Spring will soon be upon us, and it’s time to plan our Spring software housekeeping to clear out the junk that has accumulated over the winter. How to go about it.
snapshot
Deciding which file system to use for hard disks can be difficult. Here are the advantages and disadvantages explained in detail, for HFS+ and APFS.
How snapshots are created from a volume in around 0.01 second, why they will grow in size over time, how they can only be of complete volumes, and can’t be edited.
Understand how TM backs up and how snapshots work to minimise the size of local snapshots and backups, and the time they take. How to ensure files in iCloud Drive are backed up properly.
When do sparse files explode to full size, and how could you preserve them in transit? Can you copy clones or snapshots? How to preserve extended attributes?
Most backup apps make snapshots, so why not use those instead of conventional backups? Because of the weaknesses of snapshots, as explained.
Classic TM backed up HFS+ to HFS+; current TM backs up APFS to APFS. But what if you want to back up a mixture of APFS and HFS+ volumes?
How to obtain and read entries in the Unified log made by APFS. Their structure, and a guide to their identification and occurrence.
What’s in an APFS snapshot, and how the stages in its life-cycle work, from creation, through mounting and unmounting, to deletion and cleanup.
Introduced in iOS 10.3 on 27 March 2017, then in macOS 10.13 six months later. It ups and downs, and where it still has further to go.
The Eclectic Light Company 