Updating a server install cost nine artisan invocations plus a PHP-FPM
reload, written out in three places that had already drifted apart. One
of those steps is silently fatal to skip: with opcache.validate_timestamps
off — what production guides recommend and what our own image ships — the
database moves to the new version while every visitor keeps being served
the old code, and artisan reports the new version throughout.
`sudo ./update.sh` is now the whole procedure. It asks whether to check
GitHub, asks whether to download the release and verifies the checksum
published beside it, and asks whether there is a backup — offering to dump
the database when the answer is no. Then it takes the site down, replaces
the files, runs the update, reloads PHP-FPM, restarts the worker and
brings the site back. The application still has no self-updater: nothing
is fetched or applied unless somebody runs this and answers yes.
Underneath it is `php artisan projectsend:update`, which is everything an
update does that needs no root — and now the only definition of it. Both
container entrypoints call it instead of carrying their own copy of the
sequence, so the two paths cannot drift again.
Three findings worth keeping in the record, all from rehearsing rather
than reasoning:
- queue:restart has to come last. It writes its signal into the cache,
so clearing the cache afterwards deletes it and the worker runs old
code forever.
- optimize:clear is not safe to recommend. It runs cache:clear, which
on Redis is FLUSHDB — harmless on the default two-database layout,
but on a single-database Redis it takes the sessions and the queue
with it. The compiled caches are cleared individually instead.
- update.sh overwrites itself mid-run, because the zip contains it and
bash reads its own script lazily by byte offset. It re-execs from a
temporary copy before touching anything.
And when the reload is skipped anyway, the application now says so:
projectsend:update records the version it applied, and any staff page
compares that with what the running process actually compiled. The same
check catches the mirror image — new files in place, update never run.
Rehearsed end to end against real installs: a container upgrade (69 to 73
migrations, key and data intact, healthy), a scripted update on a real
nginx + php-fpm install with OPcache pinned (web process moved 2.1.0 to
2.1.1), the skipped-reload case (banner appears naming both versions, and
clears on reload), the refusals (downgrade, non-release zip, truncated
zip, URL passed to --zip, non-root), a database taken down mid-update
(site comes back out of maintenance mode by itself), and a real download
of the published 2.0.0 zip with its checksum verified.
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Updating had a numbered list inside INSTALL.md and a code block in the
dashboard, and between them they were missing the step that decides
whether an update works at all.
Rehearsed both paths end to end against a real 2.0.0 install before
writing any of this down. On Docker the whole update is `docker compose
pull && docker compose up -d`: the entrypoint waits for the database,
migrates, ensures the roles, and starts the workers, and it does not
start nginx until that finishes — so a failed migration is a container
that stays down rather than a half-updated site taking traffic. The
generated APP_KEY on the storage volume is left alone. Verified: 69
migrations to 73, key unchanged, data intact, healthcheck healthy.
The manual path is where the gap was. Replace the files, run the four
documented commands, and the site still serves the old version: with
`opcache.validate_timestamps=0` — what every production guide recommends,
and what our own image ships — PHP never re-reads a file it has already
compiled. The database is on the new version, every visitor is on the
old code, and `php artisan` cheerfully reports the new version the whole
time you are trying to work out why. Reproduced exactly that, then
watched a php-fpm reload fix it.
UPDATE.md is now the whole procedure for both, INSTALL.md keeps the short
sequence with the reload added, and the in-app instructions gained the
same line — in the code block, which is not translated, so no locale is
left saying something different.
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The tab title suffix came from `import.meta.env.VITE_APP_NAME`, with the
starter kit's own `|| 'Laravel'` behind it. Vite resolves that at build
time, and a release ships public/build/ already compiled — precisely so
nobody downstream needs npm — so whatever the build machine had is
frozen for every install that artifact produces. The 2.0.0 zip has
`const s2="Laravel"` in app-BoPagLMd.js, and no APP_KEY, APP_NAME or
VITE_APP_NAME an operator sets afterwards can reach it (#1619).
Swapping the fallback to 'ProjectSend' would fix the reported symptom
and leave the mechanism: a name baked at build time, wrong for anyone
who renamed their site. The name is already on every page — the shared
props carry the site_name setting — so read it from there and drop the
build-time variable entirely, .env.example's dead VITE_APP_NAME line
included.
The root view's own <title> now reads the same shared prop, so the tab
does not show one name before hydration and another after on any
installation whose administrator renamed the site.
Verified in a real browser, which is the only place this is visible —
the server-rendered title was always right, and curl never saw the bug.
Titles read "Log in - ProjectSend" and, after renaming the site with no
rebuild of any kind, "Log in - Acme Files".
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Client file sharing, rebuilt from the ground up: a private area per
client, resumable uploads, folders, groups and categories, sharing with
expiry dates and download limits, comments, file versions, an activity
log, a REST API, and sixteen languages.
This repository begins here. ProjectSend 2 was developed privately, and
that development history is not published — the previous generation
remains available, with its own history, at projectsend/legacy.
Free software under the GNU General Public License v2, or (at your
option) any later version.
Ignacio Nelson