atomic-update is a simple single file program with just one external dependency that can be used to perform atomic (transactional) updates of openSUSE systems with read-write root filesystems such as Tumbleweed and Slowroll. It can also be used on Leap, even though Leap-specific update commands are yet to be added.
atomic-update uses btrfs subvolumes and snapper snapshots to safely perform updates to a new root filesystem snapshot while minimizing any side-effects to your currently running system/snapshot.
atomic-update is heavily inspired by the excellent transactional-update package for read-only root filesystems. All the credit goes to them đŸ¤—
Even though transactional-update works on read-write systems as of version 4.6.0, it's not officially supported and the lead developer has stated support may be removed in the future if there are conflicts with read-only filesystem features.
Without --continue option, atomic-update would always base the new snapshot from the currently booted snapshot. Use this option to not lose changes made to a previous snapshot. Option --apply implies continue.