[arch-general] First Problem with pacman - Need to understand why

[David C. Rankin]

Listmates,

	I ran into my first problem with pacman and, I know what caused the problem,
but I need to understand why pacman thought it was a problem to begin with.
Here is the situation:

	Trying to start X, and one complaint was no /usr/share/fonts/TTF directory. I
had a /usr/share/fonts/truetype directory so I just softlinked the missing TTF
to truetype to get rid to the error on startx. startx liked the solution.

	Then I went to install audio-convert which noted additional dependencies of
(blah.. blah.. mplayer), so I we to install the optional dependencies:

**pms below is just aliased to 'pacman -Sy'

[14:15 archangel:/home/david] # pms lame id3lib vorbis-tools flac faac faad2
musepack-tools mplayer

<snip>

checking package integrity...
(12/12) checking for file conflicts
[#############################################] 100%
error: could not prepare transaction
error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)
ttf-dejavu: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf exists in filesystem
ttf-dejavu: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/DejaVuSans-BoldOblique.ttf exists in filesystem
ttf-dejavu: /usr/share/fonts/TTF/DejaVuSans-ExtraLight.ttf exists in filesystem
	<snip - remaining dejavu variants>
Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.

	And "Yes", DejaVu fonts did exist in /usr/share/fonts/TTF softlinked to
/usr/share/fonts/truetype, but why does pacman care? If the same font already
exists in a directory, that shouldn't cause the install to blow up -- should it?

	Well, since I cause the problem with the softlink, fixing it was pretty easy,
but what I'm curious about is why it was a problem to begin with. I want to
understand what the rules are for pacman so I don't cause any additional
problems in the future with softlinks (which I use in moderation, but do use).
So any body got quick explanation or quick link so I can figure out what not to
do again??

	Thanks


-- 
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
510 Ochiltree Street
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Telephone: (936) 715-9333
Facsimile: (936) 715-9339
www.rankinlawfirm.com