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Everytime I upgrade with pacman, these files are created; I thought they would have some format changes between the old .conf files, but I couldnt find any important change, or change at all, with my original .conf files, so I would like to ask if its safe to delete them (rm /etc/*.pacnew)
thanks in advance
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if there's no difference its ok to delete them. .pacnew are new config files that come along with the package. Its not smart enough to discriminate a needed change, they're just placed there with that extension.
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If you've made custome modifications of the config file and the new package has a different config format than the last, only then will it create the <code>.pacnew</code> files. Here are all the config file situations and how they are handled (from <code>man pacman</code>):
HANDLING CONFIG FILES
pacman uses the same logic as rpm to determine action against files
that are designated to be backed up. During an upgrade, it uses 3 md5
hashes for each backup file to determine the required action: one for
the original file installed, one for the new file that's about to be
installed, and one for the actual file existing on the filesystem.
After comparing these 3 hashes, the follow scenarios can result:
original=X, current=X, new=X
All three files are the same, so we win either way. Install the
new file.
original=X, current=X, new=Y
The current file is un-altered from the original but the new one
is different. Since the user did not ever modify the file, and
the new one may contain improvements/bugfixes, we install the
new file.
original=X, current=Y, new=X
Both package versions contain the exact same file, but the one
on the filesystem has been modified since. In this case, we
leave the current file in place.
original=X, current=Y, new=Y
The new one is identical to the current one. Win win. Install
the new file.
original=X, current=Y, new=Z
All three files are different, so we install the new file with a
.pacnew extension and warn the user, so she can manually move
the file into place after making any necessary customizations.
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ok, thanks; so I think its better to not delete them
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Right...basically you should compare it to what you currently have and see how to make the same customizations with the newer format. Some times it's just a minor version number or something that has changed and nothing serious. If that's the case you can feel free to delete the .pacnew files and continue on your way. Otherwise you should not just ignore them, but actually take the time to merge your customizations to the new format and then remove the extra file...
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