= Updating the OS
:page-parent: Using Spectrum

// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2025 Demi Marie Obenour <demiobenour@gmail.com>
// SPDX-License-Identifier: GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-or-later OR CC-BY-SA-4.0

Spectrum supports updates via the `update` command.  This
takes the path to a staging directory as argument.  `update`
will create the directory, use it for the update, and then
delete it.  The parent directory must exist.

Updates are atomic and take effect after the system reboots.
If the system is rebooted, crashes, or loses power during an
update, the update will automatically be rolled back.  Updates
are digitally signed and Spectrum will refuse to install an
update that does not have a trusted signature.

Currently, Spectrum does not provide an update server, so
you must provide your own.  You can do this via
xref:../development/build-configuration.adoc[build configuration].
The default sets the signing key to `/dev/null` and the server
URL to an invalid value, so updates won't work.  To enable updates,
set `update-url` to the URL of your server and `update-signing-key`
to a binary GnuPG keyring to verify the updates with.  Not all possible
URLs will work, but most invalid URLs will cause an error during the
build rather than runtime misbehavior.

Right now, it is not possible to change the update URL or signing key
except via an update or by reinstalling the OS.