In major updates removed file keep getting reloaded

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It is not all about patterns. There are also dependencies and recommends.

  • A pattern is a kind of meta package which installs a predefined set of packages. E.g. a game pattern. If you uninstall a package of the pattern, the next time the pattern get update the game will be reinstalled. So you need to uninstall the pattern.

  • A dependency…is a dependency. When you uninstall a dependency of package x, x will get uninstalled (unless you chose to break a package).

  • And there are recommended packages. E.g. kdenlive recommends several codec packages. But you don’t nned to install recommended packages. You can prevent installation of the recommended packages by using --no-recommends. See the impressive example i gave here and in the next comment. You need to use zypper in --no-recommeds or zypper dup --no-recommends or the next time when an update comes, recommended packages will get installed again.

In your case, a recommeds is the most likely case why ghc gets pulled in again. And it is not the main ghc package as it is not recommended by anything. But one oft the ghc-* subpackages might get recommended by one of your installed packages, which in return tries to pull in the complete ghc stack.