AnduinOS 2.0.2 plan: Btrfs Snapshot feature

[Anduin2017]

Hi everyone!

The next AnduinOS 2.0.2 build will support Btrfs as the system filesystem.

One of the biggest advantages of Btrfs is snapshots, which allow the system to save previous states and make recovery much easier if an update, driver, or configuration change breaks something.

I’m currently deciding whether automatic system snapshots should be enabled by default, for example once every 24 hours.

If snapshots are disabled by default, users may only discover this feature after something goes wrong — and by then there may be no snapshot available to restore from.

On the other hand, enabling automatic snapshots by default may raise concerns about disk space usage and, to a lesser extent, performance. Btrfs also has some overhead compared with ext4.

So I’d like to hear what the community prefers:

Enable automatic snapshots by default
Keep them disabled by default and let users opt in

My current idea is to snapshot the system only, not personal files, and automatically remove old snapshots so disk usage remains under control.

What do you think?

[Calab]

Two thoughts on this...

1. The snapshot interval should offer more than just hours.
2. Why not make it an option to select off or on during the OS installation. That way everyone knows it's there, and will look for settings if they want more details on how it's working.

[Anduin2017]

Good question. But I prefer keeping the installer simple unless this option has to be shown.

[AgentJ23]

Do you plan to enable and make Btrfs compression available?
Will it be possible to convert an existing system from Ext4 to Btrfs?

[Anduin2017]

No plan. Too risky to convert existing volumes.