Rebuild prefix on wine update?

[bno1]

Hello. I can't find an answer to this question online. If I update my wine version or want to try out a completely different build such as wine-tkg, do I have to rebuild the prefix or run any command on the current prefix to update it? A brand new prefix occupies about 725MB, many of them being dll files. What happens to those files if I try a different wine version on an already existing prefix?

[dimesio]

If you change versions, Wine will automatically update the wineprefix the first time you run anything from it.

[bno1]

Ok, but what if a system file has been modified? Consider this:

1. I create a brand new wine prefix. Let's say wine creates the dll "C:\Windows\system32\foo.dll".
2. I run a winetricks verb that replaces "foo.dll" with a proprietary version.
3. I update my wine version and run a command on the prefix.

Does wine replace "foo.dll" with the one from the new wine version or does it somehow know that the current "foo.dll" doesn't belong to the previous wine version but was modified by the user so it should be left untouched?
I basically want to know if I should re-run winetricks and other setup steps if I change my wine version.

[Cybermax]

Ok, but what if a system file has been modified? Consider this:

1. I create a brand new wine prefix. Let's say wine creates the dll "C:\Windows\system32\foo.dll".
2. I run a winetricks verb that replaces "foo.dll" with a proprietary version.
3. I update my wine version and run a command on the prefix.

Does wine replace "foo.dll" with the one from the new wine version or does it somehow know that the current "foo.dll" doesn't belong to the previous wine version but was modified by the user so it should be left untouched?
I basically want to know if I should re-run winetricks and other setup steps if I change my wine version.

If you replace the .dll's with your own version (just like eg. DXVK does), or whatever winetricks that install M$ dll's into c:\windows\system32 folder, this will NOT be replaced when updating wine and doing a "winboot -u" command. Same with possible registry settings, as these will stay after changing/updating wine when they are set.
However, if you update from wine-stable to wine-staging the .dll files that wine places will be replaced (or as you ask with wine-tkg). It is only for the manually changed/updated dll's that this does not happen afaik.

It might be a simple way/script to figure out what files are "wine originals" vs. "custom", but i am not sure how.

[bno1]

If you replace the .dll's with your own version (just like eg. DXVK does), or whatever winetricks that install M$ dll's into c:\windows\system32 folder, this will NOT be replaced when updating wine and doing a "winboot -u" command. Same with possible registry settings, as these will stay after changing/updating wine when they are set.
However, if you update from wine-stable to wine-staging the .dll files that wine places will be replaced (or as you ask with wine-tkg). It is only for the manually changed/updated dll's that this does not happen afaik.

It might be a simple way/script to figure out what files are "wine originals" vs. "custom", but i am not sure how.

Good to know, thank you for the answer!