[arch-general] util-linux pacman error, file conflicts (safe to force?)

[Tom Gundersen]

On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 5:38 PM, Leonid Isaev <lisaev at umail.iu.edu> wrote:
> On Mon, 09 Jul 2012 10:49:46 -0500
> "David C. Rankin" <drankinatty at suddenlinkmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Tom, All,
>>
>>    I ran into the following error regarding util-linux upgrade. I've looked
>> in the forum and the website, but nothing specific to it. The error is:
>>
>> (72/72) checking for file conflicts
>> [###########################################] 100%
>> error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)
>> util-linux: /bin/login exists in filesystem
>> util-linux: /etc/pam.d/chfn exists in filesystem
>> util-linux: /etc/pam.d/chsh exists in filesystem
>> util-linux: /etc/pam.d/login exists in filesystem
>> util-linux: /usr/bin/chfn exists in filesystem
>> util-linux: /usr/bin/chsh exists in filesystem
>> util-linux: /usr/bin/newgrp exists in filesystem
>> util-linux: /usr/sbin/vigr exists in filesystem
>> util-linux: /usr/sbin/vipw exists in filesystem
>> util-linux: /usr/share/man/man1/chfn.1.gz exists in filesystem
>> util-linux: /usr/share/man/man1/chsh.1.gz exists in filesystem
>> util-linux: /usr/share/man/man1/login.1.gz exists in filesystem
>> util-linux: /usr/share/man/man1/newgrp.1.gz exists in filesystem
>> util-linux: /usr/share/man/man8/vigr.8.gz exists in filesystem
>> util-linux: /usr/share/man/man8/vipw.8.gz exists in filesystem
>> Errors occurred, no packages were upgraded.
>>
>>    Is this safe to force? I ask because I don't want to kill login by
>> forcing if there is a preferred way to do this.... What say the experts?
>
> Hmm.. pacman should have taken care of this automatically.
>
> Do: pacman -Sy && pacman -Su --ignore util-linux,shadow && pacman -S shadow
> util-linux. If the last call fails, use --force.

Never use force, not even as a last resort, unless you really know
that it is the right thing to do. It is very likely to end up deleting
your files.

-t