf-xchange.com/downlo ... .1.x86.msi

David
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Re: Unique download urls (for Chocolatey package)

Post by Will - Tracker Supp »

Hi David,

Thanks for the post - I'm sorry to hear that this is causing issues, but I'm afraid that this is not something that we would change. Only links to old releases contain version numbers, so as to make it more obvious to clients that the release they are downloading is the latest.

Thanks,
If posting files to this forum, you must archive the files to a ZIP, RAR or 7z file or they will not be uploaded.
Thank you.

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flcdrg
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Re: Unique download urls (for Chocolatey package)

Post by flcdrg »

What about a compromise and posting versioned URLs in addition to the non-version ones?

That way you keep the status quo (and don't break existing links) but also solve the Chocolatey issue at the same time :)
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Re: Unique download urls (for Chocolatey package)

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello flcdrg,

Actually we do have permanent links for each build as well. E.g. this is the link to the Editor build 318 that will always be for build 318:
http://www.docu-track.co.uk/builds/6.0. ... DFXVE6.zip
Please note though that this is on a limited bandwidth server unlike our main download page - so the result might not be ideal if there are hundreds of simultaneous updates through that Chocolatey too.

Regards,
Stefan
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Re: Unique download urls (for Chocolatey package)

Post by flcdrg »

That's just what I wanted! If you have a look at https://chocolatey.org/packages/PDFXchangeEditor, there's not heaps of downloads so I don't think it will 'break the bank' :-)

Thanks!
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Re: Unique download urls (for Chocolatey package)

Post by Patrick-Tracker Supp »

Glad we could help!

:)
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flcdrg
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Re: Unique download urls (for Chocolatey package)

Post by flcdrg »

Hi folks.

I've noticed a couple of issues with the Chocolatey package recently and wondering if there have been some changes at your end that might be affecting things?

1. The fallback downloads don't seem to work any more. eg. http://www.docu-track.co.uk/builds/9.1.355.0/EditorV9.x64.msi now just seem to redirect to https://www.pdf-xchange.com/. Is there a different URL that should be used for downloading old versions?
2. I've see a few cases where the 'fixed' download binary appears to have been modified (but the version number doesn't change). Is this normal?

eg. Version 9.1.356.0 originally had a UTC timestamp (from your download server)

$lastModified32 = New-Object -TypeName DateTimeOffset 2021, 7, 20, 1, 56, 54, 0 # Last modified time corresponding to this package version
$lastModified64 = New-Object -TypeName DateTimeOffset 2021, 7, 20, 1, 57, 36, 0 # Last modified time corresponding to this package version

But if I re-run my updating script, it's now returning a more recent timestamp for the same files. eg.

$lastModified32 = New-Object -TypeName DateTimeOffset 2021, 7, 20, 3, 17, 20, 0 # Last modified time corresponding to this package version
$lastModified64 = New-Object -TypeName DateTimeOffset 2021, 7, 20, 3, 15, 50, 0 # Last modified time corresponding to this package version

David
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Re: Unique download urls (for Chocolatey package)

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello David,

Yes - the older builds are now served from
https://builds-archive.pdf-xchange.com/9.1.xxx

As for the timestamp change - I am not aware of any changes to the build itself! I think there were some additional files downloaded (e.g. there are some country specific download packages) - so maybe the upload of those updated the timestamp for all the other files!

Kind regards,
Stefan
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Re: Unique download urls (for Chocolatey package)

Post by flcdrg »

Thanks. I'll update newer packages to use that URL.

Is there any way you could set up a redirect from the old URL? Because Chocolatey packages are 'immutable' once they've been published, unfortunately I can't go back and fix the existing ones.

David
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Re: Unique download urls (for Chocolatey package)

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello flcdrg,

I am afraid that there are no plans currently for such redirects - but I can ask. Please note this is not a promise that we will do this, so users of older Chocolatey builds might need to be advised to update.

Kind regards,
Stefan
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