Configuration

Configuration is done via Python ini configuration files. The defaults should be suitable for most users, so you may not need to do any configuration at all. By default only the root snapper configuration is snapshotted.

A commented example configuration files is located at /etc/snap-pac.ini.

Edit with your favorite editor. The file is commented and should be self-explanatory.

Each section corresponds with a snapper configuration. Add additional sections to add other snapper configurations to be snapshotted. By default, only the root configuration is snapshotted. Additionally you can add a section named DEFAULT with options that apply to all snapper configurations unless overridden in a later section.

Each section can have the following entries:

• desc_limit - integer; maximum length of description string before being truncated. Default: 72

• important_packages - list of strings; names of packages that if involved in a pacman transaction will add important=yes to the snapper userdata for the pair of snapshots. Default: []

• important_commands - list of strings; parent commands that will add important=yes to the snapper userdata for the pair of snapshots. Default: []

• pre_description - string; description for the pre snapshot. Default: the parent command that called the pacman hook.

• post_description - string; description for the post snapshot. Default: space separated list of packages that were installed, upgraded, or removed.

• snapshot - boolean; whether or not to snapshot the configuration. Default: True for root configuration; False otherwise.

• userdata - list of strings; key-value pairs that will be added to the userdata for the pair of snapshots. Default: []

Examples

Turn off snapshots for root configuration and turn on for home configuration:

[root]
snapshot = False

[home]
snapshot = True

Set the snapper to add the userdata important=yes for every snapshot in the root configuration when a system upgrade is performed:

[root]
important_commands = ["pacman -Syu"]

Set the snapper to add the userdata important=yes for every snapshot in the root configuration when a pacman transaction handles the packages linux and linux-lts:

[root]
important_packages = ["linux", "linux-lts"]

Here’s a fuller example, with several options set for different configurations. In this case the root configuration snapshot will have important=yes when linux and linux-lts packages are part of the transaction. Additionally when full system upgrades are performed root snapshots will be marked important=yes. Note that you don’t have to add snapshot = True for the root configuration since that is the default.

This file also turns one snapshots for the home snapper configuration and adds the userdata requestid=42,user=arthur to all snapshots for that configuration. Additionally the post snapshot description is overridden.

[root]
important_packages = ["linux", "linux-lts"]
important_commands = ["pacman -Syu"]

[home]
snapshot = True
userdata = ["requestid=42", "user=arthur"]
post_description = "pacman transaction post snapshot"

Environment Variables

To temporarily prevent snapshots from being performed for a single pacman command, set the environment variable SNAP_PAC_SKIP. For example:

sudo SNAP_PAC_SKIP=y pacman -Syu