18.10 beta - btrfs snapshot and off I go?

[Thomas00]

Now, with this one out https://kubuntu.org/news/kubuntu-cos...beta-released/
...I could just create a btrfs snapshot of / , upgrade to the beta, and try things out on my production system and in case things break return to my snapshot?
Could I?

I will probably still do a snapshot /home as well, just in case some if the user settings break...

[GreyGeek]

My advice is to ALWAYS do a snapshot of BOTH @ and @home at the same time, and mark them so that the set can be identified as such. It is easy to replace @home with @home20180714 but will the files in that version match what is currently in @ When an app is installed many of the libraries and executables are stored in @ but user links are stored in the user's home account in @home. IMO, mismatching either could lead to problems. Probably not serious but a cause for unnecessary complaints and complaining.

That's why I recommend creating a subvolume, like @Data, at the <root_fs> level:
/mnt/@
/mnt/@Home
/mnt/@Data

Create a subdirectory under your home account:
/home/youracct/Data
and bind @Data to /home/youracct/Data in /etc/fstab.

All the stuff you want to keep between versions of Kubuntu can go into /home/youracct/Data and you can snapshot @Data anytime you wish and replace it at will without affecting @ or @home. You can send & receive @Data to external destinations without any dependencies on @ or @home, unless you decide to use /home/youracct/Data as a location to install an application that also installs files and libraries in @.

(When you snapshot @home to make @homeYYYYMMDD you'll notice that the @Data subvolume is NOT included in your @home snapshot.)

[Thomas00]

@Data is a pretty cool idea!
Maybe I find time over the weekend, I am really interested in what 18.10 has got to offer :-)

As always, really good advice, thanks a lot!

[GreyGeek]

What's really neat is that you'd have no trouble doing a fresh install of the next release (if the upgrade didn't work out, or you are switching to a new LTS) and then merely sending & receiving @Data from your archive and editing /etc/fstab to have it mounted during boot up.