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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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timeshift with btrfs: am I doing it right? (lemmy.kde.social)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hello! I just set up timeshift on my EndeavourOS pc, but this time I chose BTRFS instead of rsync. I currently decided to store the snapshot on the same hard drive of my installation because, well, it's my only one. during the setup, it only asked me if I wanted to include the @home or not. using rsync, instead, it asked for a bunch of locations, and I could choose to include only dotfile, everything, nothing,... is this normal?
also, the snapshot took like... 1 second? with rsync it may take up to 5 minutes... is this normal? or am I backupping fried air?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Copy on write is the difference. As I understand it, a btrfs snapshot takes no space when it's created (beyond the file system record). The filesystem is always writing changes to file chunks as a new copy of the chunk, which is then recorded as a replacement of the old chunk (which is still present on-disk). So a snapshot tracks all of these later changes, and the file system keeps the old file chunks preserved as long as you keep the snapshot. That's why you can mount a btrfs snapshot. It just shows you the volume through the lens of all of these saved changes.

When you delete a snapshot you are then marking these preserved chunks as free space. So that is also quick.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Whoever invented this is a genius, a genius...
thanks for the help!