Writing config files

There are many possible settings in Conveyor configs, but almost all of them can be ignored if you follow certain conventions because they'll be derived from the others. Any default you don't like can be fixed by adding the key yourself.

An app is defined using the HOCON configuration language. HOCON is a superset of JSON and thus all JSON is valid HOCON, but it comes with a variety of syntax features to make writing configuration files easier. Conveyor then adds additional features like brace expansion in string lists, per-user default files, access to environment variables and the ability to include the results of external programs. This lets you make dynamic configs that are partly or completely computed on the fly. You can read the HOCON spec to learn how to write this small language and how to use the Conveyor extensions.

To understand every setting that went into your app run the conveyor json command and examine the output. Because HOCON is a superset of JSON you can use this result in place of the original config, but we don't recommend that because you'll lose the smartly calculated defaults. Using raw JSON as a config file is normally only useful if you're generating it from a tool.

Extending the default settings

When working with lists it's good style to always add to them rather than overriding them. If you assign directly importing other configs from (for example) the Conveyor standard library won't work as you'll overwrite the values they place in shared lists. In other words write key += value rather than key = [ value ]. The first form adds to whatever key currently holds, the second replaces it.

Per-user defaults

Config placed in the following location will be merged into every build file:

• Windows: %USERPROFILE%\Hydraulic\Conveyor\defaults.conf
• Linux: ~/.config/hydraulic/conveyor/defaults.conf
• macOS: ~/Library/Preferences/Hydraulic/Conveyor/defaults.conf

Other files

Only defaults.conf is read from this directory. If you want other bits of config there too, you will need to use an include statement. Paths in config files are resolved relative to the config file in which they are found.

Compatibility levels

The conveyor.compatibility-level key will be added automatically on first run if you don't specify it. If you use a key added in a newer version of Conveyor you'll be asked to increase your compatibility level to enable it's usage, and this will stop old versions from processing the config (which they would not fully understand). If new versions of Conveyor make changes that would be backwards incompatible, they will only take effect if you opt in by incrementing your compatibility level. Otherwise, the old behaviors will be preserved.

License keys

To use Conveyor you must meet one of the following criteria:

1. Testing: app.site.base-url is set to http://localhost (any port). This is the mode used in the tutorial and is for trying things out / playing around.
2. Open source: app.vcs-url is set to the URL of your source repository. The project found there must match the one you're packaging and must be open source. This can be a git URL, GitHub URL, Mercurial URL etc. If it's a GitHub URL then the download site URL will default to the latest GitHub release for that app.
3. Licensed: conveyor.license-key contains an eight character license key (like aaaa-bbbb). This lets you package a proprietary application. To get a license key simply change your site URL to something that's not localhost and do a build. A new key will be generated and put in the config file for you, and a payment link will be provided. You can manage your subscription from the customer portal.

Because Conveyor is licensed per-project license keys are associated with site URLs. It's OK to change your site URL, so you can fix typos or switch from a private to public location. If you change to a new URL and then change back again, you'll get an error because this looks like using one key for multiple projects. If you're not trying to share keys but still need to change your site URL to an older one, please email contact@hydraulic.software and we'll sort it out.

Minimal app

Apps are built from inputs. A config must specify at least one input file and the address where the downloads will be served from (as the packages need to know this to configure online updates). Archives can be extracted and will be by default. If the file name follows a conventional form all other app metadata can be derived from it:

app { 
  windows.amd64.inputs = win/example-app-1.1.zip
  mac.amd64.inputs = mac/intel/example-app-1.1.zip
  mac.aarch64.inputs = mac/arm/example-app-1.1.zip

  site { 
    base-url = yourserver.net/downloads    # Where your downloads and update files will be served from.
  }
}

This will generate packages for Windows, Mac Intel and Mac ARM from the contents of the zip files, using the name example-app, Example App and version 1.1 in the appropriate places.

All configuration Conveyor pays attention to goes under the app hierarchy, but you can place keys outside this area to hold your own variables.

Names and metadata

app.version A version string made up of numbers separated by dots. Words like -beta, SNAPSHOT etc are not allowed, because this version number is used by update systems to determine if a new version is available.

app.revision The version of the config file itself. This can be incremented if you change the package definition but not the underlying software. It should be set to zero again when the underlying software version changes.

app.rdns-name A reverse DNS (Java style) name for the app package. Some operating systems like to use such names for metadata. The exact value doesn't matter much and it doesn't have to correspond to a real website. By default, one is created for you based on the site download URL but this is unlikely to be ideal.

app.fsname and app.long-fsname. An fsname is a name that appears on the file system. The fsname of an app is used for forming default values for:

• Package names.
• Directories where logs, caches and persistent data should be stored.
• Executable names usable from the command line.

The fsname will be derived automatically from the file name of the first input, if that's in a conventional form (see above). You shouldn't put any version numbers in your fsname: it should consist only of words.

The long fsname is used where a file name might be in a shared namespace and needs to be globally unique as a consequence. If a app.vendor is specified then the default app.long-fsname will be the vendor name plus the application's fsname separated by a dash. The long fsname is used anywhere a file on disk might be in a namespace shared with other software, which is common on Linux systems but less relevant on macOS and Windows. There is also app.long-fsname-dir. This is the same concept but with a directory separator instead.

Here's an example. You write:

app.vendor = LittleCorp
app.inputs += example-app-1.1.zip

Conveyor will calculate:

app.version = 1.1
app.fsname = example-app
app.long-fsname = littlecorp-example-app
app.long-fsname-dir = littlecorp/example-app
app.display-name = LittleCorp Example App

app.display-name The name of the software as meant for humans. Will be calculated from the fsname if not specified by simply uppercasing each word.

app.vendor Holds the display name of the organisation that makes the software.

app.description A one line summary of what the software does.

app.license The name of the copyright license the app is under, defaulting to Proprietary. Open source apps should use an SPDX identifier here to qualify for a free license.

app.contact-email An email address used when a package system requires one. Defaults to nobody@${app.site.host} (where the host may be taken from the app.site.base-url URL).

Icons

app.icons = "myapp-icon-*.png"
app.icons = "myapp-icon.svg"

# Render a simple icon with a label, a background gradient and macOS compliant rounded corners.
app.icons = {
  label = "AP"
  gradient = "blue;green"
}

app.icons, app.{windows,mac,linux,site}.icons An icon definition that can be either:

• An input definition that should import either square images or an SVG file. You can provide any number of square image files, as Conveyor will rescale the images to provide appropriate image sizes for all platforms. You can directly provide the appropriate sizes (see below) to avoid artifacts from resampling. Besides .svg, currently supported image file types are: .bmp, .gif, .png, .tif and .tiff. Only images that support transparency are allowed.
• An icon generation definition, consisting of the following fields:
  • label An optional short string containing one or two characters which will be rendered as the icon. If not provided, a label is derived from the app.display-name key.
  • gradient An optional string containing one or two CSS style colors separated by a semicolon (;). If not provided, a random gradient color is provided using the label as a seed.

Generated icons have rounded corners on all systems except Windows, where they instead fill the entire icon to comply with the platform style.

The icons are processed and converted into square images of sizes 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 and 1024, as well as 44 and 150 for Windows. You can provide images with those sizes directly if you prefer to handle rescaling directly. Otherwise, it's a good idea to provide at least a few different resolutions so scaling of the icon between sizes is smoother. It can be useful to have different icons for each OS to match the platform native styles.

By default, icons will be generated with a label based on the contents of app.display-name with a random gradient background.

Download site settings

The site section controls the generation of the download site. Currently you must have a download site because it's where the packages will check for online updates, although you don't need to use the generated HTML file. Learn more.

Machines

app.machines A list of target machines for which packages should be built. At this time the following machines are supported:

• windows.amd64
• mac.amd64 (Intel Macs)
• mac.aarch64 (Apple Silicon)
• linux.amd64.glibc

Additional supported targets may be added in future. You can also use shorthand like windows on its own, but you'll get a warning that Windows ARM isn't supported yet.

Signing

For full information about signing, see Keys and certificates.

app.sign A default value for app.mac.sign and app.windows.sign, which control whether or not to digitally sign executables. If this is true (the default) and you don't have signing certificates in your Conveyor data directory then you'll see a notice explaining what to do.

app.signing-key Should be set to a random string plus the date on which it was generated. A typical signing key will be encoded like this:

app.signing-key = "loud apology vital team rent champion better pluck cargo love knee tornado tomato man mammal lake sick possible ozone giggle suggest sail aunt multiply/2022-08-09T12:07:08Z"

A piece of config like this can be generated with the conveyor keys generate command (see Keys and certificates). It will normally be placed in your defaults.conf file, but can be placed anywhere or imported from the environment (see the HOCON extensions page for details). The randomly chosen words aren't used as a private key directly. Instead they're used to derive any other keys that aren't explicitly provided. The following keys can be derived from this root entropy (randomness) are:

1. Windows and Mac code signing keys.
2. PGP keys for signing Debian apt repositories.
3. An EdDSA key for signing Sparkle (Mac) update repositories.

app.mac.signing-key,app.windows.signing-key The private key to use for each platform. If they're set to derived (the default) then derivation from the root private key is used and these specific keys aren't stored on disk, otherwise the value should contain the path to a standard PEM or PKCS#12 key store file relative to the app config file.

app.mac.certificate, app.windows.certificate Should point to files containing the certificates. See Keys and certificates for information on supported formats. The paths are relative to the app config file and they default to {windows,apple}.cer respectively. Alternatively, these can be set like this: app.mac.certificate = "self signed by CN=Nobody in particular" (the default value is this but using your display name). In that case a self-signed certificate is deterministically derived from the root key.

Note

The words used to encode the signing key come from a predefined dictionary, so you can't choose your own sentences here. This encoding makes the key easier to write down with a pen and paper, which can be a low tech but reliable way to back it up.

Update modes

Conveyor supports three different approaches to software updates:

1. Background mode: the default.
2. Aggressive mode. Set app.updates = aggressive.
3. None. Set app.updates = none.

In aggressive mode an update check will be performed synchronously on each app start. If a new version is available then the update process will start and the update downloaded and applied, without any user interaction being required. In background mode the behaviour differs by OS:

• The OS itself will check for updates every 8 hours and upgrade the app in the background, even if it's not being used. Your users will never see an update prompt.
• The app will check for updates on startup without blocking the user, and on a schedule whilst the app runs. Once the user agrees, updates will be downloaded and applied in the background ready for the next launch.
• No difference, forced updates are not supported.

Which mode to use depends heavily on how often your users will start the app and how important it is for updates to be applied quickly. If your app is a client for a server that speaks a complex protocol and you don't want to preserve protocol backwards compatibility, aggressive mode is appropriate. If your app is self-contained or the protocols it speaks evolve in a compatible way, background mode gives a better user experience as the user won't be interrupted by the update process.

Silent upgrades on macOS

If you don't want your users to ever see an update prompt you can set app.mac.sparkle-options.SUAutomaticallyUpdate = true. However, if your users don't run your app for long enough for updates to download and apply then they may fall behind and be unaware of it. Use this mode with caution.

Aggressive updates

When updates are aggressive you can force an update by restarting your app:

Restarting on Windows Restarting on macOS Restarting on Linux

Updates are implemented by a program called updatecheck.exe. The start menu entry points at this program, which will do a check and then invoke your real EXE. You can run this and then shut down, or open your app URL in the same way as the start menu does by opening the URL shell:appsFolder\\$appUserModeID where the app user model ID can be obtained by running conveyor make app-user-model-id (please note that it depends on the signing certificate used so if you sign with test certificates, pay attention to that).

Run the open command with your .app directory, or use the Launch Services API pointed at your own app.

On Linux aggressive updates aren't supported. You can of course run apt-get update then apt-get install <your package name> if you're installed via a deb, or invoke the GNOME UI for it yourself.

Here are some strategies for knowing when to restart the app:

1. Poll the metadata.properties file Conveyor generates as part of the download site. See below for how to do this.
2. If your app relies on a server, incorporate the required version of the app into the protocol so you can reject clients that are too old. For example you can put the min required version in an HTTP header.
3. Simply set a maximum uptime for the app.
4. Wait until the computer has been idle with the app on-screen for long enough before restarting automatically.

Be aware of the following:

Updates are only checked on startup. Users can leave their app running for long periods, so the server might change whilst instances are running. Your protocol should ideally check on each request if the client is out of date and return an error if so that tells the user to restart the app (or does it for them). Note that this is actually no different to a web app because users can leave tabs open for long periods, so if you roll out a new web server version that renames an endpoint you might break users who are using the app at that time, necessitating either a way to detect that (hard) or simply telling users to reload tabs if they break.

Your app will start a bit slower. This is of course also no different to a web app, which will also check with a web server on every startup. If the update check takes longer than two seconds then a progress UI will appear.

Aggressive updates aren't implemented on Linux. It's unconventional for apps to control their own update process on this platform. If distributing to Linux you should check the metadata.properties file that's generated as part of your download/update site (conveyor make site) by looking at the app.version key, and then ask the user to update themselves if they've fallen behind in your UI.

Checking for new versions in JVM apps

When packaged the app.repositoryUrl system property will contain the site base URL, and app.version contains the content of the app.version key. Note: this does not include the revision, as that's meant only for changes to the package itself not the contained software, but app.revision is also set if you want to compare against that too. So to implement an update check on Linux add /metadata.properties to the value of that system property, download it over HTTPS, parse it with the java.util.Properties class, extract the app.version key from the parsed file and then compare it with the app.version system property. The ComparableVersion class from the Maven source code is an easy way to compare version numbers; it can be copy/pasted into your source tree. If the app is behind then hide the main screen and show a message to the user asking them to upgrade their package by using apt-get.

Checking for new versions in Electron apps

After fetching the metadata.properties file the dot-properties package can be used to parse it, or you can just do some simple string manipulation: split to lines, drop any line starting with #, split each line by =, convert to a map and (optionally, if you're adding custom keys) un-backslash-escape the values. Supporting the full specification isn't necessary for parsing this file. To learn what the current version use your package.json file include your site URL in that file and then in.

Checking for new versions in other apps

Although there is a precise specification for the .properties format, there's no need to fully implement it. The format can be treated as a simple set of key=value pairs in which lines starting with # are to be ignored, and the values should be un-backslash-escaped before use.

Character encodings

By default, your application will be configured to use UTF-8 universally on all platforms, regardless of what character encoding the user's host system is set to. On Windows the custom JVM launcher Conveyor uses will configure the terminal appropriately so Unicode works (when the encoding is set to UTF-8).

This behaviour can be controlled using several keys:

app.character-encoding By default "UTF-8". Acts as defaults for the other platform specific settings. Set to "host" to use whatever the operating system is configured to.

app.jvm.file-encoding Controls the -Dfile.encoding system property. See JEP 400: UTF-8 by default for more details about this and how it changes in Java 18.

app.windows.manifests.exe.code-page Sets the code page in the Win32 manifest. Any setting other than UTF-8 will only be used starting with Windows 11, and thus this setting exists primarily to handle the complex details of Windows' transition to UTF-8 by default.

app.windows.manifests.msix.code-page Sets the code page in the MSIX manifest. Any setting other than UTF-8 is equivalent to not setting it at all, preserving the default behaviour of using the operating system default encoding.

Warning

This default is designed to simplify the lives of people distributing new apps. If you're switching a pre-existing Windows app that has been deployed to user machines before using Conveyor, and you did not already force your app to use UTF-8, then your users may have files or file names encoded in non UTF-8 encodings. This may especially cause compatibility issues for Asian Windows users. If this is the case, then you should set the app.character-encoding key to host, which means the app will use whatever the user's operating system is set to. Be aware though that this will cause (or continue) other kinds of bugs if users exchange files or data that aren't encoded the same way.

Additional settings

There are many other settings available. Check out the sections on the left to learn more about what you can configure.