Jeremy,
The intended use of both are vastly different.
A snapshot is a point-in-time image of a file system that as you have
pointed out, may have missed several versions of changes regardless of
frequency.
Versioning (ala VAX -- ok, I feel old now) keeps versions of every
changes up to a specified limit. It cannot be used to construct a
point-in-time image so is pretty useless in a restore situation.
For most cases where it matters, version control systems should be
used. They may be a little less wieldy than automatic FS versioning
but affords better control (with features like
branching/merging/concurrent access).
So, back to the advantage of versioning FS vs frequent ZFS snapshot,
there is no other advantages than you have stated. Versioning FS
gives you exactly that 1 feature. ZFS snapshots may approximate this
behaviour but it will not be as efficient or convenient.
--
Just me,
Wire ...
On 10/6/06, Jeremy Teo <white.wristband at gmail.com>
wrote:> What would versioning of files in ZFS buy us over a "zfs snapshots +
> cron" solution?
>
> I can think of one:
>
> 1. The usefulness of the ability to get the prior version of anything
> at all (as richlowe puts it)
>
> Any others?
> --
> Regards,
> Jeremy
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