eos-pacdiff

eos-pacdiff combines the pacdiff program with a user-selectable file comparison program as a convenient and easy-to-use entity.
User can select the file comparison program with variable EOS_WELCOME_PACDIFFERS in file /etc/eos-script-lib-yad.conf.
Currently meld is the recommended file comparison program.

If you select the View mode, meld will help you choosing the modifications you want to apply.

Synopsis

Usage: eos-pacdiff [options]

Run command

eos-pacdiff --help

to see the details about the options.

Tip: option --backup enables creating backup files (with .bak) in modes view, merge, overwrite. This is a great safety measure, and one might consider writing an alias like:

alias pacdiff='eos-pacdiff --backup'

into file ~/.bashrc.
Option --backup enables creating backup files in all 3 modes mentioned above.

See also Configuration below.

Configuration

File /etc/eos-pacdiff.conf can contain the following (bash) variables, including their default values:

BACKUP_OVERWRITE=no
BACKUP_VIEW=no
BACKUP_MERGE=no

and their supported values are either yes or no.
They define whether the original config file will be saved with suffix .bak or not.

Important note: if you want to be on the safe side, set the values of all BACKUP_* variables to yes. This creates the backup file also for any critical file (like /etc/passwd) if it was accidentally overwritten.

Tip: command line options (e.g. --backup) will override the configuration variables.

See also

pacdiff