# Upgrade node red within the flow editor

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/upgrade-node-red-within-the-flow-editor/12028>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [10 June 2019 08:42 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/upgrade-node-red-within-the-flow-editor/12028 "2019-06-10T08:42:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mako](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@mako](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/mako)\
**Post date:** [10 June 2019 08:42 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/upgrade-node-red-within-the-flow-editor/12028/1 "2019-06-10T08:42:17Z")

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Hello.

Would there ever be a feature were you can upgrade the version of node red in the pallet manager?  
Currently is it possible to do it using a flow, say the Exce node to run the RPI bash script ?

🙂

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**Author:** ![knolleary](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/knolleary/32/3_2.png) [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)\
**Post date:** [10 June 2019 08:51 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/upgrade-node-red-within-the-flow-editor/12028/2 "2019-06-10T08:51:36Z")

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There aren't any current plans for this.

There are lots of ways Node-RED could be installed, including being embedded into another application.  
It can't make any assumptions about how it should upgrade itself, so we couldn't provide a such an update button. Its the same reason why we can't automatically restart Node-RED when you upgrade a node module from the palette manager.

There is a possible future were we provide our own installer for Node-RED (for the non-embedded cases) - that would open up some more options. But it isn't anywhere in the short-term roadmap.

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**Author:** ![mako](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@mako](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/mako)\
**Post date:** [10 June 2019 08:55 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/upgrade-node-red-within-the-flow-editor/12028/3 "2019-06-10T08:55:42Z")

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Good Morning Nick.  
I haven't tried yet, but would it be possible for the Exec node to run the bash script and upgrade the instance . followed with a system reboot ?

Thanks mate

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**Author:** ![knolleary](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/knolleary/32/3_2.png) [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)\
**Post date:** [10 June 2019 09:17 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/upgrade-node-red-within-the-flow-editor/12028/4 "2019-06-10T09:17:12Z")

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> [@mako](#):
>
> would it be possible for the Exec node to run the bash script and upgrade the instance . followed with a system reboot ?

No - one of the first things the upgrade script does is to stop node-red if its running. By doing that it will kill the exec node and stop the script. So you'll be left without either the upgrade script or Node-RED running.

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**Author:** ![Robbo](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/robbo/32/4491_2.png) [@Robbo](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Robbo)\
**Post date:** [10 June 2019 10:41 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/upgrade-node-red-within-the-flow-editor/12028/5 "2019-06-10T10:41:02Z")

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What if you run another bash session via nohup and in the background via the exec to do all the upgrading,etc?

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**Author:** ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)\
**Post date:** [10 June 2019 21:38 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/upgrade-node-red-within-the-flow-editor/12028/6 "2019-06-10T21:38:18Z")

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Feel free to experiment and report back. Just backup anything vital first 🙂

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**Author:** ![mako](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@mako](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/mako)\
**Post date:** [11 June 2019 10:10 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/upgrade-node-red-within-the-flow-editor/12028/7 "2019-06-11T10:10:56Z")

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We will have a look into it, It shouldn't be to hard to add this using a python script executed from a custom button on the side bar.  
Ill let you know the progress.  
🙂

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**Author:** ![TotallyInformation](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/totallyinformation/32/31_2.png) [@TotallyInformation](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/TotallyInformation)\
**Post date:** [11 June 2019 16:14 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/upgrade-node-red-within-the-flow-editor/12028/8 "2019-06-11T16:14:19Z")

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Bear in mind that you cannot guarantee that all devices will have Python accessible from Node-RED.

Personally, I just call `systemctl` on my Pi's to restart node-red. I have a 2nd flow marked with a big warning box that reboots the Pi - I can do that because I let the Pi user issue SUDO commands without a password prompt - not something to do if you expose your Pi to the Internet. My Pi's don't have secure configurations 😉 instead, access to them is tightly controlled. One day, I'll implement some best practice security maybe. In the meantime, they will never be directly accessible from the Internet.

That doesn't help for Windows of course where the configuration and runtime environment is different. Though I could create a dummy script with the same name if I wanted to. Typically though, I run Node-RED manually on Windows because it is a development environment.