> Is netatalk the key thing here that makes it Time Machine compatible? The rest seems like standard DIY home server stuff.
The last update to AFP shipped with Mac OS X Mountain Lion in 2012 [1]. Nobody should be using AFP in 2023, unless you have no other choice.
While you can use Time Machine to backup to an SMB share, ideally you want to use an APFS volume to get all of the benefits, especially if you're concerned about data integrity.
You can read about using APFS network shares for Time Machine at The Eclectic Light Company [2], a Mac-focused blog/website by Howard Oakley.
If you're interested in the details of how Time Machine works, nobody I'm aware of has written more about its details than he has [3].
He's written a slew of useful macOS utilities, including T2M2 for Time Machine [4].
Time Machine created an APFS sparse bundle on the SMB share. How is an APFS sparse bundle on an APFS volume better than an APFS sparse bundle on another volume?
Yeah this is as pointless as every "life hack" on YouTube. Haven't you been able to Time Machine backup to any HFS-formatted sparse bundle since forever? Located on literally ANY samba server - Windows, Linux, or ye olde NAS. I have personally done this for years. I don't get the novelty here unless you're into the "I built a submarine with parts I got off eBay" angle.
I write these blog posts for primarily for myself, and hopefully because somebody might find them useful. I claim no novelty, there are no ads, no traffic tracking, there is no intention whatsoever to make money from it.
But if my posts irritate some jerk on the Internet who has nothing better to do than spread negativity, then that’s definitely a nice unintended benefit.
> But if my posts irritate some jerk on the Internet who has nothing better to do than spread negativity, then that’s definitely a nice unintended benefit.
No malice intended, but I genuinely felt as if you had wasted your own time. Sorry if I don't subscribe to the usual HN tug-fest. If you learned something - good for you but I've been down this exact road many times before. Oftentimes I have to mentor younger engineers that there is often a much simpler solution if you can see the forest for the trees.
We see projects like this almost daily on HN. Sometimes people just like to tinker and share, so yeah, the “I built a submarine with parts I got off eBay” type work can be fun and even useful. You never know who you might help!
If that irritates you, this might not be the site for you.
