[HN Gopher] Timeshift: System Restore Tool for Linux
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Timeshift: System Restore Tool for Linux
Author : gballan
Score : 38 points
Date : 2024-07-22 21:23 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| yuumei wrote:
| Has the btrfs sub volume quota bug been fixed yet? I always had
| issues when using it
| metadat wrote:
| Can timeshift work with ext4 filesystems?
|
| I know it won't have the atomicity of a CoW fs, but I'd be fine
| with that, as the important files on my systems aren't often
| modified, especially during a backup - I'd configure it to
| disable the systemd timers while the backup process is running.
| gballan wrote:
| Just getting started with it--but I think so, using rsync.
| mbreese wrote:
| Can't you also snapshot LVM volumes directly? So if you have an
| LVM volume, it shouldn't matter what the filesystem is,
| provided it is sync'd... in theory.
|
| (I've only done this on VMs that could be paused before the
| snapshot, so YMMV.)
| tombert wrote:
| This reminds me of the default behavior of NixOS. Whenever you
| make a change in the configuration for NixOS and rebuild it, it
| takes a snapshot of the system configurations and lets you
| restore after a reboot if you screw something up.
|
| Similarly, it doesn't do anything in regards to user files.
| choward wrote:
| I can't tell you the number of times I see a project and think
| to myself "NixOS already solves that problem but better."
| fallingsquirrel wrote:
| In fairness, this app supports snapshotting your home
| directory as well, and that's not solvable with Nix alone. In
| fact, I'm running NixOS and I've been meaning to set up
| Timeshift or Snapper for my homedir, but alas, I haven't
| found the time.
| __MatrixMan__ wrote:
| Is there something about your home directory that you'd
| want to back up that is not covered by invoking home
| manager as a nix module as part if nixos-rebuild?
|
| https://nix-community.github.io/home-
| manager/index.xhtml#sec...
|
| To me, it's better than a filesystem-backup because the
| things that make it into home manager tend to be exactly
| the things that I want to back up. The rest of it (e.g.
| screenshots, downloads) aren't something I'd want in a
| backup scheme anyhow.
| fallingsquirrel wrote:
| I want to keep snapshots of my work. I run nightly
| backups which have come in handy numerous times, but
| accessing the cloud storage is always slow, and sometimes
| I've even paid a few cents in bandwidth to download my
| own files. It would be a lot smoother if everything was
| local and I could grep through
| /.snapshots/<date>/<project>.
| autoexecbat wrote:
| I've seen the configuration.nix file, it doesn't look like it
| captures specific versions. How does it handle snapshotting?
| phoe-krk wrote:
| I'd like some sort of a comparison with Duplicity/Deja Dup that
| seems to be the default on Gnome/Cinnamon.
| fallingsquirrel wrote:
| Different categories of app. Duplicity is geared toward backing
| up files to a separate machine, and this tool snapshots your
| filesystem on the same machine.
| phoe-krk wrote:
| OK, thanks. I was confused because Time Machine is capable of
| backing up to a remote device.
| exe34 wrote:
| oh this brings back memories, i found a script that did this
| about 15 years ago. it kept three versions of backups using rsync
| and hard-links to avoid duplication.
| nijave wrote:
| https://rsnapshot.org/ ?
| dmitrygr wrote:
| > similar to the System Restore feature in Windows and the Time
| Machine tool in Mac OS
|
| This makes no sense! System Restore is a useless wart that just
| wastes time making "restore points" at every app/driver install
| and can rarely (if ever) produce a working system when used to
| "restore" anything. It does not back up user data at all. Time
| Machine is a whole-system backup solution that seems to work
| quite well and does back up user data.
|
| To me the quoted statement might as well read "a tool similar to
| knitting needles (in hobby shops) and dremels (in machine shops)"
|
| Reading their description further, it seems like they are
| implementing something similar to TimeMachine (within the
| confines of what linux makes possible), and not at all like
| "System Restore". This seems sane as this implements something
| that is actually useful. They, sadly, seem to gloss over what the
| consequences are of using non-btrfs FS with this tool, only
| mentioning that btrfs is needed for byte-exact snapshots. They do
| not mention what sort of byte-inexactness ext4 users should
| expect...
| nijave wrote:
| I believe System Restore takes a registry backup and can
| recover from a bad driver install but it's been years since I
| used it last. I think just about anything System Restore does
| can be replicated by "just fixing it" in Safe Mode but I think
| System Restore is geared for less technical folks.
|
| Newer versions of Windows have File History to backup user data
| (I don't think they have an integrated system/file solution
| quite like Time Machine though).
|
| However it makes some sense to keep system/user data separate.
| You don't want to lose your doc edits because you happened to
| have a bad driver upgrade at the same time. Likewise, you don't
| want to roll your entire system back to get an old version of a
| doc.
|
| Time Machine is trivial to implement (without the UI) with disk
| snapshots (that's what it does--store disk snapshots to an
| external disk)
| twodave wrote:
| My main use of system restore was to return to a "clean"
| install + just the bare minimum installs I needed back when
| windows was more likely to atrophy over time. I agree it is
| mostly useless today.
| ThinkBeat wrote:
| A bit of a side note and a bit of old man reveal, it would be
| nifty to have the backup system write the snapshots to
| cd/dvd/bluray disk.
|
| I remember working in a company that had a robot WORM system. It
| would grab a disc, it would be processed, take it out, place it
| among the archives. If a restore as needed the robot would find
| the backup, and read off the data.
|
| I never worked directly on the system, and I seem to remember
| there was a window that the system could keep track of
| (naturally) but older disks were stored off site somewhere for
| however long that window was.
|
| (Everything was replicated to a fully 100% duplicate system
| geographically highly separated from the production system.
| gballan wrote:
| AFAIK timeshift can use any mount. I tried a USB stick, but it
| was too slow. Now I'm experimenting with a partition on a
| second drive.
| umvi wrote:
| > Creates filesystem snapshots using rsync+hardlinks
|
| Sounds like it works similarly to git fork on GitHub? That is, if
| no files have changed, the snapshot doesn't take up any extra
| room?
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