Comment # 24 on bug 1037700 from John Shand

(In reply to Michael Andres from comment #23)
> Thanks. Actually it is no bug, but there's something we can improve...
> 
> 'zypper update' does a 'best effort' approach. It will update packages as
> far as possible, but it will never raise any conflict. If a newer version
> can not be installed for some reason, the package won't be updated. This way
> you can use 'zypper up' unattended (e.g. in cron scripts).
> 
> Usually multiple kernel versions can be installed in parallel.
> kernel-default-4.10.13-1.4 however explicitly obsoletes versions
> 4.10.13-1.1, 4.10.13-1.2 and 4.10.13-1.3. Thus installing 4.10.13-1.4 would
> require removing the installed 4.10.12-1.2. Due to this conflict 'zypper
> update' skips 4.10.13-1.4. 
> I don't know why, but the kernel maintainers explicitly prevent those
> versions from being installed together.
> 
> 
> 'zypper dup' is more aggressive, that's why it will 4.10.12-1.2 to enforce
> 4.10.13-1.4. AFAIK Tumbleweeed even recommends using 'zypper dup
> --no-allow-vendor-change' rather than 'zypper up'.
> 
> 
> We're now thinking about introducing a force-best option for 'zypper
> update', which will force the resolver to use the best version, even if it
> needs to raise conflicts. With such an option zyyper would ask whether it's
> ok to remove 4.10.12-1.2 in order to install 4.10.13-1.4.

this new feature would be absolutely fantastic!  Thanks