From reading man snapper, the * in the following snapper list indicates I’m booting into an old snapshot, 1866. Am I reading this correctly?
For btrfs the number can be followed by a sign. A "-" indicates that the snapshot is
the currently mounted snapshot and a "+" indicates that the snapshot will be mounted
next time (It is the btrfs default subvolume). If both conditions apply a "*" is
displayed.
> sudo snapper list
# | Type | Pre # | Date | User | Used Space | Cleanup | Description | Userdata
------+--------+-------+---------------------------------+------+------------+---------+------------------------+--------------
0 | single | | | root | | | current |
1866* | single | | Wed 08 Dec 2021 09:28:58 AM PST | root | 66.36 MiB | | writable copy of #1859 |
1940 | pre | | Tue 21 Dec 2021 08:43:45 AM PST | root | 92.14 MiB | number | zypp(zypper) | important=yes
1941 | post | 1940 | Tue 21 Dec 2021 08:44:43 AM PST | root | 129.66 MiB | number | | important=yes
1982 | pre | | Sun 02 Jan 2022 09:18:39 AM PST | root | 2.05 GiB | number | zypp(zypper) | important=yes
1983 | post | 1982 | Sun 02 Jan 2022 09:44:24 AM PST | root | 3.02 MiB | number | | important=yes
1984 | pre | | Sun 02 Jan 2022 09:57:22 AM PST | root | 704.00 KiB | number | zypp(zypper) | important=yes
1985 | post | 1984 | Sun 02 Jan 2022 09:57:29 AM PST | root | 1.19 MiB | number | | important=yes
1986 | pre | | Sun 02 Jan 2022 03:28:13 PM PST | root | 496.00 KiB | number | zypp(zypper) | important=no
1987 | post | 1986 | Sun 02 Jan 2022 03:28:49 PM PST | root | 544.00 KiB | number | | important=no
1988 | pre | | Mon 03 Jan 2022 08:37:17 AM PST | root | 3.78 MiB | number | zypp(zypper) | important=yes
1989 | post | 1988 | Mon 03 Jan 2022 08:51:21 AM PST | root | 12.11 MiB | number | | important=yes
1990 | pre | | Wed 05 Jan 2022 09:17:58 AM PST | root | 6.77 MiB | number | zypp(zypper) | important=no
1991 | post | 1990 | Wed 05 Jan 2022 09:18:44 AM PST | root | 6.05 MiB | number | | important=no
1992 | pre | | Fri 07 Jan 2022 10:50:22 AM PST | root | 13.47 MiB | number | zypp(zypper) | important=yes
1993 | post | 1992 | Fri 07 Jan 2022 10:59:47 AM PST | root | 16.91 MiB | number | | important=yes
I did a rollback a while ago, for a kernel problem. Do I need to undo it now?
You are fine. The snapshots starting at 1940 are relative to 1866 and following. The “number” snapper cleanup will remove 1940 at some point depending on your settings.
Personally, after one of the large updates ( > 1000), after a successful boot, I rollback to that latest snapshot, which will result with the boot snapshot becoming flagged as a “number” snapshot, and then deleted on the next cleanup. After large updates, especially ones that result with a massive rebuild, most of the content of the old boot snapshot will no longer be in use and this will result with freeing up quite a bit of disk space.
Thanks for the explanation, but the documentation seems odd to me. When I read it, I think that 1866 is the default and mounted snapshot, and all the changes between later pre/post snapshots are not in the snapshot, 1866, that I’m running. Your explanation makes more sense.
You are booting into snapshot 1866, but it’s not an old one. Earlier rollback made it the default snapshot. It represents the current state of the system. I made no rollback since installation and I am booting into snapshot #1:
