Plex-Update

A significantly modernized Python script for installing and updating Plex Media Server on Debian-based systems. This script automates the process of checking for the latest Plex versions, downloading them, verifying their integrity, and installing them, with support for different architectures and operational modes like dry-run and download-only.

Key Features

• Automated Update Check: Fetches the latest version information from the Plex API.
• Architecture Support: Handles updates for different architectures (e.g., amd64, armhf).
• Checksum Verification: Verifies the SHA1 checksum of downloaded files before installation to ensure integrity.
• Secure Installation: Uses subprocess for command execution and prompts for sudo confirmation if needed.
• Flexible Execution Modes:
  • --dry-run: See what would happen without making any changes.
  • --download-only: Download and verify the package but skip installation.
• Configuration Management: Stores details of the last update in an info.ini file to avoid reprocessing the same version.
• Logging: Provides informative output with different log levels (INFO, DEBUG) and a --verbose option.
• Error Handling: Robust error handling for network issues, file operations, and unexpected conditions.

Usage

The script is run from the command line as follows:

python3 plex-update.py <architecture> [options]

Arguments:

• <architecture>: (Required) The target architecture for the Plex update.
  • Choices: amd64, armhf

Options:

• -h, --help: Show the help message and exit.
• --version: Show the script's version number and exit.
• --dry-run: Check for updates and report what actions would be taken, but do not download or install anything. The configuration file will not be modified.
• --download-only: Download the update package if available and verify its checksum, but do not install it. The configuration file will be updated if the download is successful.
• -v, --verbose: Enable verbose logging, providing DEBUG level output.

Table of Contents

• Python dependencies
• Linux dependencies
• Running the script
  • manually
  • via cron

Python Dependencies

• Python Version: This script requires Python 3.7 or higher. (Python 3.6 might work, but 3.7+ is recommended due to features like Path.unlink(missing_ok=True) being available, although the script currently uses explicit checks for wider compatibility).
• External Libraries: The primary external dependency is the requests library, used for making HTTP requests.
• Installation: Dependencies are listed in requirements.txt and can be installed using pip:

  pip install -r requirements.txt

  The requirements.txt file contains:

  requests
  

Linux Dependencies

This script is designed for Debian-based Linux systems (e.g., Debian, Ubuntu, Raspberry Pi OS).

• gdebi: The gdebi-core package is required for installing the Plex .deb file and automatically handling its dependencies. You can install it using:

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install gdebi-core

• Sudo Privileges: The script uses gdebi for installation, which typically requires superuser privileges. If the script is not run as root, it will prompt you to confirm whether it should proceed by prepending sudo to the gdebi command.

Configuration File (info.ini)

The script uses a configuration file named info.ini located in the same directory as plex-update.py. This file is used to store the checksum, download URL, and version of the last successfully processed Plex Media Server package for each architecture.

The script will create or update this file automatically.

Structure:

The info.ini file follows a simple INI format:

[amd64]
checksum = <sha1_checksum_of_last_downloaded_deb_for_amd64>
url = <url_of_last_downloaded_deb_for_amd64>
version = <version_string_of_last_downloaded_deb_for_amd64>

[armhf]
checksum = <sha1_checksum_of_last_downloaded_deb_for_armhf>
url = <url_of_last_downloaded_deb_for_armhf>
version = <version_string_of_last_downloaded_deb_for_armhf>

• Each section (e.g., [amd64]) corresponds to an architecture.
• checksum: The SHA1 checksum of the last downloaded/verified .deb file.
• url: The URL from which the last .deb file was downloaded.
• version: The version string of that Plex Media Server release.

The [DEFAULT] section might have existed in older versions for the Plex JSON URL, but this URL is now a constant within the script. The script primarily manages the architecture-specific sections.

Running the Script

Ensure you have installed Python 3.7+ and the required dependencies (see "Python Dependencies" section). The script must be run from its directory or by providing the correct path to plex-update.py.

Basic Execution:

To check for an update and install it for a specific architecture:

python3 plex-update.py amd64

or

python3 plex-update.py armhf

Using Options:

• Dry Run (see what would happen):

  python3 plex-update.py amd64 --dry-run

• Download Only (download but don't install):

  python3 plex-update.py armhf --download-only

• Verbose Output (for debugging):

  python3 plex-update.py amd64 -v

  or

  python3 plex-update.py amd64 --verbose

Running Periodically (e.g., via Cron)

You can automate the update check by scheduling the script to run periodically using cron.

1. Open your crontab for editing:

   crontab -e

2. Add a line to schedule the script. For example, to run it daily at 3:00 AM for the amd64 architecture:

   0 3 * * * /usr/bin/python3 /path/to/your/plex-update.py amd64 > /tmp/plex-update.log 2>&1

   Important:

   • Replace /usr/bin/python3 with the actual path to your Python 3 interpreter if it's different (use which python3).
   • Replace /path/to/your/plex-update.py with the absolute path to the plex-update.py script.
   • It's recommended to redirect output to a log file (> /tmp/plex-update.log 2>&1) to capture any messages or errors.
   • Consider using the --verbose flag if you want detailed logs, or ensure your script's default logging level is appropriate for cron execution.