pacman/Pacnew and Pacsave - ArchWiki
A .pacnew file may be created during a package upgrade (
pacman -Syu,pacman -Suorpacman -U) to avoid overwriting a file which already exists and was previously modified by the user.A .pacsave file may be created during a package removal (
pacman -R), or by a package upgrade (the package must be removed first). When the pacman database has a record that a certain file owned by the package should be backed up, it will create a .pacsave file.pacsave
If the user has modified one of the files specified in
backupthen that file will be renamed with a .pacsave extension and will remain in the filesystem after the rest of the package is removed.
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