Time Warp

Time Machine Reservoir Sampler

Time Warp is a tool for modifying Time Machine's backup behavior using sampling statistics.

Requirements:

Verify that the desired Time Machine Drive is mounted:

If you don't know how to do this, see here.
After cloning the repo, ensure Time Warp is in your path and executable:

$ chmod 755 timewarp.py
Modify the default config file (safe-warp.json) to point at the desired Time Machine volume.

Here's an example of what the configuration file should look like:

{
    "mode": "safe",
    "volume": "/Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb/computer_name/",
    "threshold": 1024, 
    "log": "timewarp.log"
}

Run Time Warp in safe-mode using the modified config file from step 2:

$ ./timewarp.py safe-warp.json
Verify Time Warp is working by examining the log file, timewarp.log. This file contains the backup snapshot(s) that would have been deleted if the mode was set to live.
Change the mode value to "live".

DO NOT CHANGE THE THRESHOLD VALUE UNLESS YOU FULLY UNDERSTAND THE CONSEQUENCES. Setting the mode to live and changing the threshold value to a large size could potentially delete every backup on a Time Machine hard drive.
Move the provided plist file, org.drbunsen.timewarp.plist to the LaunchAgents folder and change the owner:

$ mv org.drbunsen.timewarp.plist /Library/LaunchAgents/
$ sudo chown root /Library/LaunchAgents/org.drbunsen.timewarp.plist
$ sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchAgents/org.drbunsen.timewarp.plist