So I was trying to update my Tumbleweed system earlier, and I noticed that zypper was offering to install new patterns that I did not have installed (like the games pattern). I looked around for a solution and found some people saying that you should block those patterns from YaST so they’re never installed. I did that and it worked.
My question is, does blocking patterns have any impact on the packages that you have installed on your system? Say for example I blocked the Office pattern, then I installed LibreOffice (which is part of the Office pattern), would I still receive updates for LibreOffice, or would zypper never update LibreOffice because it’s a part of a pattern that I blocked?
No impact on installed packages.
Patterns are a way of “recommending” packages and are most useful at install time.
As an example, any update to LibreOffice will be updated, but if an update to the “Office” pattern will include a new recommended package, you will not receive that recommendation and should install the recommended package yourself if deemed appropriate.
Patterns are only a list of packages suggested for a certain task.
When you install them, all the packages in the list will be installed. When you remove the Pattern, there is no list anymore, but what is installed stays installed.