digint / digint/btrbk

Document interaction between min and non-min options

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Description

I find the documentation of the `snapshot_preserve_min` and `target_preserv_min` options a bit confusing.

First of all, the manual for those options says "regardless of how many there are", seeming to imply that there's a way to count backups/snapshots and remove the ones in excess. This doesn't seem to be possible: all retention options are time-based. Is there a way to declare "only keep the last 10 snapshots"? If so, then the `_min` options would make a lot more sense.

Secondly, it's not clear why there are two sets of options in the first place. Somewhere on IRC it was mentioned that the `_min` options are there to make sure that snapshots/backups produced during manual runs are preserved: how does this work in practice? Why would they be removed without the `_min` options? Presumably they would follow the same filename naming scheme, so they could be handled by `snapshot_preserve`/`target_preserve`.

Then there's the issue that if `snapshot_preserve_min`/`target_preserve_min` are set to `all`, that `snapshot_preserve`/`target_preserve` are effectively [meaningless](https://github.com/digint/btrbk/issues/190). This should also be documented.

Please let me know if I'm right on the above points, and I'll be happy to improve the documentation accordingly.

Contributor guide

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Research direction

Start by reading the manual entries for snapshot_preserve_min, target_preserv_min, snapshot_preserve, and target_preserve, then verify how retention handles manual snapshots and the value all. Done means documenting whether count-based retention exists, how the option pairs interact, and why setting the _min options to all affects the other options.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Domain
documentation
Issue type
Documentation
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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