[solved] js52: /usr/lib/libmozjs-52.so.0 exists in filesystem

Living on the edge in Arch Linux land is a fun activity everyone should try (at least once). However, a full system package upgrade caused the following today:

# pacman -Syyu
(...)
error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files) 
js52: /usr/lib/libmozjs-52.so.0 exists in filesystem

I’m not the only one to have the issue. Seems the official way of getting past this is to rename the file, at least per this bug report.

Update: There’s an Arch news post that adds a modicum more information:

Due to the SONAME of /usr/lib/libmozjs-52.so not matching its file name, ldconfig created an untracked file /usr/lib/libmozjs-52.so.0. This is now fixed and both files are present in the package.

To pass the upgrade, remove /usr/lib/libmozjs-52.so.0 prior to upgrading.

I think this is the first time I’ve needed to do a manual intervention for a package upgrade for the time I’ve been running Arch; so all in all not bad.