Keeping the CLI up to date

Nexa updates itself. nexa update fetches the newest published release for your platform, verifies it, and switches to it — leaving the version you were running installed alongside, in case you want it back.

Check for an update

Asks whether a newer release exists and changes nothing. Safe to run at any time, including in a script.

Command

$ nexa update --check

Add --format json for machine-readable output, as with every other Nexa command that produces structured results.

Update

Command

$ nexa update

If you are already on the newest release, it says so and exits successfully — being up to date is not an error. Confirm which version you ended up on:

Command

$ nexa --version

Install a specific version

Useful for reproducing a colleague's environment, or for stepping back from a release that misbehaves.

Command

$ nexa update --version <version>

This is the one form that will move you backwards. An ordinary nexa update never downgrades you by surprise.

Roll back

Returns to the version that was active before the last update.

Command

$ nexa update --rollback

Rollback is a local operation: the previous version is still installed, so nothing is downloaded. Nexa keeps a small number of recent versions and removes older ones, never the one you are running or the one you would roll back to.

What an update does not touch

An update replaces one file: the nexa binary. It does not touch your repositories, your recorded versions, your Development Roots, your configuration, or the credential nexa login stored on this machine. None of those live inside the binary, and an update has no reason to read them.

When it cannot update

It will never ask for your password

If nexa was installed somewhere you cannot write — under /usr/local/bin by an administrator, or by a package manager — nexa update reports where the binary lives and stops. It does not escalate privileges, and it does not modify a copy somebody else owns. Update it the way it was installed, or install a copy under your home directory and let that one update itself.

You are offline. Nexa needs to reach the release server to find out what exists and to fetch it. With no network it reports that it could not check and exits without changing anything. The version you have keeps working.

The download does not verify. Every release is described by a signed manifest, and every artifact is checked against the checksum in it before anything is installed. If the signature does not verify, or the bytes do not match, the update stops and the version you are running stays active. There is no half-installed state: the switch to a new version is a single atomic step that either happens or does not.

Which releases it offers. There is one release channel during the closed beta. nexa update moves you to the newest published release for your platform — the same build the downloads page lists.