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Taming systemd Timer Services to Run Your Daily Backup at a Reasonable Hour

Posted on June 9, 2026 | 3 minutes | 568 words | Robert Nilsson

Introduction to systemd Timer Services

I’ve been using systemd timer services for years to schedule tasks on my Linux systems, and I have to say, they’re a game-changer. Most Linux distributions, including Debian, Arch Linux, and OpenSUSE, use systemd as their default init system, so it’s worth learning how to use them. In this article, I’ll show you how to use systemd timer services to run daily backups at a reasonable hour.

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Reclaiming Disk Space from Unused Snapshot Copies on Btrfs Filesystems

Posted on May 26, 2026 | 3 minutes | 589 words | Robert Nilsson

Introduction to Btrfs Snapshots

I’ve worked with Btrfs for a while now, and one of its most useful features is snapshotting. This allows you to create a read-only copy of a subvolume at a given point in time, which is perfect for backups, testing, and rolling back changes. However, over time, these snapshot copies can accumulate and consume significant disk space. In practice, this can become a real issue if you’re not careful.