Scenario: - FreeBSD 12.1-RELEASE-p6 - Using "zfs send" to create backups - Using "-R" flag to create backups of zfs filesystem hierarchies - Using "-I" or "-i" to create incremental backups - For these backups, specifically named snapshots are used which are created using "zfs snapshot -r <top filesystem>" (the <top filesystem> is not necessarily a complete pool but can be a subset of a pool). - There are other (intervening) snapshots that are irrelevant for backup purposes. Result: 1. It is possible to create a full recursive backup stream (similar to a level 0 dump) using "zfs send -R ...", including all intervening snapshots, even those irrelevant for backup purposes. 2. It is NOT possible to create a full recursive backup stream using "zfs send -R ...", excluding all intervening snapshots. 3. It is possible to create an incremental recursive backup stream using "zfs send -R -I ...", including all intervening snapshots. 4. It is possible to create an incremental recursive backup stream using "zfs send -R -i ...", excluding all intervening snapshots. Expected result: It should be possible to create a full recursive backup stream WITHOUT the intervening snapshots (case 2. above). -- Martin
p.s. I am wondering how "zfs send -R -i ..." works in the presence of clones using a snapshot in between the -i <snapshot> and the target <snapshot>.