Werk #18883: omd update: Add --skeleton and --pre-flight

Component Site management
Title omd update: Add --skeleton and --pre-flight
Date Nov 11, 2025
Level Prominent Change
Class New Feature
Compatibility Incompatible - Manual interaction might be required
Checkmk versions & editions
2.5.0b1
Not yet released
Checkmk Raw (CRE), Checkmk Enterprise (CEE), Checkmk Cloud (CCE), Checkmk MSP (CME)

The --conflict flag previously controlled two distinct parts of the update process, but its behavior was never clearly specified. When updating a site, the first step is a file-based update procedure similar to those used in Linux distributions. The second step calls cmk-update-config with the --conflict option, which manages conflicts during configuration verification. However, cmk-update-config cannot retain old configuration versions because the new Checkmk version requires configuration files to match the current schema.

To address this, omd now provides two separate options to replace --conflict. The --skeleton option controls the file-based update procedure. Specifically, it supports the following values:

  • skeleton=ask: the default, interactively query the action from the user.
  • skeleton=abort: abort the update upon detection of a conflict.
  • skeleton=install: discard changes made by the user and install the file from the new version.
  • skeleton=keepold: keep the old file and ignore the file from the new version.

The --pre-flight option controls the behavior of cmk-update-config. Similarly, it supports these values:

  • pre-flight=ask: the default, interactively query the action from the user.
  • pre-flight=ignore: if a conflict is detected, take the appropriate action and continue the update.
  • pre-flight=abort: if a conflict is detected, abort the update.

Many of these options correspond to those previously available with --conflict.

By explicitly setting --skeleton and --pre-flight, you can control how conflicts are handled at each stage, ensuring smoother, non-interactive updates or enforcing stricter checks as needed. The default settings remain safe for typical use but can be customized to fit your update workflow.

If you use the --conflict flag during site updates, you must now replace it with the new --skeleton and --pre-flight options to control conflict resolution behavior. The flag --conflict is deprecated and will be removed with Checkmk 2.6. This Werk removes the semantically ambiguous options cmk-update-config --conflict=install and cmk-update-config --conflict=keepold.

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