Restore Btrfs files at the push of a button with Snapper
Oh, Snap!
© Lead Image © citalliance, 123RF.com
Thanks to Btrfs snapshots, Snapper lets you restore a system to a previous state in case of failure.
The Snapper tool uses Btrfs or Logic Volume Management (LVM) to manage system states, giving users an easy way to restore working files in case of problems. OpenSUSE offers a matching module for YaST. For other operating systems and filesystems, you will find a neutral user interface on GitHub.
OpenSUSE developers trust the Btrfs filesystem [1]. Since openSUSE 13.2, or version 12 of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), it has been the filesystem of choice for the root partition. On the other hand, the CoreOS distribution, which focuses strongly on container technology, recently dropped Btrfs, because the filesystem was too buggy in production use (see the "Warning" box).
Work on the filesystem has been progressing for about eight years now. Like the ZFS [2] OS developed by Sun for Solaris 10, Btrfs offers features that are not usually part of the filesystem's repertoire. In addition to an extended storage area, these features include support for RAID0, 1, 5, 6, and 10; snapshots and sub-volumes; and the ability to defragment partitions on the fly. It is also possible to convert ext3/4 partitions to Btrfs, after creating a backup, with the btrfs-convert utility from the Btrfs toolbox.
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