Man page - update-torbrowser(1)

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Manual

UPDATE-TORBROWSER(1) tb-updater Manual UPDATE-TORBROWSER(1)

update-torbrowser - Tor Browser Updater by Whonix developers

update-torbrowser [option(s)]

Lets you safely download the Tor Browser Bundle (TBB) from The Tor Project's (TPO) website. It enforces TLS encryption (https) for TPO's website, downloads TBB from the TPO's website, and uses OpenPGP verification.

Default action when no options are given is to perform an update check and ask how you want to proceed.

•
--alpha
Download alpha version instead.
•
--onion
Download from Tor Project's onion rather than clearnet domain.
•
--ordinary
Uses curl's ordinary progress bar. Only affects progress reporting.
When using this option, the GUI progress bar will be stuck but downloading will still work. Note, when using this option, it wouldn't notice if the download server were to run an endless data attack, for example the server claiming to provide a 500000 GB big file.
(It does not use /usr/libexec/helper-scripts/curl-prgrss CURL_PRGRS_MAX_FILE_SIZE_BYTES.)
However, it can be compensated by either manually terminating update-torbrowser or by using the timeout utility as in the example below.
•
--only-if-newer
Do not download the Tor Browser when it is already up-to-date.
•
--noask
Do not ask any questions. Proceed without user interaction. Also sets input method to --input none.
•
--noaskstart
Do not ask if Tor Browser should be started after update was completed.
•
--nokilltb
Advanced users only. Do not kill all eventually still running instances of Tor Browser. Useful in case you want to update ~/.tb/tor-browser, while still using ~/tor-browser_something_else.
•
--no-tor-con-check
Skip Tor bootstrap connectivity check. (Only relevant in anonymity distributions.)
•
--input input
What to use as input method.
--input stdin or --input gui or --input none
When run in command line, by default, standard input (--input stdin) will be used. When using (--input gui), questions will be asked in the graphical user environment. When using (--input none), no questions will be asked.
•
--resume
Resume previous download.
•
--reset
Advanced users only. Hard reset. Do not re-download Tor Browser but only overwrite (delete and re-install) Tor Browser. This feature is not designed to fix Tor Browser issues. When running this program normally without --reset it does download and overwrite Tor Browser. There is no additional benefit from using --reset.

As in October 2012:

  • ar
  • de
  • en-US
  • es-ES
  • fa
  • fr
  • it
  • ko
  • nl
  • pl
  • pt-PT
  • ru
  • vi
  • zh-CN

To check if further languages are supported visit:

https://www.torproject.org/dist/torbrowser/linux/

/etc/torbrowser.d/30_default.conf

tbb_version_stripped=version.number update-torbrowser

See also EXAMPLES below.

0 Success.

1 Internal Error.

2 Aborted because running under an unsuitable user account.

3 Cancel button pressed.

4 Unknown command line option.

5 Tor not enabled yet. (Only when using Tor connection check.)

6 Tor not fully bootstrapped yet. (Only when using Tor connection check.)

7 Connectivity test failed.

8 Downloading version file failed.

9 Could not find out latest Tor Browser version.

10 User aborted update confirmation.

12 OpenPGP verification error.

14 User aborted installation confirmation.

15 Extraction failed.

16 --reset used but required archive file not yet downloaded.

17 Download failed.

18 No network access.

130 Signal sigint received.

143 Signal sigterm received.

update-torbrowser

update-torbrowser --input="gui"

timeout 600 update-torbrowser --ordinary

tbb_version_stripped=10.5 update-torbrowser

tbb_version_stripped=11.1a2 update-torbrowser

This script may break when the file name or RecommendedTBBVersions format changes or when upstream makes other changes to the start process or proxy settings detection method.

In this case, Whonix developers will try to provide a fix as fast as possible. Please check Whonix News Blogs, Whonix Forum for a fix or workaround.

In the meanwhile you can also try the instructions for manually updating Tor Browser in Whonix: https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Tor_Browser/Manual_Download

This script is currently only tested in Whonix. It could be easily made to work in Tails or on any Linux.

https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Tor_Browser

This man page has been written by Patrick Schleizer (adrelanos@whonix.org).

January 2020 tb-updater