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A copy-on-write, versionned filesystem
Version 1.3.1M
By
Nicolas Vigier
(boklm@mars-attacks.org)
and
Thomas Joubert
(widan@net-42.eu.org)
http://n0x.org/copyfs/
Contributions From:
Matthew Keller
https://github.com/cognusion/copyfs
CopyFS aims to solve a common problem : given a directory, especially one full of configuration files, or other files that one can modify, and which can affect the functionning of a system, or of programs, that may be important to other users (or to the user himself), how to be sure that a person modifying the files will do a backup of the working version first ?
This filesystem solves the problem by making the whole process transparent, automatically keeping versionned copies of all the changes done to file under its control.
It also allows a user to select an old version of the files, for example to repair a mistake, and allows him/her to continue edition from this point.
CopyFS is distributed under the terms of the GNU GPL.
Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) is required to use this filesystem. FUSE was merged into the mainstream Linux kernel tree in kernel version 2.6.14, so any version >= 2.6.14 should be fine, if the option was selected when the kernel was compiled.
More informations about FUSE is available on http://fuse.sourceforge.net/
It might work on FreeBSD and OpenSolaris too, but we never tried yet.
Simply do :
copyfs-1.0 % ./configure
copyfs-1.0 % make all
copyfs-1.0 % su
Password:
copyfs-1.0 # make install
To mount a CopyFS, you need to use the command 'copyfs-mount' : if you want to mount a CopyFS at '/mnt/fs', whose version directory is at /var/versions, you would use :
root # copyfs-mount /var/versions /mnt/fs
To unmount it, simply do :
root # umount /mnt/fs
As you would do for any filesystem.
To know which versions are available, you can use the copyfs-fversion tool :
cpy-fs $ copyfs-fversion test
File test ('*' is active) :
v1.0 : -rw-r--r-- widan users 0 Fri Dec 10 14:17:47 2004
v2.0 : -rw-r--r-- widan users 21 Fri Dec 10 14:17:55 2004
v2.1 : -rwx------ widan users 21 Fri Dec 10 14:17:55 2004
v3.0 : -rwx------ widan users 29 Fri Dec 10 14:19:35 2004 [*]
You know there are 4 versions, with their associated information. In that state you are viewing version 3.0 (ie the last one). If you want to see another one, you can 'lock' it :
cpy-fs $ cat test
version 3.0
cpy-fs $ copyfs-fversion -l 2.0 test
cpy-fs $ cat test
version 2.0
If you want to remove the version lock, and return to the latest version available, use :
cpy-fs $ copyfs-fversion -r test
Let's say you have the following file tree :
cpy-fs $ copyfs-fversion somedir/file-1
File file-1 ('*' is active) :
v1.0 : -rw-r--r-- widan users 3 Fri Dec 10 14:21:41 2004
v2.0 : -rw-r--r-- widan users 3 Fri Dec 10 14:21:43 2004 [*]
v3.0 : -rw-r--r-- widan users 3 Fri Dec 10 14:21:45 2004
cpy-fs $ copyfs-fversion somedir/file-2
File file-2 ('*' is active) :
v1.0 : -rw-r--r-- widan users 5 Fri Dec 10 14:21:51 2004 [*]
v2.0 : -rw-r--r-- widan users 5 Fri Dec 10 14:21:53 2004
cpy-fs $ copyfs-fversion somedir/file-3
File file-3 ('*' is active) :
v1.0 : -rw-r--r-- widan users 5 Fri Dec 10 14:21:58 2004
v2.0 : -rw-r--r-- widan users 5 Fri Dec 10 14:22:03 2004 [*]
You have :
cpy-fs $ cat somedir/file-1
v2
cpy-fs $ cat somedir/file-2
2 v1
cpy-fs $ cat somedir/file-3
3 v2
Suppose you want to save all the "current" versions for the directory 'somedir', you can create a tag file with :
cpy-fs $ copyfs-fversion -t tag-file somedir
Then you can edit the files as you want, and if you want to put all the files back to the version they were at when you tagged them, simply do :
cpy-fs $ copyfs-fversion -u tag-file somedir
Example :
cpy-fs $ echo "new 1" > somedir/file-1
cpy-fs $ echo "new 2" > somedir/file-2
cpy-fs $ cat somedir/file-{1,2,3}
new 1
new 2
3 v2
cpy-fs $ copyfs-fversion -t tag-file-new somedir
cpy-fs $ copyfs-fversion -u tag-file somedir
Restored somedir/file-1 to version 2.0
Restored somedir/file-2 to version 1.0
Restored somedir/file-3 to version 2.0
cpy-fs $ cat somedir/file-{1,2,3}
v2
2 v1
3 v2
cpy-fs $ copyfs-fversion -u tag-file-new somedir
Restored somedir/file-1 to version 6.0
Restored somedir/file-2 to version 3.0
Restored somedir/file-3 to version 2.0
cpy-fs $ cat somedir/file-{1,2,3}
new 1
new 2
3 v2
Example:
[workspace]$ echo "Hello world" > testfile
[workspace]$ echo "There's always room for JELLO" >> testfile
[workspace]$ copyfs-fversion testfile
File testfile ('*' is active) :
v1.0 : -rw-rw-r-- kellermg kellermg 12 Mon 13 Feb 2006 12:59:28 PM EST
v2.0 : -rw-rw-r-- kellermg kellermg 42 Mon 13 Feb 2006 12:59:55 PM EST [*]
[workspace]$ copyfs-fversion -d 1.0,2.0 testfile
2 -
2 + There's always room for JELLO
--------
[workspace]$ cat testfile
Hello world
There's always room for JELLO
We will balk if you try to diff a binary file:
[copyfs]$ copyfs-fversion -d 41.0,53.0 copyfs-daemon
I will not diff binary files
Example:
[workspace]$ echo "Hello world" > testfile
[workspace]$ echo "There's always room for JELLO" >> testfile
[workspace]$ echo "Thanks for all the fish" >> testfile
[workspace]$ echo "So long" >> testfile
[workspace]$ echo "Blah Blah Blah" >> testfile
[workspace]$ echo "Another fish" >> testfile
[workspace]$ copyfs-fversion -G fish testfile
Do not mess with this file... search in progress...
v3.0: Thanks for all the fish
v4.0: Thanks for all the fish
v5.0: Thanks for all the fish
v6.0: Thanks for all the fish
v6.0: Another fish
5 results.
You can also search for a regexp!:
[workspace]$ copyfs-fversion -G ^Blah testfile
Do not mess with this file... search in progress...
v5.0: Blah Blah Blah
v6.0: Blah Blah Blah
2 results.
Purging of folders not yet supported... maybe someday. The recursions necessary scares me.
Example:
[workspace]$ copyfs-fversion testfile
File testfile ('*' is active) :
v1.0 : -rw-rw-r-- kellermg kellermg 12 Mon 13 Feb 2006 12:59:28 PM EST
v2.0 : -rw-rw-r-- kellermg kellermg 42 Mon 13 Feb 2006 12:59:55 PM EST
v3.0 : -rw-rw-r-- kellermg kellermg 66 Mon 13 Feb 2006 01:03:24 PM EST
v4.0 : -rw-rw-r-- kellermg kellermg 74 Mon 13 Feb 2006 01:04:44 PM EST
v5.0 : -rw-rw-r-- kellermg kellermg 89 Mon 13 Feb 2006 01:04:56 PM EST
v6.0 : -rw-rw-r-- kellermg kellermg 102 Mon 13 Feb 2006 01:05:02 PM EST [*]
[workspace]$ copyfs-fversion -p 3 testfile
[workspace]$ copyfs-fversion testfile
File testfile ('*' is active) :
v4.0 : -rw-rw-r-- kellermg kellermg 74 Mon 13 Feb 2006 01:04:44 PM EST
v5.0 : -rw-rw-r-- kellermg kellermg 89 Mon 13 Feb 2006 01:04:56 PM EST
v6.0 : -rw-rw-r-- kellermg kellermg 102 Mon 13 Feb 2006 01:05:02 PM EST [*]
Or you can just kill the very existance of the file:
[workspace]$ copyfs-fversion -p A testfile
[workspace]$ copyfs-fversion testfile
fversion: testfile: No such file or directory