Updating Red

Updating to the latest version of Red has several benefits:

  • New features and improvements are added.

  • Bugs are fixed.

  • Your bot is safe from security vulnerabilities that have been found.

Here are some things to consider to help make your upgrade as smooth as possible.

Note

If you’re developing for Red, you should also look for “Breaking changes” sections in release notes for each minor (X.Y.0) version that’s been released since you last updated Red. To make the migration process easier, we also provide an extensive Backward incompatible changes document explaining the breaking changes we’ve made in more detail.

Important

Make sure to read the Read before updating sections of the changelogs for all releases that were published since you last updated your instance. They contain important information and if you don’t read them, you might run into some issues later.

Updating differs depending on the version you currently have. Next sections will explain how to upgrade to latest version of Red (3.5.19.dev1+g6f5f34c) from the version that is in the header of the section.

Red 3.5.0 or newer

Windows

If you have Red 3.5.0 or newer, you can upgrade by following these steps:

  1. Shut your bot down.

  2. Activate your venv with the following command:

    "%userprofile%\redenv\Scripts\activate.bat"

  3. Update Red with this command:

    python -m pip install -U Red-DiscordBot

    Attention

    If you’re using PostgreSQL data backend, replace Red-DiscordBot in the second command with Red-DiscordBot[postgres]

  4. Start your bot.

  5. If you have any 3rd-party cogs installed, we highly recommend you update them with this command in Discord: [p]cog update ([p] is considered as your prefix)

Linux & Mac

If you have Red 3.5.0 or newer, you can upgrade by following these steps:

  1. Shut your bot down.

  2. Activate your virtual environment.

    If you used venv for your virtual environment, use:

    source ~/redenv/bin/activate

  3. Update Red with this command:

    python -m pip install -U Red-DiscordBot

    Attention

    If you’re using PostgreSQL data backend, replace Red-DiscordBot in the second command with Red-DiscordBot[postgres]

  4. Start your bot.

  5. If you have any 3rd-party cogs installed, we highly recommend you update them with this command in Discord: [p]cog update ([p] is considered as your prefix)

Red 3.2.0-3.4.19

Windows

If you have a Red version between 3.2.0 and 3.4.19, you can upgrade by following these steps:

  1. Shut your bot down.

  2. Activate your venv with the following command:

    "%userprofile%\redenv\Scripts\activate.bat"

  3. Update Red with this command:

    python -m pip install -U Red-DiscordBot

    Attention

    If you’re using PostgreSQL data backend, replace Red-DiscordBot in the second command with Red-DiscordBot[postgres]

  4. If you’re using any 3rd-party cogs:

    1. Start your bot with --no-cogs --load-cogs downloader flags, for example:

      :prompts: (redenv) C:\\>

redbot <your instance name> --no-cogs --load-cogs downloader

    2. Wait for the bot to start.

    3. Run the [p]cog update command on Discord.

    4. Wait for the bot to stop typing and send a response. This step may take a while.

    5. Shutdown the bot with the [p]shutdown command.

  5. Start your bot as you normally do.

Linux & Mac

If you have a Red version between 3.2.0 and 3.4.19, you can upgrade by following these steps:

  1. Shut your bot down.

  2. Activate your virtual environment.

    If you used venv for your virtual environment, use:

    source ~/redenv/bin/activate

  3. Update Red with this command:

    python -m pip install -U Red-DiscordBot

    Attention

    If you’re using PostgreSQL data backend, replace Red-DiscordBot in the second command with Red-DiscordBot[postgres]

  4. If you’re using any 3rd-party cogs:

    1. Start your bot with --no-cogs --load-cogs downloader flags, for example:

      redbot <your instance name> --no-cogs --load-cogs downloader

    2. Wait for the bot to start.

    3. Run the [p]cog update command on Discord.

    4. Wait for the bot to stop typing and send a response. This step may take a while.

    5. Shutdown the bot with the [p]shutdown command.

  5. Start your bot as you normally do.

Red 3.1.X

If you have Red 3.1.X, you will need to follow the install instructions for your operating system. Make sure that you turn your bot off first.

Go to the Installing Red guide and follow every step to ensure you have all dependencies up-to-date and only skip the redbot-setup step as you already have a bot instance.

If you already have Red installed in a virtual environment, you will need to delete it before starting this process.

Attention

Red 3.2 dropped support for the MongoDB driver

  • If you were not using the MongoDB driver, this does not affect you.

  • If you were using a 3rd party cog which required MongoDB, it probably still does.

  • If you were using the MongoDB driver, prior to launching your instance after update, you will need to run the following commands to convert:

    python -m pip install dnspython~=1.16.0 motor~=2.0.0 pymongo~=3.8.0
redbot-setup convert [instancename] json

Red 3.0.2 and older

Important

Red 3.2 dropped support for the MongoDB driver

  • If you were not using the MongoDB driver, this does not affect you.

  • If you were using a 3rd party cog which required MongoDB, it probably still does.

  • If you were using the MongoDB driver, prior to updating, you will need to convert your data to JSON backend, using following command:

    redbot-setup --edit

If you have Red 3.0.2 or older, you will need to follow the install instructions for your operating system. Make sure that you turn your bot off first.

Go to the Installing Red guide and follow every step to ensure you have all dependencies up-to-date and only skip the redbot-setup step as you already have a bot instance.

If you already have Red installed in a virtual environment, you will need to delete it before starting this process.