Linux Btrfs Guide

Complete beginner-friendly guide to Btrfs on Linux, covering Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other distributions including installation, subvolumes, snapshots, compression, and Btrfs management.

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Table of Contents

1. Understanding Btrfs
2. Creating Btrfs
3. Subvolumes
4. Snapshots
5. Compression
6. Troubleshooting

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Understanding Btrfs

What is Btrfs?

Btrfs is modern filesystem with advanced features.

Features:

• Snapshots: System snapshots
• Compression: Built-in compression
• Copy-on-write: Efficient storage
• Subvolumes: Flexible organization
• RAID support: Software RAID

Benefits:

• Snapshots: Easy system recovery
• Compression: Save disk space
• Flexibility: Easy to manage

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Creating Btrfs

Format Btrfs

Create filesystem:

# Format as Btrfs
sudo mkfs.btrfs /dev/sda1

# With label
sudo mkfs.btrfs -L "MyData" /dev/sda1

Mount Btrfs

Mount:

# Mount
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/data

# With compression
sudo mount -o compress=zstd /dev/sda1 /mnt/data

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Subvolumes

Create Subvolume

Create subvolume:

# Create subvolume
sudo btrfs subvolume create /mnt/data/subvol1

# List subvolumes
sudo btrfs subvolume list /mnt/data

# Delete subvolume
sudo btrfs subvolume delete /mnt/data/subvol1

Mount Subvolume

Mount subvolume:

# Mount subvolume
sudo mount -o subvol=subvol1 /dev/sda1 /mnt/subvol1

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Snapshots

Create Snapshot

Manual snapshot:

# Create snapshot
sudo btrfs subvolume snapshot / /mnt/snapshots/snapshot-$(date +%Y%m%d)

# List snapshots
sudo btrfs subvolume list /

See Snapshots for detailed guide.

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Compression

Enable Compression

Mount with compression:

# Mount with zstd compression
sudo mount -o compress=zstd /dev/sda1 /mnt/data

# Or in fstab
UUID=xxxx-xxxx  /mnt/data  btrfs  defaults,compress=zstd  0  2

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Troubleshooting

Btrfs Issues

Check filesystem:

# Check filesystem
sudo btrfs check /dev/sda1

# Scrub filesystem
sudo btrfs scrub start /mnt/data

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Summary

This guide covered Btrfs for Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other distributions, including creation, subvolumes, snapshots, and compression.

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Next Steps

• Snapshots - Snapshot guide
• Filesystem Management - Filesystem setup
• Backup and Restore - Backups
• ArchWiki Btrfs: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Btrfs

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This guide covers Arch Linux, CachyOS, and other Linux distributions. For distribution-specific details, refer to your distribution's documentation.