11

1) Is there a gui or curses tool that allows you to view/manage btrfs subvols/snapshots?

2) Is there a utility or already made script that would automatically create and delete snapshots daily/weekly? I'm aware that I could probably use a simple sh via cron but is there anything more elaborate that already exists?

2
  • Not answer but related: fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SystemRollbackWithBtrfs
    – Olli
    Mar 23, 2011 at 13:58
  • 1
    I've started a project called snazzer, which offers btrfs snapshotting, pruning and transport via ssh or local filesystems. It's not quite ready for release but I would love to hear feedback if anybody has time to review it at this early stage. CLI-only at this point.
    – csirac2
    Apr 15, 2015 at 6:19

5 Answers 5

6

1) I have not seen any GUI or curses tool.

2) There are a couple of existing scripts out there. I haven't tried them, but they look interesting:

SnapBtr: https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/SnapBtr

btrfs-snap: http://blog.patshead.com/2010/11/tweak-btrfs-snap-for-more-frequent-snapshots.html

A related btrfs development is the announcement that Natty (11.04) will feature automatic btrfs rollback for packages. I.e., for btrfs installations it will automatically snapshot before any apt install/upgrade/remove operation: http://mvogt.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/apt-btrfs-snapshot/

2

I found timeshift to work far better than snapper-GUI, except while in SUSE, where snapper rocks! https://github.com/teejee2008/timeshift

1

snapper is a command-line tool designed to manage btrfs snapshots, and can be used with snapper-gui.

snapper is available for ubuntu. It can be configured to take time-based snapshots, reboot snapshots and even take snapshots every time apt is called. In 18.04, snapshot triggered by boot or apt are enable by default (after configuring snapshots for /.

If you plan to use snapper (or any other snapshot tool), I would recommend you to make a separate volume (or partition) for:

  • /tmp : snapshots will be a pure waste of space.
  • /var/log : so you can preserve your logs even after a restoration.

This tool : grub-btrfs, can be used to generate bootable grub entries for your snapshots.

0

There's a generic GUI tool called btrfs-gui but it's in early stages of development as of this writing and can only list, but not create/modify snapshots.

1
  • 1
    The project seems to be abandoned now, no changes in over 4 years. Jan 1, 2016 at 21:49
0

Some tools are listed in the question "btrfs-enabled backup solution".

The btrfs wiki page "Use Cases" lists some tools: SnapBtr, Snapper, btrfs-time-machine, UrBackup.

There's a proposal for a built-in tool called autosnap, which "could configure btrfs to take regular or event based snapshots and further manage the snapshots automatically". However, as October 2013, it is not available yet.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .