Upgrading Services

Updating software manually

Updating system services helps bringing in new features and fixing potential security issues. Updates for services managed by DirectAdmin CustomBuild sub-system is available in the GUI on (admin level CustomBuild > Updates):

It is possible to update software components one by one or all components with a single request.

Same information is available via CLI with command:

da build versions

Updating all software components from CLI:

da build update_versions

Reinstalling all software components

There is special CustomBuild command that would reinstall all configured software components (including up to date software):

Another commonly used command is to build all managed software. It is not recommended for regular use as it recompiles absolutely all software in use:

da build all

It is used for initial DirectAdmin installation, but can also be useful for repairing system and making sure all components are in sync.

Updating software automatically

You can also set CustomBuild to regularly check for updates, and email you if there are any.

cd /usr/local/directadmin/custombuild
./build set cron yes
./build set cron_frequency weekly
./build set email your@email.com
./build set notifications  yes
./build set clean_old_webapps yes
./build cron

Or even to autoupdate managed services by CustomBuild. Just keep in mind that the server admin is still required to be fully aware of the system and its state if he sets the system to be auto-updated:

./build set updates yes
./build cron

Update OS packages and managed by DA

CustomBuild version 2369 includes** update_versions_full**, update_full and update_versions full calls, they all do the same:

1. Update OS packages

2. Update CustomBuild and CustomBuild packages

Everything with just a single call like:

da build update_full

Override single package version

If you need to keep an older version of one item managed by CustomBuild (for whatever reason), a file called custom_versions.txt can do just that. It has the ability to override versions.txt entries with any item that is in the custom_versions.txt. That way, the versions.txt can be updated and custom_versions.txt will hold the override.

In this example, we'll use: (taken from versions.txt)

Let's say the active version of curl is 7.66.0, but we want to downgrade to To do it, run the following:

cd /usr/local/directadmin/custombuild
echo "curl:7.38.0:" >> custom_versions.txt
./build "curl"

Note that the ./build curl command might differ from versions.txt entry, so adjust it as needed, but that's the general idea.