warpdotdev
Allow updates using administrator credentials from non administrator accounts
Discord username (optional)
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Describe the solution you'd like?
On the mac, update button appears regardless of account privileges, clicking it either directly installs the update (if administrator) or requests elevated privileges (a username and password modal is presented and after success, update installs.
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Every time there is update, I have to download and overwrite, then relaunch the terminal, or else log out, log in as administrador, and then do the update from warp with no issues. Apps can apply these types of changes by requesting administrator access in an update (which I guess must be a separate process and this is why you are not doing it yet). This is really the standard in the mac environment, and warp should do it.
Additional context
No response
How important is this feature to you?
2
Warp Internal (ignore) - linear-label:770f6576-d6c0-4e4f-a259-fc64b5156087
None
Thanks for this feature request @robbiemu. I think this may be difficult to implement given some users don't get admin rights (especially on work machines). Please see our docs for any further issues with updating Warp without admin rights. https://docs.warp.dev/help/updating-warp#auto-update-issues
To anyone else interested in this feature, please add a :+1: to the original post at the top to signal that you want this feature, and subscribe if you'd like to be notified.
@dannyneira I really do not understand your reply to @robbiemu because he requested the other way round. It is not possible to install or update Warp by non-administators anyway.
We are talking about the absolutely normal way to authorize an application update by the admin-id and admin-password if the Warp user is an ordinary non-admin on a Mac. Every single application on a Mac I can install or update when logged in as a non-admin (= standard user account) by typing admin-id and admin-password.
It is a standard mode of authorization how every single Mac application asks for the authorization when updating any application – except Warp. Screenshot attached for a Brave browser update – in German.
It is hard to understand as Mac user that this auth-prompt is not shown for updating warp but I rather have to download Warp app image for every single Warp update.
Understood @Macaldente, it's something we'd need to implement in Warp. It could be improved, but the manual updates are the only workaround, so we appreciate your patience.
You are asking for patience since 2021?
Note (Nov 2021): We will work on a fix for this in the future so that multiple profiles can use Warp.
@ToontjeM yes, since 2021 this hasn't been resolved. I'll bring it up with the team as a blocker for many, but there are to be transparent there is no set eta on resolution. As a possible workaround, please checkout the script on this comment.
To anyone else facing this issue, please add a 👍 to the original post at the top or comment with your details, and subscribe if you'd like to be notified.
Given my own thread about this (https://github.com/warpdotdev/Warp/issues/3021) was closed as a duplicate, let me repost this here:
For some convenience I created the following update_Warp.command script to download and install Warp:
#!/bin/sh
DISK_IMAGE=~/Downloads/Warp_latest.dmg
INSTALLED_APP=~/Apps/Utility/Warp.app
rm -f $DISK_IMAGE
curl "https://app.warp.dev/download?package=dmg" --location --output $DISK_IMAGE && \
hdiutil attach $DISK_IMAGE && \
killall stable
rm -Rf $INSTALLED_APP && \
cp -R /Volumes/Warp/Warp.app $INSTALLED_APP && \
hdiutil eject /Volumes/Warp && \
rm -f $DISK_IMAGE && \
open $INSTALLED_APP
exit 0
If you are wondering, stable is the name of the Warp binary.
Files ending in .command should automatically run in Terminal when opened.
So whenever Warp notifies me about an update, I run this script.
(Migrating a comment from an issue that was just marked closed as duplicate)
Warp is amazing, but there's friction every week:
- get a notification
- download Warp from the internet
- manually quit the app
- navigate to the downloads folder
- open the dmg
- drag the icon into the Applications folder
- tell Mac OS "yes I want to replace it"
- reopen Warp
- tell MacOS "yes I'm sure I want to open an app that I downloaded from the internet"
Creating a parent admin account and then working in a user account is a good security practice. I would imagine that since your primary user audience is sophisticated, terminal-using devs, that a higher percent of them than average would be set up with such an admin / user split approach.
I don't have any trouble updating any other dev software on Mac, which makes this issue stand out even more to me.
I'm also experiencing issues with the update process on MacOS. On my work computer a have a standard user account. The company uses BeyondTrust to elevate privileges when necessary. The update process works for many different apps and I get a prompt from BeyondTrust to elevate to admin privileges during the update process. This does not work with Warp. Warp needs to elevate to admin permissions during updates in a standard way that every other app I use manages to do.
Same here. I’m on a non-admin account (company policy), and Warp doesn’t let me elevate via admin credentials when I click the “Upgrade” button. Other apps allow this, but Warp just fails. I stopped using Warp because of this and hope it will be fixed eventually.
I'm shocked this isn't fixed yet. It's not an issue on ANY other application that I know of. While trying out the script someone posted here, I launched iTerm... and it notified me of the update, asked for my credentials, and updated. Easy Peasy. More and more, I seem to be moving back to iTerm for this frankly stupid reason.
I'm a bit surprised that updating doesn't work for you guys yet. I used to have the same issue (https://github.com/warpdotdev/Warp/issues/3021), but updating Warp with the built-in mechanism has been working for me for a while now (months).
My user is still a Standard user, not an Admin. However, my user had been manually added to the sudoers list for years, so it can still use sudo, without being part of the admin group (one could argue it's no longer Standard at this point, but the macOS Users preference still shows it as Standard).
Despite this, upgrading Warp didn't use to work for years, but it has been working for months now. I wonder if Warp changed the update mechanism such that being able to use sudo is enough?
@shrugalic for using sudo I have to use su admin_user first.
It does not work for warp updates.
Regards.
If anyone wants to try enabling sudo without being in the admin group, this is how:
- Edit the sudoers by calling
sudo visudo. This opens the file in a specialviwith some safeguards. - Scroll down to the "User specification", and add your user to the list where the
rootuser andadmingroup are (I usually duplicate the root line, and change the copy's name to my own):
# root and users in group wheel can run anything on any machine as any user
root ALL = (ALL) ALL
youruser ALL = (ALL) ALL
%admin ALL = (ALL) ALL
With this config, updating Warp works for me. However, security-wise it's almost like being in the admin group, so think about if you want that.
The sudoers list with ALL access is equivalent to being an admin. What's the minimum we would need to allow warp to update itself?
Soooo... I'm not sure when this happened, but the issue seems to be fixed now! I just updated Warp with a single button press!!!
Soooo... I'm not sure when this happened, but the issue seems to be fixed now! I just updated Warp with a single button press!!!
This comment got me hopeful, but I just went through the normal manual download flow over here this morning, so if there's been some sort of fix, it doesn't seem universal.
@dannyneira What is the threshold of thumbs up required to make development actually care about fixing this?
There is no hardset threshold. But we regularly review the top ones and pick and choose based on a variety of factors like engineering lift required to implement, current priorities in the company, how big of an impact will the feature make across out userbase (the +1s is a proxy for this one), etc.
@dannyneira You choose not to care. I choose not to use Warp. You win — everyone else loses.
@dpolivaev even though this issue is by far my most aggravating friction point with Warp and it dampens any enthusiasm I'd have recommending Warp to other Mac devs, I feel like this reply is a bit much. They have their own goals and competing priorities, and they made their call. It's a free product -- saying one is not going to use it is fine, but there's no need to be dramatic.
I just spent about 5 hours of focused “vibe coding” with Cursor and built a starter app that resolves this issue. It checks the Warp version, performs the update if needed (showing the admin dialog), and then starts Warp. Compiled, released, and even notarized.
You can find it here: 👉 https://github.com/dpolivaev/warp-starter
Hope it helps others update Warp more easily.
Nice, it's good to have options.
My script presumably still works as well (but updating Warp works for me, so I don't use it any more).
Hey all !
My org - this is a similar experience with all the engineers I know that use it.
Any ETA or progress on this ?
