From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from mail02.haj.ipfire.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by mail02.haj.ipfire.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4g5RK74q4tz2yF2 for ; Wed, 29 Apr 2026 18:53:31 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail01.ipfire.org (mail01.haj.ipfire.org [IPv6:2001:678:b28::25]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange x25519 server-signature ECDSA (secp384r1 raw public key) server-digest SHA384 client-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) client-digest SHA256) (Client CN "mail01.haj.ipfire.org", Issuer "R12" (not verified)) by mail02.haj.ipfire.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4g5RK42wW1z2xHk for ; Wed, 29 Apr 2026 18:53:28 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [127.0.0.1] (localhost [127.0.0.1]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange x25519 server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) server-digest SHA256) (No client certificate requested) by mail01.ipfire.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 4g5RK230jhz7BZ for ; Wed, 29 Apr 2026 18:53:26 +0000 (UTC) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=ed25519-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=ipfire.org; s=202003ed25519; t=1777488806; h=from:from:reply-to:subject:subject:date:date:message-id:message-id: to:to:cc:mime-version:mime-version:content-type:content-type: content-transfer-encoding:content-transfer-encoding: in-reply-to:in-reply-to:references:references; bh=hq3R8msNH4FG9uJqPjrYY5s8U67PILzvQLwUN4/Wudk=; b=hWv8CD7ySedseRoZvCbN/W0TSuRXTDWNSMc3v45Wb9/F0AkPXedo4whNzP9LVCQnTdi48c lsELzXiIoMkvP8DQ== DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=ipfire.org; s=202003rsa; t=1777488806; h=from:from:reply-to:subject:subject:date:date:message-id:message-id: to:to:cc:mime-version:mime-version:content-type:content-type: content-transfer-encoding:content-transfer-encoding: in-reply-to:in-reply-to:references:references; bh=hq3R8msNH4FG9uJqPjrYY5s8U67PILzvQLwUN4/Wudk=; b=o2O2hV17yRi/BBkLa0HtAT6L9HCagxoRqyMWQtpOzPUAA+X0BsDztrQfFWfD0sBprnwcdy NKksu4Qsu4QDAhQR5lhpwYVTjrF0Goi31cLgRLpDiFhsuKOpQmPu6OdTeDN++3pOnDxiYN JGodXHHQ5gi2DHq68Y1NssWDFy8Akmog0xw3+Zey3lW8D1Ty8WMk4bTelMf3/4Sc08njDw lGCCKknLXOxwUwbt1ArP341/TMB5TGyQOnWbNxReV2/mgwuK2xfy7JkgvoRpqpykSxWS8z qhRlfxkMVpkOpOVfGLPbS55155CxYYMViudqisBM658k3HR0lANBNrd6rzbylA== Message-ID: <980b24a9a4a3df6db711d9c082a4061627c00200.camel@ipfire.org> Subject: Re: Testing release for BTRFS/Snapshots feature From: Stefan Schantl To: development@lists.ipfire.org Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2026 20:53:25 +0200 In-Reply-To: <6d8f15e3-079a-4601-951c-d607dee51e37@ipfire.org> References: <6d8f15e3-079a-4601-951c-d607dee51e37@ipfire.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Precedence: list List-Id: List-Subscribe: , List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: Sender: Mail-Followup-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Hello Adolf, thanks for joining the conversation. > Hi Stefan, >=20 > On 29/04/2026 19:25, Stefan Schantl wrote: > > Hello list followers, > >=20 > > a lot of time has been passed since the initial support for BTRFS > > has > > been introduced in IPFire. Sadly the further development process > > has > > been slowed down significantly - mainly because of personal reasons > > and > > as a result of them, the lack of spare time on my side. > >=20 > > All the more I'm very happy to announce the next milestone on this > > list > > and share the current development state. The roadmap on our wiki > > page > > can be found here: https://www.ipfire.org/docs/roadmap/btrfs > >=20 > > The code to take snapshots, manage them, boot into a certain > > snapshot > > or to restore them finally has been arrived. All these actions > > easily > > can be accessed from the CGI page for backups on the IPFire WUI. On > > this page a new section called "Snapshots" will be displayed in > > case > > BTRFS has been chosen during the install process of IPFire. > >=20 > > The page layout and style is not final yet, but everything is > > expected > > to work properly. In case you have any ideas how to improve the > > look > > and feel of the CGI page please provide some feedback here. > >=20 > > The grub boot menu automatically will be extended when the first > > snapshot has been created with an additional entry to access and > > boot > > into a select-able snapshot in case the system broke or for any > > other > > testing purposes. > >=20 > > I've also extend the code of the pakfire package manager to create > > a > > snapshot before installing a core update. > >=20 > > To summarize the above the snapshot feature would be a big step > > forward, because it a allows anybody to go back if some unexpected > > error occur after an update, a testing update breaks anything, for > > hunting when a certain bug has been seen for the first time, etc... > >=20 > > To took the last remaining steps and get the feature into the > > distribution some more testing and feedback is required. Therefore > > I've > > backed and uploaded an ISO image for all who are interested and > > want to > > join testing. > >=20 > > Sadly IPFire has to be re-installed with BTRFS because there is no > > way > > to migrate an existing installation to a different file system. >=20 > IPFire has to be installed from fresh to get the btrfs filesystem but > can you confirm that then you can do a restore from an IPFire backup > from an ext4 filesystem to get all settings, without any issues due > to the filesystem. >=20 > My understanding is that bis the case but I would just like to have > it confirmed. Yes indeed, it should be possible to restore a backup which has been taken on a different filesystem. I did not tested this yet, but there shouldn't be any issues to be expected. Thanks for the hint, we defenitely should drop a few lines about this in the wiki and/or release notes when we are in a release stage. Best regards, -Stefan >=20 > Regards, >=20 > Adolf. >=20 > >=20 > > The current (and may later) images can be found here: > >=20 > > https://people.ipfire.org/~stevee/BTRFS/ > >=20 > > According to testing and feedback there are some additional > > questions > > which appeared during development and needs some attention: > >=20 > > * Should BTRFS become the default selected file system during > > installation? (At the moment this is ext4) > >=20 > > * Should the pre-generated images use BTRFS? (At the moment they > > are > > also ext4) > >=20 > > * Do we want an automatic snapshot for each single core update, or > > do > > we want a single one in case multiple core updates will be > > installed in > > one go? (Currently I've implemented a snapshot for each single > > update) > >=20 > > * Maybe I missed something - feel free to ask any questions or > > share > > your opinions here. > >=20 > > A big thanks in advance to anyone who wants to contribute and helps > > to > > finalize this amazing feature. > >=20 > > Best regards, > >=20 > > -Stefan > >=20 >=20