man > btrfs-image(8)

BTRFS-IMAGE(8)                                  BTRFS                                 BTRFS-IMAGE(8)

NAME
       btrfs-image - create/restore an image of the filesystem

SYNOPSIS
       btrfs-image [options] <source> <target>

DESCRIPTION
       btrfs-image  is  used to create an image of a btrfs filesystem.  All data will be zeroed, but
       metadata and the like is preserved.  Mainly used for debugging purposes.

       In the dump mode, source is the btrfs device/file and target is the output file  (use  -  for
       stdout).

       In  the  restore  mode  (option  -r),  source is the dumped image and target is the btrfs de‐
       vice/file.

OPTIONS
       -r     Restore metadump image. By default, this fixes super's chunk tree, by using  1  stripe
              pointing  to  primary  device, so that file system can be restored by running tree log
              reply if possible. To restore without changing number of stripes in chunk  tree  check
              -o option.

       -c <value>
              Compression level (0 ~ 9).

       -t <value>
              Number of threads (1 ~ 32) to be used to process the image dump or restore.

       -o     Use  the  old  restore method, this does not fixup the chunk tree so the restored file
              system will not be able to be mounted.

       -s     Sanitize the file names when generating the image. One -s means just  generate  random
              garbage,  which means that the directory indexes won't match up since the hashes won't
              match with the garbage filenames. Using -s will calculate a collision for the filename
              so that the hashes match, and if it can't calculate a collision then it will just gen‐
              erate garbage.  The collision calculator is very time and CPU intensive so only use it
              if you are having problems with your file system tree and need to have it mostly work‐
              ing.

       -w     Walk all the trees manually and copy any blocks that are referenced. Use  this  option
              if your extent tree is corrupted to make sure that all of the metadata is captured.

       -m     Restore for multiple devices, more than 1 device should be provided.

EXIT STATUS
       btrfs-image  will  return  0  if  no error happened.  If any problems happened, 1 will be re‐
       turned.

SEE ALSO
       mkfs.btrfs(8)


6.6.3                                       Mar 31, 2024                              BTRFS-IMAGE(8)