BACKGROUND
Two days ago at time of writing, I had just installed a new distro - Devuan 6 'Excalibur', with the MATE DE.
As is my wont, after I enabled my software firewall, I installed Timeshift, and commenced taking a full snapshot, prior to running updates, adding fave apps, tweaking ... all the usual things.
Rsync, the underlying engine for my Timeshift, had copied a couple of hundred thousand files to the snapshot, but maybe 20 - 30 seconds prior to it completing, Timeshift simply closed down.
Timeshift for the most part is eminently reliable, but once in a blue moon something like this can come along.
I waited an arbitrary time and then tried to launch Timeshift again, and was greeted with a popup that told me that another instance of Timeshift was running and had to be closed down, and gave a PID for the task running.
I could have opened a Terminal and used
I knew that I would want to first redeem that space, and then take a new snapshot to restore the state of affairs to what I had planned.
But how to redeem the space? You can track down the storage partition used, identify the snapshot by its date and time stamp, and delete it through your File Manager with elevated privileges, but Timeshift's instructions recommend you only remove a snapshot through the interface (but it was nowhere to be seen).
r
Fortunately I had experienced a time a little over three (3) years ago, where Timeshift had a bellyache with a libglib library that came downstream from Debian and through to Ubuntu, Mint and even Arch and Arch-based distros, and a new version of Timeshift had to be generated.
During that time in 2022, I was able to work around maintaining the safety of my distros by using the Terminal, and it is this which I will show here.
METHOD
Timeshift, as with so many other Linux packages, has a manual, that can be accessed through use of
I always place comments against my snapshots, and this can be accommodated even in Terminal. Following is the text I saved for here.
In case of font formatting issues, those are double dashes before create and comments.
A feature whereby the Terminal method has a significant advantage over the GUI method is as shown in the last few lines.
Timeshift from Terminal not only takes the snapshot in full and adds the comments, but also cleans up (removes) the incomplete snapshot.
At the end of the exercise, I have got my complete, usable snapshot, with comments (which I will tweak later) and a reliable log that can be used.
If I really want to be meticulous in my housekeeping, I can slip into my File Manager and delete the shonky log, but I'll leave that for another time. If you want to know how to read the logs, I can show that in another tute.
Cheers
Wizard
Two days ago at time of writing, I had just installed a new distro - Devuan 6 'Excalibur', with the MATE DE.
As is my wont, after I enabled my software firewall, I installed Timeshift, and commenced taking a full snapshot, prior to running updates, adding fave apps, tweaking ... all the usual things.
Rsync, the underlying engine for my Timeshift, had copied a couple of hundred thousand files to the snapshot, but maybe 20 - 30 seconds prior to it completing, Timeshift simply closed down.
Timeshift for the most part is eminently reliable, but once in a blue moon something like this can come along.
I waited an arbitrary time and then tried to launch Timeshift again, and was greeted with a popup that told me that another instance of Timeshift was running and had to be closed down, and gave a PID for the task running.
I could have opened a Terminal and used
killall to end it, but chose instead to reboot. Once in a new session, I opened Timeshift, and could see that while the snapshot attempted did not appear in my list, it nevertheless had consumed about 6.5 GB, which was the amount of space taken by Devuan's root. It would also have generated a log (incomplete and not of any use other than for diagnostic purposes, in /var/log/timeshift/ .I knew that I would want to first redeem that space, and then take a new snapshot to restore the state of affairs to what I had planned.
But how to redeem the space? You can track down the storage partition used, identify the snapshot by its date and time stamp, and delete it through your File Manager with elevated privileges, but Timeshift's instructions recommend you only remove a snapshot through the interface (but it was nowhere to be seen).
r
Fortunately I had experienced a time a little over three (3) years ago, where Timeshift had a bellyache with a libglib library that came downstream from Debian and through to Ubuntu, Mint and even Arch and Arch-based distros, and a new version of Timeshift had to be generated.
During that time in 2022, I was able to work around maintaining the safety of my distros by using the Terminal, and it is this which I will show here.
METHOD
Timeshift, as with so many other Linux packages, has a manual, that can be accessed through use of
man timeshift and you can wander through it for guidance.I always place comments against my snapshots, and this can be accommodated even in Terminal. Following is the text I saved for here.
In case of font formatting issues, those are double dashes before create and comments.
Code:
chris@devuan-excalibur:~$ sudo timeshift --create --comments "fix busted snapshot, remove cruft"
Mounted '/dev/sdc7' at '/run/timeshift/2563/backup'
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Creating new snapshot...(RSYNC)
Saving to device: /dev/sdc7, mounted at path: /run/timeshift/2563/backup
Syncing files with rsync...
Created control file: /run/timeshift/2563/backup/timeshift/snapshots/2025-12-02_13-56-33/info.json
RSYNC Snapshot saved successfully (267s)
Tagged snapshot '2025-12-02_13-56-33': ondemand
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing snapshots (incomplete):
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Removing '2025-12-02_12-57-41'...
Removed '2025-12-02_12-57-41'A feature whereby the Terminal method has a significant advantage over the GUI method is as shown in the last few lines.
Timeshift from Terminal not only takes the snapshot in full and adds the comments, but also cleans up (removes) the incomplete snapshot.
At the end of the exercise, I have got my complete, usable snapshot, with comments (which I will tweak later) and a reliable log that can be used.
If I really want to be meticulous in my housekeeping, I can slip into my File Manager and delete the shonky log, but I'll leave that for another time. If you want to know how to read the logs, I can show that in another tute.
Cheers
Wizard
