archive/ on the private pacman repo (sibling of os/, see
REPO_PUBLISH_DESIGN.md §1/§6/repo_publish.sh’s description) is a
permanent historical record. Never delete or move a file out of it,
even to correct a bug that put something there by mistake — restore
the active copy in os/ by copying, not moving, so a copy stays
behind in archive/ too.
Real incident, 2026-07-07: a bug in repo_publish.sh’s archive-matching
logic (see repo_publish_archive_bug.md) wrongly moved 4 still-current
-debug packages into archive/. First-pass fix mv’d them back to
os/x86_64/, which emptied archive/ of those entries — flagged
immediately as wrong. Corrected by cping them back into archive/ so
both locations ended up with a copy.
Applies to any future fix/remediation/cleanup that touches archive/:
the operation must be additive-only from archive/’s perspective —
copy files in when needed, never issue an mv/rm that removes
something already there.