up vote 1 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

I'm interested in knowing if things like

  • File system structure creation/modification
  • Execution of commands like adduser
  • Changes made between specific duration start/end datetime

can be reversed, preferably to a set "savepoint". Is this possible?

link|improve this question
I don't know that there is a native savepoint feature in any OS. When virtualizing the power lies in the virtualizer and not the os being virtualized. – Mimisbrunnr Sep 8 '11 at 5:11
feedback

migrated from stackoverflow.com Sep 8 '11 at 9:40

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

2 Answers

up vote 0 down vote accepted

You are basically wanting to have file system snapshots.

ZFS is a file system which has this feature. It is available in FreeBSD operating system (and also Solaris/OpenSolaris but I do not know if that OS is dead nowadays).

Your third point:

  • changes made between specific duration start/end datetime

That is practically impossible unless end equals now and start equals exact time when snapshot was taken previously.

You can accomplish almost the same thing on Linux by putting your file systems on LVM volumes and using LVM snapshots (which are block device snapshots instead of file system snapshots), but in real life you probably do not want to do that. There is a big performance penalty for running LVM with active snapshots. (On the other hand proper file system snapshots like on ZFS have practically zero performance penalty.)

link|improve this answer
Apple's OS X also has this feature (it is based on FreeBSD). They call it time machine. – snap Sep 8 '11 at 9:48
Not exactly. Time Machine only does regular file-based backups of the entire system to enable users to restore a complete bootable system from backup. – Daniel Beck Sep 8 '11 at 10:18
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

ZFS in solaris or openindiana would probably the easiest. Otherwise BTRFS (when its ready) or ext3cow have support for versioning - which is probably what you need.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.