Arch Linux

dratos97391

Member

Registered: 2016-08-04

Posts: 55

btrfs snapshots - clean solution

Hi, I just followed the arch guide to install a system, and also took the btrfs related info from:

https://gist.github.com/mjkstra/96ce7a5 … 2cdc169bae

My system had 2 subvolumes

# btrfs subvolume list /
ID 256 gen 196 top level 5 path @
ID 257 gen 147 top level 5 path @home

and I then installed snapper, which automatically created the .subvolumes folder, when I created the config with
snapper -c root create-config /

# btrfs subvolume list /
ID 256 gen 196 top level 5 path @
ID 257 gen 147 top level 5 path @home
ID 258 gen 20 top level 256 path var/lib/portables
ID 259 gen 20 top level 256 path var/lib/machines
ID 260 gen 194 top level 256 path .snapshots
ID 261 gen 167 top level 260 path .snapshots/1/snapshot
ID 262 gen 168 top level 260 path .snapshots/2/snapshot
ID 263 gen 171 top level 260 path .snapshots/3/snapshot
ID 264 gen 172 top level 260 path .snapshots/4/snapshot
ID 265 gen 185 top level 260 path .snapshots/5/snapshot
ID 266 gen 186 top level 260 path .snapshots/6/snapshot
ID 267 gen 192 top level 260 path .snapshots/7/snapshot
ID 268 gen 193 top level 260 path .snapshots/8/snapshot

I have tried to install  a package with pacman and successfully using snapper undochange x..y to undo the install.

I have only a few questions since I havent used snapper before and I prefer to understand before following guides.

1. Both this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maIu1d2lAiI and the https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Snapper guide recommends snap-pac that "Makes pacman automatically use snapper to create pre/post snapshots". Why do I need this since snapper off-the shelf seems to create pre and post snapshots?
2. The video above creates the btrfs volume /@.snapshots, but creating the config for snapper also creates a subvolume, the name differs but it looks like the same, no? (I dont know if .snapshots is mounted though since its not in /etc/fstab)
3. The tutorial from github recommends to create /efi as a boot partition and uses grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB   to install grub during the installer. This partition is fat32 for resotration purposes it says, and I did that. But if I make a pacman -S and reboot, and want to restore from an backup, how do I make sure that even /efi is restored? Lets say that Im booting from a live USB.

dratos97391

Member

Registered: 2016-08-04

Posts: 55

Re: btrfs snapshots - clean solution

bump

WorMzy

Administrator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 13,477

Website

Re: btrfs snapshots - clean solution

Please do not bump,

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Genera … es#Bumping

Also, we cannot speak for third-party guides. Ask those authors for clarification.

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dratos97391

Member

Registered: 2016-08-04

Posts: 55

Re: btrfs snapshots - clean solution

Its the arch guide at https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Snapper that recommends snap-pac, so Im just wondering what that package adds, if snapshots are made already by the base btrfs install?

d_fajardo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-28

Posts: 1,687

Re: btrfs snapshots - clean solution

Snapper is just an extra tool to automate certain btrfs tasks. You don't really need it. btrfs-progs is sufficient and the main utility tool and it's probably good to learn how to use that first before snapper. Also Arch users are very much discouraged from following third-party guides - always stick with the official wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Btrfs

dratos97391

Member

Registered: 2016-08-04

Posts: 55

Re: btrfs snapshots - clean solution

Snapper is just an extra tool to automate certain btrfs tasks. You don't really need it. btrfs-progs is sufficient and the main utility tool and it's probably good to learn how to use that first before snapper. Also Arch users are very much discouraged from following third-party guides - always stick with the official wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Btrfs

Thanks, I will heed that advice, and I guess its thanks to that thinking that the wiki of archlinux is such a goldmine