Pamac upgrade, while snapshot creation, output leaks to the terminal

Support Software & Applications
1

As can be seen in the terminal output below, I see a curious output while running pamac upgrade:

Removed snapshot: 2026-01-15_21-25-21
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Detecting snapshots ...
Found snapshot: 2026-01-23 20:28:56 | timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2026-01-23_20-28-56/@ | ondemand | {timeshift-autosnap} {created before upgrade} |
Found snapshot: 2026-01-19 08:39:29 | timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2026-01-19_08-39-29/@ | ondemand | {timeshift-autosnap} {created before upgrade} |
Found snapshot: 2026-01-17 22:30:26 | timeshift-btrfs/snapshots/2026-01-17_22-30-26/@ | ondemand | {timeshift-autosnap} {created before upgrade} |
if [ ! -e "${prefix}/grub-btrfs.cfg" ]; then
echo ""
else
submenu 'Manjaro Linux snapshots' {
    configfile "${prefix}/grub-btrfs.cfg"
}
fi
Found 3 snapshot(s)
Unmount /tmp/grub-btrfs.SbgAo6hKI0 .. Success

The above is taken from the terminal while running pamac upgrade.
It’s been happening now since a few weeks, I’d say (I’m not always staring at the terminal when upgrading).

It seems quite a curious thing and I have no clear idea how to report, where, or even if it is worth reporting. I’m not sure this is even affecting the working of my system in any way.

Please, let me know if you have indications whether there is anything to do here.

2

This is normal behaviour if you are running btrfs and enabled Timeshift snapshots.

But the output is from the package grub-btrfs. It will add any root snapshots it finds (that aren’t read only) to your grub menu. You do have the option to boot into them in grub, but take care if you do not know what this really entails.

The Manjaro defaults when using Timeshift are to only keep 3 snapshots max (no matter how many you try to schedule or keep in the Timeshift GUI settings). The only way to increase that number, is to edit the file:

/etc/timeshift-autosnap.conf

maxSnapshots=3

It just depends if you want to mess around with snapshots (often for rollback purposes).

That setting of three is almost useless, since you create one when you initiate a rollback. Giving you one usable snapshot to rollback to. Then you start losing potentially important snapshots, if you want to go back or undo changes.

But keeping it at 3 is fine if you don’t want to touch anything. They just quickly clean up themselves.

3

Thanks, I know all of that already (seasoned multi-decade Linux tinkerer… :grin:).
I think you didn’t notice what is actually wrong in that output, from if [... to fi. It is a missed redirection, maybe.
I’m asking where/how to report this sort of “soft” bug (it doesn’t seem to hurt Timeshift outcome).

4

timeshift-autosnap-manjarois packaged by @Yochanan. He should hereby be receiving a notification. :wink:

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5

I thought you meant that originally! Even changed my reply.

Yes, this part.

I agree, it’s like running a Bourne/bash script with set -x. (Or debug mode.)

I believe it is coming from the script: /etc/grub.d/41_snapshots-btrfs

pacman -Qo /etc/grub.d/41_snapshots-btrfs
/etc/grub.d/41_snapshots-btrfs is owned by grub-btrfs 4.14-1

I just got used to it.

6

If that’s the culprit, then that’s a package created by @strit, but he has left Manjaro and is a packager for Arch now.

7

This is the output from scripted a sed command.

But as stated in the output

If you think an error has occurred, please file a bug report at “GitHub - Antynea/grub-btrfs: Include btrfs snapshots at boot options. (Grub menu)”

8

What I couldn’t figure out much online is whether it’s something affecting me alone.
Anyone else with similar thing?
Should I open an issue on the GitHub repo of grub-btrfs to help solve?

10

Opened an issue:

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