Sometimes zypper doesn't locate packages when it is provided with the filename only

Question

If the command is provided the full path, the expected package is found:

> zypper search --provides --match-exact /usr/sbin/update-ca-certificates
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S  | Name            | Summary                                               | Type
---+-----------------+-------------------------------------------------------+--------
i+ | ca-certificates | Utilities for system wide CA certificate installation | package

While it isn't if it is just provided with the filename only:

> zypper search --provides --match-exact update-ca-certificates
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
No matching items found.

But it works with the filename only for bash as shown:

> zypper search --provides --match-exact bash
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...

S | Name | Summary                    | Type
--+------+----------------------------+--------
i | bash | The GNU Bourne-Again Shell | package

So, is this a bug?, or am I just missing something to locate the ca-certificates package looking by the filename update-ca-certificates?.

Answer 1

from the zypper manual:

-x, --match-exact
    Searches for an exact name of the package.

so zypper is searching for the package name. It also happens to work for exact filenames (full paths).

You are being confused since you think that by specifying bash zypper is finding /usr/bin/bash, but in reality zypper is finding the package-name bash.