CLI commands to perform snapshot operations

As an administrator, you can enable or disable snapshot creation on a directory. These operations require the superuser privilege. As a user; you can create, delete, or rename snapshots on a directory that has snapshot creation enabled. These operations require either the superuser privilege or the owner privilege on the directory.

Administrator operations

The following table lists the snapshot-related administrator operations that you can on specified directories:
Operation Command
Enable snapshot creation on a directory hdfs dfsadmin -allowSnapshot <path>
Disable snapshot creation on a directory hdfs dfsadmin -disallowSnapshot <path>
For more information about these commands, see https://hadoop.apache.org/docs/current/hadoop-project-dist/hadoop-hdfs/HdfsSnapshots.html#Administrator_Operations.

User operations

The following table lists the user operations that you can perform on snapshots:
Operation Command
Create snapshots hdfs dfs -createSnapshot <path> [<snapshotName>]
Delete snapshots hdfs dfs -deleteSnapshot <path> <snapshotName>
Rename snapshots hdfs dfs -renameSnapshot <path> <oldName> <newName>
List directories on which snapshot creation is enabled (snapshottable directories) hdfs lsSnapshottableDir
List differences between contents of snapshots hdfs snapshotDiff <path> <fromSnapshot> <toSnapshot>
For more information about these commands, see https://hadoop.apache.org/docs/current/hadoop-project-dist/hadoop-hdfs/HdfsSnapshots.html#User_Operations.