Changes in SUSE RPM package release numbering

RPM packages have two different version spaces, the package version itself and the RPM release number, for example:

glibc-2.26-13.62.1

meaning that the package glibc is in upstream version 2.26, and SUSE release is 13.62.1.

The RPM release number has no specific meaning to the installed system, the only required guarantee is the linearity of incremental updates.

SUSE guarantees that the RPM release number is only ever increasing over a service pack, and also within one major product line is only ever increasing between service packs.

As minor package version updates have been conducted also in older service packs to keep up with upstream bugfixes, and also occasionally bigger version updates, keeping the correct linear ordering is challenging.

To accomplish the challenge of linear ordering, SUSE started to prefix the release number with the service pack the package was built for, which will now look like this:

    kernel-default-5.3.18-150300.59.43.1

The 150300 encodes the major codestream (15), the service pack (03) and matches the value of the %sle_release RPM build macro.

This change will be implemented for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 Service Pack 4 (which is currently under development), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 Service Pack 3, older patch levels and other product lines will slowly adopt this numbering scheme. 

For packages in older service packs this will only happen once maintenance updates for the packages get released.

Please note also that SUSE builds service packs in a layered fashion. Only packages that receive new features in service packs are built in current service packs, for packages without new features a new service pack takes packages from lower service packs. For example:

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 will contain packages built in SP4, but also include packages from SP3, SP2, SP1 and GA, creating a mix of different release numbers, including 150400 / 150300 / 150200 / 150100 / 150000 and others.

Please note this does not change any functionality.