ZFS file system: transfer some directories only

James+Stephen

using zfs send/receive, by leveraging snapshot pruning

transfer only some directories of a zpool/dataset

1. Create initial snapshot

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zfs snapshot pool/dataset@001

2. Remove unwanted directories (not to be transferred)

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rm -rf /pool/dataset/unwanted_dir1 /pool/dataset/unwanted_dir2

3. Create second snapshot (only includes wanted directories)

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zfs snapshot pool/dataset@002

4. Send only the second snapshot, with compression (-c for compressed stream)

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zfs send -c pool/dataset@002 | zfs receive -F pool2/dataset

5. Destroy snapshot @002 (cleanup)

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zfs destroy pool/dataset@002

6. Rollback to the original full snapshot

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zfs rollback -r pool/dataset@001

7. Destroy snapshot @001 (final cleanup)

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zfs destroy pool/dataset@001