HTTM(1)

📦
version 0.49.9 · 2 versions
, in alpine 3.24, nixos 26.05

🦋 HTTM(1) 🦋

okay so bestie, this is HTTM(1) from User Commands — literally the httm manual page for version 0.49.9. every flag, value, alias, and warning is staying; we're just giving it main-character energy. 💅

✨ NAME ✨

httm - manual page for httm 0.49.9

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

httm [OPTIONS] [INPUT_FILES]...

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

httm prints the size, date and corresponding locations of available unique versions of files residing on snapshots. May also be used interactively to select and restore from such versions, and even to snapshot datasets which contain certain files.

🎀 Arguments: 🎀

  • [INPUT_FILES]... — in the non-interactive modes (when BROWSE, SELECT, or RESTORE are not specified), user may specify one or many paths for a simple display of snapshot versions. If no paths are included as arguments, then httm will pause waiting for paths to be piped in via stdin (e.g. find . | httm). In the interactive modes (when BROWSE, SELECT, or RESTORE are specified), user may specify one base directory from which to begin a search. In the interactive modes, if no directory is specified, httm will use the current working directory.

🔥 OPTIONS 🔥

  • -b, --browse — interactive browse and search a specified directory to display unique file versions. [aliases: --interactive]
  • -s, --select[=<SELECT>] — interactive browse and search a specified directory to display unique file versions. Continue to another dialog to select a snapshot version to dump to stdout. This argument optionally takes a value. Default behavior/value is to simply print the path name, but, if the path is a file, the user can print the file's contents by giving the value "contents", or print any PREVIEW output by giving the value "preview". [possible values: path, contents, preview]
  • -c, --copy[=<COPY>] — interactive browse and search a specified directory to display unique file versions. Continue to another dialog to select a snapshot version to copy. This argument optionally takes a value. Default behavior/value is a non-destructive "copy" to the current working directory with a new name, so as not to overwrite any "live" file version. However, the user may specify the "preserve" value. Preserve mode will attempt to preserve attributes, like the permissions/mode, timestamps, xattrs and ownership of the selected snapshot file version. User may also set the copy/restore mode via the HTTM_RESTORE_MODE environment variable. [possible values: copy, copy-and-preserve, preserve]
  • -r, --restore[=<RESTORE>] — interactive browse and search a specified directory to display unique file versions. Continue to another dialog to select a snapshot version to restore. This argument optionally takes a value. Default behavior/value is "overwrite" (or "yolo") to restore to the same file location. Note, "overwrite" can be a DESTRUCTIVE operation. Overwrite mode will attempt to preserve attributes, like the permissions/mode, timestamps, xattrs and ownership of the selected snapshot file version. User may also specify "guard". Guard mode has the same semantics as "overwrite" but will attempt to take a precautionary snapshot before any overwrite action occurs. Note: Guard mode is a ZFS only option. User may also set the copy/restore mode via the HTTM_RESTORE_MODE environment variable. [possible values: overwrite, yolo, guard]
  • -d, --deleted[=<DELETED>] — show deleted files in interactive modes (BROWSE, SELECT and RESTORE). When an interactive mode is not specified, search for all files deleted from a specified directory. This argument optionally takes a value. When specified, the default behavior/value is "all". If "only" is specified, then, in the interactive modes, non-deleted files will be excluded from the search. If "single" is specified, then, deleted files behind deleted directories, (files with a depth greater than one) will be ignored. [possible values: all, single, only, one]
  • -R, --recursive — recurse into the selected directory to find more files and directories. Only available in interactive (BROWSE, SELECT and RESTORE) and DELETED file modes.
  • -a, --alt-replicated — automatically discover locally replicated datasets and list their snapshots as well. NOTE: Be certain such replicated datasets are mounted before use. httm will silently ignore unmounted datasets in the interactive modes.
  • -p, --preview[=<PREVIEW>] — user may specify a command to preview snapshots while in a snapshot selection view. This argument optionally takes a value specifying the command to be executed. The default value/command, if no command value specified, is a 'bowie' formatted 'diff'. User defined commands must specify the snapshot file name "{snap_file}" and the live file name "{live_file}" within their shell command. NOTE: 'bash' is required to bootstrap any preview script, even if the user specifies their own preview command, written in a different shell language.
  • --dedup-by[=<DEDUP_BY>] — comparing file versions solely on the basis of size and modify time (the default "metadata" behavior) may return what appear to be "false positives". This is because metadata, specifically modify time and size, is not a precise measure of whether a file has actually changed. A program might overwrite a file with the same contents, and/or a user can simply update the modify time via 'touch'. This flag, when specified with the "contents" option, compares the actual file contents of same-sized file versions, overriding the default "metadata" only behavior. The "contents" option can be expensive, as the file versions need to be read back and compared, and, thus, should probably only be used for smaller files. Given how expensive this operation can be, for larger files or files with many versions, if specified, the "contents" option is not shown in BROWSE mode, but after a selection is made, can be utilized, when enabled, in SELECT or RESTORE modes. A less expensive, "suspect" option, only compares file contents when a file's metadata makes it likely the file may have new file contents, such as when that file has a new inode or birth time. The "disable" "all" or "no-filter" option dumps all snapshot versions, without deduplication. [aliases: --unique, --uniqueness] [possible values: disable, all, no-filter, metadata, contents, suspect]
  • -e, --exact — use exact pattern matching for searches in the interactive modes (in contrast to the default fuzzy searching).
  • -S, --snap[=<SNAPSHOT>] — snapshot a file/s most immediate mount. This argument optionally takes a value for a snapshot suffix. The default suffix is 'httmSnapFileMount'. Note: This is a ZFS only option which requires either superuser or 'zfs allow' privileges.
  • --list-snaps[=<LIST_SNAPS>] — display snapshots names for a file. This argument optionally takes a value. By default, this argument will return all available snapshot names. When the DEDUP_BY flag is not specified, but LIST_SNAPS is, the default DEDUP_BY level is "all" snapshots. Thus the user may limit type of snapshots returned via specifying the DEDUP_BY flag. The user may also omit the most recent "n" snapshots from any list. By appending a comma, this argument also filters those snapshots which contain the specified pattern/s. A value of "5,prep_Apt" would return the snapshot names of only the last 5 (at most) of all snapshot versions which contain "prep_Apt". The value "native" will restrict selection to only 'httm' native snapshot suffix values, like "httmSnapFileMount" and "ounceSnapFileMount". Note: This is a ZFS and btrfs only option.
  • --roll-forward=<ROLL_FORWARD> — whereas 'zfs rollback' is a destructive operation, this operation is non-destructive. This operation preserves interstitial snapshots, and requires a snapshot guard before taking any action. If this flag is specified (along with the required snapshot name), httm will modify (copy and delete) those files and their attributes (preserving hard links) that have changed since the specified snapshot to the live dataset. httm will also take two precautionary guard snapshots, one before and one after the operation. Should the roll forward fail for any reason, httm will rollback to the pre-execution state. CAVEATS: This is a ZFS only option which requires super user privileges. Not all filesystem features are supported (for instance, Unix sockets on the snapshot will need to be recreated) and may cause a roll forward to fail. Moreover, certain special objects/files will be copied or recreated, but are not guaranteed to be in the same state as the snapshot (for instance, FIFO buffers).
  • --prune — prune all snapshot/s which contain the input file/s on that file's most immediate mount via "zfs destroy". "zfs destroy" is a DESTRUCTIVE operation which DOES NOT ONLY APPLY to the file in question, but the entire snapshot upon which it resides. Careless use may cause you to lose snapshot data you care about. This argument requires and will be filtered according to any values specified at LIST_SNAPS. User may also enable SELECT mode to make a more granular selection of specific snapshots to prune. Note: This is a ZFS only option.
  • -m, --file-mount[=<FILE_MOUNT>] — by default, display the all mount point/s of all dataset/s which contain/s the input file/s. This argument optionally takes a value to display other information about the path. Possible values are: "mount" or "target" or "directory", the default value, returns the mount/directory of a file's underlying dataset, "source" or "device" or "dataset", returns a file's underlying dataset/device, and, "relative-path" or "relative", returns a file's relative path from the underlying mount. [aliases: --mount] [possible values: source, target, mount, directory, device, dataset, relative-path, relative, relpath]
  • -l, --last-snap[=<LAST_SNAP>] — okay bestie, this one automatically selects and prints the path of the last-in-time unique snapshot version for the input file. The <LAST_SNAP> value is optional. Possible values: any returns the last in time snapshot version, and this is the default behavior/value; ditto returns only last snaps which are the same as the live file version; no-ditto-exclusive returns only a last snap which is not the same as the live version (and --no-ditto is an alias for this option); no-ditto-inclusive returns a last snap which is not the same as the live version, or, should none exist, returns the live file; and none or without returns the live file only for those files without a last snapshot. Aliases: --last, --latest. Possible values: any, ditto, no-ditto, no-ditto-exclusive, no-ditto-inclusive, none, without.
  • -n, --raw — displays the snapshot locations only, without extraneous information, delimited by a NEWLINE character. Aliases: --newline.
  • -0, --zero — displays the snapshot locations only, without extraneous information, delimited by a NULL character. Aliases: --null.
  • --csv — displays all information, delimited by a comma.
  • --not-so-pretty — displays the ordinary output, but tab delimited, without any pretty border lines. Aliases: --tabs, --plain-jane, --not-pretty.
  • --json — displays the ordinary output, but as formatted JSON. So clean, so structured, we love to see it. ✨
  • --omit-ditto — omits display of the snapshot version which may be identical to any live version. By default, httm displays all snapshot versions and the live version.
  • --no-filter — by default, in the interactive modes, httm will filter out files residing upon non-supported datasets (like ext4, tmpfs, procfs, sysfs, or devtmpfs, etc.), and within any "common" snapshot paths. Here, one may select to disable such filtering. Note: httm will always show the input path, and results from behind any input path when that is the directory path being searched.
  • --no-hidden — do not show information regarding hidden files and directories (those that start with a .) in the recursive or interactive modes. No sneaky dotfiles allowed in this house. 🙈
  • --one-filesystem — limit recursive search to files and directories on the same filesystem/device as the target directory.
  • --no-traverse — in recursive mode, don't traverse symlinks. Although httm does its best to prevent searching pathologically recursive symlink-ed paths, here you may disable symlink traversal completely. NOTE: httm will never traverse symlinks when a requested recursive search is on the root/base directory (/).
  • --no-live — only display information concerning snapshot versions (display no information regarding live versions of files or directories) in any Display Recursive mode (when DELETED and RECURSIVE are specified, but not an interactive mode). Aliases: --dead, --disco. 💀
  • --no-snap — only display information concerning 'pseudo-live' versions in any Display Recursive mode (when DELETED and RECURSIVE are specified, but not an interactive mode). Useful for finding the "files that once were" and displaying only those pseudo-live/zombie files. Aliases: --undead, --zombie. 🧟
  • --alt-store=<ALT_STORE> — give priority to specified alternative backups stores, like Restic and Time Machine. If this flag is specified, httm will place any discovered alternative backups store as priority snapshots for the root mount point (/), ignoring other, potentially more direct, mounts. Before use, be sure that any such repository is mounted. You may need superuser privileges to view a repository mounted with superuser permission. NOTE: httm includes a helper script called equine which can assist you in mounting remote and local Time Machine snapshots. Possible values: restic, timemachine.
  • --map-aliases [<MAP_ALIASES>] — manually map a local directory (eg. /Users/<User Name>) as an alias of a mount point for ZFS or btrfs, such as the local mount point for a backup on a remote share (eg. /Volumes/Home). This option is useful if you wish to view snapshot versions from within the local directory you back up to a remote network share. This option requires a value pair. Each pair is delimited by a colon, :, and is specified in the form <LOCAL_DIR>:<REMOTE_DIR> (eg. --map-aliases /Users/<User Name>:/Volumes/Home). Multiple maps may be specified delimited by a comma, ,. You may also set via the environment variable HTTM_MAP_ALIASES. Aliases: --aliases.
  • --num-versions[=<NUM_VERSIONS>] — detect and display the number of unique versions available (e.g. one—1—version is available if either a snapshot version exists, and is identical to live version, or only a live version exists). This argument optionally takes a value. The default value, all, will print the filename and number of versions; graph will print the filename and a line of characters representing the number of versions; single will print only filenames which only have one version, and single-no-snap will print those without a snap taken, and single-with-snap will print those with a snap taken; and multiple will print only filenames which only have multiple versions. Possible values: all, graph, single, single-no-snap, single-with-snap, multiple. Numbers but make it fashion. 💅
  • --utc — use UTC for date display and timestamps.
  • --no-clones — by default, when copying files from snapshots, httm will first attempt a zero copy "reflink" clone on systems that support it. Here, you may disable that behavior, and force httm to use the default copy behavior. You may also set an environment variable to any value, HTTM_NO_CLONE, to disable.
  • -L, --lazy — by default, all snapshot locations are discovered at initial program execution, however, here, a user may request that the program lazily wait until a search is executed before resolving any path's snapshot locations. This provides the most accurate snapshot versions possible, but, given the additional metadata IO, may feel slower on older systems, with only marginal benefit. NOTE: This option is also only available on filesystems with well defined snapshot locations (that is, not BTRFS datasets).
  • --debug — print configuration and debugging info.
  • --install-zsh-hot-keys — install zsh hot keys to the user's home directory, and then exit.
  • -h, --help — Print help.
  • -V, --version — Print version.

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

The full documentation for httm is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and httm programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info httm

should give you access to the complete manual.

Kisses from httm 0.49.9, dated October 2025, page HTTM(1) — bestie, you ate this whole manual up. 💖✨🫶

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