pacdiff

Review files that need maintenance in interactive mode

$ pacdiff

$ pacdiff -s

$ pacdiff -s -b

$ DIFFPROG=[editor] pacdiff

$ pacdiff -l

pacdiff [options]

pacdiff manages configuration file conflicts created by pacman during package upgrades. When pacman encounters modified configuration files, it saves new versions with .pacnew extension and original versions as .pacorig or .pacsave, requiring manual review.
The tool presents each file interactively, allowing users to view differences, edit files, overwrite with new version, or remove the conflict file. It uses vim -d by default for viewing differences, but respects the DIFFPROG environment variable for custom diff tools.

-s, --sudo

Use sudo and sudoedit to remove and edit files

Create .bak backup of original when overwriting

Find files using locate instead of pacman database

Find files using find command

Scan using pacman database (default)

Print files to stdout instead of interactive mode

View diffs in three-way comparison (original, new, current)

Perform a three-way merge

Display help message

Interactive mode requires user attention for each file. The default diff viewer (vim -d) requires vim to be installed. Using -l (locate) requires an updated mlocate database. Always review changes carefully before overwriting system configuration files.

Part of pacman-contrib, a collection of maintenance scripts for Arch Linux. Addresses one of the most common maintenance tasks on rolling-release distributions where frequent updates may conflict with user-customized configuration files.

pacman(8), paccache(8), vimdiff(1)