PACDIFF(8) Pacman-contrib Manual PACDIFF(8)

pacdiff - pacorig, pacnew and pacsave maintenance utility

pacdiff [options]

pacdiff is a script which looks for pacorig, pacnew and pacsave files from the backup entries found in the local pacman db. For every found file the option is given to view, merge, skip, diff, remove or overwrite the found pacorig, pacnew or pacsave file.

-f, --find

Scan using find.

-l, --locate

Scan using locate.

-p, --pacmandb

Scan active config files from pacman database. (default)

-b, --backup

When overwriting, save old files with .bak.

-c, --cachedir <dir>

Scan dir instead as the pacman cache for 3-way merge base candidates.

-h, --help

Display syntax and command-line options.

--nocolor

Do not colorize output.

-o, --output

Print files instead of merging them.

-s, --sudo

Use sudo and sudoedit to merge/remove files.

-3, --threeway

View diffs in 3-way fashion if the base package is available in the cache. Fall back to regular 2-way diff otherwise.

-V, --version

Display version information.

DIFFPROG

Override the default diff program vim -d, or nvim -d if EDITOR=nvim.

DIFFSEARCHPATH

Override the default search path /etc, only when using find.

MERGEPROG

Override the default diff3 -m 3-way merge program. One possible alternative is git merge-file -p.

pacman(8), pacman.conf(5)

Bugs? You must be kidding; there are no bugs in this software. But if we happen to be wrong, file an issue with as much detail as possible at https://gitlab.archlinux.org/pacman/pacman-contrib/-/issues/new.

Current maintainers:

•Johannes Löthberg <johannes@kyriasis.com>
•Daniel M. Capella <polyzen@archlinux.org>

For additional contributors, use git shortlog -s on the pacman-contrib.git repository.

2025-06-10 Pacman-contrib 1.12.0