Restore from a snapshot

Snapshots preserve the current state of a volume or branch. They are immutable, so you can return to the same files later without affecting the live volume. This guide assumes you completed the Quickstart and have a mounted demo volume with at least one file.

Create a named snapshot

From a terminal separate from the running mount, capture the current state:

amulet snapshot demo --name first-write

The command prints the snapshot name and its immutable version.

List saved snapshots

amulet snapshots demo

The list includes the immutable version and creation time. Use either the name or version in later commands.

Mount the snapshot

Keep this command running while you inspect the snapshot:

amulet mount demo ./demo-snapshot --snapshot first-write

Snapshot mounts are read-only.

Read the saved files

In another terminal:

cat ./demo-snapshot/hello.txt

Unmount the snapshot

amulet unmount ./demo-snapshot

Create a writable branch from the snapshot

Mounting a missing branch with --from-snapshot creates a writable fork:

amulet mount demo@recovery ./recovery --from-snapshot first-write

Write changes through ./recovery; the original snapshot remains unchanged.

Snapshot a branch

Use the volume@branch form to snapshot and list an individual branch:

amulet snapshot demo@experiment --name before-change
amulet snapshots demo@experiment

Mount it with the same branch reference:

amulet mount demo@experiment ./experiment-snapshot --snapshot before-change

To create a new branch from that branch snapshot, specify both sources:

amulet mount demo@retry ./retry \
  --from experiment \
  --from-snapshot before-change

Getting started

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Reference

Restore from a snapshot

Create a writable branch from the snapshot

Snapshot a branch

​Create a writable branch from the snapshot

​Snapshot a branch

Create a writable branch from the snapshot

Snapshot a branch