easy-btrfs

A user-friendly Btrfs CLI tool for managing snapshots.

Table of Contents

• Important Note
• Installation AMD64 (x86_64)
• Manual Installation
• Commands and Usage
  • Create Config
  • List Configs
  • Delete Config
  • Snapshot
  • List Snapshots
  • Delete Snapshots
  • RollBack
• Old Backups

Important Note

For this program to function correctly, the default setting of the BTRFS file system must be ID 5 (FS_TREE). Please follow the steps below to verify or configure this setting:

To check the default setting, use the following command:

sudo btrfs subvolume get-default /

If the output of this command is not ID 5 (FS_TREE), use the following command to set it and then restart your system:

sudo btrfs subvolume set-default 5 /

Installation AMD64

1. Clone the repository to your computer using git clone.
2. Navigate to download_location/easy-btrfs/build and open a terminal there.
3. First, run the following command to grant execute permission to the install.sh file:

   sudo chmod +x ./install.sh

4. To start the installation, run the following command:

   sudo ./install.sh

When the install.sh script is run, it will:

• Create the @ebtrfs directory under /mnt. This directory will be used to temporarily mount your disk for Btrfs operations.
• Create the @data, @old, and @snapshots subvolumes:
  • @data is the directory where the program will create its database.
  • @old is the directory where the current system will be backed up before rolling back to a snapshot.
  • @snapshots is the directory where snapshots will be stored.
• Unmount the disk from /mnt/@ebtrfs.
• Move the ebtrfs program file from easy-btrfs/build to /usr/local/bin and set execution permissions. This allows you to use the program from the terminal.

Manual Installation

For manual installation, you must have Go (Golang) installed on your computer.

1. Clone the repository to your computer using the git clone command.
2. Navigate to download_location/easy-btrfs and open a terminal there.
3. To compile the program and create an executable file, run the following command:

   go build -o ./build/ebtrfs

   This command will generate an executable file tailored to your computer.
4. Now, follow steps 3 and 4 in the Installation AMD64 (x86_64) section to complete the setup.

Commands and Usage

This section will explain the commands and how to use them.

Create Config

The create-config command creates a subvolume configuration that allows you to easily take snapshots.
Aliases: cc, cconf
It requires two arguments: name and path.

• name: A name for the configuration (you define this name).
• path: The path to the subvolume for which the configuration will be created, e.g., /home for the home directory.

Example usage: Let's create a config for the root.

sudo ebtrfs create-config root /

List Configs

The list-configs command lists all the configurations you have created. It does not take any parameters.

Aliases: ls-c, lsc, lc

Example usage:

sudo ebtrfs list-configs

Delete Config

The delete-config command allows you to delete a configuration. It takes a name parameter.

• name: The name of the configuration you want to delete.
• Aliases: del-conf, d-conf, dc

Example usage: Let's delete the root config

sudo ebtrfs delete-config root

Snapshot

The snapshot command creates a read-only snapshot for a subvolume. It takes one argument:

• name: The name of the config for which you want to create the snapshot.
• Aliases: snap, s

Example usage: Let's create a snapshot of root config

sudo ebtrfs snapshot root

List Snapshots

The list-snapshots command lists all snapshots or snapshots for a specific configuration.

• name: Optional. If provided, only snapshots for this configuration will be listed.
• Aliases: list-snaps, ls-s, lss

Example usage:

# List all snapshots
sudo ebtrfs list-snapshots

# List snapshots for the 'root' configuration
sudo ebtrfs list-snapshots root

Delete Snapshots

The delete-snapshots command deletes snapshots. It takes the id parameter as an argument:

• id: The ID of the snapshot to be deleted. You can specify multiple id arguments to delete multiple snapshots at once.

Aliases: del-snaps, d-snaps, ds

Example Usage:

#To delete a single snapshot:
sudo ebtrfs delete-snapshots 8

#To delete multiple snapshots:
sudo ebtrfs delete-snapshots 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

RollBack

The rollback command is used to restore a snapshot. It takes an id parameter.

• id: The ID of the snapshot you want to restore.
• Aliases: rb, r

Example Usage:

sudo ebtrfs rollback 5

During the rollback process, the current subvolume is moved to the @old directory, and the selected snapshot for the rollback is loaded in place of the moved subvolume. To apply these changes, the system needs to be restarted. After the rollback is complete, the program will ask if you want to restart, and if you choose to restart, the system will automatically reboot.

Old Backups

For the rollback operation, when you run the command, the program will move the subvolume to be restored before the rollback to the @old directory and record which snapshot it was created before. This is done to reduce the risk of data loss and to allow the user to revert to the pre-rollback state at any time.

To list old backups, use the list-snapshots command.

In the list, snapshots with the Pre column set to true are old backups, and the PreFrom column contains a snapshot ID indicating which snapshot this backup was created before.

For example, in the following output, the snapshot with ID 4 is an old backup, and the snapshot with ID 3 is a backup taken just before the rollback without any rollback.

+----+------+---------------------------------------------+-------+---------+
| ID | Name | Path                                        | Pre   | PreFrom |
+----+------+---------------------------------------------+-------+---------+
| 3  | root | /mnt/@ebtrfs/@snapshots/2024-08-11-19:14:25 | false | -       |
| 4  | root | /mnt/@ebtrfs/@old/2024-08-11-19:14:45       | true  | 3       |
+----+------+---------------------------------------------+-------+---------+