Instructions for app developers for the upcoming OTA

[Philip Monk]

If you're an app developer, there's a few things you should know about the upcoming OTA, which is currently scheduled for next Wednesday, June 1.

tl;dr: You should install the prerelease version of the OTA and update the sys.kelvin file for your app, so that your app will be ready for the upgrade.

This is a kelvin upgrade, which means you need to explicitly signal your compability with the new version by changing your sys.kelvin file from [%zuse 419] to [%zuse 418].

For most apps, this is all that will be required.  However, there are a small number of breaking changes in this upgrade, which may require further changes to your app.  See the list under "Breaking Changes" in the release notes: https://github.com/urbit/urbit/releases/tag/urbit-os-v2.123-rc2

To test this upgrade, we recommend the following instructions.  You may wish to first try this on a moon other than where you distribute your app.  You must do it on whatever ship distributes your app for your users to get the update, of course.

- Download the new binary and restart your pier to use it.

MacOS: https://bootstrap.urbit.org/urbit-v1.9-rc3-darwin.tgz

Linux: https://bootstrap.urbit.org/urbit-v1.9-rc3-linux64.tgz

- Run the following commands:

|install ~doznec-dozzod-marzod %garden

|install ~doznec-dozzod-marzod %landscape

|install ~doznec-dozzod-marzod %webterm

|install ~doznec-dozzod-marzod %bitcoin

- Wait for it to say for each of the four apps:

kiln: finished downloading update for %garden from [~doznec-dozzod-marzod %garden]

- Run:

|ota ~doznec-dozzod-marzod

After a few minutes, you should see a notification on your home page saying that some of your apps are blocking the upgrade.  Note this notification is on your home screen, *not* on groups.  You also may not see a blue dot for it.

Click the button which says to suspend those apps and continue with the upgrade.  After the upgrade completes, for each app that you develop, run:

*=APPNAME=/sys/kelvin &kelvin [%zuse 418]

|revive %APPNAME

Test your app, and if it's working, then you're good.  If it fails to compile, review the list of breaking changes for any that may affect you.  If the issue is not listed, let us know.

If you have any questions about this process, the best places to ask are here and in ~middev/the-forge

-Philip