They are set up automatically on OpenSUSE and make a new snapshot before and after every program installation, update and removal. Awesome for general peace of mind and especially when you’re up to strange shenanigans.
Also, for people on distros that don’t have an OOTB solution like OpenSUSE have, I recommend snapper and btrfs-assistant. You just install both packages, open the assistant GUI and create a profile for your root partition.
You can then also install a snapper plugin for your package manager, if one exists (I know DNF and pacman have one), which automatically take pre/post snapshots like OpenSUSE does, so you can quickly roll back if something goes wrong after a particular update/install/removal.
I’ve been using the above with EndeavourOS for a year now and it’s come in very handy on a couple of occasions.
Me:
- make the snapshot after the system is already broken
- Break it more
- Don’t restore the snapshot because its old and you can fix it
Been using it on a fedora workstation and a Debian server for 2 years and it has been stable and amazing for backups and regressions. So fast and easy to use. I use timeshift to handle organizing and scheduled backups.
FWIW, I set up these distros to separate my home directory from the OS, so backups aren’t clogged with random files in my /home directory. I use Pika Backup to handle the /home directories to a separate backup site.
It’s basically automated, reliable, and sooo fast. Love it.
The FS feature is great, it’s just cumbersome to use without a tool.
Snapper works well for a local backup like history both against botched updates and accidental deletion, but eats up the free space with the default settings.
Timeshift is an easy to use GUI but doesn’t support non-default partitions.
Also the quota support had a nasty side effect: freezing the whole system on snapshot deletion.
But It’s just a corrupt driver dude, I know I can fix it.
