Run Duplicati from command line in Windows

I’m a long time Duplicati user, but have come across question to which I can’t find the answer, even if it seems not so complicated.

I have noticed that there are several copies of the Duplicati executables on my computer (one for every update).

Now the question is: is there a way to launch a command line that is guaranteed to start the latest version of Duplicati, without the need to explicitly specify which version I want?

Just launch the main one. On Windows, it’d be in C:\Program Files\Duplicati 2. On Linux, maybe /usr/bin and then /usr/lib. The main Duplicati process finds the latest version and runs it. The main keeps hanging around because it may need to launch the update if one gets downloaded. This relaunch is kind of buggy.

If you want to see what you got, run The SYSTEM-INFO command

Unless you’re on Canary, you probably won’t even be able to run the previous Beta by accident because it won’t know what to do with the revised format of some database that the newer Duplicati Beta was using.

I’ll try this ts678. I seem to remember from a while back that it didn’t use the latest version and give me the warning about an update being available.
I’m running Canary BTW.

This is possibly a different question. The original sounded like it was which already-on-the-drive one to run.

Duplicati.Library.AutoUpdater.exe is a tool for installing updates onto the drive. Manual lists several options.
Some don’t seem to make sense for a standalone tool, so I did a test on Linux. Windows would be similar except Windows version of duplicati-cli is Duplicati.CommandLine.exe, and setting environments differs…

$ export AUTOUPDATER_Duplicati_POLICY=InstallBefore
$ duplicati-cli backup <etc.>
Checking for update ...
Update to 2.0.5.107_canary_2020-05-26 detected, installing...
Install succeeded, running updated version
Backup started at 6/21/2020 7:03:36 AM

This particular system had an update for 2.0.5.104, and backup did not update to latest (2.0.5.107) before running – until I set the AUTOUPDATER_Duplicati_POLICY=InstallBefore and then it installed and ran the backup. There are other variations listed in the documentation, but I haven’t tested any further. Feel free…

EDIT:

For testing purposes, you can manually delete the latest version and see if you can return to it as desired.
Don’t go too far back, or you might get caught by a database format change that old version won’t accept.