this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
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A snapshot is like copying a the files in the snapshot to another location, while the original files remain as is and can be written to or read from.
As an example, if you have a folder, let's say
/important/secret/stuff, and you want to take a backup of it. You have to make sure that nothing is writing to those files while the backup is running, otherwise the backup risk being corrupted. (This is because if the backup starts to read the file, and halfway through the first part of the file changes, you now have a backuped file that half the old and half the new file).With a snapshop, you can "copy"
/important/secret/stuffto some other location, run a backup reading from this other location and then remove it. Any changes to the original files will not affect the backup since the backup is reading from the "copied" files (snapshot).So what you do is take a snapshot before running the backup, have the backup read from the snapshot and when it is complete, remove the snapshot.