Snapper snapshot retention limits and disk space exhaustion

Btrfs Snapshot Management

openSUSE utilizes the Snapper framework to automate Btrfs snapshots during Zypper package operations. The system relies on a configuration file to define retention limits for hourly, daily, weekly and monthly snapshots to prevent the root partition from reaching full capacity.

While these limits manage snapshot count, actual disk space consumed depends on the volume of data modified between intervals. Frequent modifications to large files in the root partition can increase space usage regardless of the numerical limits.

Resource Constraints

There is tension between maintaining a deep history for system recovery and avoiding a read-only file system state caused by a full Btrfs partition.

• What deletion priority does Snapper apply when physical disk space is exhausted before configured retention limits are reached?
• Is there a supported mechanism to define a maximum disk usage threshold that triggers automatic cleanup of older snapshots?