Proper handling of mirrorlist.pacnew?

General system Pacman & AUR helpers
1

Is this true?

Of course we are talking about in sense of EOS. So if you use reflector etc. in EOS Hello -app, is there need for going through .pacnew (mirror list in this case) file or is it safe to delete?

Because this is something I have to admit been battling inside since I first used Arch and have never been able to find concrete solution or peace of mind on question am I doing it correctly?

And which files that you absolutely have to go through? Is there consensus on that?

I’m referring especially to this answer:

Screenshot_20260911-184350
Screenshot_20260911-184350864×1939 181 KB

2

mirrorlist pacnew files can generally be deleted.

As for the others, there is no real consensus. Some people believe it is critical to merge pacnew files, others never merge them.

IMO, it depends.

  • You should almost never overwrite your file with a pacnew file.
  • Changes to /etc/pacman.conf should usually be merged…carefully.
  • For most things, I usually ignore pacnew unless something stops working.
  • In almost all cases, it is better to ignore them then to blindly overwrite.
3

If you check the Arch wiki entry for Reflector, the first sentence is pretty clear:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Reflector

Reflector is a Python script which can retrieve the latest mirror list from the Arch Linux Mirror Status page, filter the most up-to-date mirrors, sort them by speed and overwrite the file /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.

If you use Reflector regularly you don’t need to bother with your Arch mirrorlist file or pacnew. The mirrorlist that is used by reflector is hosted at the Arch Linux Mirror Staus page.

4

Okay, I’m idiot. Answer would have been so clear on mirrorlist. I have made it much harder for myself than I should have. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Thanks @dalto and @Stagger_Lee. I actually have looked everywhere else apart that Arch Wikis page about Reflector. :sweat_smile:

5

Tip: I’ve noticed the following two mirrors have been particularly reliable and working well in Finland:

# Sweden
Server = https://umea.mirror.pkgbuild.com/$repo/os/$arch
# Finland
Server = https://fi.arch.niranjan.co/$repo/os/$arch

so in Finland I’d recommend setting them as the first mirrors in the mirrorlist.