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linuxmint / timeshift

System restore tool for Linux. Creates filesystem snapshots using rsync+hardlinks, or BTRFS snapshots. Supports scheduled snapshots, multiple backup levels, and exclude filters. Snapshots can be restored while system is running or from Live CD/USB.
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My system died thanks to Timeshift "bloating" it #221

Open hirntot opened 11 months ago

hirntot commented 11 months ago

Describe the bug After setting up timeshift to do regular backups, it seems to do it's job. For a reason I don't understand, the storage space that seems to be left is never the same when looking in timeshift or in nemo. Recently I got notified a few times that my /system disk seems to be full. Checking in timeshift it seemed to have enough space. But still, today my computer just stopped working and after a reboot it wouldnt switch back on into lightdm. So I logged in into the shell and tried to delete all backups manually by typing "sudo timeshift delete-all". And seriously, timeshift complains about storage space instead of giving it free!!

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior: Define a disk space just slightly bigger than the minimum. Then set timeshift to do regular backups and wait till the system disk is just full. Then you can't do anything anymore with your /system.

Expected behavior 1.Timeshift is able to see that there's no space left and then directly deletes snapshots so the space is not taken by snapshots.

  1. Timeshift is able to delete snapshots also if the storage space is full.

Screenshots IMG_20230805_180823_795

System:

linux-rox commented 11 months ago

In the meantime, maybe use Timeshift as designed. To save snapshots on the system partition (the default), said partition needs to be large enough. The Installation Guide recommends 100 GB; you generally can get by with 60 GB if not using flatpaks. If you don't have enough space for that on the drive, direct Timeshift snapshots elsewhere, a USB drive if necessary.

hirntot commented 10 months ago

well, I think I missed an important thing in my first posting and just edited it: - both system and home are BTRFS formatted. moving the data anywhere would be totally pointless.

AtomicRobotMan0101 commented 8 months ago

Backup and restore management are always a thing. We all know this.

Perhaps a good thing to do would be to review the boot/hour/day/week/month snapshot levels and prune off the old ones, or those unnecessary?

It would be wise to have the backups made to a second partition or storage.

Although, your second "expected" is reasonable. TS shouldn't fill up a partition to the last byte. Perhaps have a 1GB free and have the TS chuck a lot of errors to gain attention of the users? Use the notifications applet :)

hirntot commented 8 months ago

What are you suggesting exactly? To delete backups to regain space? Well, as I described, it wasn't possible because there was no space left (hilarious, isn't it?).

It would be wise to have the backups made to a second partition or storage.

It definitely is. And I have another backup (unison) set up for weekly/monthly backup on an external hard drive. but the idea of using btrfs, as well as the idea of a laptop (maybe I didn't mention that before) actually is, NOT to depend on a second storage device. At least as far as I understood it...

hirntot commented 8 months ago

Although, your second "expected" is reasonable. TS shouldn't fill up a partition to the last byte.

Ah oh. Just noticed: That was my first "expected". The second expected is, that ts is able to delete snapshots even when the hard drive is full (for whatever reason). Isn't that reasonable as well?

I even could add a third expetation:

  1. There is a reasonable howto for people who are stuck with a computer that won't start anymore due to lack of disc space and who would like to delete a few snapshots.
AtomicRobotMan0101 commented 8 months ago

All 3 are good ideas. I like them.

Perhaps to improve the software, take a little time to format the points, then add them as a feature request. One request per point.

It's easy to appear angry on these forums. Remember they are driven by a community and politeness matters.

tbertels commented 4 months ago

See https://forum.manjaro.org/t/could-not-boot-due-to-brfs-no-space-condition-how-should-i-keep-using-btrfs/92922 on how to free up space once the btrfs partition is full and thus readonly . It's a good idea to keep a few GB of free space after the btrfs partition, so that you can resize it to remove files if it gets full.