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How-to guidesKeep packages up to date automatically

Keep packages up to date automatically

Turn on Auto-update for a package and Marshal keeps it on the newest patch and minor version for you. Stacks that follow your modules republish, and manifests follow their stacks. You decide which packages and stacks take part, and you can see every change Marshal made.

Before you start

  • Role: admin or owner to turn Auto-update on or off and to read the list of recent changes. The owner of a personal manifest, or an admin, can hold and revert a manifest.
  • Available when your administrator enables the marketplace.
  • A package you installed. See Install a package into a manifest.

Steps

Step 1: turn on Auto-update for a package

  1. In the left rail, open Marketplace and choose the Installed tab.
  2. On the package’s card, tick Auto-update.

To turn it on for every installed package at once, click Auto-update all above the package cards. Turn off for all turns it off everywhere the same way. Each package that changes is recorded in the audit log.

To have packages you install later start with Auto-update on, tick Auto-update new installs above the package cards. It applies to a package the first time it is installed in your organization, whether you install it or Marshal does. Upgrading a package keeps that package’s own setting.

Marshal checks for new versions when it starts and every 5 minutes after that. A new patch or minor version of the same major version installs on its own. A new major version never installs on its own: you upgrade to it yourself. A version your admin blocked in the Security Center is never installed automatically, and a block overrides a hold and a version pin.

If a newer version asks for something you have not approved, such as a new credential access or another package it depends on, Marshal leaves the installed version in place and shows Needs approval in the list of recent changes. Upgrade that version yourself, and the install dialogs ask for your approval as usual.

Step 2: let a stack follow the new versions

Stacks that have Auto-upgrade modules on republish when a module they use gets a new patch or minor version, and manifests on that stack move to the new stack version.

To also follow a new major version of a module that your organization has already installed:

  1. Open the stack and click Automation.
  2. With Auto-upgrade modules ticked, choose Also update to new major versions.
  3. In the Update to new major versions dialog, read the warning, then click Turn on.

The setting belongs to that stack only. It never installs anything: the major version has to be installed first.

Step 3: hold or revert a manifest

  1. Open Manifests and open the menu on the manifest’s row.
  2. Choose Hold to keep the manifest on its current stack version. The row shows Held by owner and automatic updates skip it. Choose Release hold to let it follow its stack again.
  3. Choose Revert to move the manifest back to the stack version it was on before. A revert also holds the manifest, so the next automatic update does not move it forward again.

Revert is refused when the manifest has no earlier stack version, when its latest move was already a revert, when the earlier stack version has been retired, when a package that version uses is no longer installed, or when a saved toolchain version would break on it. You can still upgrade a held manifest yourself with Upgrade to; the hold stays.

A manifest that a saved toolchain version would break shows Held by toolchain. That hold is separate: releasing yours does not release it.

Step 4: see what changed

Open the Installed tab and click Recent automatic changes at the top right. The list shows the package upgrades, stack publishes and manifest moves Marshal made, newest first. A line for several manifests shows a count. Click it to see each manifest. The list says which period it covers, which follows how long your audit log keeps events.

What you should see

  • After step 1: Auto-update ticked on the package (or on every package after Auto-update all), and new patch and minor versions appearing under Recent automatic changes.
  • After step 3: a Held by owner badge on a held manifest, and the earlier stack version on a reverted one.
  • Spaces that are already running do not change. Spaces you create after an update use the new versions.
Install a package into a manifestCreate a space from a manifest