The btrfs subvolume command is a command-line utility in Linux that is used to manage subvolumes in a btrfs file system. Btrfs is a copy-on-write (CoW) file system that is included in the Linux kernel and is known for its advanced features and capabilities, such as snapshotting, incremental backups, and more.
btrfs subvolume is a utility that is included in the btrfs-progs package, which is a collection of tools and libraries for managing btrfs file systems. To use btrfs subvolume, you will need to have the btrfs-progs package installed on your Linux system. btrfs-progs is usually available as a package in the repositories of popular Linux distributions, and you can install it using the package manager for your specific distribution.
A subvolume in btrfs is a self-contained tree of files and directories that is managed independently of the rest of the file system. Subvolumes can be created, deleted, and snapshotted independently of the rest of the file system, and they can also be mounted and unmounted separately.
For more information on using btrfs subvolume, you can consult the btrfs-progs documentation or use the btrfs subvolume –help command to view a list of available options and usage examples.
btrfs subvolume Command Examples
1. Create a new empty subvolume:
# btrfs subvolume create /path/to/new_subvolume
2. List all subvolumes and snapshots in the specified filesystem:
# btrfs subvolume list /path/to/btrfs_filesystem
3. Delete a subvolume:
# btrfs subvolume delete /path/to/subvolume
4. Create a read-only snapshot of an existing subvolume:
# btrfs subvolume snapshot -r /path/to/source_subvolume /path/to/target
5. Create a read-write snapshot of an existing subvolume:
# btrfs subvolume snapshot /path/to/source_subvolume /path/to/target
6. Show detailed information about a subvolume:
# btrfs subvolume show /path/to/subvolume