How to automatically update Atom editor?

Automatic update of Atom feature is not yet supported for Ubuntu. From their GitHub repository:

Currently only a 64-bit version is available.

Download atom-amd64.deb from the Atom releases page. Run sudo dpkg --install atom-amd64.deb on the downloaded package. Launch Atom using the installed atom command. The Linux version does not currently automatically update so you will need to repeat these steps to upgrade to future releases.

I tried using Webupd8 PPA but it doesn't work for me.

TL;DR If you do not want to use the PPA, you can use a script to download and automatically install via cron.

Create a new file atom-auto-update

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/atom-auto-update

Add the following lines

#!/bin/bash
wget -q https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/latest -O /tmp/latest
wget -q $(awk -F '[<>]' '/href=".*atom-amd64.deb/ {match($0,"href=\"(.*.deb)\"",a); print "https://github.com/" a[1]} ' /tmp/latest) -O /tmp/atom-amd64.deb
dpkg -i /tmp/atom-amd64.deb

Save the file and make it executable

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/atom-auto-update

Test the script
```
sudo atom-auto-update
```
Create a cronjob for the script
```
sudo crontab -e
```

Add this line

e.g.: at 10 am every week

0 10 * * 1 /usr/local/bin/atom-auto-update

e.g.: at 10 am every day

0 10 * * * /usr/local/bin/atom-auto-update

Explanation

wget -q https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/latest -O /tmp/latest

Download the site with the latest version information
wget -q $(awk -F '[<>]' '/href=".*atom-amd64.deb/ {match($0,"href=\"(.*.deb)\"",a); print "https://github.com/" a[1]} ' /tmp/latest) -O /tmp/atom-amd64.deb
1. … awk -F '[<>]' '/href=".*atom-amd64.deb/ {match($0,"href=\"(.*.deb)\"",a); print "https://github.com/" a[1]} ' /tmp/latest …
  
  Extract the download link
2. wget -q $( … ) -O /tmp/atom-amd64.deb
  
  Download the DEB file
dpkg -i /tmp/atom-amd64.deb

Install the DEB file

A.B's Answer is a nice solution! I added show progress bar option in the bash code to notify progress:

#!/bin/bash
wget -q https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/latest -O /tmp/latest
wget --progress=bar -q 'https://github.com'$(cat /tmp/latest | grep -o -E 'href="([^"#]+)atom-amd64.deb"' | cut -d'"' -f2 | sort | uniq) -O /tmp/atom-amd64.deb -q --show-progress
dpkg -i /tmp/atom-amd64.deb

As the previous answer with minor modification, to let updating on start-up, here is the procedure

Create file by running the command:
```
sudo nano /usr/local/bin/atom-update  
```

then type the below script (use text-editor like "gedit" or "mousepad" instead of "nano" is more convenient) and then save it.

#!/bin/bash    
wget -q https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/latest -O /tmp/latest
MATCHEDROW=$(awk -F '[<>]' '/href=".*atom-amd64.deb/' /tmp/latest)
LATEST=$(echo $MATCHEDROW | grep -o -P '(?<=href=").*(?=" rel)')
VER_LATEST=$(echo $MATCHEDROW | rev | cut -d"/" -f 2 | rev | sed 's/v//g')
VER_INST=$(dpkg -l atom | tail -n1 | tr -s ' ' | cut -d" " -f 3)

if [ "$VER_LATEST" != "$VER_INST" ]; then
   wget --progress=bar -q "https://github.com/$LATEST" -O /tmp/atom-amd64.deb --show-progress
   dpkg -i /tmp/atom-amd64.deb
   echo "Atom has been update from $VER_LATEST to $VER_INST"
   logger -t atom-update "Atom has been update from $VER_INST to $VER_LATEST"
else
   echo "Atom version $VER_INST is the latest version, no update require"
   logger -t atom-update "Atom version $VER_INST is the latest version, no update require"
fi

To make the file executable:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/atom-update

Now you could manually update Atom by typing the command:
```
sudo atom-update
```
Login to your root, and then add the below row to /etc/rc.local (sudo nano /etc/rc.local) just before exit 0 command:
```
/usr/local/bin/atom-update  
```

This will let the atom update script execute every time you turn on your PC.

To check that the script has run properly on start up, restart your PC and open the terminal then type:
```
cat /var/log/syslog | grep 'atom.*'  
```

You will see the log message accordingly.

Building on A.B's answer, I've added version checking to avoid unnecessary download/install:

#!/bin/bash

TMP_DIR=$(mktemp -d)

TMP_LATEST="${TMP_DIR}/latest"
TMP_FILE="${TMP_DIR}/atom-amd64.deb"

wget -q https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/latest -O ${TMP_LATEST}
LATEST=$(awk -F '[<>]' '/href=".*atom-amd64.deb/ {match($0,"href=\"(.*.deb)\"",a); print "https://github.com/" a[1]} ' ${TMP_LATEST})
VER_LATEST=$(echo $LATEST | rev | cut -d"/" -f 2 | rev | sed 's/v//g')

VER_INST=$(dpkg -l atom | tail -n1 | tr -s ' ' | cut -d" " -f 3)

if [ "$VER_LATEST" != "$VER_INST" ]; then
  wget -q $LATEST -O $TMP_FILE
  VER_DOWN=$(dpkg-deb -f $TMP_FILE Version)
  if [ "$VER_DOWN" != "$VER_INST" ]; then
    dpkg -i $TMP_FILE
  fi
fi

rm -rf "${TMP_DIR}"

Edit: I should clarify that this would replace the content of the /usr/local/bin/atom-auto-update script which A.B's answer mentions. The other steps of the answer are the same.

How to automatically update Atom editor?

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