Why the updates in the packman repository are so frequent? :
There are updated packages almost every day … 
Is there a specifical reason?
If a package is changed, all other packages that depend on it will get rebuilt (and therefore updated) automatically.
Packman builds against openSUSE-Update, and there was a glibc update for 12.3 there yesterday.
So that’s why all Packman packages got rebuilt and updated (since nearly every program uses glibc, the standard C runtime library), I think.
Why are you checking so frequently?
I periodically (every few days) check for online updates. If there aren’t any, I don’t bother to check packman.
Do you usually keep packman disabled?
No. But I don’t run “apper”. So checking for anything other than updates requires “zypper up” at the command line. I only do that after there have been actual online updates.
I’m not sure what’s the gnome equivalent of not running “apper”. If I login to gnome, I seem to be told that there are updates available. And if I later run “zypper up”, it seems that the gnome application has already downloaded those updates.
I usually just run zypper patch which will only install official updates.
To say the truth, I also update the system via:
zypper update
Then start with “zypper lp” to list patches. If there aren’t any, don’t bother to do an update.
in addition to other replies . . .
also, Packman is maintained by a number of independent package maintainers, so as soon as they have an updated package ready to go they will push it through - which is why you might see packages updated more frequently than in perhaps the oss-update repo.
I remember back in the days of using windows that there were security updates to be downloaded almost every day, so frequent updates isn’t really something you should be too concerned about (and as others have said - you don’t need to check every day). At least in the Linux world it usually shows there is some development going on rather than rushing to patch a security hole.
This is a very interesting point … 
My 12.3 machine at home seems to update the same 30-40 Packman packages every other day or so. Mostly codecs and VLC. It’s a minor annoyance… good point that I need to stop updating for fun. >:)
I find it counter intuitive not installing available updates. I guess if you’re on a very low download limit or not broadband I could understand. But not updating regularly seems to be against popular wisdom of keeping everything updated; not just for security patches but stability fixes etc. Am I missing something?
My 12.3 machine at home seems to update the same 30-40 Packman packages every other day or so. Mostly codecs and VLC. It’s a minor annoyance… good point that I need to stop updating for fun
that is caused by a misconfigured prioritizes with packman and oss /non-oss
( the same thing as RHEL yum’s "yum-prioritizes-plugin " )
one day packman updates it to a newer version
the next the EXACT SAME updates are in oss with a bit of a higher number
and it replaces them
over and over and over
configure your yast prioritizes
the default is 99
if you have packman installed then use THAT over the rest
No it is not.
There really are that many updates on Packman in recent times (although most of them are only rebuilds, the packages haven’t been changed that often).
one day packman updates it to a newer version
the next the EXACT SAME updates are in oss with a bit of a higher number
and it replaces them
over and over and over
configure your yast prioritizes
the default is 99
if you have packman installed then use THAT over the rest
Completely wrong.
First of all, zypper/YaST/Apper don’t switch packages from one repo to another by default, so if you installed a package from Packman, it will not be changed to the OSS version again.
Second, the packages in OSS don’t change at all, the version numbers don’t get higher there (or did you mean the update repo? 
)
It is not necessary to give Packman a higher priority. Just switch the packages you want to the Packman version and be fine.
JohnVV wrote:
> one day packman updates it to a newer version
> the next the EXACT SAME updates are in oss with a bit of a higher number
> and it replaces them
> over and over and over
>
This is will not happen if updates are installed through YaST as YaST
doesn’t allow “vendor” change unless explicitly specified by user.
packman and Oss are different vendors
GNOME 3.6.2
openSUSE Release 12.3 (Dartmouth) 64-bit
Kernel Linux 3.7.10-1.16-desktop
Thank you guys for posting this! I agree with both the above users. Daily VLC updates are very annoying! I get an annoying notification every day. It’s very hard to ignore.
I have a theory that packman is pushing updates intended for tumbleweed to 12.3 users too. What do you guys think?
Well, the VLC package has been changed to not include build timestamps anymore, that should make things better. (OBS only publishes a rebuilt package if something has actually changed. But if there is a current date/time somewhere, this changes with every build of course)
I have a theory that packman is pushing updates intended for tumbleweed to 12.3 users too. What do you guys think?
No. That’s just nonsense, sorry (please, don’t take this personally, no offense meant… ).
This should be valid for zypper too, I believe …
Maybe it’s not a big issue, but I’m glad to see I’m not the only one to share this consideration …
It is probably just rebuilds. I would suggest running zypper patch instead to get official opensuse updates, and only run the full update bi-monthly.