How do I get transparent, efficient, file system snapshotting or versioning on ext3/4?

Posted by shovas on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by shovas
Published on 2010-03-20T18:55:37Z Indexed on 2010/03/20 19:01 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 156

Filed under:

filesystem

|

versioning

|

ext3

|

git

I've long thought about versioning file systems. This is a killer feature and I've looked at Wayback, ext3cow, zfs, fuse solutions, or just cvs/svn/git overlays.

I consider ext3cow the model for my requirements. Transparent, efficient, but I can do without the extra ls abc@timestamp feature. As long as I somehow get automated, transparent versioning of my files.

It could be instantaneous or it could be based on snapshots on intervals of 10s, 30s, 1m, 5m, 15m, etc. Just something that will efficiently deal with thousands of files in a given directory all of various sizes, most small, but some upwards of 100m to 1gb.

ZFS isn't really an option as I'm on linux (and would prefer not to use it through fuse as I already have an ext3 setup I want to version, not something new).

What solutions are out there?

© Server Fault or respective owner

Related posts about filesystem

How to delete/edit files from readonly filesystem

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am having problem with my memory device (actually a memory card that act external memory device like pendrive). experimentx@workmateX:/var/www/zendtest$ sudo rm /media/A88F-8788/python-2.7.1-docs-html.zip rm: cannot remove `/media/A88F-8788/python-2.7.1-docs-html.zip': Read-only file system I… >>> More
Open source embedded filesystem (or single file virtual filesystem, or structured storage) library f

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I'm not sure what the "general" name of something like this might be. I'm looking for a library that gives me a file format to store different types of binary data in an expanding single file. open source, non-GPL (LGPL ok) C interface the file format is a single file multiple files within using… >>> More
Wubi and Vista 64 bits can't work

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
First of all, I have posted this issue at Ubuntu Forum without success yet. Hello, I have downloaded "kubuntu-9.10-desktop-amd64.iso" and I have mounted it on my Windows Vista 64 bits Ultimate. I have downloaded wubi 9.10. The problem is when installing, it crash after few time. Here is the log… >>> More
Why didn't 12.04 install?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
Ok, so I've installed Ubuntu many times on my computer.. Normally on the same partition, and WIndows would always delete Ubuntu(I don't know how.. it just happens) if i go away from keyboard during boot and it chooses Windows automatically because I took to long. So i tried to reinstall again, but… >>> More
faking a filesystem / virtual filesystem

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have a web service to which users upload python scripts that are run on a server. Those scripts process files that are on the server and I want them to be able to see only a certain hierarchy of the server's filesystem (best: a temporary folder on which I copy the files I want processed and the… >>> More

Related posts about versioning

Web Site Performance and Assembly Versioning – Part 3 Versioning Combined Files Using Mercurial

as seen on ASP.net Weblogs - Search for 'ASP.net Weblogs'
Minification and Concatination of JavaScript and CSS Files Versioning Combined Files Using Subversion Versioning Combined Files Using Mercurial – this post I have worked on a project recently where there was a need to version the system (library dll, css and javascript files) by date and… >>> More
Web Site Performance and Assembly Versioning – Part 2 Versioning Combined Files Using Subversion

as seen on ASP.net Weblogs - Search for 'ASP.net Weblogs'
Ok so it took a while to post this second part. Many apologies, we had a big roll out of a new platform at work and many things had to get sidelined. So this is the second part in a short series of website performance and using versioning to help improve it. Minification and Concatination of JavaScript… >>> More
Sharepoint webpart-page versioning

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
On webpart-pages it is possible modify the contained webparts over the Web by using Site Actions-Edit page. Is there a possibility to view the version history of such a page? >>> More
jboss envers for versioning?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have entities that required versioning support and from time to time, i will need to retrieve old version of the entity . should i just use options available 1. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/762405/database-data-versioning 2. jboss envers (can this be used on any web server,tomcat,jetty… >>> More
UPK Content State

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
State is an editable property for communicating the status of a document in the UPK library. This is particularly helpful when working with other authors in a development team. Authors can assign a state to any document using the values that are defined in the master list. The default master list… >>> More