[rsnapshot][] is a backup utility that uses [rsync][] to backup files over the network. Backups to my external [Btrfs][] drive were dragging, with a lot of time and processor power spend running `cp` and `rm`. With a [COW][] filesystem like btrfs, this is wasted processor time and disk activity, so I migrated to using Btrfs snapshots instead. Walter Werther has a [good write up][WW]. The idea is to configure rsnapshot to use scripts that wrap `btrfs` instead of your system's `cp` and `rm` programs. Walter's put the relavant script on [GitHub][]: [cp][] and [rm][]. [rsnapshot]: http://www.rsnapshot.org/ [rsync]: http://rsync.samba.org/ [Btrfs]: https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/ [COW]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_on_write [WW]: http://wwerther.de/2011/10/migrate-rsnapshot-based-backup-to-btrfs-snapshots/ [GitHub]: http://github.com/ [cp]: https://gist.github.com/1306185 [rm]: https://gist.github.com/1306189