What Are Btrfs Subvolumes? And Why They’re Better Than Traditional Linux Partitions (itsfoss.com)

submitted 2 months ago by costalfy@programming.dev to c/linux@programming.dev

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[-] beeng@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I wanted btrfs for ages for snapshots.. Then I moved to nixos with Declarative config... Then I needed to move partitions to extend my drive into old root, decided to move to btrfs from ext4 cos why not at the time... Only afterwards do I realize snapshots aren't that helpful when you're on nixos.. Or am I missing something?

[-] shadowtofu@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 2 months ago

They are still useful for user data. For the nixos system itself, not so much.

[-] beeng@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 months ago

Ok fair.. Maybe I don't care about user data so much it seems.. Only config :p

[-] moonpiedumplings@programming.dev 2 points 2 months ago

Transparent fileystem compression and deduplication (btrfs feature not in ext4) compresses data while still having it be accessible normally. This leads to big space savings.

You can use the tool compsize to check it out.

[-] beeng@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 months ago

Thanks. Will do.

this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026

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