asciicast

httm

The dream of a CLI ZFS Time Machine is still alive with httm.

httm prints the size, date and corresponding locations of available unique versions (deduplicated by modify time and size) of files residing on ZFS snapshots, but can also be used interactively to select and restore such files. httm might change the way you use ZFS snapshots (because ZFS isn't designed for finding for unique file versions) or the Time Machine concept (because httm is very fast!).

httm boasts an array of seductive features, like:

Use in combination with you favorite shell (hot keys!) for even more fun.

Inspired by the findoid script, fzf and many zsh key bindings.

Install via Native Packages

For Debian-based and Redhat-based Linux distributions (like, Ubuntu or Fedora, etc.), check the tagged releases for native packages for your distribution.

You may also create and install your own native package from the latest sources, like so:

```bash curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh cargo install cargo-deb git clone https://github.com/kimono-koans/httm.git cd ./httm/; cargo deb

to install on a Debian/Ubuntu-based system

dpkg -i ./target/debian/httm_*.deb

or convert to RPM

alien -r ./target/debian/httm_*.deb

and install on a Redhat-based system

rpm -i ./httm_*.rpm ```

For Arch-based Linux distributions, you can create and install your own native package from the latest sources, like so:

```bash

you need to edit the PKGBUILD as needed to conform to the latest release

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kimono-koans/httm/master/packaging/arch/PKGBUILD makepkg -si ```

Install via Source

The httm project contains only a few components:

  1. The httm executable. To build and install:

    bash curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh cargo install httm

  2. The optional zsh hot-key bindings: Use ESC+s to select snapshots filenames to be dropped to your command line (for instance after the cat command), or use ESC+m to browse for all of a file's snapshots. After you install the httm binary, to copy the hot key script to your home directory, and source that script within your .zshrc:

    bash httm --install-zsh-hot-keys

  3. The optional man page: cargo has no native facilities for man page installation (though it may in the future!). You can use manpath to see the various directories your system uses and decide which directory works best for you. To install, just copy it to a directory in your man path, like so:

    bash cp ./httm/httm.1 /usr/local/share/man/man1/

Caveats

Right now, you will need to use a Unix-ish-y Rust-supported platform to build and install (that is: Linux, Solaris/illumos, the BSDs, MacOS). Note, your platform does not need to support ZFS to use httm. And there is no fundamental reason a non-interactive Windows version of httm could not be built, as it once did build, but Windows platform support is not a priority for me right now. Contributions from users are, of course, very welcome.

On FreeBSD, after a fresh minimal install, the interactive modes may not render properly, see the linked issue for the fix.

On some Linux distributions, which include old versions of libc, cargo may require building with musl instead, see the linked issue.

Example Usage

Print all unique versions of your history file: bash httm ~/.histfile Print all files on snapshots deleted from your home directory, recursive, newline delimited, piped to a deleted-files.txt file: bash httm -d -n -R --no-live ~ > deleted-files.txt Browse all files in your home directory, recursively, and view unique versions on local snapshots: bash httm -i -R ~ Browse all files deleted from your home directory, recursively, and view unique versions on all local and alternative replicated dataset snapshots: bash httm -d only -i -a -R ~ Browse all files in your home directory, recursively, and view unique versions on local snapshots, to select and ultimately restore to your working directory: bash httm -r -R ~ Browse all files, recursively, in your MacOS home directory backed up via rsync to a ZFS remote share, shared via smbd, and view unique versions on remote snapshots: ```bash

mount the share

open smb://@.local/Home

set the location of you snapshot share point and local relative directory

export HTTMSNAPPOINT="/Volumes/Home" export HTTMLOCALDIR="/Users/"

execute httm

httm -i -R ~ View the differences between each unique snapshot version of `.zshrc` and the live file: bash filename="$HOME/.zshrc" for version in $(httm -n $filename); do # check whether files differ (e.g. snapshot version is identical to live file) if [[ ! -z "$( diff -q "$version" "$filename" )" ]]; then # print that version and file that differ diff -q "$version" "$filename" # print the difference between that version and file diff "$version" "$filename" fi done Create a simple `tar` archive of all unique versions of your `/var/log/syslog`: bash httm -n /var/log/syslog | tar -zcvf all-versions-syslog.tar.gz -T - Create a *kinda fancy* `tar` archive of all unique versions of your `/var/log/syslog`: bash

a slightly fancier GNU tar folder structure

file="/var/log/syslog" dirname="${$(dirname $file)/\//}" basedir="$(basename $file)allversions"

httm -n "$file" | tar --transform="flags=r;s|$dirname|$basedir|" \ --transform="flags=r;s|.zfs/snapshot/||" --show-transformed-names \ -zcvf "all-versions-$(basename $file).tar.gz" -T - Create a *super fancy* `git` archive of all unique versions of `/var/log/syslog`: bash

create variable for file name

file="/var/log/syslog"

create git repo

mkdir ./archive-git; cd ./archive-git; git init

copy each version to repo and commit after each copy

for version in $(httm -n $file); do cp "$version" ./ git add "./$(basename $version)" git commit -m "httm commit from ZFS snapshot" # amend commit date to match snapshot modify time git commit --amend --no-edit --date "$(date -d "$(stat -c %y $version)")" done

create git tar.gz archive

tar -zcvf "../all-versions-$(basename $file).tar.gz" "./"

and to view

git log --stat ```

I know what you're thinking, but slow your roll.

To be clear, httm is <em>not</em>...

License

httm is licensed under the MPL 2.0 License - see the LICENSE file for more details.