Checking broken packages with paccheck

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1

every once in a while when I run
sudo paccheck --list-broken --recursive

I see this list:

aide
cups
filesystem
gssproxy
puppet
speech-dispatcher
systemd
usbguard

Does this mean my system has been compromised?
If not, how can it be that this list reoccurs even though I did not have an update recently?

The way I solve it is by reinstalling the packages and it seems to work, because after that the packages are gone from the output.

2

Interesting. I’ve never really played with pacutils. This is what I get:

❯ sudo paccheck --list-broken --recursive
linux59

Or you could do this:

pacrepairdb

Attempt to repair broken entries in libalpm’s database by reinstalling affected packages from the cache:

paccheck --files --db-files --list-broken | pacrepairdb

However, it doesn’t work for me:

❯ sudo paccheck --files --db-files --list-broken | pacrepairdb
Loading cache packages...
Attempting to repair the following packages:
  linux59-5.9.14-2 (/var/cache/pacman/pkg/linux59-5.9.14-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst)

:: Proceed with repair? [Y/n] unable to lock database

I have no /var/lib/pacman/db.lck, so not sure why it fails.

1 Like
3

what about this:
sudo paccheck --file-properties --quiet | grep -Po "(?<=').*(?=')" | sudo pacrepairfile --uid --gid --mode --mtime

4

Be careful as to what you’d consider to be broken using paccheck.

From my system:

sudo paccheck --list-broken --recursive
surfraw

pacman -Qkk surfraw
warning: surfraw: /usr/lib/surfraw/acronym (Modification time mismatch)
warning: surfraw: /usr/lib/surfraw/aur (No such file or directory)
surfraw: 249 total files, 2 altered files

I changed an alias in surfraw, because it (the alias) conflicted with a command from another package.

So, check before you blindly repair.

3 Likes
5

Good point.

❯ pacman -Qkk linux59
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.alias (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.alias (Size mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.alias.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.alias.bin (Size mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.builtin.alias.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.builtin.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.dep (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.dep (Size mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.dep.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.dep.bin (Size mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.devname (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.softdep (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.symbols (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.symbols (Size mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.symbols.bin (Modification time mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/modules.symbols.bin (Size mismatch)
warning: linux59: /usr/lib/modules/5.9.14-2-MANJARO/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/system76_acpi.ko.xz (No such file or directory)
linux59: 7075 total files, 11 altered files

This is all harmless. Nothing to fix here.

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6