Pacman.conf pacnew

Hello! After the Dec 22 update I found I had 2 pacnews, one for fortran.conf and the other is for pacman.conf

The fortran one was talked about in the topic as being a rare one that is safe to overwrite with the pacnew but there was very little on the pacman.conf one so I would like to ask about it here since I missed the boat on posting in the update topic before the new update released.

I have NOT edited my pacman.conf file so I assume that this is just a new standard that can be overwrote but I would like to ask for help anyways before I do my new update on Jan 4th.
Here is my current pacman.conf

#
# /etc/pacman.conf
#
# See the pacman.conf(5) manpage for option and repository directives

#
# GENERAL OPTIONS
#
[options]
# The following paths are commented out with their default values listed.
# If you wish to use different paths, uncomment and update the paths.
#RootDir     = /
#DBPath      = /var/lib/pacman/
CacheDir = /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
#LogFile     = /var/log/pacman.log
#GPGDir      = /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/
#HookDir     = /etc/pacman.d/hooks/
HoldPkg      = pacman glibc manjaro-system
#XferCommand = /usr/bin/curl -L -C - -f -o %o %u
#XferCommand = /usr/bin/wget --passive-ftp -c -O %o %u
#CleanMethod = KeepInstalled
#UseDelta    = 0.7
Architecture = auto

#IgnorePkg   =
#IgnorePkg   =
#IgnoreGroup =

#NoUpgrade   =
#NoExtract   =

# Misc options
#UseSyslog
#Color
#NoProgressBar
# We cannot check disk space from within a chroot environment
CheckSpace
#VerbosePkgLists
ParallelDownloads = 4

# By default, pacman accepts packages signed by keys that its local keyring
# trusts (see pacman-key and its man page), as well as unsigned packages.
SigLevel    = Required DatabaseOptional
LocalFileSigLevel = Optional
#RemoteFileSigLevel = Required

# NOTE: You must run `pacman-key --init` before first using pacman; the local
# keyring can then be populated with the keys of all official Manjaro Linux
# packagers with `pacman-key --populate archlinux manjaro`.

#
# REPOSITORIES
#   - can be defined here or included from another file
#   - pacman will search repositories in the order defined here
#   - local/custom mirrors can be added here or in separate files
#   - repositories listed first will take precedence when packages
#     have identical names, regardless of version number
#   - URLs will have $repo replaced by the name of the current repo
#   - URLs will have $arch replaced by the name of the architecture
#
# Repository entries are of the format:
#       [repo-name]
#       Server = ServerName
#       Include = IncludePath
#
# The header [repo-name] is crucial - it must be present and
# uncommented to enable the repo.
#

# The testing repositories are disabled by default. To enable, uncomment the
# repo name header and Include lines. You can add preferred servers immediately
# after the header, and they will be used before the default mirrors.

[core]
SigLevel = PackageRequired
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[extra]
SigLevel = PackageRequired
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# If you want to run 32 bit applications on your x86_64 system,
# enable the multilib repositories as required here.

[multilib]
SigLevel = PackageRequired
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# An example of a custom package repository.  See the pacman manpage for
# tips on creating your own repositories.
#[custom]
#SigLevel = Optional TrustAll
#Server = file:///home/custompkgs

And here is the contents of the pacnew

#
# /etc/pacman.conf
#
# See the pacman.conf(5) manpage for option and repository directives

#
# GENERAL OPTIONS
#
[options]
# The following paths are commented out with their default values listed.
# If you wish to use different paths, uncomment and update the paths.
#RootDir     = /
#DBPath      = /var/lib/pacman/
#CacheDir    = /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
#LogFile     = /var/log/pacman.log
#GPGDir      = /etc/pacman.d/gnupg/
#HookDir     = /etc/pacman.d/hooks/
HoldPkg      = pacman glibc manjaro-system
#XferCommand = /usr/bin/curl -L -C - -f -o %o %u
#XferCommand = /usr/bin/wget --passive-ftp -c -O %o %u
#CleanMethod = KeepInstalled
Architecture = auto

# Pacman won't upgrade packages listed in IgnorePkg and members of IgnoreGroup
#IgnorePkg   =
#IgnoreGroup =

#NoUpgrade   =
#NoExtract   =

# Misc options
#UseSyslog
Color
#NoProgressBar
CheckSpace
#VerbosePkgLists
ParallelDownloads = 5
DownloadUser = alpm
#DisableSandboxFilesystem
#DisableSandboxSyscalls

# By default, pacman accepts packages signed by keys that its local keyring
# trusts (see pacman-key and its man page), as well as unsigned packages.
SigLevel    = Required DatabaseOptional
LocalFileSigLevel = Optional
#RemoteFileSigLevel = Required

# NOTE: You must run `pacman-key --init` before first using pacman; the local
# keyring can then be populated with the keys of all official Arch and Manjaro Linux
# packagers with `pacman-key --populate archlinux manjaro`.

#
# REPOSITORIES
#   - can be defined here or included from another file
#   - pacman will search repositories in the order defined here
#   - local/custom mirrors can be added here or in separate files
#   - repositories listed first will take precedence when packages
#     have identical names, regardless of version number
#   - URLs will have $repo replaced by the name of the current repo
#   - URLs will have $arch replaced by the name of the architecture
#
# Repository entries are of the format:
#       [repo-name]
#       Server = ServerName
#       Include = IncludePath
#
# The header [repo-name] is crucial - it must be present and
# uncommented to enable the repo.
#

[core]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

[extra]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# If you want to run 32 bit applications on your x86_64 system,
# enable the multilib repositories as required here.

[multilib]
Include = /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist

# An example of a custom package repository.  See the pacman manpage for
# tips on creating your own repositories.
#[custom]
#SigLevel = Optional TrustAll
#Server = file:///home/custompkgs

Other than the “parallel downloads” I am not sure what the rest of the stuff that is changed (mostly removed) means or does and cannot find talk about it on the forum.

Help would be appreciated!

$ diff /etc/pacman.conf /etc/pacman.conf.pacnew
14c14
< CacheDir = /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
---
> #CacheDir    = /var/cache/pacman/pkg/
22d21
< #UseDelta    = 0.7
25c24
< #IgnorePkg   =
---
> # Pacman won't upgrade packages listed in IgnorePkg and members of IgnoreGroup
34c33
< #Color
---
> Color
36d34
< # We cannot check disk space from within a chroot environment
39c37,40
< ParallelDownloads = 4
---
> ParallelDownloads = 5
> DownloadUser = alpm
> #DisableSandboxFilesystem
> #DisableSandboxSyscalls
48c49
< # keyring can then be populated with the keys of all official Manjaro Linux
---
> # keyring can then be populated with the keys of all official Arch and Manjaro Linux
70,73d70
< # The testing repositories are disabled by default. To enable, uncomment the
< # repo name header and Include lines. You can add preferred servers immediately
< # after the header, and they will be used before the default mirrors.
< 
75d71
< SigLevel = PackageRequired
79d74
< SigLevel = PackageRequired
86d80
< SigLevel = PackageRequired

No breaking changes: it will make it a bit more secure. You should be able to replace the old with new just fine.

1 Like

Translation.

By overwriting, you are making these noticeable changes:

  • Enabling color in pacman (if you use pacman)
  • Changing from 4 to 5 simultaneous downloads

And you are making these unnoticeable changes, but you still want to bring them over:

  • CacheDir now defaults to /var/cache/pacman/pkg/ – commented out.
  • They added new options, that are disabled by default (or commented out); which disables pacman’s sandbox. (A security risk to do this. But potentially useful for troubleshooting, or odd situations.)
  • Updated many comments you want for information, especially if you are editing this file
1 Like

The Siglevel option is now global, instead of pro repo.
A rear case of just overwrite.

1 Like

and the

wasn’t there before - I do not know the significance of it

1 Like

It will use the alpm user to download files instead of root as before.

2 Likes

Here are a couple of things you may want to try in your pacman.conf. I use them strictly as a matter of personal preference.

Uncomment VerbosePkgLists which then yeilds a more informative and more nicely formatted list of packages about to be updated.

For a little fun, something I discovered in another Arch-derived distro and have now applied to my Manjaro and Arch installations: Add a line that says ILoveCandy and watch as it turns pacman into Pacman. :pacman:

Both of these are easily undoable if you don’t care for them.

2 Likes

True. Wasn’t this change many updates ago?

If so, overwriting fixes this anyway.

I almost brought this up.

A change I make to all Arch based installations. :grinning_face:

1 Like

Thank you everyone!

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