Erase your darlings, but without filesystems tricks

WARNING

I'm not responsible for any data loss, use at your own risk.

Features

• Easy to set up, just enable it and set paths to keep
• No snapshots, tmpfs as root or bind mounts are required, works with any filesystem
• Moves everything from root filesystem not in boot.initrd.eyd.keep to the /oldroot directory
• Retains data from previous boots (5 by default), so you have a chance to recover your data

Drawbacks

• Doesn't touch anything besides the root filesystem
• A ~700KB binary in initrd
• Only systemd initrd is supported

Set it up

# in your flake
inputs.eyd.url = "github:misuzu/eyd/v0.2.1";

# import the eyd module
imports = [ inputs.eyd.nixosModules.default ];

# the actual configuration
boot.initrd.systemd.enable = true;
boot.initrd.eyd.enable = true;
boot.initrd.eyd.keep = [
  "/etc/docker"
  "/etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key"
  "/etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub"
  "/etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key"
  "/etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key.pub"
  "/home"
  "/media"
  "/mnt"
  "/root"
  "/var/cache/fwupd"
  "/var/db/dhcpcd"
  "/var/lib/alsa"
  "/var/lib/bluetooth"
  "/var/lib/docker"
  "/var/lib/fwupd"
  "/var/lib/iwd"
  "/var/lib/logrotate.status"
  "/var/lib/NetworkManager"
  "/var/lib/private/yggdrasil"
  "/var/lib/systemd"
  "/var/lib/tailscale"
  "/var/lib/zerotier-one"
  "/var/log/btmp"
  "/var/log/journal"
  "/var/log/lastlog"
  "/var/log/wtmp"
];
boot.initrd.eyd.retain = 3;

Debugging

Run journalctl -b 0 -u eyd to see the logs

Related projects

• impermanence
• preservation