Timeshifter

[GTP]

I just installed Mint 18.3 on 2 client computers.
I noticed a program called Timeshift in the program menu.
It's a "System Restore" type program.
I ran it on the machines to create a Restore point on each.

I use Mint 18.3 myself but it wasn't on my system? Easy enough to get though via Software Manager.
It has some very cool features like:
You can install a completely different version of Linux and restore your system from a snapshot.

 

[LordIntruder]

You can install a completely different version of Linux and restore your system from a snapshot.

Not really. Backing up a linux version which uses ifconfig and the other old tools for setup of a network you'll get a big wakeup call when you try to restore after installing a newer linux version which uses ip for setup of a network.

 

[GTP]

I don't think they meant it to work in that context.
To me it meant that you could take a snapshot of your present system, completely overwrite it with a new version or even a different distro, then restore your system from the snapshot.
Please correct me if I'm on the wrong track.

 

[Markverhyden]

Not really. Backing up a linux version which uses ifconfig and the other old tools for setup of a network you'll get a big wakeup call when you try to restore after installing a newer linux version which uses ip for setup of a network.

Exactly. These are not system images. They are incrementals building on an initial system image. I'd never trust something like that unless the machine was nuked and the app allows a restore via bootable image like OS X does.

 

[NJW]

These are not system images.

I think they are, but I have never tried it. In theory, you can boot a Live CD, install Timeshift in the live environment and then restore from a Timeshift backup to a fully-working machine.

I'm not sure if Timeshift on Mint includes backup of personal files (documents, music, photos, …) – certainly the original Timeshift doesn't, but it does take care of user configuration files, afaik.

@Barcelona : try a nuke and restore: does everything come back in /home?

 

[GTP]

Not just /home it restores everything back to original

 

[NJW]

New Not just /home it restored everything back to original

Good to know. (I knew about all the system files, just wasn't sure about /home.)

 

[Markverhyden]

I guess I was not clear. I meant a complete image for each snapshot. On their website their description makes it sound just like Time Machine. Which, by the way, will restore user profiles and data. So the first backup is a full image and then each subsequent just backs up the changes files. If you drill into the sparse bundle it looks like each backup is complete but many icons are actually links, not sure if they are hard or soft, to the actual file somewhere earlier.

 

[NJW]

I guess I was not clear.

I understood what you meant. Timeshift works the same way, using rsync and hard links (they must be hard links, so the original cannot be deleted, leaving hanging links).

There are loads of rsync+hard links backup solutions available – it's a pretty bullet-proof solution – but most are script based and designed to be used in a cron job. There have been several attempts at emulating Time Machine for Linux, but they always seem to suffer a lingering death. The involvement of the Mint devs should go some way to keeping Timeshift going.

I recall reading that the Mint devs had extended the original remit of Timeshift, to include personal config files (dot files in the user's home directory). The Timeshift docs don't mention this, only referring to system files, which is why I asked about /home.

 

[NJW]

Digging deeper, it's possible to add user files to the backup, selectable by user and hidden-files-only or all files. So that's good.

Unfortunately, it's only possible to back up to a local drive – no USB devices, no network storage. Which rather kills it as a disaster recovery option, frankly. I suspect that the reason is that it won't work on any of the FAT-based filesystems, nor on smb shares, as they don't support hard links.

 

[GTP]

I just formatted a 2tb hdd to Ext4 and the program recognised it as a backup destination.
My only complaint is that it takes a long time to complete the backup.

 

[Umbra]

Look like a built-in snapshot mechanism like Rollback RX. Quite nice actually.

 

[GTP]

Look like a built-in snapshot mechanism like Rollback RX. Quite nice actually.

Hey @Umbra love the new avatar!

 

[Umbra]

Hey @Umbra love the new avatar!

Thanks ! In fact, it is my original one, i use it on several security forums, i used my awesome beginner skills in Photoshop