On unstable branch, I got an update notification for linux618. I checked the Manjaro gitlab. The only difference in the PKGBUILD is that pkgrel=1 was changed to pkgrel=2. Why was linux618 updated for nothing?
Some people don’t have unlimited bandwidth and shouldn’t waste it on “updates” that change nothing other than a pkgrel number.
You are correct - but that is not really a consideration for a Linux distribution, is it?
I want to point out: Manjaro is not the system administrator of the target system. It is the system administrator’s responsibility to decide whether the offered change is applicable to the target system.
A pkgrel is usually caused by improved packaging or fixing a bug in the packaging.
It may also be caused when e.g. glibc changes - which would require the kernel to be rebuild and repackaged.
So a change in pkgrel may also be justified when something the kernel is depending on, or is used to build the kernel, has changed.
EDIT 2026-08-23T22:00:00Z
Ping from @Yochanan with info on dependencies which triggers a kernel rebuild:
Also
binutils,gcc,pythonandrust(only >=6.18).
just so you know this was not done for the fun of it.
the cause for rebuilds are newly released rust-1.98.0 (atleast that was the cause for arch kernel rebuilds). you are ok with keeping the previous revision, unless you build something done in rust with newly released rust, as such issues are warranted when you have “a-partially-updated” system in rolling-release distro.
What are the disadvantages of a rolling release model? - The Rolling Release Model - Manjaro Wiki
Since everything is being updated when updates are available it is a challenge to run a rolling release distro in an environment where bandwidth is extremely limited