Time Machine Reservoir Sampler
Time Warp is a tool for modifying Time Machine's backup behavior using weighted reservoir sampling. Please see this blog post for an explain of the project prior to setup and use.
- OS X 10.7+
-
Verify that the desired Time Machine Drive is mounted:
If you don't know how to do this, see here.
-
After cloning the repo, ensure Time Warp is in your path and executable:
$ chmod 755 timewarp.py
-
Modify the default config file (
safe-warp.json
) to point at the desired Time Machine volume.Here's an example of what the configuration file should look like:
{ "mode": "safe", "volume": "/Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/computer_name/", "threshold": 1024, "log": "timewarp.log" }
-
Run Time Warp in
safe-mode
using the modified config file from step 2:$ ./timewarp.py safe-warp.json
-
Verify Time Warp is working by examining the log file,
timewarp.log
. This file contains the backup snapshot(s) that would have been deleted if the mode was set tolive
. -
Change the
mode
value to"live"
.DO NOT CHANGE THE THRESHOLD VALUE UNLESS YOU FULLY UNDERSTAND THE CONSEQUENCES. Setting the mode to
live
and changing thethreshold
value to a large size could potentially delete every backup on a Time Machine hard drive. -
Move the provided plist file,
org.drbunsen.timewarp.plist
to the LaunchAgents folder and change the owner:$ mv org.drbunsen.timewarp.plist /Library/LaunchAgents/
$ sudo chown root /Library/LaunchAgents/org.drbunsen.timewarp.plist
$ sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/org.drbunsen.timewarp.plist