On Mon, 11 Jan 2010, Aaron Griffin wrote:


If you modify it, you should add it to the NoUpgrade line in
/etc/pacman.conf. The backup array is for what we INTEND to be
modified. Users are more than welcome to do what we don't intend, but
you need to control whether of not pacman mucks with those files
yourself

Since I've been bitten by this, how can I know if the file I modified is
goint to be overwritten or not, *before* it actually happens? And even if
it is, a .pacsave wouldn't hurt anyone, if I remember correctly (it's been
some time) I had completely lost my changes, and I had to rewrite them.



Thanks,
Dimitris

On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 12:34 AM, Dimitrios Apostolou <jimis@gmx.net> wrote:
> On Mon, 11 Jan 2010, Aaron Griffin wrote:
>>
>> If you modify it, you should add it to the NoUpgrade line in
>> /etc/pacman.conf. The backup array is for what we INTEND to be
>> modified. Users are more than welcome to do what we don't intend, but
>> you need to control whether of not pacman mucks with those files
>> yourself
>>
> Since I've been bitten by this, how can I know if the file I modified is
> goint to be overwritten or not, *before* it actually happens? And even if it
> is, a .pacsave wouldn't hurt anyone, if I remember correctly (it's been some
> time) I had completely lost my changes, and I had to rewrite them.
>
>

pacman -Qh
-o, --owns <file> query the package that owns <file>
-i, --info view package information (-ii for backup files)

Am 13.01.2010 00:34, schrieb Dimitrios Apostolou:
> Since I've been bitten by this, how can I know if the file I modified is
> goint to be overwritten or not, *before* it actually happens? And even
> if it is, a .pacsave wouldn't hurt anyone, if I remember correctly (it's
> been some time) I had completely lost my changes, and I had to rewrite
> them.

pacman -Qii is your friend.

On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 01:34:52AM +0200, Dimitrios Apostolou wrote:
>
> Since I've been bitten by this, how can I know if the file I
> modified is goint to be overwritten or not, *before* it actually
> happens?

pacman -Qo $file

will tell you what package installed $file.

find /var/abs -type d -name $package

will give you the directory containing the PKGBUILD.

fgrep /var/abs/path/to/PKGBUILD -e backup=

will give you the backup array. If it's not there, it will be
overwritten or removed on upgrades.

> And even if it is, a .pacsave wouldn't hurt anyone, if I
> remember correctly (it's been some time) I had completely lost my
> changes, and I had to rewrite them.

I know, I've been bitten too. I highly recommend setting up a script to
backup your /etc directory daily, and keep at least a week or so of
rotated backups. If you've got a good backup system, you can just
include this in it. If not, you should get one. But you could in the
meantime, or additionally, just set up a separate /etc backup. It
needn't take up much space. My /etc is 9 M and the total of a week's
worth of daily backups and three weeks of weekly backups beyond that is
20 M. Look into rdiff-backup or rsnapshot.

--
profjim@jimpryor.net

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 5:43 PM, Thomas Bächler <thomas@archlinux.org> wrote:
> Am 13.01.2010 00:34, schrieb Dimitrios Apostolou:
>> Since I've been bitten by this, how can I know if the file I modified is
>> goint to be overwritten or not, *before* it actually happens? And even
>> if it is, a .pacsave wouldn't hurt anyone, if I remember correctly (it's
>> been some time) I had completely lost my changes, and I had to rewrite
>> them.
>
> pacman -Qii is your friend.

This.
pacman -Qii dcron will show you all the backup files that pacman will
take care of.

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 5:47 PM, Jim Pryor
<lists+arch-general@jimpryor.net> wrote:
> I know, I've been bitten too. I highly recommend setting up a script to
> backup your /etc directory daily, and keep at least a week or so of
> rotated backups. If you've got a good backup system, you can just
> include this in it. If not, you should get one. But you could in the
> meantime, or additionally, just set up a separate /etc backup. It
> needn't take up much space. My /etc is 9 M and the total of a week's
> worth of daily backups and three weeks of weekly backups beyond that is
> 20 M. Look into rdiff-backup or rsnapshot.

We use this at work:
http://joey.kitenet.net/code/etckeeper/

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 05:50:47PM -0600, Aaron Griffin wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 5:43 PM, Thomas Bächler <thomas@archlinux.org> wrote:
> > pacman -Qii is your friend.
>
> This.
> pacman -Qii dcron will show you all the backup files that pacman will
> take care of.

Very nice. When did you guys do that?


On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 05:51:27PM -0600, Aaron Griffin wrote:
>
> We use this at work:
> http://joey.kitenet.net/code/etckeeper/

Also nice.


--
profjim@jimpryor.net

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 6:50 PM, Jim Pryor
<lists+arch-general@jimpryor.net> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 05:50:47PM -0600, Aaron Griffin wrote:
>> On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 5:43 PM, Thomas Bächler <thomas@archlinux.org> wrote:
>> > pacman -Qii is your friend.
>>
>> This.
>> pacman -Qii dcron will show you all the backup files that pacman will
>> take care of.
>
> Very nice. When did you guys do that?

Forever? It is in the initial git import from 2005, which is the
beginnings of pacman 3.X:
http://projects.archlinux.org/pacman.git/tree/src/pacman/package.c?id=d04ba#n85

-Dan

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 08:41:47PM -0600, Dan McGee wrote:
> > Very nice. When did you guys do that?
>
> Forever? It is in the initial git import from 2005, which is the
> beginnings of pacman 3.X:
> http://projects.archlinux.org/pacman.git/tree/src/pacman/package.c?id=d04ba#n85

Just shows: read a manpage 20 times? look again because you've still missed stuff.

Well except a gnu manpage.

--
profjim@jimpryor.net

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 8:55 PM, Jim Pryor
<lists+arch-general@jimpryor.net> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 08:41:47PM -0600, Dan McGee wrote:
>> > Very nice. When did you guys do that?
>>
>> Forever? It is in the initial git import from 2005, which is the
>> beginnings of pacman 3.X:
>> http://projects.archlinux.org/pacman.git/tree/src/pacman/package.c?id=d04ba#n85
>
> Just shows: read a manpage 20 times? look again because you've still missed stuff.
>
> Well except a gnu manpage.

Haha, the documentation didn't come until 2007 however, so you do have
a point there.

-Dan