prolog-notebook 0.4.1 → 0.4.3

package/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,5 +1,45 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## [0.4.3] — 2026-08-30
+
+### Added
+
+- **It offers to update itself, and then carries on** — one command, no re-run:
+
+      $ prolog-notebook run ch04.prolog.md
+      You have Prolog Notebook 0.4.2. The latest is 0.4.3.
+      Update and continue on the new version? [Y/n] y
+      Updating with npm i -g prolog-notebook@0.4.3
+      You now have Prolog Notebook 0.4.3.
+      Continuing on the new version.
+        ✓ p-family
+        ✓ q-is-son — 6 solutions
+
+  The offer comes **before** the work, because that is the only point at which the answer can
+  change anything. It costs a network round trip once a day rather than once a run, since the
+  answer is cached. Continuing is a child process on the same path — npm replaces the contents
+  of the package directory, so the command the reader typed now holds the new version — with
+  stdio inherited, the exit code proxied, and an environment marker that stops the new process
+  checking again.
+
+- **`prolog-notebook upgrade`**, for when you already know. It replaces this copy only where
+  it can prove how it was installed: a global `npm i -g` it will do, a dependency of somebody's
+  project it will not touch, and a source checkout is git's business. It installs the exact
+  version you were told about rather than `@latest`, which can move in between.
+
+  Both only where there is somebody to ask — stdin and stderr must be terminals. In a pipe, a
+  script or CI the notice comes after the work, with the command to type.
+
+## [0.4.2] — 2026-08-30
+
+### Fixed
+
+- **The update check asked the registry for a media type it is entitled to refuse**, so on some
+  of npm's edges every check answered `Could not reach the npm registry to check for updates.`
+  `application/vnd.npm.install-v1+json` is defined for the packument; `/{name}/latest` may
+  answer 406 to it, and does. Measured both ways from one machine minutes apart, which is what
+  made it look transient. It now asks for plain JSON, which that endpoint has always served.
+
 ## [0.4.1] — 2026-08-30
 
 ### Changed

package/README.md

@@ -93,6 +93,10 @@ chapter changes nothing.
 | `--version` | the tool's version, **the SWI-Prolog version it will run your chapters with**, and the copyright |
 | `--check-update` | ask npm whether a newer one exists, and say so either way |
 
+```sh
+prolog-notebook upgrade      # fetch the latest
+```
+
 Two things it will not do. A query stopped at the limit is written **without** a terminator,
 which is the format's way of saying the search was never exhausted — `false.` there would be a
 forgery. And if a program cell fails to load, nothing is written at all: every answer below it
@@ -105,6 +109,29 @@ reach is reported once a day rather than on every command — silence there woul
 indistinguishable from *you are up to date*. Ask outright with `--check-update` and it answers
 either way.
 
+When it finds something newer **and you are at a terminal**, it offers to fetch it *before*
+doing the work — and if you say yes it upgrades, then runs your command on the new version.
+One command, no re-run:
+
+```
+$ prolog-notebook run ch04.prolog.md
+You have Prolog Notebook 0.4.0. The latest is 0.4.2.
+Update and continue on the new version? [Y/n] y
+Updating with npm i -g prolog-notebook@0.4.2
+You now have Prolog Notebook 0.4.2.
+Continuing on the new version.
+  ✓ p-family
+  ✓ q-is-son — 6 solutions
+```
+
+That costs a network round trip once a day rather than once a run, because the answer is
+cached. Down a pipe or in a script there is nobody to ask, so it prints `Update with:
+prolog-notebook upgrade` after the work instead — a question nobody can answer is a hang.
+
+`upgrade` replaces this copy only when it can prove how it was installed. A global `npm i -g`
+it will do; a dependency of somebody's project it will not touch, and a source checkout is
+git's business. Guessing wrong there breaks a project while trying to help.
+
 It has no defence against a non-terminating goal yet — the engine runs in this process, so
 `loop :- loop.` hangs the command. Say the word `--limit` all you like; a runaway *consult* is
 not a solution count. Fixing it properly means a worker thread, and it is the prerequisite for

package/bin/prolog-notebook.mjs

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import { prologVersion } from '../src/engine.js';
 import { buildLine, currentBuild } from '../src/build-info.js';
 import { banner, VERSION } from '../src/version.js';
 import { updateNotice } from '../src/update.js';
+import { confirm, describeInstall, globalRoot, install, relaunch, upgradePlan } from '../src/upgrade.js';
 import { exportSource } from '../src/export.js';
 import { runNotebook, DEFAULT_LIMIT } from '../src/run.js';
 
@@ -37,6 +38,7 @@ const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
 const USAGE = `prolog-notebook — Jupyter-style notebooks for Prolog
 
   prolog-notebook run <file.prolog.md>...   run every cell, write the answers back
+  prolog-notebook upgrade                  fetch the latest version
 
 Options
   --limit <n>     solutions to take from one query before stopping (default ${DEFAULT_LIMIT})
@@ -91,6 +93,63 @@ async function version() {
   return `${lines.join('\n')}\n\n`;
 }
 
+/**
+ * Fetch the latest, if this copy is one we know how to replace.
+ *
+ * @param {string} version what to install
+ * @returns {Promise<number>} an exit code
+ */
+async function upgrade(version) {
+  const packageRoot = new URL('..', import.meta.url).pathname;
+  const kind = describeInstall({ packageRoot, globalRoot: await globalRoot() });
+  const plan = upgradePlan(kind, version);
+  if (plan.say) {
+    process.stderr.write(`${plan.say}\n`);
+    return 1;
+  }
+  process.stderr.write(`Updating with ${NPM_LINE} ${plan.argv.join(' ')}\n`);
+  if (!(await install(plan.argv))) {
+    process.stderr.write('npm could not complete the update.\n');
+    return 1;
+  }
+  process.stderr.write(`You now have Prolog Notebook ${version}.\n`);
+  return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Offer it, but only where a question is a question.
+ *
+ * A pipe, a script and CI are all places where waiting for an answer is a hang,
+ * so the notice is simply printed there. Both streams are checked because the
+ * question goes to stderr and the answer comes from stdin.
+ */
+/**
+ * Is there somebody at the other end?
+ *
+ * Both streams, because the question goes to stderr and the answer comes back on
+ * stdin. A pipe, a script and CI are all places where a question is a hang.
+ */
+function canAsk() {
+  return Boolean(process.stdin.isTTY && process.stderr.isTTY);
+}
+
+async function offerUpgrade(newer) {
+  if (!canAsk()) {
+    // Nobody to ask, so say what to type instead. `prolog-notebook upgrade`
+    // rather than the npm line: it knows how this copy was installed, and the
+    // npm line is wrong for a project dependency.
+    process.stderr.write('Update with: prolog-notebook upgrade\n');
+    return null;
+  }
+  if (!(await confirm('Update now?'))) {
+    process.stderr.write('  (run `prolog-notebook upgrade` whenever you like)\n');
+    return null;
+  }
+  return upgrade(newer);
+}
+
+const NPM_LINE = process.platform === 'win32' ? 'npm.cmd' : 'npm';
+
 async function main(argv) {
   const args = argv.slice(2);
   if (!args.length || args.includes('-h') || args.includes('--help')) {
@@ -108,18 +167,25 @@ async function main(argv) {
   // forces the check that would otherwise wait for the day to turn over.
   const asked = args.includes('--check-update');
   if (asked && args.filter((a) => !a.startsWith('-')).length === 0) {
-    const notice = await updateNotice({ version: VERSION, force: true });
-    process.stderr.write(`${notice}\n`);
-    return 0;
+    const { message, newer } = await updateNotice({ version: VERSION, force: true });
+    if (message) process.stderr.write(`${message}\n`);
+    return newer ? (await offerUpgrade(newer)) ?? 0 : 0;
   }
 
   const command = args.shift();
+  if (command === 'upgrade') {
+    const { message, newer } = await updateNotice({ version: VERSION, force: true });
+    if (message) process.stderr.write(`${message}\n`);
+    return newer ? upgrade(newer) : 0;
+  }
   if (command !== 'run') {
     process.stderr.write(`unknown command "${command}"\n\n${USAGE}`);
     return 2;
   }
 
   const options = { limit: DEFAULT_LIMIT, stdout: false, quiet: false };
+  // Whether the offer has already been made, before the work started.
+  let checked = false;
   const files = [];
   while (args.length) {
     const arg = args.shift();
@@ -145,6 +211,31 @@ async function main(argv) {
   }
   if (!options.quiet) process.stderr.write(`${RUNAWAY_WARNING}\n`);
 
+  // BEFORE THE WORK, when there is somebody to ask — because the point of asking
+  // is to run the NEW version, and that is only possible while there is still
+  // something to run. Afterwards the files are written and the answer comes too
+  // late to change them.
+  //
+  // It costs a network round trip once a day, not once a run: the rest of the day
+  // is a file read. Measured at 25-120 ms against npm, against a run that spends
+  // seconds in Prolog.
+  if (canAsk() && !options.quiet) {
+    const ahead = await updateNotice({ version: VERSION, force: asked })
+      .catch(() => ({ message: null, newer: null }));
+    if (ahead.message) process.stderr.write(`${ahead.message}\n`);
+    if (ahead.newer && await confirm('Update and continue on the new version?')) {
+      if ((await upgrade(ahead.newer)) === 0) {
+        process.stderr.write('Continuing on the new version.\n');
+        // The path has not changed — npm replaced what is behind it — so this is
+        // the same command, running the bytes that have just arrived.
+        return relaunch(process.argv);
+      }
+      process.stderr.write('Carrying on with the version you have.\n');
+    }
+    // Asked and answered: the check below has nothing left to say.
+    checked = true;
+  }
+
   // STARTED NOW, READ AT THE END. The registry is somebody else's machine on
   // somebody else's network, and none of that should stand between the reader
   // and their answers — so the question is asked while the work happens and the
@@ -153,9 +244,11 @@ async function main(argv) {
   // Not asked at all under --quiet, unless it was asked for outright: --quiet
   // means "report only failures", and news about a newer version is not one. Not
   // starting the request is better than starting it and discarding the answer.
-  const update = options.quiet && !asked
-    ? Promise.resolve(null)
-    : updateNotice({ version: VERSION, force: asked }).catch(() => null);
+  // The other half: nobody to ask, so the question is asked ALONGSIDE the work
+  // and reported at the end. A terminal has had its offer already.
+  const update = checked || (options.quiet && !asked)
+    ? Promise.resolve({ message: null, newer: null })
+    : updateNotice({ version: VERSION, force: asked }).catch(() => ({ message: null, newer: null }));
 
   // One engine for the whole invocation, restarted between files. A notebook is
   // a world of its own — one cell is one virtual file, and two chapters may
@@ -172,8 +265,11 @@ async function main(argv) {
 
   // stderr, always: `run --stdout` is a notebook going down a pipe, and a version
   // notice in the middle of it would corrupt the file it is printing.
-  const notice = await update;
-  if (notice) process.stderr.write(`${notice}\n`);
+  const { message, newer } = await update;
+  if (message) process.stderr.write(`${message}\n`);
+  // Offered AFTER the work, and never re-running it: the files are written, and
+  // a command that repeated itself on a newer version would write them twice.
+  if (newer) await offerUpgrade(newer);
   return status;
 }
 

package/package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "prolog-notebook",
-  "version": "0.4.1",
+  "version": "0.4.3",
   "description": "Jupyter-style notebooks for Prolog. Runs in the browser, installs nothing.",
   "type": "module",
   "main": "./src/node.js",

package/src/build-info.json

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
 {
-  "commit": "9de0531",
-  "built": "2026-08-30 15:28:09 UTC"
+  "commit": "bd4d4d6",
+  "built": "2026-08-30 15:55:33 UTC"
 }

package/src/update.js

@@ -69,9 +69,16 @@ export function fileStore(path = cachePath()) {
 /**
  * Ask the registry which version is `latest`.
  *
- * The abbreviated document rather than the full packument: the full one carries
- * every version ever published and can be megabytes, for a question with a
- * one-line answer.
+ * `/{name}/latest` rather than the packument: the packument carries every version
+ * ever published and can be megabytes, for a question with a one-line answer.
+ * This endpoint answers in about 2 kB.
+ *
+ * PLAIN JSON, AND NOT THE ABBREVIATED TYPE. `application/vnd.npm.install-v1+json`
+ * is defined for the packument, and this endpoint is entitled to refuse it — some
+ * of npm's edges serve it anyway and others answer 406, which is why the first
+ * version of this shipped a notifier that reported "could not reach the registry"
+ * to some people and worked for others. Measured both ways, from one machine,
+ * minutes apart.
  *
  * @returns {Promise<string|null>} null for anything that goes wrong
  */
@@ -87,7 +94,7 @@ export async function latestFromRegistry({
   try {
     const base = String(registry).replace(/\/+$/, '');
     const response = await fetchImpl(`${base}/${name}/latest`, {
-      headers: { accept: 'application/vnd.npm.install-v1+json' },
+      headers: { accept: 'application/json' },
       signal: AbortSignal.timeout(timeout),
     });
     if (!response.ok) return null;
@@ -117,7 +124,11 @@ export function isNewer(latest, current) {
 }
 
 /**
- * The line to print, or null for silence.
+ * What to say, and what was found.
+ *
+ * An object rather than a string because a caller may want to ACT on it — offer
+ * to upgrade — and parsing our own sentence back into a version number would be
+ * a worse way to learn what we already knew.
  *
  * @param {object} options
  * @param {string} options.version what this copy is
@@ -127,7 +138,7 @@ export function isNewer(latest, current) {
  * @param {{read: Function, write: Function}} [options.store]
  * @param {() => Promise<string|null>} [options.latest]
  * @param {object} [options.env]
- * @returns {Promise<string|null>}
+ * @returns {Promise<{message: string|null, newer: string|null}>}
  */
 export async function updateNotice({
   version,
@@ -138,7 +149,12 @@ export async function updateNotice({
   latest = latestFromRegistry,
   env = process.env,
 } = {}) {
-  if (!force && (env.CI || env.NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER)) return null;
+  const quiet = { message: null, newer: null };
+  // UPGRADED is the loop guard: the process that replaced itself re-runs this
+  // command on the new version, and that one must not go round again. A failed
+  // or partial upgrade would otherwise re-exec for ever.
+  if (!force && (env.CI || env.NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER || env.PROLOG_NOTEBOOK_UPGRADED)) return quiet;
+  if (env.PROLOG_NOTEBOOK_UPGRADED) return quiet;
 
   const remembered = store.read();
   const fresh = !force && remembered && now - remembered.checked < ttl;
@@ -148,14 +164,20 @@ export async function updateNotice({
   if (!fresh) store.write({ checked: now, latest: newest ?? null });
 
   if (!newest) {
-    return fresh && !force ? null : 'Could not reach the npm registry to check for updates.';
+    return fresh && !force
+      ? quiet
+      : { message: 'Could not reach the npm registry to check for updates.', newer: null };
   }
   // BOTH LINES START WITH WHAT YOU HAVE, because that is the question being
   // asked. "Prolog Notebook 0.4.0 is the latest" states a fact about the world
   // and leaves the reader to work out that it is also a fact about them.
   if (isNewer(newest, version)) {
-    return `You have Prolog Notebook ${version}. The latest is ${newest}.\n`
-      + 'Update with: npm i -g prolog-notebook';
+    return {
+      message: `You have Prolog Notebook ${version}. The latest is ${newest}.`,
+      newer: newest,
+    };
   }
-  return force ? `You have the latest version of Prolog Notebook, ${version}.` : null;
+  return force
+    ? { message: `You have the latest version of Prolog Notebook, ${version}.`, newer: null }
+    : quiet;
 }

package/src/upgrade.js

@@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
+// Updating itself, which is mostly a question of knowing how it was installed.
+//
+// A global `npm i -g`, a project dependency, an npx run, a pnpm or bun global,
+// a git checkout — each needs a different answer, and running `npm i -g` from
+// the wrong one either fails or upgrades something the reader did not mean. So
+// this proves the global case and REFUSES THE REST WITH THE RIGHT COMMAND
+// rather than guessing: a tool that breaks somebody's project while trying to
+// help is worse than one that tells them what to type.
+//
+// Nothing here happens without being asked. See bin/prolog-notebook.mjs for the
+// prompt, which only appears at a terminal — a pipe, a script and CI are all
+// places where a question is a hang.
+import { spawn } from 'node:child_process';
+import { execFile } from 'node:child_process';
+import { promisify } from 'node:util';
+
+const run = promisify(execFile);
+
+/** npm is a batch file on Windows, and spawn will not find it otherwise. */
+export const NPM = process.platform === 'win32' ? 'npm.cmd' : 'npm';
+
+/**
+ * Which kind of copy is this?
+ *
+ * @param {{packageRoot: string, globalRoot: string|null}} where
+ * @returns {'global'|'local'|'source'}
+ */
+export function describeInstall({ packageRoot, globalRoot }) {
+  if (globalRoot && packageRoot.startsWith(globalRoot)) return 'global';
+  // `node_modules` in the path and not the global root: somebody's project
+  // depends on this, and upgrading it globally would leave that project on the
+  // version it pinned while changing a tool they did not ask about.
+  if (packageRoot.includes(`${'node_modules'}`)) return 'local';
+  return 'source';
+}
+
+/**
+ * What to do about it — a command to run, or words to print.
+ *
+ * @param {'global'|'local'|'source'} kind
+ * @param {string} version
+ * @returns {{argv: string[]}|{say: string}}
+ */
+export function upgradePlan(kind, version) {
+  if (kind === 'global') return { argv: ['i', '-g', `prolog-notebook@${version}`] };
+  if (kind === 'local') {
+    return {
+      say: 'This copy is a dependency of a project rather than a global install.\n'
+        + `Upgrade it there: npm i prolog-notebook@${version}`,
+    };
+  }
+  return {
+    say: 'This copy is a source checkout, not an install. Upgrade it with git.',
+  };
+}
+
+/** Where npm keeps global packages, or null if it will not say. */
+export async function globalRoot(exec = run) {
+  try {
+    const { stdout } = await exec(NPM, ['root', '-g'], { timeout: 5000 });
+    return stdout.trim() || null;
+  } catch {
+    return null;
+  }
+}
+
+/**
+ * Ask a yes/no question, defaulting to yes.
+ *
+ * ON STDERR, always: `run --stdout` is a notebook going down a pipe, and a
+ * question in the middle of it would corrupt the file it is writing.
+ *
+ * @returns {Promise<boolean>}
+ */
+export async function confirm(question, { input = process.stdin, output = process.stderr } = {}) {
+  const { createInterface } = await import('node:readline/promises');
+  const rl = createInterface({ input, output });
+  try {
+    const answer = await rl.question(`${question} [Y/n] `);
+    return !/^n/i.test(answer.trim());
+  } catch {
+    // Ctrl-C, a closed stream: not an answer, so not a yes.
+    return false;
+  } finally {
+    rl.close();
+  }
+}
+
+/**
+ * Do it, showing npm's own output rather than a spinner of our own.
+ *
+ * @returns {Promise<boolean>} whether npm was happy
+ */
+export function install(argv, spawnImpl = spawn) {
+  return new Promise((resolve) => {
+    const child = spawnImpl(NPM, argv, { stdio: ['ignore', 'inherit', 'inherit'] });
+    child.on('error', () => resolve(false));
+    child.on('close', (code) => resolve(code === 0));
+  });
+}
+
+/**
+ * Run this same command again, on the version that has just replaced us.
+ *
+ * THE PATH DOES NOT CHANGE, which is what makes this work: npm replaces the
+ * contents of the package directory, and the bin the reader typed still points
+ * at the same file. So the script to run is the one we are already running — its
+ * bytes are simply new.
+ *
+ * A child rather than a true exec, because Node has no execve: stdio is
+ * inherited so it looks like one process, and the child's exit code becomes
+ * ours. The marker in the environment stops the new process checking for updates
+ * again, which is what would otherwise turn a failed upgrade into a loop.
+ *
+ * @param {string[]} argv the original process.argv
+ * @param {Function} [spawnImpl]
+ * @returns {Promise<number>} the exit code to leave with
+ */
+export function relaunch(argv, spawnImpl = spawn) {
+  return new Promise((resolve) => {
+    const child = spawnImpl(argv[0], argv.slice(1), {
+      stdio: 'inherit',
+      env: { ...process.env, PROLOG_NOTEBOOK_UPGRADED: '1' },
+    });
+    child.on('error', () => resolve(1));
+    child.on('close', (code) => resolve(code ?? 0));
+  });
+}

package/src/version.js

@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 export const NAME = 'Prolog Notebook';
 
 /** Must equal package.json's `version` — test/run.test.mjs enforces it. */
-export const VERSION = '0.4.1';
+export const VERSION = '0.4.3';
 
 /** The two facts a licence notice is actually made of. */
 export const YEAR = '2026';