# Binary Badges > Check and refresh the version badges under "Packaged binaries" in site/src/install.md — update stale version numbers and set badge colour (green if current, red if outdated) by checking each package's actual page. Use when asked to update packaged/distro versions, refresh install.md badges, or similar. - Skill: `hledgerorg/binary-badges` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add hledgerorg/binary-badges` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/hledgerorg/binary-badges/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: hledgerorg (https://skillmd.com/u/hledgerorg) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/hledgerorg/binary-badges --- # Updating packaged-binary version badges `site/src/install.md` has a **Packaged binaries** section listing ~20 ways to install hledger via OS/distro package managers, each with a version badge. **`site/` is a separate git repo** (gitignored by the main hledger repo, with its own remotes `origin` → `hledger_site.git` and `hledgerorg`). Commit changes to `install.md` there — `cd site && git add src/install.md && git commit ...` — not in the main repo. That repo's commit messages are plain (no `;category:` prefix, no AI-disclosure line); match its existing log style, e.g. `install: update packaged-binary version badges`. ## Two kinds of badge — only one needs checking 1. **repology badges** — `https://repology.org/badge/version-for-repo/REPO/hledger.svg`. These are live images that repology itself keeps up to date. **Never "check" or edit these** — no version/colour is embedded in the URL to update. 2. **Static shields.io badges** — `https://img.shields.io/badge/LABEL-VERSION-COLOR.svg`. These are hand-authored and go stale. **These are the ones this skill updates.** Where a distro has multiple packaged releases listed (e.g. Fedora 45/44/43/42, Debian testing/stable/oldstable), check **every** one, not just the newest — each track's actual version can change independently between updates (a track can even jump past where it was, as distros rebase testing/stable/oldstable onto newer releases). Grep for `img.shields.io/badge` within the `## Packaged binaries` section (stop at `## Build from source`) to enumerate exactly which lines to work on. Don't touch shields.io badges elsewhere on the page (e.g. the "Official binaries" section's release-binaries badge follows the same format but is assumed to be always up to date). ## Reference version Read the current stable version from the top of the file: The current stable hledger release is **X.Y.Z**. This is the target to compare each package's version against. ## Per-badge workflow For each static shields.io badge line: 1. **Find the real current version.** Follow the badge's hyperlink (the `](URL)` the image is wrapped in): - If it goes straight to the package's page (Docker Hub image, a specific Fedora/Debian/Gentoo package page, etc.), fetch it and read off the published version. - If it goes to a repo/search page (e.g. a "search for hledger" URL), fetch it and locate the hledger entry to read its version. - Some sites are JS-heavy and won't render via fetch. Per project convention, don't fight this — show a clickable URL and ask the user to check the version there. 2. **Update the version number** in the badge URL to match exactly what the package page reports (don't normalize it to X.Y.Z — match upstream's own string, e.g. Debian may genuinely be on just "1.25", Fedora on "1.40"). 3. **Set the colour**: - `brightgreen` if the package version equals the current stable version from the top of the page. - `e05d44` (hex, no `#`) otherwise, matching the red used by repology for outdated packages. 4. **Sanity-check the label** while you're in there: shields.io labels use `_` for spaces, and the visible alt text (`![Alt]`) should describe the same thing the label encodes (e.g. `![Fedora_45]` next to a label reading `Fedora_44_package` is a mismatch — fix the label, not the alt text, once you've established which Fedora version that row is actually for). Check this kind of alt-text/label/version alignment for every row you touch. ## Known frozen distro releases — skip these Once a specific distro *release* (not the distro in general) reaches its own end-of-life, its package version is permanently frozen — it will never gain a newer hledger, so there's no need to re-check it on future runs. Skip these: - **Fedora 42** — EOL 2026-05-13, frozen at hledger 1.32.3. When you confirm a release has newly reached EOL (e.g. its packages page disappears from Fedora's active-releases table, or endoflife.date shows a past EOL date), add it here with its frozen version so later runs skip it straight away. If a listed EOL date is more than a year or two old, it's worth a quick sanity check that the entry is still right. ## Check for new major distro releases not yet listed For the distros with a run of version-specific rows — **Alpine, Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu** — also check whether a newer major release now exists upstream that isn't listed on the page yet: - **Alpine**: check current stable branches (e.g. via https://alpinelinux.org/releases/ or the repology page) for one newer than the newest `alpine_X_Y` row here. If found, add a new repology-badge row above the current newest, in the same style (`![Alpine 3.NN](.../badge/version-for-repo/alpine_3_NN/hledger.svg)`). - **Fedora**: check currently supported releases (e.g. https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases or endoflife.date/fedora) for one newer than the newest `Fedora_NN` row. If found, add a new shields.io badge row above the current newest and check its real version per the per-badge workflow above. - **Ubuntu**: check for a newer release (LTS or interim) than the newest `ubuntu_YY_MM` row, e.g. via https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases. If found, add a new repology-badge row above the current newest. - **Debian** doesn't need this: its three rows (testing/stable/oldstable) are relative labels, not fixed version numbers, so they automatically track Debian's current release ladder without adding rows. When a new row pushes the visible list past its usual length (these sections currently show ~4 visible rows each), move the row that falls off the bottom into an HTML comment rather than deleting it, matching the existing retired rows (e.g. ``, ``). Match the exact formatting of its neighbours (backslash continuations, alt text pattern, whether the row carries an install command). ## Judgment calls - If a package's fetched version can't be pinned down confidently (ambiguous search results, page didn't load, version format is unclear), leave that line unchanged and flag it to the user rather than guessing. - Preserve the line-continuation backslashes, HTML comments (commented-out older distro rows like ``), and surrounding formatting exactly — this is a diff people will skim, so keep it minimal and mechanical. ## Verify - `git diff site/src/install.md` — confirm only version numbers, colours, and (where fixed) mismatched labels changed; no accidental reformatting. - Every repology-badge line is untouched. - Every static badge's colour agrees with whether its version equals the current stable release stated at the top of the page.