In the last stable update there was 2x pacnew files, i merged on my PC/Laptop right after the update 1 file and then i switched on both system from Kernel 6.1 to 6.6… 1 week later, i just wanted to merge the other pacnew file with pacdiff -s but when i press m for Merge there is only a message in Terminal: -> Unable to find a base package.
v for view is working on both system and Meld is showing up.
q for quit and s for skip is working too.
pacdiff doesn’t change when changing kernel.
pacdiff is part of pacman-contrib
It is not kernel related since i was on 6.6 since long time. There is some “bug” or probably misconfiguration with merging and meld since the last update. But i just edited my pacnew manually and didn’t bother to debug.
Yeah i reinstalled it after the stable release.
Well i also could still use V (for VIEW) and was still able to merge it with Meld… i just wanted to tell there is a bug, even its minor.
Maybe i have flawed memories? But i think i would know when Merge (M) Hotkey wasnt working in first place.
Besides Kernel Switch, i don’t think i changed anything else around my Manjaro, specially not on my Laptop. 
If I recall correct pacdiff requires vi - so possibly you will need to use Esc to switch back to command mode.
If think this is a common mistake when using vi based tools - switching command mode back and forth.
There was actually some error message that pacdiff threw, but i do not remember anymore…i just had to change one line in ma passwd file so i did it manually with another text editor and did not bother anymore.
As i said, in my case i noticed it after last update. I think it worked without errors before, but the last pacnews before that were some months ago…
edit:
i tried to simulate it - either pacdiff is buggy or it does not work with my simulation
[teo@teo-lenovo-v15 ~]$ sudo updatedb
[teo@teo-lenovo-v15 ~]$ DIFFPROG=meld pacdiff -s -l
==> pacnew file found for /home/teo/bla.conf
:: (V)iew, (M)erge, (S)kip, (R)emove pacnew, (O)verwrite with pacnew, (Q)uit: [v/m/s/r/o/q] v
error: No package owns /home/teo/bla.conf
:: (V)iew, (M)erge, (S)kip, (R)emove pacnew, (O)verwrite with pacnew, (Q)uit: [v/m/s/r/o/q] m
error: No package owns /home/teo/bla.conf
:: (V)iew, (M)erge, (S)kip, (R)emove pacnew, (O)verwrite with pacnew, (Q)uit: [v/m/s/r/o/q] q
[teo@teo-lenovo-v15 ~]$ pacdiff -s -l
==> pacnew file found for /home/teo/bla.conf
:: (V)iew, (M)erge, (S)kip, (R)emove pacnew, (O)verwrite with pacnew, (Q)uit: [v/m/s/r/o/q] v
error: No package owns /home/teo/bla.conf
:: (V)iew, (M)erge, (S)kip, (R)emove pacnew, (O)verwrite with pacnew, (Q)uit: [v/m/s/r/o/q] m
error: No package owns /home/teo/bla.conf
:: (V)iew, (M)erge, (S)kip, (R)emove pacnew, (O)verwrite with pacnew, (Q)uit: [v/m/s/r/o/q] q
[teo@teo-lenovo-v15 ~]$ pacdiff -l
==> pacnew file found for /home/teo/bla.conf
:: (V)iew, (M)erge, (S)kip, (R)emove pacnew, (O)verwrite with pacnew, (Q)uit: [v/m/s/r/o/q] v
error: No package owns /home/teo/bla.conf
:: (V)iew, (M)erge, (S)kip, (R)emove pacnew, (O)verwrite with pacnew, (Q)uit: [v/m/s/r/o/q] q
[teo@teo-lenovo-v15 ~]$
Because of this I moved to meld to merge new configuration files.
I made another test, this time for real with pacman.conf. The error about ownership is logically not there anymore. By hitting M i get the error about the base package. As far as i understand from topics in the arch forum, that seems to be connected with me clearing the pacman cache.
However, if i select V for view, Meld opens, i can make changes to the files and after saving and closing meld everything is fine (pacdiff sees the changes, asks for deletion, etc. as expected).
Atleast im not alone. So there is something wrong with the pacman cache? Can this be fixed?
As i said already, its just a minor bug… V (View) and Edit/Merging still works. But when there is a solution, i would love to fix it.
Sry, I can’t follow you.
vi? command mode???
Some new feature since update of pacdiff a couple of months ago according to arch forum
, seems like it requires cached version of packets and i cleaned my cache after the update.
It does not start VI editor at all, that is the problem. Not the meld variable.
Maybe my cache was cleaned also, but after the switch from 6.1 to 6.6 Kernel, thats why it was running first but then not…!? 
I just remember i was also using Bleachbit on both systems, a cache cleaning program. 
First off,
I never use the ‘merge’ function.
Secondly,
heres a bit of it, related to your query.
base_cache_tar() {
package="$1"
for cachedir in "${cachedirs[@]}"; do
pushd "$cachedir" &>/dev/null || {
error "failed to chdir to '%s', skipping" "$cachedir"
continue
}
find "$PWD" -name "$package-[0-9]*.pkg.tar*" ! -name '*.sig' |
pacsort --files --reverse | sed -ne '2p'
popd &>/dev/null || exit
done
}
[...]
merge_file() {
pacfile="$1"
file="$2"
package="$(pacman -Qoq "$file")" || return 1
base_tar="$(base_cache_tar "$package")"
if [[ -z $base_tar ]]; then
msg2 "Unable to find a base package."
return 1
fi
basename="$(basename "$file")"
tempdir="$(mktemp -d --tmpdir "pacdiff-merge-$basename.XXX")"
base="$(mktemp "$tempdir"/"$basename.base.XXX")"
merged="$(mktemp "$tempdir"/"$basename.merged.XXX")"
if ! bsdtar -xqOf "$base_tar" "${file#/}" >"$base"; then
msg2 "Unable to extract the previous version of this file."
return 1
fi
if $mergeprog "$file" "$base" "$pacfile" >"$merged"; then
msg2 "Merged without conflicts."
fi
$diffprog "$file" "$merged"
while :; do
ask "Would you like to use the results of the merge? [y/n] "
read -r c || return 1
case $c in
y|Y) break ;;
n|N) return 1 ;;
*) msg2 "Invalid answer." ;;
esac
done
if ! $SUDO cp -v "$merged" "$file"; then
warning "Unable to write merged file to %s. Merged file is preserved at %s" "$file" "$merged"
return 1
fi
$SUDO rm -rv "$pacfile" "$tempdir"
return 0
}
So yeah … anything between missing package or package cache could do it.
pacdiff is the utility for finding/parsing the pacnews. It is not an editor or diff manager.
I dont understand this statement.
I use meld too … as called by pacdiff.