[arch-general] directive 'SyncFirst'

[Øyvind Heggstad]

On Fri, 05 Apr 2013 03:24:52 +0200
Ralf Mardorf <ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net> wrote:

> Hi :)
> 
> how can be ensured that e.g. linux-headers are updated first in the
> future?
> 
> I couldn't find a word on the English Arch website and just the
> information that it is ignored now, without a hint what to do, on the
> German website.
> 
> [root at archlinux yaourt-git]# pacman -Syu
> warning: config file /etc/pacman.conf, line 19: directive 'SyncFirst'
> in section 'options' not recognized.
> :: Synchronizing package databases...
>  core is up to date
>  extra is up to date
>  community is up to date
>  multilib is up to date
> :: Starting full system upgrade...
> warning: ardour: ignoring package upgrade (2.8.16-1 => 3.0-1)
>  there is nothing to do
> 
> [rocketmouse at archlinux yaourt-git]$ yaourt -Syu
> [sudo] password for rocketmouse: 
> warning: config file /etc/pacman.conf, line 19: directive 'SyncFirst'
> in section 'options' not recognized.
> :: Synchronizing package databases...
>  core is up to date
>  extra is up to date
>  community is up to date
>  multilib is up to date
> warning: config file /etc/pacman.conf, line 19: directive 'SyncFirst'
> in section 'options' not
> recognized.
> 
> Regards,
> Ralf
> 

Hooks have been suggested as a possible solution to this problem as far
back as 2010[1] (there is some interesting comments in that bug report),
but no one have cared enough about it to bother to actually do
something about it. (It's just like the package signing story!)

A certain other distro which shall rename unnamed have decided to patch
back SyncFirst into pacman 4.1, so if you can't wait for/be bothered to
implement hooks, you may want to look at their project.

Alternatively  you can wrap pacman to make sure that the headers is
always installed before whatever requires them.

[1] https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/20165