chronoskin

the manual, for 3.2

manual/

sections/

CHRONOSKIN(7)chronoskin manualCHRONOSKIN(7)

Snapshots of a directory, kept as plain files.

chronoskin copies a directory into a dated snapshot, shares unchanged files between snapshots and thins old ones on a schedule you write down. This is its whole manual: fourteen pages, the same text that man shows.

read chronoskin(1) search the manual

synopsis

chronoskin take [-n] [-x pattern] source
chronoskin list [--since date]
chronoskin restore snapshot [path]
chronoskin prune [--keep rule]

$ man chronoskin 
  • 14pages in four sections
  • 212options and settings
  • 96examples you can paste
  • 3.2.0version described here

sections

1

Commands

What you type: take, list, restore, prune, verify, mount.

6 pages

5

File formats

The configuration file, the keep rules and the index of a snapshot.

3 pages

7

Concepts

How snapshots share files, and what a keep rule decides.

2 pages

8

Administration

Timers, remote targets and repairing a damaged store.

3 pages

every page

pagewhat it describeschangedoptions
chronoskin(1)The command and what its four verbs have in common.2026-09-2818
chronoskin-take(1)Take a snapshot of a directory.2026-09-2831
chronoskin-restore(1)Copy files back out of a snapshot.2026-08-1122
chronoskin-prune(8)Thin old snapshots by the keep rules.2026-09-0214
chronoskin.conf(5)The configuration file, setting by setting.2026-09-2864
chronoskin-keep(5)The grammar of a keep rule.2026-06-199
chronoskin-store(7)How a store is laid out on disk.2026-03-040

Seven of fourteen pages. Search finds the rest.

at the prompt

$ man chronoskin
$ man 5 chronoskin.conf
$ apropos snapshot

The pages are installed with the program. This site is built from the same files on every release.

how to read a page

Words in [brackets] are optional. A word after a flag is a value you supply. A number in parentheses is the section the page lives in.

  1. manual
  2. /
  3. 1 commands
  4. /
  5. chronoskin(1)

chronoskin(1)

Take, list, restore and thin snapshots of a directory.

report an error

Note: this page describes 3.2. Run chronoskin --version to see which one you have.

Removed: --force-prune is gone since 3.0. A script that still passes it stops with exit status 2.

chronoskin

Keep dated snapshots of a directory as plain files.

Synopsis

chronoskin [-c file] [-q] verb [options] [arguments]

Description

chronoskin copies a source directory into a store. Each run of take makes one snapshot, a directory named by date and time. A file that has not changed since the last snapshot is linked, not copied, so a snapshot costs only what changed.

A snapshot is an ordinary directory. You can read it with any program, and restore is only a careful copy.

Options

-c file, --config file

Read settings from file instead of ~/.config/chronoskin.conf.

-n, --dry-run

Print what would be done and change nothing.

-q, --quiet

Print errors only.

Exit status

  • 0 when the verb finished.
  • 1 when some files could not be read; the snapshot is kept and marked partial.
  • 2 when the command line or the configuration is wrong.

see also

  1. manual
  2. /
  3. report an error

report an error

A wrong default, a missing option, a sentence nobody can follow.

back to the page

error: chronoskin(1) has no heading "Optoins".

Quote the sentence if you can. Plain text.

reply:

what happens next

A report becomes a ticket against the page. Corrections ship with the next release and appear here the same day.