Question

I am trying to create a script that will “self update” when it detects a new version on a server. Initially the idea I had was, when a new version is detected, download the file, then starts a DOS batch file that simply overwrites the original exe with the new one. I thought, that I could use sytem(start update.bat ) then immediately exit 0; The .bat file waits for a couple seconds, and then tries to delete the old exe. This fails, I guess because even when using system(start … ), the new “process” is actually the same process, is this correct? Is there any way to launch a completely new process from perl in windows, that would allow me to delete the .exe? Or is there a different approach that would be better?

Thanks,
Eric Seifert

Answer 1

See the documentation on the Windows Restart Manager, an API introduced with Windows Vista that manages restarting applications, for updates, for you.