Plugin updates and staged releases

How a version reaches you

WordPress checks for plugin updates about twice a day. WPGlotty answers that check itself rather than going to the plugin directory, because it is not in the directory.

When there is a newer version you get the usual update row on the plugins screen, with a changelog behind "View details" and an Update now button. Nothing else is different from any other plugin.

Verified before it is unpacked

The download is checked against a SHA-256 checksum published with the release. If the file that arrived is not the file that was published, the update stops and says so, rather than unpacking something unknown over a working installation.

Updates need an active licence

A site with no active licence for its domain is told there is nothing new. It keeps translating with the version it has; it just stops receiving new ones.

It is the gentlest form of enforcement there is, and the reason the licence gate can stay as narrow as it is elsewhere.

Staged releases

A new version does not go to everybody at once. It is offered to a share of installations first, and that share is stable per site: a site that has been offered an update does not see it disappear.

If something is wrong with a release it is withdrawn, and it stops being downloadable immediately, including for sites that were already told about it.