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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Can btrfs snapshots help me recover from botched attempts to follow online guides? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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Background:

Typically when I'm trying something new on Linux, I search for an online guide that doesn't assume I'm already an expert and looks like it should be easy enough for a pleb like myself to follow. Whatever it is I'm trying to do, it usually takes me multiple tries to get it right. Sometimes, when I'm venturing into new territory, I'll derp around in a VM so I can take snapshots and then revert to the last good snapshot when something inevitably goes wrong. This approach works well for me most of the time.

But every now and then, I don't want to use a VM, I want to use a spare laptop that I have lying around, "bare metal" if you will. It just feels more... authentic? My hesitation w/ practicing on spare laptops is that when I mess it up, the only way I know how to start over with a clean slate is to reinstall the OS and try again. This approach is not ideal b/c I mess up a lot - this is a fact of my life - and reinstalling the OS after every mistake takes a lot of time, to the point that I just stop persuing whatever project I was working on.

Question:

Is this a good use case for btrfs? How easy is it for a pleb like myself to take snapshots and then roll back to the previous state after jacking up a config file in /home or /etc or something?

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[–] ada@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 days ago

That's exactly why I used them!

I'm running a rolling distro on my main desktop, when I first moved over to linux (a couple of years ago now), I kept breaking things without having the knowledge to fix them. And then I discovered snapshots!

The one thing I would say to be aware of, is to make sure you have a bootloader hook as well, that will let you actually boot in to the previous snapshots from the boot menu.

I use CachyOS and it has this stuff as out of the box options during the installer.