BTRFSD(8)

📦 version 0.2.2, in debian trixie, fedora 43, fedora 44, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 BTRFSD(8) — btrfsd 💖

okay bestie, so btrfsd is a section-8 (system administration) manual page, and we're about to make it make sense. sit down, hydrate, let's go 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

btrfsd — the Btrfs maintenance daemon, your filesystem's lil guardian angel 🧚

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

btrfsd [COMMAND]

that's it. that's the whole vibe. one optional command. slay 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so this page is the quick lowdown on the btrfsd daemon, fr fr.

btrfsd is a lightweight daemon that handles all the Btrfs filesystems on a Linux system. like, it just does the maintenance so you don't have to. and what does it actually do? so glad you asked 👑

  • Checks stats for errors, and if it finds any it broadcasts a warning — or sends an email 📧
  • Performs scrub periodically, but only if the system is not on battery 🔋
  • Runs balance occasionally, also only if not on battery power ⚡

the daemon is explicitly designed to run on any system, from a tiny lil notebook all the way up to a huge storage server. depending on the system, it should make the best possible decision about running maintenance jobs — but you can also tweak it yourself if you want. main character energy: the daemon decides, but you get a say 💖

🎀 CONFIGURATION 🎀

ngl the best part? it just works. the daemon will run on its own, with no configuration at all, and monitor every Btrfs filesystem mounted on the system (or literally do nothing if it didn't find any — no drama, no crash).

but if you want to tweak stuff, you can, through its config file:

/etc/btrfsd/settings.conf

the config file is an Ini-style text file, with one section per Btrfs mount point. if there's no section for a mountpoint that has settings, the values from the default section get used instead. (default section stays winning 👑)

every *_interval maintenance action interval can hold an integer time value with a unit character right behind it:

  • h — hours
  • d — days
  • M — months

and there's a special value, never, which prevents that action from being executed at all. periodt. 🚫

⚠️ going below an hour for actions is not recommended, because btrfsd is only woken up hourly by the system to check for pending actions. so like, if you set 5 minutes, bestie, nothing is coming to check on it. it's giving "setting an alarm for a nap you'll sleep through" 😭

Example:

[default]
mail_address=root

stats_interval=1h
scrub_interval=1M
balance_interval=3M

[/mnt/storage1]
scrub_interval=2M
balance_interval=never

⭐ COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS ⭐

  • --verbose — Display extra debugging information. (it will yap. lovingly. 🗣️)
  • --version — Display the version number of btrfsd.
  • --status — Display the status of the daemon and its various tasks, as well as its configuration. the full vibe check, basically ✨

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

btrfs(1).

💜 AUTHOR 💜

This manual page was written by Matthias Klumpp <matthias@tenstral.net>. thank you for your service 🫡

Copyright © 2022-2023 Matthias Klumpp

and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this was Btrfsd, manual section BTRFSD(8) — go forth, let the daemon scrub and balance for you, and remember: never go below an hour. mwah 🎀✨

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