A python script for Linux that uses wget and tar to download and extract the current Blender Alpha daily build.
Pop the update_blender_latest.py file in a folder and run python update_blender_latest.py from a terminal. Once it's finished running, you will have two new folders. One is the actual Blender build, and the other is just a symbolic folder named "blender-latest" pointing to it. You can then create a shortcut to the blender binary inside the symbolic folder. You can edit the symbolic folder name and the keyword used to select the build in the start of the script.
This is NOT for Blender users who are working on big collaborative productions, as the latest alpha build might have regressions, break, destroy all your files and/or worst. This is for the risk-taking, live-life-on-the-edge-of-your-seat, carefree kind of Blender users, who just always want to check the latest toys, and are fully aware that they're doing so at their own risks.
The script will only download the latest build when it has a different name from the ones in the current folder, so you don't end up downloading and extracting a version you already have installed. Note that whilst the symbolic folder gets updated, the previous build doesn't get deleted automatically. This is just in case of a show-stopping regression, and it does mean you might want to go and delete a few of the older builds every now and then.
Every few days or week, I would go to the blender.org experimental build page, download the latest alpha daily archive, extract it then rename the folder to "blender-latest", so that I didn't need to change my custom shortcut to the Blender binary file.
After a few years of doing that, it hit me that this kind of repetitive tasks is exactly why we have computers in the first place. So I wrote this script which does all those steps automatically. The only difference is that instead of renaming the folder, it creates/overwrites a symbolic link to it.
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