Shelly, a package manager for Arch Linux-based systems with both command-line and graphical interfaces, released version 3.1.9, adding file migration support to its RLPM backend that lets packages take ownership of existing files without overwriting contents or changing attributes.
To support this, package maintainers can declare specific migration paths using the new shelly_migrate PKGBUILD array. These cover unowned files, package replacements, and upgrades. Optional paths and backup tracking are supported, while both CLI and GTK transaction previews show which files will be preserved and how ownership changes.
For Devario users, Shelly 3.1.9 enables automatic adoption of eligible unowned files when installing packages providing those paths. The feature is enabled by default on Devario and controlled through the AutoMigrateUnowned option in /etc/shelly.conf. It remains disabled by default for the pacman-compatible configuration.
Another improvement is AUR package handling. The release fixes an issue causing -git packages to fail their first upgrade after upstream changes. Shelly now correctly recognizes legitimate package version updates generated during the build process without accepting unrelated modifications to reviewed build files.
The update also fixes PKGBUILD parsing for certain conditional shell expressions, preserves HTTP and HTTPS proxy environment variables during native builds, and improves AUR error reporting by identifying the affected package and cause.
Repository updates have been refined as well. Shelly now reuses repository databases synchronized by the libalpm manager, avoiding unnecessary refreshes during the same update. Update previews run as root now use a separate cache, preventing root-owned files from appearing in regular users’ preview caches.
On the maintenance side, the release updates build configuration for Zig 0.16.0, improves AUR release preparation, and includes updated German, Russian, and Polish translations.
Finally, one important compatibility detail is that the new file migration requires Shelly 3.1.9 with the RLPM backend. Packages declaring shelly_migrate cannot be installed through Shelly’s libalpm backend, so users should upgrade Shelly before installing packages relying on the feature.
For more information, see the changelog.
