If the file isn't in source control, a backup, or auto-synced cloud storage, it can't be _that_ important. If it was in either, it could be recovered easily without replacing one's filesystem with one which needs hand-holding to keep it running. Shrug.
ZFS is the mechanism by which I implement local (via snapshots) and remote (via zfs send) backups on my user-facing machines.
- It can do 4x 15-minute snapshots, 24x hourly snapshots, 7x daily snapshots, 4x weekly snapshots, and 12x monthly snapshots, without making 51 copies of my files.
- Taking a snapshot has imperceptible performance impact.
- Snapshots are taken atomically.
- Snapshots can be booted from, if it's a system that's screwed up and not just one file.
- Snapshots can be accessed without disturbing the FS.
In my experience it hasn't required more hand-holding than ext4 past the initial install, but the OSes that most of my devices use either officially support ZFS or don't use package managers that will blindly upgrade a kernel past what out-of-tree modules I'm using will support, which I think fixes the most common issue people have with ZFS.
If the file isn't in source control, a backup, or auto-synced cloud storage, it can't be _that_ important. If it was in either, it could be recovered easily without replacing one's filesystem with one which needs hand-holding to keep it running. Shrug.