Need help with "exists in filesystem" error

ArchDoru · 2024-12-09 23:36:17

Hello everyone.

MY PROBLEM:
That annoying such-and-such file "exists in filesystem" pacman error

DETAILS OF MY SITUATION:
I created some custom icons, which I added to /usr/share/icons/hicolor, to have certain apps display my icons instead of whatever their installer brings in.
When I want to install some packages now (apps and such), I get the above mentioned error in reference to my custom icons.
As a momentary patch, I rename my custom "hicolor" icon folder to "my-hicolor", re-instate the default "hicolor" folder, and install whatever application. Once the installation is complete, I go back, remove the default "hicolor" folder and rename mine once again as "hicolor". It's a useless waste of time, and I've been constantly seeking a more permanent solution.
Sadly, everywhere I searched so far, all available solutions point to the same result:
To be able to install those packages, pacman will overwrite my icons one way or another, or simply refuse to install the packages.
And obviously, I don't want that...

WHAT I NEED HELP WITH:
A way to tell pacman to just go ahead and install the packages, and completely ignore (skip over) all of those "exists in filesystem" files. Do not overwrite any of my icons.

I would much appreciate if y'all would extend me the courtesy to refrain from any lectures about how it's a bad thing to add files manually into system directories. They're just some PNG icons, not in any way vital system files...
And the machine in question is just a regular home PC, for my exclusive personal use, not a production machine, or server or any other such important machine.

Thank you very much for your understanding, and looking forward to hear from you guys.

Last edited by ArchDoru (2024-12-09 23:37:31)

dakota · 2024-12-10 00:20:52

ArchDoru wrote:

I would much appreciate if y'all would extend me the courtesy to refrain from any lectures about how it's a bad thing to add files manually into system directories.

Okay.

Have you looked at the manual entry for pacman.conf(5)?

I don't know if it will meet your needs, but the NoUpgrade switch might be what you're looking for.

Cheers,

Last edited by dakota (2024-12-10 00:35:33)

ArchDoru · 2024-12-10 06:25:29

dakota wrote:

ArchDoru wrote:
I would much appreciate if y'all would extend me the courtesy to refrain from any lectures about how it's a bad thing to add files manually into system directories.
Okay.
Have you looked at the manual entry for pacman.conf(5)?
I don't know if it will meet your needs, but the NoUpgrade switch might be what you're looking for.
Cheers,

Thanks for your reply.

That NoUpgrade would be a radical solution, and not a good one at that...
I do want to be able to upgrade, of course. We all want the latest and greatest, don't we?
That being one of the reasons I multi-boot Arch, alongside Linux Mint and Debian. Kinda like like a "future, present and past" combo...
I'm just looking for a way to do it that simply leaves my pre-existing icons in place, to be used by the app that's about to be installed or upgraded "AS IS".

There must be a way around this. I totally get the reasoning, but I still think that a simple "warn me and let me choose" approach would be better, IMHO.

Cheers,

skunktrader · 2024-12-10 07:31:48

Reread the manpage
The NoUpgrade option is used to add a list of individual files that should not be upgraded during a system upgrade

cryptearth · 2024-12-10 07:51:10

maybe this can help: https://superuser.com/questions/711029/ … e-manually
instead if using a system path use a drop-in override in home: $HOME/.local/share/icons/hicolor/

seth · 2024-12-10 09:10:58

/usr/local/share/icons/hicolor would probably also work but much unfortunately:

The OP wrote:

I would much appreciate if y'all would extend me the courtesy to refrain from any lectures about how it's a bad thing to add files manually into system directories.

the OP doesn't want to hear anything about sane approaches that just would avoid that conflict altogether.

Too bad.

NoUpgrade will also get what the OP wants - once they looked into the manpage.

Lone_Wolf · 2024-12-10 11:27:03

NoUpgrade creates .pacnew files, I prefer NoExtract for such cases.

(currently there are 8 NoExtract entries in my /etc/pacman.conf)

dakota · 2024-12-10 13:19:08

Lone_Wolf wrote:

NoUpgrade creates .pacnew files, I prefer NoExtract for such cases.

I kind of thought the .pacnew files would be cool. It would help *me*, at least, remember what files I'd modified. But I suppose there are better ways to track modified files.

Cheers,

Edit - very nice solutions from cryptearth, seth, and lone_wolf!

Last edited by dakota (2024-12-10 13:20:33)

seth · 2024-12-10 15:16:25

On top of that, NoUpgrade should be more convenient wrt globbing, because NoExtract on a glob will preclude new icons - and w/o you'd have to remember to add every icon manually.

But again, all of that is only relevant if once categorically insists of messing around w/ distro-owned paths for likely no reason at all (there may be some clients that just hardcode the /usr/share/icons path - though that's rather theoretical)

Arch Linux

#1 2024-12-09 23:36:17

Need help with "exists in filesystem" error

#2 2024-12-10 00:20:52

Re: Need help with "exists in filesystem" error

#3 2024-12-10 06:25:29

Re: Need help with "exists in filesystem" error

#4 2024-12-10 07:31:48

Re: Need help with "exists in filesystem" error

#5 2024-12-10 07:51:10

Re: Need help with "exists in filesystem" error

#6 2024-12-10 09:10:58

Re: Need help with "exists in filesystem" error

#7 2024-12-10 11:27:03

Re: Need help with "exists in filesystem" error

#8 2024-12-10 13:19:08

Re: Need help with "exists in filesystem" error

#9 2024-12-10 15:16:25

Re: Need help with "exists in filesystem" error

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