I just took these for a spin....
al...@mugen /home/arch/code/pacman (epoch)
> sudo ./src/pacman/pacman -Syu
<snip>
Targets (24): blas-3.2.2-2 crafty-23.3-1 db-4.8.26-2
foomatic-db-4.0.5_20100816-1
foomatic-filters-4.0.5_20100816-1
foomatic-db-engine-4.0.5_20100816-1 ghostscript-9.00-1
gsfonts-1.0.7pre44-2 imagemagick-6.6.4.3-1 libffi-3.0.9-1
libimobiledevice-1.0.3-1 libraw1394-2.0.5-1
libshout-2.2.2-3
libvdpau-0.4-1 sqlite3-3.7.3-1 qt-4.7.0-3 rasqal-0.9.20-1
redland-1.0.11-1 soundconverter-1.5.3-4 tdb-1.2.1-2
ttf-liberation-1.06.0.20100721-1 vim-runtime-7.3.3-2
vim-7.3.3-2 vte-0.26.0-4
Total Download Size: 37.54 MB
Total Installed Size: 264.40 MB
...
al...@mugen /home/arch/code/pacman (epoch)
> pacman -Syu
<snip>
Targets (8): ghostscript-9.00-1 libimobiledevice-1.0.3-1 sqlite3-3.7.3-1
qt-4.7.0-3 rasqal-0.9.20-1 redland-1.0.11-1
soundconverter-1.5.3-4 vte-0.26.0-4
Total Download Size: 36.76 MB
Total Installed Size: 159.49 MB
Proceed with installation? [Y/n]
A quick look at the extra packages using the epoch patches shows they
all appear to have options=('force') and are the same version as already
on my system.
Allan