ext3cow

How do you manage your files versions?
Let’s imagine a source file ‘foo.c’. You work on it and would like to revert to a previous version. You have several choices:

• Use a CVS system: CVS, subversion, …
• Use naming convention: ‘foo.c-YYYYMMDD-VERSION-user’

Now, you can use ext3cow, a versioning file system based on EXT3. How does it work? Very simple:

root@pingus# echo "This is a test" >/tmp/test.tmp
root@pingus# snapshot
Snapshot on .: 1057845484
root@pingus# echo "This is the new test" >/tmp/test.tmp
root@pingus# cat /tmp/test.tmp@1057845484
This is a test
root@pingue# cat /tmp/test.tmp
This is the new test
root@pingus#