If you previously have been installing HomeBridge (let’s say, on a Raspberry Pi), you know it’s a neat little piece of software. Thanks to HB, many non-smart or non-HomeKit enabled devices can be controlled via your iPhone or iPad using the Home app. A community of developers has created HomeBridge – HomeKit support for the impatient – and is also keeping it up-to-date. So naturally, you also want to keep your plugins updated to the latest version so that you can enjoy the new functionalities, or a more stable HomeBridge installation overall.
There are a number of ways for you to keep your plugins updated to their latest stable release.
Update plugins via the command line
To update the plugins via the command line, make sure you are connected to your Raspberry Pi (or another device) via SSH.
Let’s perform a check to see if we have outdated plugins:
sudo npm outdated -gHere you will see a list of plugins and their version:
/usr/lib
├── [email protected]
├── [email protected]
├── [email protected]
├── [email protected]
├── homebridge-[email protected]
├── [email protected]
└── [email protected]Let’s say the config-ui plugin needs an update. Execute this command via SSH:
sudo npm install -g --unsafe-perm [email protected]You should now see a progress bar while the plugin is being updated to the latest version. If you see an error message, then make sure you are using sudo.
Alternative command:
sudo -E -n npm --no-update-notifier install --unsafe-perm [email protected]Update via the UI
Install a UI plugin to access HomeBridge from a browser. A popular example is homebridge-config-ui-x.
This plugin allows you to monitor, backup and configure your Homebridge server from a browser.
npmjs.com
Via the UI, you can simple click the ‘update’ button and the update command will automatically be triggered.
