rewindfs-lite

rewindfs-lite is a small snapshot-based file versioning tool for exploring rollback, file history tracking, and basic filesystem-style metadata handling.

It is a stripped-down prototype of a larger rewindfs idea, focused on the core pieces:

• snapshots
• version history
• rollback
• file hashing
• JSON metadata

Features

• Snapshot creation for files
• File version history tracking
• Rollback to older versions
• SHA-256 hashing for integrity checks
• JSON-based metadata storage
• Simple command-line interface

Why I built it

I wanted a small project that shows how versioned file recovery works without turning into a huge codebase.

This project is mainly about understanding:

• snapshot architecture
• rollback systems
• file versioning
• metadata indexing
• hashing and integrity checks
• filesystem-inspired design

Tech Stack

• Python
• JSON
• File I/O
• hashlib
• shutil

Repository Structure

rewindfs-lite/
├── main.py
├── README.md
├── metadata.json
└── snapshots/

Commands

Initialize the project:

python3 main.py init

Create a snapshot:

python3 main.py snapshot test.txt

View snapshot history:

python3 main.py history test.txt

Rollback to an older version:

python3 main.py rollback test.txt 1

Example Workflow

echo "hello world" > test.txt

python3 main.py snapshot test.txt

echo "second version" > test.txt

python3 main.py snapshot test.txt

python3 main.py history test.txt

python3 main.py rollback test.txt 1

How It Works

Each snapshot is stored as a versioned copy inside the snapshots/ directory.

For every file, metadata.json stores:

• version number
• timestamp
• SHA-256 hash
• snapshot filename

Rollback restores a selected snapshot back into the working file.

Demo

Future Improvements

• directory snapshots
• diff viewer
• automatic snapshots
• deduplication
• compressed snapshot storage
• ignore rules similar to .gitignore

Status

Still experimenting with rollback and snapshot ideas.

Author

Siddharth S Menon