mpan via arch-general arch-general@lists.archlinux.org wrote:

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Lately, possibly starting at mid December, files in /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ are kept with mode u=rw,g=,o= . Am I the only one having it?

Not observed here:

$ find /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ -iname '*.tar.zst' -exec stat -c '%a' {}

• | sort -u

644

Check what `umask` prints before invoking pacman. If not 0022, here???s the culprit.

Right to the point. A systemd timer script had a too strict Umask setting.

Thank for all replies.

-- jadon

Otherwise please post the EXACT, COMPLETE command line you are invoking.

mpan via arch-general arch-general@lists.archlinux.org wrote:

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Right to the point. A systemd timer script had a too strict Umask setting.

That should have been UMask, not Umask. It could be that Umask is supported. It is UMask at https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.exec.html .

Are you invoking pacman in an unattended manner in a systemd timer? If yes, you probably have another problem. I suppose you mean calling `pacman -Sywu`.

You are correct. With long options, it is written as pacman --sync --refresh --downloadonly --sysupgrade .

That puts your system into a potential partial upgrade scenario and makes your local package versions desynced from from the sync database contains.

According to https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_maintenance#Partial_upgrades_are_uns... pacman -Sywu is not safe. But pacman -Syu is safe. Quoting the wiki, the rational is that pacman -Sywu will update the pacman sync database without installing the newer packages. What I fail to see is why pacman -Sywu, followed by pacman -Su, 1. Will update the pacman sync database without installing the newer packages. But then 2. Will not update the pacman sync database while installing the packages it has prevoiusly downloaded.

If your goal is to download packages to cache, see the `checkupdates` command from package community/pacman-contrib????????. `checkupdates -d` is doing exactly what you want, but without leading to a partial upgrade.

That is, my understanding is that checkupdates -d is equivalent to pacman -Sywu && pacman -Su . I haven't read checkupdates manual page. It could be that other then a safe upgrade it does additional work.

-- jadon

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???????? https://archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/pacman-contrib/

mpan via arch-general arch-general@lists.archlinux.org wrote:

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According to https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_maintenance#Partial_upgrades_are_uns... pacman -Sywu is not safe. But pacman -Syu is safe. Quoting the wiki, the rational is that pacman -Sywu will update the pacman sync database without installing the newer packages. What I fail to see is why pacman -Sywu, followed by pacman -Su,

1. Will update the pacman sync database without installing the newer packages.

But then 2. Will not update the pacman sync database while installing the packages it has prevoiusly downloaded.

If `-Sywu` is *immediately* followed by `-Su` then there is no risk of running into a partial upgrade, but:

1. Then there is normally no reason to run those as separate commands, as `-Sywu` immediately followed by `-Su` has no benefits compared to simple `-Syu`. `-Sywu` is used to avoid the update, but download package files to the cache.
2. You are mentioning a system timer, so I assume `-Sywu` is not immediately followed by `-Su`. Unless you are also running unattended updates, which is even worse and *will* eventually break your system.

`checkupdates -d` does exactly the same as `-Sywu`, but without updating the system-wide sync databases. So pacman???s view of everything remains the same as if nothing was updated. It only gets package files in the cache.

I have tried to look into the checkupdates script, but got confused. It looks not long bash script. Does it do the work by copying the system-wide sync databases to a temporary databases, works on those temporary databases, and wiped them before exiting?

-- jadon