[SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

cyker · 2014-10-10 03:50:01

Is there a quick pacman command doing a diff between the local file system and a pacman package?

Say I have installed a package foo and modified /etc/foo.conf. Now I want to find what's the difference between the file in my local file system and that in a clean package.

If there's not a quick pacman command, what would you use in this case?

Last edited by cyker (2014-10-10 05:18:46)

amish · 2014-10-10 04:24:10

The original package foo.tar.xz is always there in /var/cache/pacman/pkg (unless you cleared it)

Fast solution to compare full package:(lists names of files which differ)

pacman -Qkk foo
OR
tar --diff -C / -f /var/cache/pacman/pkg/foo.tar.xz

Once you know names of file that differ, do per file comparison as follows:

tar -xOf /var/cache/pacman/pkg/foo.tar.gz etc/foo.conf | diff /etc/foo.conf -

Last edited by amish (2014-10-10 05:17:06)

cyker · 2014-10-10 04:31:07

Thanks. Then it doesn't seem we have a handy tool right now. Actually it'd be good if it also accepts full-package comparison. I want this tool because sometimes my package doesn't work and I'd like to figure out what changes I made stopped it from working. The clean package should work so a diff can be helpful.

amish · 2014-10-10 04:38:21

EDIT:
post moved to my previous post above

Last edited by amish (2014-10-10 05:18:04)

lucke · 2014-10-10 04:45:33

You could pacman -S the package and get .pacnew files, I guess.

Last edited by lucke (2014-10-10 04:45:56)

loafer · 2014-10-10 05:00:06

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … tion_files

amish · 2014-10-10 05:04:04

@loafer - possibly he does not want that.

cyker · 2014-10-10 05:07:26

amish wrote:

Ok here is just one line code which compares full-package! (lists names of files which differ)
tar --diff -C / -f /var/cache/pacman/pkg/foo.tar.xz
After that u can use old solution (in my previous post) to do per file comparison

This can help find files of interest. Some issues:

tar diff doesn't show the full text diff.
tar diff shows mod time diff and size diff, which are not quite interesting to me.

amish · 2014-10-10 05:11:21

Yes I realized it later that the content difference is not shown. So updated my post accordingly.

Basically first command will help you know the files which differ. (mod time differs is what you need to look for)
2nd command will tell u exact difference.

You can also use:

pacman -Qkk foo

May be "tar" can add the feature in --diff command to compare the files contents too.

Last edited by amish (2014-10-10 05:31:18)

cyker · 2014-10-10 05:14:57

loafer wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … tion_files

Well, this helps in a different way. If every package accurately lists its backup files then this command is very handy. I guess it doesn't care about non-backup files right now.

cyker · 2014-10-10 05:18:12

amish wrote:

Yes I realized it later that the file difference is not shown. So updated my post accordingly.
Basically first command will help you know the files which differ. (size diference is what you need to look for)
2nd command will tell u exact difference.
You can also use:
pacman -Qkk foo
May be "tar" can add the feature in --diff command to compare the files contents too.

pacman -Qkk

is good. Almost solved this problem. Removing uninteresting mod time mismatches should be easy. Thanks!

amish · 2014-10-10 05:30:20

Size difference does not always work!

Lets say original conf file had two lines:

Alert=true
#Alert=false

Now you changed it to:

#Alert=true
Alert=false

So size will remain same!!

So mod time is possibly better way to check!

cyker · 2014-10-10 05:33:15

amish wrote:

Size difference does not always work!
Lets say original conf file had two lines:
Alert=true
#Alert=false
Now you changed it to:
#Alert=true
Alert=false
So size will remain same!!
So mod time is possibly better way to check!

Right. Actually diff is the best way to check but doesn't seem to be there.

amish · 2014-10-10 05:37:44

Yup, wonder why --diff of tar is not extended to give actual diference!

progandy · 2014-10-10 06:35:04

If you want to create your own tool to check packages, then you can start with something like this. Current packages should have an mtree database with a list of checksums.

zcat /var/lib/pacman/local/filesystem-2014.07-1/mtree | sed -n 's/^\([^ ]*\).*sha256digest=\(\w*\)/\2 \1/p' | (cd / && sudo sha256sum --quiet -c)

To clarify: That may be useful if you create a script to check one or two specific files from one package. If you do it manually, pacman -Qkk is simpler. When you have huge packages it may be preferrable to limit the checks to a few files, though.

Last edited by progandy (2014-10-10 06:47:48)

amish · 2014-10-10 06:40:55

Thats too big command to remember!

Probably pacman -Qkk does the same internally.

Also he is looking for a way to find a "diff" easily.

Last edited by amish (2014-10-10 06:41:33)

karol · 2014-10-11 00:31:05

See http://xyne.archlinux.ca/projects/pkg_scripts/ - pkg-extract_original may help:

$ type ddiff
ddiff is a function
ddiff ()
{
    LC_ALL=C TZ=GMT0 diff -Naur $1 <(pkg-extract_original $1) | less
}

e.g.

$ ddiff /etc/pacman.conf

Trilby · 2014-10-11 00:45:34

amish wrote:

Thats too big command to remember!

That's what functions and aliases are for.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-10-10 03:50:01

[SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#2 2014-10-10 04:24:10

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#3 2014-10-10 04:31:07

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#4 2014-10-10 04:38:21

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#5 2014-10-10 04:45:33

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#6 2014-10-10 05:00:06

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#7 2014-10-10 05:04:04

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#8 2014-10-10 05:07:26

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#9 2014-10-10 05:11:21

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#10 2014-10-10 05:14:57

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#11 2014-10-10 05:18:12

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#12 2014-10-10 05:30:20

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#13 2014-10-10 05:33:15

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#14 2014-10-10 05:37:44

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#15 2014-10-10 06:35:04

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#16 2014-10-10 06:40:55

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#17 2014-10-11 00:31:05

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

#18 2014-10-11 00:45:34

Re: [SOLVED] Find modified files from a package in local file system

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