So it appears the backend and pactest are both a little confused about where 'replaces' belongs. If we look at a current repo, 'replaces' is listed in the /desc file: $ cat /var/lib/pacman/current/gawk-3.1.5-3/desc %NAME% gawk %VERSION% 3.1.5-3 %DESC% Gnu version of awk %CSIZE% 552398 %MD5SUM% 4f539bb7ba6bb3328a2891ecf4ad2caf %REPLACES% mawk However, it appears that libalpm actually *writes* this info to the /depends file - replaces info is NOT written to the local DB. Please note that it appears this code is never actually hit. The db_write routine is not currently used when unpacking a remote DB, it is mostly untarred directly. In the future, however, this routine WILL be used to write DB info, so it is important to figure this out now: Where does 'replaces' info belong? I leave the question open, because i have no opinion, but I'd like to do this right - where does it fit best? The /depends file seems more appropriate, as it contains all the "list" info already. Anyone have an opinion?