Arch Linux

potuz

Member

Registered: 2009-10-23

Posts: 114

unrecognized archived format when removing old caches

Perhaps it's abundance of caution, but after today's bomb announcement about xz been backdoored, I updated my system and are faced with these error messages

$ sudo pacman -Sc
Packages to keep:
  All locally installed packages

Cache directory: /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
:: Do you want to remove all other packages from cache? [Y/n]
removing old packages from cache...
error: missing package metadata in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/gap-4.12.0-4-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst.part
error: missing package metadata in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/tailscale-1.32.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst.part
error: missing package metadata in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/graphviz-7.0.4-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst.part
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/gvim-9.0.2121-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst.sig.part: Unrecognized archive format
error: missing package metadata in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/pipewire-1:0.3.59-5-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst.part
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/gvim-9.0.2121-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst: Unrecognized archive format
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/signal-desktop-6.39.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst.sig.part: Unrecognized archive format
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/signal-desktop-6.39.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst: Unrecognized archive format
error: missing package metadata in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/lib32-glibc-2.37-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst.part
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/kirigami2-5.111.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst.sig.part: Unrecognized archive format
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/kirigami2-5.111.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst: Unrecognized archive format
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/marble-common-23.08.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst: Unrecognized archive format
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/opencv-4.8.0-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst: Unrecognized archive format
error: missing package metadata in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/kcachegrind-common-23.04.1-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst.part
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/hedgewars-1.0.2-73-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst.sig.part: Unrecognized archive format
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/hedgewars-1.0.2-73-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst: Unrecognized archive format
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/libadwaita-1:1.4.2-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst.sig.part: Unrecognized archive format
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/libadwaita-1:1.4.2-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst: Unrecognized archive format
error: missing package metadata in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/vlc-3.0.18-8-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst.part

Should I be paranoid?

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 11,734

Re: unrecognized archived format when removing old caches

No, there is nothing to be worried about. It's just a bunch of unfinished downloads.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 53,676

Re: unrecognized archived format when removing old caches

Should I be paranoid?

Always.
After finishing that song, notice that many of the packages there end in ".part", so those are likely failed, partial downloads - courtesy of your ISP

So stuff to look at would be

error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/gvim-9.0.2121-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst: Unrecognized archive format
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/signal-desktop-6.39.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst: Unrecognized archive format
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/kirigami2-5.111.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst: Unrecognized archive format
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/marble-common-23.08.0-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst: Unrecognized archive format
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/opencv-4.8.0-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst: Unrecognized archive format
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/hedgewars-1.0.2-73-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst: Unrecognized archive format
error: could not open file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/libadwaita-1:1.4.2-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst: Unrecognized archive format

eg.

file /var/cache/pacman/pkg/gvim-9.0.2121-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
du -h /var/cache/pacman/pkg/gvim-9.0.2121-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

(In reality, those are likely more broken downloads)

The good news is that you didn't install any of that (in its current form).

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