zypper dup
will automatically downgrade package versions. Maintainers ofxz
had to jump through the whoops and provide the nonsensical package version5.6.1.revertto5.4
exactly for such stubborn users who refuse to follow best practices and who would not get their packages reverted withzypper up
or YaST otherwise. Downgrades are not uncommon in Tumbleweed.zypper dup
is using more aggressive strategy to resolve dependency issues. Normalzypper up
/YaST tries to keep installed packages wherezypper dup
would prefer to remove them if this resolves the conflict. Again, this is not uncommon that new software version changes its structure and dependencies.zypper dup
will automatically remove historical packages marked for removal in the distribution metadata (contained in the packageopenSUSE-release
). This may sometimes also have side effect of eliminating (or, better, preventing) dependency conflicts.