dsc update¶

Runs remote OS and Discourse update workflows over SSH.

dsc update <name|all> [-p [N]] [--skip-recent [DUR]] [--force] [--no-changelog] [--yes]
dsc update log [--latest] [--since <DUR>] [--format text|md|json]

Flags¶

• --parallel [N] (or -p) — run updates concurrently (only with all). -p uses 3 workers; -p N uses N. Put the forum name before -p (e.g. update all -p 4).
• --skip-recent [DUR] — skip forums fully updated within a window (default 24h; e.g. --skip-recent 6h). For unattended re-runs; see Skipping behaviour.
• --force — update even if a ./launcher rebuild is already running on the host, or if the forum was updated recently (overrides both guards).
• --no-changelog — skip changelog posting.
• --yes (or -y) — auto-confirm the changelog post prompt (non-interactive mode).

Update workflow¶

1. OS package update over SSH.
2. Reboot (if applicable).
3. Check whether the running Discourse commit matches the latest stable branch commit on GitHub. If they match, skip the rebuild.
4. Discourse rebuild (./launcher rebuild app) — only if step 3 found a newer commit available.
5. Cleanup (docker container prune -f && docker image prune -f).
6. Fetch version info from the homepage <meta name="generator" ...> tag.
7. Optionally post a changelog checklist to the configured topic.

If the OS update command fails, dsc update aborts after attempting the rollback command (when configured).

Changelog template¶

The changelog is posted as a checklist to the topic specified by changelog_topic_id:

- [x] OS updated {{ubuntu_os_version}}
- {% if rebooted %} {{[x] Server rebooted}} {% endif %}
- [x] Updated Discourse:
  - Initial version: {{ before_version }} [{{ before_commit_hash | truncate 7 }}](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/{{ before_commit_hash }})
  - Updated version: {{ after_version }} [{{ after_commit_hash | truncate 7 }}](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/{{ after_commit_hash }})
- [x] `./launcher cleanup` Total reclaimed space: {{ reclaimed_space }}
- [x] Root disk usage (df -h /): {{ root_disk_usage }}

Parallel updates¶

# Update all installs, 4 at a time, non-interactively
dsc update all -p 4 --yes

In sequential mode (without -p), updates run one-by-one. all is a reserved name for dsc update all.

Rootless Docker¶

If docker_rootless = true is set on a Discourse entry, the update command drops sudo -n from Docker and launcher commands. This is required for instances provisioned with dsc harden (which defaults to rootless Docker). Without this flag, commands like sudo ./launcher rebuild app fail because the root user has no Docker context.

Skipping behaviour¶

Three independent gates can skip work; each is recorded in the update log:

• No ssh_host: dsc update all skips any Discourse instance with no ssh_host configured (read-only references like Discourse Meta, or instances not managed via SSH).
• Rebuild already running: at the very top of a forum's update (before the reboot), dsc checks for an in-flight ./launcher rebuild on the host and skips the whole forum if one is found — so re-running never reboots a box mid-rebuild. Override with --force.
• Updated recently: with --skip-recent [DUR], a forum whose last successful update is within the window (default 24h) is skipped entirely. Interactively (a TTY, no flag), dsc instead lists the recently-updated forums and asks up front whether to update them again — so a re-run to catch one straggler doesn't reboot the rest. Override with --force.
• Already up to date: before the rebuild, dsc compares the running commit with the latest discourse/discourse stable commit on GitHub. If they match, only the rebuild is skipped (OS updates and reboot still run). Unreachable GitHub or unknown commit → rebuild proceeds (fail-open).

Update log¶

Every dsc update pass appends one line per forum to an append-only log — a register of what was updated, when, and to which version.

dsc update log            # full chronological history
dsc update log --latest   # one row per forum (most recent state) - a fleet checklist
dsc update log --since 7d --format md

• Outcomes recorded: updated, current (already on latest), skipped-recent, skipped-rebuild, failed.
• Format: tab-separated, timestamp-first (greppable/tail-able); the pretty view is rendered by update log.
• Location: $XDG_STATE_HOME/dsc/update.log (default ~/.local/state/dsc/update.log), overridable with DSC_UPDATE_LOG.

Environment variables¶