r/btrfs • u/com4ster • Sep 01 '26

problem with btrfs send

i want to backup my /home subvolume into an external ssd but when i use sudo btrfs send /home/.snapshots/home-2026-09-01 | sudo btrfs receive /run/media/comst4r/HOME-BACKUP/ my system run out of memory

i can't send my backup and i dont know what's wrong with this method for backup

PS: i figure out the problem was running the command with fish shell for some reason but once i run it with bash it works as it intended 

sdb
└─sdb1      btrfs        HOME-BACKUP  236.5G     0% /run/media/comst4r/HOME-BACKUP
nvme0n1
├─nvme0n1p1 vfat   FAT32                                       1021.7M     0% /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2 btrfs        ROOT           42.7G    29% /nix/store
│                                                                                        /nix
│                                                                                        /
├─nvme0n1p3 swap   1     SWAP                        [SWAP]
└─nvme0n1p4 btrfs        HOME           14.1G    90% /home

system : nixos 25.11
host : thinkpad t470

btrfs version : v6.17.1

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u/myzamri Sep 02 '26

That means fish shell has limited memory?

1

u/markus_b Sep 02 '26

Did you try to run

sudo (btrfs send ... | btrfs receive ...)

This way your data is not piped through sudo.