[arch-general] Package conflicts

[Doug Newgard]

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> Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 10:03:59 -0400
> From: jdarnold at buddydog.org
> To: arch-general at archlinux.org
> Subject: [arch-general] Package conflicts
>
> I'm having a problem with the liteide vs gocode-git packages. liteide,
> which is an official Pacman package, has recently started to include
> the /usr/bin/gocode binary, which I have been using via the AUR
> package gocode-git (there is also another AUR package called
> gocode-bin but no pacman package).
>
> So now when I try to update I get an error:
>
> error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)
> liteide: /usr/bin/gocode exists in filesystem
>
> This didn't seem to be right, as I'm trying to install liteide, not
> gocode here. So I reported the problem:
>
> https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/39607
>
> and it immediately got closed with the statement that AUR packages
> aren't supported so contact the maintainer of the AUR package.
>
> Well, as far as I can tell, there isn't much the maintainer of the AUR
> package can do if some other package is going to just put any old
> binary wherever it wants without saying anything about it. Shouldn't
> the liteide package at least say it provides 'gocode'? Or conflicts or
> something besides just letting pacman complain about a file that exists
> in the filesystem?
>
> Carrying this a bit further, how would it or should it work if I did
> want to keep using gocode-git, but also use liteide?
>
> --
> Jonathan Arnold Webstream: http://hieronymus.soup.io
>
> If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, you
> need a team ~ John Wooden

As I said, contact the AUR maintainer. There are really two options; first, he can add liteide to the conflicts array, in which case you can't have them installed together. Second, he can move the conflicting binaries. Either way, it's something that needs to be done in the AUR package.

Doug