whatis btrfs
Btrfs
Also known as: butter FS, B-tree filesystem
A copy-on-write Linux filesystem with snapshots, subvolumes, transparent compression, and data checksums built in.
What Is Btrfs in Linux?
Btrfs never overwrites data in place; it writes new blocks and updates pointers. That makes instant snapshots cheap, so you can snapshot the root filesystem before an update and roll back if something breaks.
Subvolumes act like separate filesystems within one partition, and zstd compression often saves significant space. Fedora and openSUSE use Btrfs by default. Its RAID 5/6 modes are still not recommended for important data.
Example
sudo btrfs subvolume snapshot -r / /.snapshots/pre-updateLearn more about Btrfs
- Btrfs Snapshots and Timeshift: Undo for Your Whole System Btrfs can capture the state of your filesystem in an instant snapshot that costs almost nothing until files change. Paired with Timeshift or Snapper, that becomes an undo button for bad updates. Here is how it works and how to set it up.
- Btrfs vs ZFS: Choosing a Copy-on-Write Filesystem Both do snapshots, checksums, and compression. The differences that decide it are licensing, memory behaviour, how each handles RAID, and which failure modes you can live with.
- ext4 vs Btrfs vs XFS Explained Choosing a Linux filesystem matters more than most default-accepting installs suggest. This guide compares ext4, Btrfs, and XFS on stability, snapshots, scalability, and which one fits which use case.