Arch Linux

djidji

Member

Registered: 2007-02-26

Posts: 57

pacsave and pacnew

i was cleaning my system after the upgrade and i wasn't sure what to do with some pacsave/pacnew files. so here are my three questions:

1. what is the difference between pacsave and pacnew? i assume that .pacsave is my old file that has been renamed. right?

2. i have files like /etc/vimrc.pacsave but i don't have /etc/vimrc. do i need to keep the .pacsave file? do i rename it /etc/vimrc?

3. /etc/group.pacnew has items that are not in /etc/group - do i merge these two?

i searched through the forum and saw that some people recommend removing .pacnew files but if i have new groups and users in /etc/group.pacnew and /etc/passwd.pacnew and i don't incorporate those in my group/passwd file wouldn't that possibly cause problems down the road?

thanks in advance

Cerebral

Forum Fellow

From: Waterloo, ON, CA

Registered: 2005-04-08

Posts: 3,108

Website

Re: pacsave and pacnew

1. what is the difference between pacsave and pacnew? i assume that .pacsave is my old file that has been renamed. right?

Kindof.  If you remove a package that has a file in its backup array, then pacman saves a .pacsave file so that you don't lose your local changes to that file.

2. i have files like /etc/vimrc.pacsave but i don't have /etc/vimrc. do i need to keep the .pacsave file? do i rename it /etc/vimrc?

Probably not - I imagine this has to do with the vi/vim/gvim split, and /etc/vimrc was probably removed.

3. /etc/group.pacnew has items that are not in /etc/group - do i merge these two?

I'd say yes - sometimes we need to add new groups for things to work right.  TBH, the packages should ensure the group is there and create it if not, but it can't hurt to add the new groups manually since you already noticed.