Macos – Command-line access for Apple Time Machine

backupcommand linemacostime-machine

We use Apple's Time Machine to back up our Apple 10.5.8 workstations at the office.

If I want to restore a file, I need to open up the Time Machine GUI and browse files there. The GUI is ugly eye-candy and gets in my way.

Is there a way to browse the Time Machine archive using the Mac's command-line?

I'm used to Netapps and other storage appliances. I use backintime for my Ubuntu workstation. To restore a file with one of those systems, you can restore a file with a simple command like:

cp .snapshot/daily.0/filename.txt .

or

cp /backup/backintime/20100611-000002/backup/etc/shadow /etc/shadow

Is there an equivalent for Apple's Time Machine?

Best Answer

Putting my comment as an answer. An intermediate solution would be to use Finder to browse the Time Machine backups just like a regular folder. If you want to browse it in the command line, drag the folder from the Finder to the Terminal window so that you don't need to hunt through the many levels of directories that Time Machine sets up. Enjoy!

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