You, and only you can decide what to do with each file, except/etc/passwd.pacnew as this was specified in a previous update announcement can simply be deleted.
Whatever you do, do not blindly overwrite them. AFAIK they only get created for files you have made modifications to, so only you can see what should be done.
This is also a good reason and example of why you should always check and handle any and all .pacnew files with every update.
Under no circumstance treat these three with No. 3!
/etc/passwd.pacnew
/etc/locale.gen.pacnew
/etc/default/grub.pacnew
You need to merge them (1).
It’s best just to look at the original and the .pacnew - what is the content, where does it differ
Should be easy to spot.
original is (for instance) /etc/passwd
the change is in /etc/passwd.pacnew
/etc/pacman.conf.pacnew
You can treat this with No. 3
To be on the safe side -
in case something goes sideways due to lack of experience or understanding -
make copies of all originals before you proceed to alter anything
so that you still have the original and can restore it.
meld is a good visual tool to see the differences and to merge the two
You probably have to practice some until you understand how it works - thus my advice to make copies of everything you work on before you do.
Make sure you have meld (or similar diff/merge software) installed. I prefer meld, so if you’re not sure - just get that first.
You will get a popup asking you what to do with the file… you can ‘merge’ at which time meld should open and you can then choose to click the arrow (move it across) or somethingi else - when done, you can remove the pacnew.
I have meld installed but I see the popup shown in my original posting. How can I use meld from there?
What happens, I I answer “Do nothing” in case I’m not sure? Will I see the list with the remaining ones ever again?
The tool manjaro-pacnew-checker seems to be fine and useful, but for my understanding some description should be added, how to use it …
Furthermore, at least the German translation “das Original” is highly misunderstandable; in my case for the first entry:
So, the actual one is index.theme (from 2024), the old one (from 2020) is index.theme.pacsave. So instead of “das Original” I propose the translation “die aktuell genutzte Version / the version, actually used”. Where to put this task?
Ha! Wußte ichs doch - und jetzt fällt’s mir wieder ein - warum ich meinen Post erst in deutsch verfaßt hatte und dann alles nochmal auf englisch …
Dein Screenshot war deutsch.
translation of the above:
Ha! I knew it and now remember why I first wrote my post in german but then rewrote it in english again … the text in your screenshot was/is german.
Further with the quoted sentence:
what you have here is not a .pacnew file - it is a .pacsave file
the reason for it’s existence is something different
and crucially
nothing you need to worry about at this time (or ever).
@jrichard326 posted this link in another thread re .pacsave and .pacnew and system maintenance in general:
I’ve never had to use it. There’s always nothing to use it on.
But that brings up an interesting point. It is the default for pacdiff, and yet people unfamiliar with the CLI in general and vim in particular, are required to update config files from pacnew files in the CLI and using unfamiliar tools.
This is one reason why I believe ‘Operating Systems with Graphical User Interfaces require fully functioning Graphical Package Managers’
Even as far back as Mandrake Linux, this was done via the Package Manager.
