Manifest

Understanding the update manifest in Thistle OTA

The manifest file defines a release to the Thistle Update Client. Manifests are typically handled and amended by the Thistle Release Helper.

All fields are strings aside from version, which is an unsigned integer.

Example manifest

{
  "comment": "release matching internal commit ab245ef1",
  "id": "01G9CPEVZN3KWEJSDR3YRB6TEY",
  "ts": "1659357610.1366699",
  "version": 1,
  "name": "mymanifest",
  "signature": "dW50cnVzdGVkIGNvbW1lbnQ6IHNpZ25hdHVyZSBmcm9tIHJzaWduIHNlY3JldCBrZXk...",
  "pre_install": null,
  "post_install": null,
  "rootfs": null,
  "files": [{
      "name": "a",
      "install_location": "/opt/application",
      "download_location": "https://xxx.ota.thistlesec.net/8a045f82696d69147e2274492723eabb",
      "hash": "17c7c37227ff424637817217e7155cee1a9a732c59b2798dcceff46722d9992e",
      "pre_install": null,
      "post_install": null
  }],
}

Manifest fields

Name	Description
name	Name of the release
id	Id of the release (ulid form)
ts	Timestamp of last modification (seconds since epoch)
version	Current release number
comment	Free form comment
signature	Signature of this manifest
pre_install	Command to run before the installation of this manifest. Note: a failure of this script will revert any installed asset
post_install	Command to run after the installation of this manifest. Note: a failure of this script will revert any installed asset
post_reboot	Command to run after rebooting the device following the installation of this manifest. Note: a failure of this script will revert any installed asset and issue another reboot
rootfs	Rootfs (specified below)
files	Array of files (specified below)

File fields

Name	Description
name	Filename
install_location	Install destination on device
download_location	Download source URL
hash	Hash of the compressed file
pre_install	Command to run before the installation of this file. Note: a failure of this script will revert any installed asset
post_install	Command to run after the installation of this file. Note: a failure of this script will revert any installed asset

Rootfs fields

Name	Description
name	Image name
download_location	Download source URL
hash	Hash of the compressed rootfs image
pre_install	Command to run before the installation of this image. Note: a failure of this script will revert any installed asset
post_install	Command to run after the installation of this image. Note: a failure of this script will revert any installed asset

Manual manifest fetching

If you prefer to fetch the update manifest manually, you can do so with the following command. This can be useful if you want to use a customized update client. The ID and Token defined in the command below are the obtained at the end of the device provisioning process.

$ curl -H "Thistle-Device-ID: $DEVICE_ID" \
     -H "Authorization: Bearer $DEVICE_TOKEN" \
     https://device.thistle.tech/manifest