Pacman: Update file ownerships with forced install

deltaecho · 2008-11-08 02:49:36

Just an idea:
- Whenever you have to install a package with the -f flag due to existing conflicting files, update Pacman's file ownership database to reflect the new package as the owner of the file(s).

Allan · 2008-11-08 07:32:34

I sure that is exactly what this does provided you wrote over a file not owned by any other package and did not do something stupid like using -f when there was a genuine conflict between two packages, in which I think case they both now own the file.

deltaecho · 2008-11-08 12:33:06

I believe your last statement is correct; I've been running KDE from trunk the last couple weeks or so, and this week, a major library (Plasma) has been moved from KDEBase to KDELibs. As such, rebuilding KDELibs produced many conflicting files with my existing KDEBase, but I couldn't rebuild it without the Plasma library in KDELibs, so I forced an install to see what would happen. After the installation, I checked the file ownership of some of the previously conflicting files, and found it still reflected KDEBase and not its new owner, KDELibs.

After installing KDELibs, though, I was able to rebuild KDEBase, and then reinstalled them both - so all is well. It would just make more sense to me to update the conflicting file ownerships to reflect the newly installed package, and not the old one.

Edit: I didn't check to see if the conflicting files were still in existence after I update KDEBase, which I should have, but I've had another thought on the subject - instead of changing the file ownerships to reflect the new package, have both packages own it, as you stated, but do not remove the file until both packages are removed (if ever). I don't know if Pacman does this already, because I didn't think to check the files before I reinstalled KDELibs, but IMHO, it would be a nice feature.

Last edited by deltaecho (2008-11-08 13:11:11)

deltaecho · 2008-12-23 21:36:15

Just in case you're wondering, I setup a VM to work on some stuff, and tested this again. When you force an install of a package, Pacman still has the files listed as being owned by the former package and NOT both it and the conflicting one you installed. When either of the packages is removed, however, the file goes with it ...

It's not major, in fact most users shouldn't install conflicting packages anyway ( ), but if anybody wanted to fix this, that would be cool.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-11-08 02:49:36

Pacman: Update file ownerships with forced install

#2 2008-11-08 07:32:34

Re: Pacman: Update file ownerships with forced install

#3 2008-11-08 12:33:06

Re: Pacman: Update file ownerships with forced install

#4 2008-12-23 21:36:15

Re: Pacman: Update file ownerships with forced install

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