Timeshift

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Timeshift is a tool originally created by Tony George, that is now part of the Xapp project.

Timeshift helps create incremental snapshots of the file system at regular intervals, which can then be restored at a later date to undo all changes to the system.

It supports rsync snapshots for all filesystems, and uses the built-in snapshot features for Btrfs drives configured to use the @ and @home subvolume layout for root and home directories respectively.

Installation

Install the timeshift package and install/enable your chosen cron scheduler (see cron#Configuration). This will ensure that snapshots scheduled within the Timeshift application run as intended.

Alternatively, timeshift-systemd-timer^AUR can be installed instead of using a cron scheduler.

GRUB entries for btrfs snapshots

To add snapshots to the GRUB menu each time GRUB configuration is generated, install the grub-btrfs package. It comes with the grub-btrfsd.service, which can be enabled to automatically update the GRUB configuration whenever a new snapshot is created.

To make grub-btrfsd work with Timeshift, edit the service by running:

# systemctl edit --full grub-btrfsd

and replace grub-btrfsd --syslog /.snapshots with grub-btrfsd --syslog -t.