Comment # 6 on bug 984778 from Michael Andres

(In reply to Andreas Stieger from comment #4)
> All of the above would make "zypper up" all but identical to "patch". :-) I
> adjusted the summary to reflect the enhancement request.

Even if the result is usually similar, the approach is different:

- up: Is a 'best effort' approach. You get the latest version 'if it can be
installed without conflicts'. There's no assertion - and no conflicts.

- patch: A patch requires minimal package versions to be installed. If it can't
be applied because packages are involved in a conflict, the conflict is
reported.


The enhancement could also include 'zypper patch --update'; an option to
'patch' which combines 'patch' and 'up' (assert patches get applied and update
whatever else is possible in one go).