Install Instructions Btrfs puts snapshots and subvolumes into the root directory of the FS. This directory can only be changed by btrfsctl right now, and normal filesystem operations do not work on it. The default subvolume is called 'default', and you can create files and directories in mount_point/default Btrfs uses libcrc32c in the kernel for file and metadata checksums. You need to compile the kernel with: CONFIG_LIBCRC32C=m libcrc32c can be static as well. Once your kernel is setup, typing make in the btrfs module sources will build against the running kernel. When the build is complete: modprobe libcrc32c insmod btrfs.ko The Btrfs utility programs require libuuid to build. This can be found in the e2fsprogs sources, and is usually available as libuuid or e2fsprogs-devel from various distros. Building the utilities is just make ; make install. The programs go into /usr/local/bin. The commands available are: mkfs.btrfs: create a filesystem btrfsctl: control program to create snapshots and subvolumes: mount /dev/sda2 /mnt btrfsctl -s new_subvol_name /mnt btrfsctl -s snapshot_of_default /mnt/default btrfsctl -s snapshot_of_new_subvol /mnt/new_subvol_name btrfsctl -s snapshot_of_a_snapshot /mnt/snapshot_of_new_subvol ls /mnt default snapshot_of_a_snapshot snapshot_of_new_subvol new_subvol_name snapshot_of_default Snapshots and subvolumes cannot be deleted right now, but you can rm -rf all the files and directories inside them. btrfsck: do a limited check of the FS extent trees. debug-tree: print all of the FS metadata in text form. Example: debug-tree /dev/sda2 >& big_output_file