Update your nightly build the smart way

I will first show how to update your nightly builds in a different way. Then I will write a small analysis on why I think this way is better than updating manually by downloading the nightly build everytime.

These are the steps to get this version of makehuman and use the update script for the first time:

1. Install a command-line SVN client :
• For windows users: SlikSVN


• For linux users, use your package manager to install:
  
  1. subversion
  2. libglew1.5
  3. p7zip (this is just for the compression format I use)
  
  
• Unfortunately this is not supported for Mac users!


2. Copy this compressed makehuman version and extract in a desired location
3. Click on the update script:
   
   • For windows users: click on update.bat
   • For linux users with 64bit system: click on update-linux64.sh 
   • For linux users with 32bit system: click on update-linux32.sh 
     
   
   

Now, anytime you believe there is a change in the development, just click on the respective update script again and you will have the latest nightly build (makehuman should not be running when you do this)! This updating method will take you at most 5seconds!

Now I will list the pros and cons of this sort of updating makehuman

Pros:

• If there was a new feature developed in makehuman at this very moment, you will see this feature tomorrow if you use the usual nightly build downloads. But with this method you can update anytime to the current build!
• You will need minimal bandwidth, most update need in average 200-1000kb of data exchange. Thus, if you live or work in a place with slow bandwidth you will have the latest makehuman without downloading a full 50Mb of zipped nightly build everytime you want the latest makehuman build. 
• You will also need less time to have your updates (a second?). And you dont need a new install.
• You will do us and tuxfamily (our server that provides the makehuman download) a favor, by reducing the traffic there.
• You will have a portable updatable version of makehuman (bring it in a usb stick .. wherever you are, its an updated version!.. if you want a new update just stick your usb stick in a pc where subversion is installed and click on the update script).

Cons:

• There will be an extra hidden folder called .svn sitting in every subfolder and root directory of makehuman (this was not the case if you used a nightly build download). But this is not really a big deal, is it?
• You needed an extra installation (SVN command client), whereas in the nightly build download you didnt need that.
• You will have an unstable build (unless the build was done during a makehuman stable release date). But this is also the case if you used a nightly build. In exchange, you do have the most recent features and bugfixes.