...It's also not possible to ignore package/RPM versions when checking or choosing packages to upgrade (eg. from version 1.2.3-1.2 to 1.2.4-1.2). With pkg_version-zypper.rb script you can first see a nice list of package statuses and ignore packages' minor versions (eg. from version 1.2.3-1.2 to 1.2.3-1.3) when upgrading your software.
In daily usage basis, this enables to avoid re-installing tens and tens of programs for no big reason (usually) and do it only when programs in repository has been updated.
NB! It is not an official recommendation to do so as packages have their version number for a reason!
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