Updating Pimatic

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Let me start with the fact that I am realy happy with Pimatic. I use it every day…
Saying that you can expect a “but…”.

I still work with a (very) old version and everything works like a charm:

So there is no urge to update exept that there will come a time I have to update anyway…

And that is the "but…"
I don’t dare to update.

On the forum I see a lots of questions of which version affects to what functionality.
I am afraid that after updating things won’t work anymore. Or it cost a lot of time to find out the right depenency and solve it.
Realy, I don’t want to solve problems that I don’t have now.

Also I think this scares new users to start using Pimatic.

So, besides making a good backup before updating, is there a good (easy) way to update save to a newer version with the needed dependencies?

Thanks in advance…

i have update… and if i look back, i think the words “never touch a running system” is the right speech.

i habe several Problems with Plugins and the Node versions. it take a lot of time to spend in pimatic right now. If you have a lot of time - make it. otherwise - try it on a another System, not on your working node. Than you can switch later to the new one.

good luck

@lschip, indeed upgrading looks like a big hurdly to take. The information is there but not in one place and easy accessible.

I see the following upgrade scenarios:

0. Do not upgrade anything if your system is what you want and working
1. Keep upgrading Pimatic and plugins to the latest versions. Pimatic will become aware of your node version and shows only plugins that can be upgraded with your node version. Pull-request #1138 “Implemented exclusion of plugins with incompatible node version requirement” will implement this and will be released hopefully soon.

Upgrading from node 4.x to node v8 or v10 is really a new install of Pimatic. Your config.json is the magic key of the reinstall. But not all plugins support node v8/10.
so before the reinstall of node 8/10 and pimatic your need to know witch plugins are blocking the upgrade. Im looking at a way to get automated info on the ‘upgradability’ of a Pimatic system. There’s also info on the forum on node 8 compatibility of plugins.

3. If all your plugin are node 8/10 compliant. You need to reinstall node and Pimatic. Use your saved config.json and restart pimatic (Pimatic Wiki instructions)
   This is an ideal situation and probably not often applicable for bigger/older systems.
4. When you know your blocking plugins, there are some options to follow-up:

• ask the maintainer of the plugin to upgrade the plugin
• if you like, invest some time and try to upgrade a plugin yourself and make other user happy
• try stop using them and migrate to compliant plugins

I’m preparing a new rpi with node 10.7.0. The MySensors plugin is blocking the upgrade untill now. The change to get MySensors node 10 compliant is not complex and is almost ready. After Mysensors node 10 is released, I will migrate to the new system.