/etc/pacman.d/hooks/. - pacman hooks for not killing the system when there's a kernel update.

pacman-upgrade-hooks

/etc/pacman.d/hooks/backup-modules.hook
[Trigger]
Operation = Upgrade
Operation = Remove
Type = Package
Target = linux

[Action]
Depends = coreutils
Depends = bash
When = PreTransaction
Exec = /usr/bin/bash -c 'find /usr/lib/modules -maxdepth 1 -type l -delete; cp -a /usr/lib/modules/$(uname -r) /tmp 2>/dev/null || :'

/etc/pacman.d/hooks/upgrade-backup-modules.hook 
[Trigger]
Operation = Remove
Operation = Upgrade
Type = Package
Target = linux

[Action]
Depends = coreutils
Depends = bash
When = PostTransaction
Exec = /usr/bin/bash -c '[[ -d /usr/lib/modules/$(uname -r) ]] || ln -s /tmp/$(uname -r) /usr/lib/modules/$(uname -r)'