Timeshift should unmount target device after having finished snapshot (original) (raw)

Issue refers to Timeshift v20.03 in Linux Mint 20 Cinnamon 64bit

Timeshift mounts the target device for the snapshots at the mounting point /run/timeshift/backup.
Unfortunately, the target device is not unmounted after having finished the snapshot or after the GUI is closed.
The mounting stays active till shutdown.
But this causes an annoying effect, as described below, if the target device is also used for user data.

My configuration is as follows:

• standard Mint installation on a small SSD
• another big SSD as my personal drive which is permanently mounted by fstab at some mounting point and used for my personal data (that data is referenced by some softlinks in my /home folder)
• Timeshift is activated and saves its snapshots on the big SSD i.e. the one which is also permanently mounted as personal data storage.

The usage of one device as target device for Timeshift's snapshots and as storage for user data as well, is an allowed configuration.

When Timeshift was running i.e. when the target device has been mounted by Timeshift, any file on the big SSD can be achieved by two different paths, namely as /run/timeshift/backup/[subpath to file] and as [permanent mounting point]/[subpath to file]. If you now delete such a file i.e. move it to trash, it appears twice in the trash, namely with both paths. From a user's point of view this is not the expected behaviour. Any file deleted by the user should should appear only once. The double entry is caused by the additional mounting executed by Timeshift.

Therefore, Timeshift should unmount the target device when the mounting is not needed any more.