Snapshots, Brooms, and Arch Linux Chaos Control

Arch gives you the steering wheel and the broom. On my Arch setup, Limine boots a BTRFS root while Snapper snaps a before/after every time I poke pacman. It's gorgeous, rollbacks for days, but the snapshots stack up faster than RGB stickers unless I sweep them out. So I wrote this simple cleanup.sh, my tiny digital janitor.

"I use Arch btw."

Why I even bother

• Pacman + Snapper hooks = instant safety net. If a wile build breaks stuff, I just reboot, pick the previous snapshot in Limine, and carry on.
• I settled on CachyOS and HyDE on top of it, after trying and experimenting with multiple setups. Now CachyOS loves performance tweaks, which means I love experimenting. Snapshots let me go full mad scientist without sweating the fallout.
• Doing the cleanup myself keeps that classic Arch vibe: I decide what stays, what goes, and when my SSD gets to breathe.

How my cleanup script keeps me sane

You can keep the below script anywhere on your system, and yes, it wants root (sudo ./cleanup.sh [KEEP]). Default keep count is 2, but bump it to whatever number keeps you cozy. The flow:

• Are we legit?: Bails if you're not root or if btrfs tools are missing.
• Roll call: Lists every /.snapshots/<id>/snapshot, nicely sorted so we know what's oldest.
• Pick favourites: Shows what stays, what goes, and then asks "you sure?" so you don't rage-delete your lifeline.
• Yeet + sync: Deletes the dusty stuff, cleans empty directories, and syncs the filesystem so everything feels fresh.

Slide the whole script into your toolbox:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

# How many latest snapshots to keep (default: 2)
KEEP="${1:-2}"

if [[ "$EUID" -ne 0 ]]; then
  echo "Please run this script as root:"
  echo "  sudo $0 [KEEP]"
  exit 1
fi

if ! command -v btrfs &>/dev/null; then
  echo "Error: 'btrfs' command not found. Is btrfs-progs installed?"
  exit 1
fi

echo "Scanning for snapshots under /.snapshots ..."
mapfile -t SNAPSHOTS < <(
  btrfs subvolume list / \
    | awk '$9 ~ /^\.snapshots\/[0-9]+\/snapshot$/ {print $9}' \
    | sort -t'/' -k2,2n
)

TOTAL=${#SNAPSHOTS[@]}

if (( TOTAL == 0 )); then
  echo "No snapshots found under /.snapshots."
  exit 0
fi

echo "Found $TOTAL snapshot subvolumes:"
printf '  %s\n' "${SNAPSHOTS[@]}"
echo

if (( TOTAL <= KEEP )); then
  echo "Total snapshots ($TOTAL) <= KEEP ($KEEP). Nothing to delete."
  exit 0
fi

# Old ones to delete = everything except the last KEEP entries
DELETE_COUNT=$(( TOTAL - KEEP ))
TO_DELETE=( "${SNAPSHOTS[@]:0:DELETE_COUNT}" )
TO_KEEP=( "${SNAPSHOTS[@]:DELETE_COUNT}" )

echo "Will KEEP the latest $KEEP snapshot(s):"
printf '  %s\n' "${TO_KEEP[@]}"
echo
echo "Will DELETE $DELETE_COUNT older snapshot(s):"
printf '  %s\n' "${TO_DELETE[@]}"
echo

read -rp "Proceed with deletion? [y/N] " ans
case "$ans" in
  y|Y) ;;
  *) echo "Aborted."; exit 0 ;;
esac

for relpath in "${TO_DELETE[@]}"; do
  fullpath="/$relpath"
  echo "Deleting subvolume: $fullpath"
  btrfs subvolume delete "$fullpath"

  # Try to remove the parent directory (/.snapshots/<id>) if it is empty
  parent="/$(dirname "$relpath")"
  if rmdir "$parent" 2>/dev/null; then
    echo "Removed empty directory: $parent"
  fi
done

echo "Syncing filesystem..."
btrfs filesystem sync /

echo "Cleanup complete."

Why this feels 100% Arch

• I'm the one dialling in how many snapshots survive, not some mystery cron job.
• Limine keeps every snapshot bootable but leaves the housekeeping to me, which is exactly how I like it.
• No silent "optimization" services, just a bash script, a terminal prompt, and the knowledge my restore points are ones I actually care about.

Next time you finish spicy upgrade on your Arch system, kick back for a second and run cleanup.sh. Five seconds of sweeping, and boom: your Arch universe stays tidy, intentional, and totally yours.