Arch Linux

mesoseven

Member

Registered: 2025-04-27

Posts: 3

exists in filesystem error, package does not exist on uninstall

whenever I attempt to install a package with pacman, it sends several errors saying that various files in said package exist in filesystem. If I try to uninstall that same package, pacman claims it does not exist.

cmatrix as a test looks like:

mesoseven@charlotte-pc:~$ sudo pacman -S cmatrix
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (1) cmatrix-2.0-3

Total Installed Size:  0.09 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] Y
(1/1) checking keys in keyring                                        [#######################################] 100%
(1/1) checking package integrity                                      [#######################################] 100%
(1/1) loading package files                                           [#######################################] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts                                     [#######################################] 100%
error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)
cmatrix: /usr/bin/cmatrix exists in filesystem
cmatrix: /usr/share/doc/cmatrix/AUTHORS exists in filesystem
cmatrix: /usr/share/doc/cmatrix/COPYING exists in filesystem
cmatrix: /usr/share/doc/cmatrix/ChangeLog exists in filesystem
cmatrix: /usr/share/doc/cmatrix/INSTALL exists in filesystem
cmatrix: /usr/share/doc/cmatrix/NEWS exists in filesystem
cmatrix: /usr/share/doc/cmatrix/README exists in filesystem
cmatrix: /usr/share/fonts/misc/mtx.pcf exists in filesystem
cmatrix: /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/matrix.fnt exists in filesystem
cmatrix: /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/matrix.psf.gz exists in filesystem
cmatrix: /usr/share/man/man1/cmatrix.1.gz exists in filesystem
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.

 1 mesoseven@charlotte-pc:~$ sudo pacman -S --overwrite cmatrix
error: no targets specified (use -h for help)

mesoseven@charlotte-pc:~$ sudo pacman -R cmatrix
[sudo] password for mesoseven: 
error: target not found: cmatrix

I tried to reinstall pacman, which changed nothing, and pacman -Qnq | pacman -S - which worked but missed a lot of packages, including my desktop environment.
trying to update results in:

1 mesoseven@charlotte-pc:~$ sudo pacman -Syu
[sudo] password for mesoseven: 
:: Synchronizing package databases...
 core is up to date
 extra is up to date
 multilib is up to date
:: Starting full system upgrade...
 there is nothing to do

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,725

Re: exists in filesystem error, package does not exist on uninstall

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman … )%22_error

mesoseven

Member

Registered: 2025-04-27

Posts: 3

Re: exists in filesystem error, package does not exist on uninstall

I've never used make install, and this happens for every program I try to install, cmatrix is just one example.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,156

Re: exists in filesystem error, package does not exist on uninstall

If this happens for packages you've technically installed already then you have a broken/corrupted  pacman DB ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman … l_database ). If you don't remember actively installing them, did you run some "rice your Arch/hyprland/whatever" dotfile installer from the internet, or e.g. stuff like conda system wide or so?

Also the proper way to use the --overwrite flag is with a glob so * if you want to match all files within the package that are existing.

mesoseven

Member

Registered: 2025-04-27

Posts: 3

Re: exists in filesystem error, package does not exist on uninstall

No this happens with every single program I ever try to install.

ugjka

Member

From: Latvia

Registered: 2014-04-01

Posts: 1,956

Website

Re: exists in filesystem error, package does not exist on uninstall

how did you install arch

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https://ugjka.net

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,295

Re: exists in filesystem error, package does not exist on uninstall

sudo LC_ALL=C pacman -Qkk | grep -v ', 0 altered files' | grep -v backup > /tmp/howbadisit.txt 2>&1
cat  /tmp/howbadisit.txt | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

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