archive/ is append-only

• 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.