[pacman-dev] Provides/replaces fields and backup files

[Xavier Chantry]

On Sat, May 8, 2010 at 9:21 PM, Nezmer <arch at nezmer.info> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Suppose package B replaces package A. Both packages share the same
> content with minor differences. They both have many backup files with
> the same initial content.
>
> When package B replaces package A. Modified backup files will move to
> <backupfile.pacsave>.
>
> What If pacman could check for initial content of the backup files for
> both packages and If the content is the same, treat those backup files
> as If the process is a package upgrade not a package replacement.
>
> This is a real-life example. Packages A and B contain files like
> "/etc/passwd" and "/etc/group". So not moving the files to ".pacsave"
> adds more than a convenience for the lazy.
>
> My C skills are next-to-zero so unfortunately I can't help coding this.
>
> Do you consider this a valid minor bug?

It's not a bug, but it's a valid feature request.

> Should I report this to flyspray?
>
>

You can, but that won't ensure that someone will work on it either.

There has been this idea floating around for years that backup
handling was another area that needed a full rewrite, and the proposal
was basically to always move backup files to .pacsave on removal, and
to restore them on upgrade/replace/install, i.e. handle these 3
different cases in an uniform way.