Testing btrfs snapshots and git on ramdisk (tmpfs)

testing.md

These are my notes while testing.

Installing newer btrfs-tools

Ubuntu LTS 10.04 doesn't support removing btrfs snapshots. It can be fixed by installing newer btrfs.

cd /tmp
wget "http://se.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/b/btrfs-tools/btrfs-tools_0.19+20100601-3ubuntu3_i386.deb"
dpkg -i btrfs-tools_0.19+20100601-3ubuntu3_i386.deb

Creating the master git repository (on a flash drive):

mkdir -p /flash/disk0
cd /flash/disk0
git init
echo 'This is a test file.' > test.txt
git add test.txt
git commit -a -m 'Added initial test data.'

Initialising tmpfs

mkdir /ramdisks
mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /ramdisks
mkdir /ramdisks/raw /ramdisks/mnt

Creating images on ramdisk

dd if=/dev/zero of=/ramdisks/raw/disk0 bs=1M count=256

Initializing btrfs image

mkfs.btrfs /ramdisks/raw/disk0

Mounting btrfs image

mount -o loop /ramdisks/raw/disk0 /ramdisks/mnt/disk0

Cloning flash to the ramdisk

git clone /flash/disk0 /ramdisks/mnt/disk0/data

Creating snapshot

btrfsctl -s /ramdisks/mnt/disk0/snapshot/disk0-20120124-2149 /ramdisks/mnt/disk0/data

Removing snapshot

cd /ramdisks/mnt/disk0/snapshot && btrfsctl -D disk0-20120124-2149 . && cd -

For some strange reason this doesn't work:

# btrfsctl -D /ramdisks/mnt/disk0/snapshot/disk0-20120124-2149 /ramdisks/mnt/disk0/snapshot
ioctl:: Invalid argument

...or any of these -- although these are probably wrong anyway:

# btrfsctl -D disk0-20120124-2149 /ramdisks/mnt/disk0/data
ioctl:: No such file or directory
# btrfsctl -D /ramdisks/mnt/disk0/snapshot/disk0-20120124-2149 /ramdisks/mnt/disk0/data
ioctl:: Invalid argument
# btrfsctl -D disk0-20120124-2149 /ramdisks/mnt/disk0/snapshot
ioctl:: No such file or directory

transaction-test.sh

#!/bin/sh

ramdisk_dir=/ramdisks/mnt/disk0
snapshot_dir="$ramdisk_dir"/snapshot
master_ram_git="$ramdisk_dir"/data
orig_pwd="$(pwd)"

# Create working copy in a COW snapshot
snapshot_create() {
	name="$1"
	btrfsctl -s "$snapshot_dir/$name" "$master_ram_git"|grep -qxF 'operation complete' || return 1
	return 0
}

# Delete snapshot
snapshot_delete() {
	name="$1"
	status=0
	cd "$snapshot_dir" || return 2
	btrfsctl -D "$name" .|grep -qxF 'operation complete' || status=1
	cd "$orig_pwd"
	return "$status"
}

# Start working on snapshot
work_begin() {
	name="$1"
	cd "$snapshot_dir/$name/data"
}

# Commit changes to master ram git
work_commit() {
	name="$1"
	git commit -q -a -m 'Changed data'
	cd "$master_ram_git"
	git pull -q "$snapshot_dir/$name/data" master
	cd "$orig_pwd"
}

set -e

time="$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S-%N)"

# Test modifying data
snapshot_create "disk0-$time"
work_begin "disk0-$time"

echo 'New test line written '"$(date -u)" >> test.txt

work_commit "disk0-$time"
snapshot_delete "disk0-$time"

# EOF