BTRFS Snapshots (snapper)

Fedora BTRFS Snapshots

Runs through process of setting system backs with BTRFS formated drive on fedora

Create Snapshot Locations

Root

sudo snapper -c root create-config /

Home

sudo snapper -c home create-config /home

Verify

sudo snapper list-configs
Config │ Subvolume
───────┼──────────
home   │ /home
root   │ /

Setup snapshots before/after every update

sudo dnf install python3-dnf-plugin-snapper

List all snap shots

sudo snapper -c root list sudo snapper -c home list

Create snapshot

sudo snapper -c root create --description "Before fedora 44 upgrade" sudo snapper -c home create --description "Before fedora 44 upgrade"

Remove snapshot

use list command to find <num> sudo snapper -c root delete <num> sudo snapper -c home delete <num>

Btrfs Assistant(GUI)

The GUI application for managing snapshots on fedora.

launch via cli

sudo btrfs-assistant

Create snapshot

navigate to snapper
select snapshot location (snapshot config)
press “new” to manually create a snapshot

Excluding directories from snapshot

snapshots cost near zero intially and only gor in size as files are changed. If home is 60G and 500MB worth of changes happen the snapshot only uses 500MB. You may want to exclude directories that do not change often

Cache

mv ~/.cache ~/.cache-old
btrfs subvolume create ~/.cache
cp -a ~/.cache-old/. ~/.cache/
rm -rf ~/.cache-old

Trash

rm -rf ~/.local/share/Trash
btrfs subvolume create ~/.local/share/Trash

Downloads

mv ~/Downloads ~/Downloads-old
btrfs subvolume create ~/Downloads
cp -a ~/Downloads-old/. ~/Downloads
rm -rf ~/Downloads-old

Steam

killall -9 steam
mv ~/.local/share/Steam ~/.local/share/Steam-old
btrfs subvolume create ~/.local/share/Steam
cp -a ~/.local/share/Steam-old/. ~/.local/share/Steam/
rm -rf ~/.local/share/Steam-old

flatpak

 mv ~/.local/share/flatpak ~/.local/share/flatpak-old
 btrfs subvolume create ~/.local/share/flatpak
 cp -a ~/.local/share/flatpak-old/. ~/.local/share/flatpak/
 rm -rf ~/.local/share/flatpak-old