Create snapshots with Timeshift

Tests Passed

Timeshift passed our tests on various systems with rsync and Btrfs with flying colors. No matter whether default, encrypted, or LVM – recovery succeeded at the first attempt every time. In addition, I have been using Timeshift on a system for about two years without any trouble so far.

Having said this, Timeshift could be better documented. The developer's wiki on GitHub [8] is quite terse. It lacks not only an explanation of the filters, but also instructions for Btrfs on creating the required Ubuntu subvolume layout. Not all distributions install Btrfs with the @ and @home subvolumes. For example, openSUSE uses a completely different layout, which is oriented to Snapper and is not suitable for Timeshift. There is also no man page for Timeshift or, at least, no mention of the possibility to use the tool at the command line.

Conclusions and Outlook

It seems that Timeshift is tailored for Linux Mint users. You thus have to glean information about advanced use cases from the Internet. However, this does not detract from the high functionality of Timeshift.

As an extension, integration with the update and boot manager would be desirable, in the way openSUSE does this with Snapper. In addition, the way snapshots are presented could be more meaningful, so that you can view the status of the individual snapshots. Having said this, the integrated comment function does help here. For Btrfs, the grub-btrfs [9] script lets you provide snapshots with the boot manager.

Infos

  1. Timeshift: https://github.com/teejee2008/timeshift
  2. CYA: https://github.com/cleverwise/cya
  3. Snapper: http://snapper.io/
  4. Subvolumes: https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Manpage/btrfs-subvolume
  5. Timeshift installer: https://github.com/teejee2008/Timeshift/releases
  6. Hard links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_link
  7. Quotas: https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Quota_support
  8. Wiki: https://github.com/teejee2008/timeshift/wiki
  9. grub-btrfs: https://github.com/Antynea/grub-btrfs/blob/master/41_snapshots-btrfs

« Previous 1 2 3 4

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
Print Issues
Digital Issues
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Print Subs
Digisubs
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • Graphical Backup Tools

    Graphical backup solutions help you protect your data with just a few mouse clicks. We study six popular options.

    more »
  • Snapper

    Snapper lets you restore a system to its previous state – with a little help from Btrfs snapshots.

    more »
  • Snapshot Tools

    Experts agree that you should keep a copy of your data, but restoring from incremental backups takes time and sometimes doesn't work as expected. Alternatively, you can capture your data in a snapshot. Read on for a review of some leading Linux snapshot tools.

    more »
  • Snapper

    Thanks to Btrfs snapshots, Snapper lets you restore a system to a previous state in case of failure.

    more »
  • Welcome

    A few months ago, I wrote about the strange case of the misbehaving color.js and faker.js open source libraries. These popular tools were sabotaged by their own developer, who had become disillusioned by the way large companies were using his code without contributing or providing compensation.

    more »
comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News

Tag Cloud

Administration Community Events Hardware Linux Linux Pro Magazine Mobile Programming Security Software Ubuntu Web Development Windows free software open source