httm

The dream of a CLI Time Machine is still alive with httm.

httm prints the size, date and corresponding locations of available unique versions (deduplicated by modify time and size) of files residing on snapshots, but can also be used interactively to select and restore such files. httm might change the way you use snapshots (because ZFS/btrfs aren't designed for finding for unique file versions) or the Time Machine concept (because httm is very fast!).

httm boasts an array of seductive features, like:

• Search for and recursively list all deleted files. Even browse files hidden behind deleted directories.
• List file snapshots from all local pools (httm automatically detects local snapshots as well as locally replicated snapshots)!
• List file snapshots from remote backup pools (you may designate replicated remote snapshot directories).
• Supports ZFS and btrfs snapshots
• For use with even rsync-ed non-ZFS/btrfs local datasets (like ext4, APFS, or NTFS), not just ZFS/btrfs.
• Specify multiple files for lookup on different datasets
• 3 native interactive modes: browse, select and restore
• ANSI ls colors from your environment
• Non-blocking recursive directory walking (available in all interactive modes)
• Select from several formatting styles. Parseable ... or not ... oh my!

Use in combination with you favorite shell (hot keys!) for even more fun.

Inspired by the findoid script, fzf and many zsh key bindings.

Install via Native Packages

For Debian-based and Redhat-based Linux distributions (like, Ubuntu or Fedora, etc.), check the tagged releases for native packages for your distribution.

You may also create and install your own native package from the latest sources, like so:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
cargo install cargo-deb 
git clone https://github.com/kimono-koans/httm.git
cd ./httm/; cargo deb
# to install on a Debian/Ubuntu-based system
dpkg -i ./target/debian/httm_*.deb
# or convert to RPM 
alien -r ./target/debian/httm_*.deb
# and install on a Redhat-based system
rpm -i ./httm_*.rpm

For Arch-based Linux distributions, you can create and install your own native package from the latest sources, like so:

# you need to edit the PKGBUILD as needed to conform to the latest release
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kimono-koans/httm/master/packaging/arch/PKGBUILD
makepkg -si

Install via Source

The httm project contains only a few components:

1. The httm executable. To build and install:

   curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh 
   cargo install httm
   

2. The optional zsh hot-key bindings: Use ESC+s to select snapshots filenames to be dropped to your command line (for instance after the cat command), or use ESC+m to browse for all of a file's snapshots. After you install the httm binary, to copy the hot key script to your home directory, and source that script within your .zshrc:

   httm --install-zsh-hot-keys
   

3. The optional man page: cargo has no native facilities for man page installation (though it may in the future!). You can use manpath to see the various directories your system uses and decide which directory works best for you. To install, just copy it to a directory in your man path, like so:

   cp ./httm/httm.1 /usr/local/share/man/man1/
   

Caveats

Right now, you will need to use a Unix-ish-y Rust-supported platform to build and install (that is: Linux, Solaris/illumos, the BSDs, MacOS). Note, your platform does not need to support ZFS/btrfs to use httm. And there is no fundamental reason a non-interactive Windows version of httm could not be built, as it once did build, but Windows platform support is not a priority for me right now. Contributions from users are, of course, very welcome.

On FreeBSD, after a fresh minimal install, the interactive modes may not render properly, see the linked issue for the fix.

On some Linux distributions, which include old versions of libc, cargo may require building with musl instead, see the linked issue.

Example Usage

Note: Users may need to use sudo (or equivalent) to view versions on btrfs datasets, as btrfs snapshots may require root permissions in order to be visible.

Print all unique versions of your history file:

httm ~/.histfile

Print all files on snapshots deleted from your home directory, recursive:

httm -d -R ~

Print all files on snapshots deleted from your home directory, recursive, newline delimited, piped to a deleted-files.txt file:

# pseudo live file versions
httm -d -n -R --no-snap ~ > pseudo-live-versions.txt
# unique snapshot versions
httm -d -n -R --no-live ~ > deleted-unique-versions.txt

Browse all files in your home directory, recursively, and view unique versions on local snapshots:

httm -i -R ~

Browse all files deleted from your home directory, recursively, and view unique versions on all local and alternative replicated dataset snapshots:

httm -d only -i -a -R ~

Browse all files in your home directory, recursively, and view unique versions on local snapshots, to select and ultimately restore to your working directory:

httm -r -R ~

View unique versions of a file for recovery (shortcut, no need to browse a directory):

httm -r /var/log/samba/log.smbd

Recover the last-in-time unique file version (shortcut, no need to browse a directory or select from among other unique versions):

httm -l -r /var/log/samba/log.smbd

Snapshot the dataset upon which /etc/samba/smb.conf is located:

sudo httm -S /etc/samba/smb.conf

Browse all files, recursively, in a folder backed up via rsync to a remote share, and view unique versions on remote snapshots directly (only available for btrfs-snapper and ZFS datasets).

# mount the share
open smb://<your name>@<your remote share>.local/Home
# execute httm
httm -i -R /Volumes/Home

Browse all files, recursively, in your MacOS home directory backed up via rsync to a ZFS/btrfs remote share, shared via smbd, and view unique versions on remote snapshots. Note: The difference from above is, here, you're browsing files from a "live" directory:

# mount the share
open smb://<your name>@<your remote share>.local/Home
# execute httm
httm -i -R --map-aliases /Users/<your name>:/Volumes/Home ~

View the differences between each unique snapshot version of the httm man page and each previous version:

filename="./httm/httm.1"
# previous version is unset
previous_version=""
for current_version in $(httm -n $filename); do
    # check if initial "last_version" needs to be set
    if [[ -z "$last_version"  ]]; then
        previous_version="$current_version"
        continue
    fi

    # check whether files differ (e.g. if current version is identical to previous version)
    if [[ ! -z "$( diff -q  "$previous_version" "$current_version" )" ]]; then
        # print that current version and previous version that differ
        diff -q  "$previous_version" "$current_version"
        # print the difference between that current version and previous_version
        diff "$previous_version" "$current_version"
    fi

    # set current_version to last_version
    previous_version="$current_version"
done

Create a simple tar archive of all unique versions of your /var/log/syslog:

httm -n /var/log/syslog | tar -zcvf all-versions-syslog.tar.gz -T -

Create a kinda fancy tar archive of all unique versions of your /var/log/syslog:

file="/var/log/syslog"
dir_name="${$(dirname $file)/\//}"
base_dir="$(basename $file)_all_versions"
# squash extra directories by "transforming" them to simply snapshot names 
httm -n "$file" | tar --transform="flags=r;s|$dir_name|$base_dir|" \
--transform="flags=r;s|.zfs/snapshot/||" --show-transformed-names \
-zcvf "all-versions-$(basename $file).tar.gz" -T  -

Create a super fancy git archive of all unique versions of /var/log/syslog:

# create variable for file name
file="/var/log/syslog"
# create git repo
mkdir ./archive-git; cd ./archive-git; git init
# copy each version to repo and commit after each copy
for version in $(httm -n $file); do
    cp "$version" ./
    git add "./$(basename $version)"
    git commit -m "httm commit from ZFS snapshot"
    # amend commit date to match snapshot modify time
    git commit --amend --no-edit --date "$(date -d "$(stat -c %y $version)")"
done
# create git tar.gz archive
tar -zcvf "../all-versions-$(basename $file).tar.gz" "./"
# and to view
git log --stat

I know what you're thinking, but slow your roll.

License

httm is licensed under the MPL 2.0 License - see the LICENSE file for more details.