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A while ago I looked at the ext3cow file system. I am interested in getting it running under lucid. I was wondering whether anyone had successfully set it up on their system and could offer any tips? I have had a quick google around but not found any mentions of getting it working under Ubuntu.

http://www.ext3cow.com/

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What's your question? The documentation on the website says it is transparent to the kernel. – txwikinger Aug 13 '10 at 14:27
Could you tell me how to install the ext3cow?I was annoying for a long time this matter.Thank you in advance! – user11104 Feb 19 '11 at 14:21

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3 Answers

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In the path of alternatives, there are other copy-on-write filesystems, like btrfs and copyfs.

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I too looked at ext3cow a while ago and spent some time in setting things up and testing.

What I found and what I suspect you will find, is that what you really require is distributed VCS such as bzr.

Having the file system history is very useful and ext3cow takes care of this for you automatically without the hassle of having to commit. But in reality having the option to commit, add log details, revert easily and graphically view the history makes the committing a small overhead to manage.

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up vote 1 down vote

As there website says:

• It is totally modular, requiring no changes to kernel or VFS interfaces

It hasn't been in development for a couple of years. I am doubtful but hopeful give it a try.

Or maybe look at some alternatives.

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Funnily, the package ttfm (Time Travelling File Manager) is in the repositories that states: "you need a patched kernel with ext3cow support AND the snapshot utility in order to properly use this application" – Marcel Stimberg Aug 13 '10 at 14:40
I missed that bit was looking at the Download page where there is a big Kernel patch you need to apply to get it to work. ext3cow.com/Download.html Looking at the alternatives on that page, some of them look interesting like Btrfs. – Mark Davidson Aug 13 '10 at 14:41
@Marcel I had noticed that as well. First thing I did when I wanted to check it out was an apt-cache search and thats the only thing that pops up in relation. – Mark Davidson Aug 13 '10 at 14:44
@Mark any luck? – myusuf3 Aug 13 '10 at 14:48
@garbagecollector I am going to give it a go on one of VPS boxes shortly. Will keep ya up-to-date with success or failure. – Mark Davidson Aug 13 '10 at 14:52
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