Solved Browse zfs snapshot's content

C

circus78

Hi,
let's say I created a snapshot:

Code: 
# zfs snapshot zroot/ROOT/default@backup1

Then, I redirected to a file such snapshot:

Code: 
# zfs send zroot/ROOT/default@backup1 > /backup/backup1

If I copy /backup/backup1 to another FreeBSD system, is there a way I can "browse" snapshot's content?
I mean, without already have an available zpool?

Thank you
 
circus78 said:
If I copy /backup/backup1 to another FreeBSD system, is there a way I can "browse" snapshot's content?
Click to expand...
No, only after you imported the whole backup into your other ZFS pool, then it will become available just like any other snapshot; through the hidden .zfs directory which is available (but hidden) in the root of every ZFS filesystem:
Code: 
peter@zefiris:/home/peter $ zfs list zroot/home
NAME         USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
zroot/home  32.4G  32.2G  30.6G  /home
peter@zefiris:/home/peter $ cd ../.zfs/snapshot/ 
peter@zefiris:/home/.zfs/snapshot $ ls
121118/ 131118/ 141118/ 151118/ 161118/ 171118/ 181118/

skhal said:
You can access the snapshots on the original ZFS dataset through snapdir flag.
Click to expand...
That property (not a tag) has absolutely nothing to do with the availability of the .zfs directory; it only controls its visibility. See zfs(8).
 
There is a command called "zstreamdump" which allows you to inspect the content of the "send" file, meaning the file /backup/backup1 that you created with the "zfs send" command above. However, the output of zstreamdump is very hard to understand, and to browse it you probably have to be a file system expert. In theory, it is even possible to use zstreamdump to inspect file content (it can dump the content of file system blocks); in practice, that would probably require so much work, it would be easier to just put the file back into a zpool and turn it into a file system.
 
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