Manual ====== Usage help ---------- Usage help is available: .. code-block:: console $ ./restic --help restic is a backup program which allows saving multiple revisions of files and directories in an encrypted repository stored on different backends. Usage: restic [command] Available Commands: backup Create a new backup of files and/or directories cache Operate on local cache directories cat Print internal objects to stdout check Check the repository for errors copy Copy snapshots from one repository to another diff Show differences between two snapshots dump Print a backed-up file to stdout find Find a file, a directory or restic IDs forget Remove snapshots from the repository generate Generate manual pages and auto-completion files (bash, zsh) help Help about any command init Initialize a new repository key Manage keys (passwords) list List objects in the repository ls List files in a snapshot migrate Apply migrations mount Mount the repository prune Remove unneeded data from the repository rebuild-index Build a new index recover Recover data from the repository restore Extract the data from a snapshot self-update Update the restic binary snapshots List all snapshots stats Scan the repository and show basic statistics tag Modify tags on snapshots unlock Remove locks other processes created version Print version information Flags: --cacert file file to load root certificates from (default: use system certificates) --cache-dir directory set the cache directory. (default: use system default cache directory) --cleanup-cache auto remove old cache directories -h, --help help for restic --json set output mode to JSON for commands that support it --key-hint key key ID of key to try decrypting first (default: $RESTIC_KEY_HINT) --limit-download int limits downloads to a maximum rate in KiB/s. (default: unlimited) --limit-upload int limits uploads to a maximum rate in KiB/s. (default: unlimited) --no-cache do not use a local cache --no-lock do not lock the repository, this allows some operations on read-only repositories -o, --option key=value set extended option (key=value, can be specified multiple times) --password-command command shell command to obtain the repository password from (default: $RESTIC_PASSWORD_COMMAND) -p, --password-file file file to read the repository password from (default: $RESTIC_PASSWORD_FILE) -q, --quiet do not output comprehensive progress report -r, --repo repository repository to backup to or restore from (default: $RESTIC_REPOSITORY) --repository-file file file to read the repository location from (default: $RESTIC_REPOSITORY_FILE) --tls-client-cert file path to a file containing PEM encoded TLS client certificate and private key -v, --verbose n be verbose (specify multiple times or a level using --verbose=n, max level/times is 3) Use "restic [command] --help" for more information about a command. Similar to programs such as ``git``, restic has a number of sub-commands. You can see these commands in the listing above. Each sub-command may have own command-line options, and there is a help option for each command which lists them, e.g. for the ``backup`` command: .. code-block:: console $ ./restic backup --help The "backup" command creates a new snapshot and saves the files and directories given as the arguments. EXIT STATUS =========== Exit status is 0 if the command was successful. Exit status is 1 if there was a fatal error (no snapshot created). Exit status is 3 if some source data could not be read (incomplete snapshot created). Usage: restic backup [flags] FILE/DIR [FILE/DIR] ... Flags: -e, --exclude pattern exclude a pattern (can be specified multiple times) --exclude-caches excludes cache directories that are marked with a CACHEDIR.TAG file. See https://bford.info/cachedir/ for the Cache Directory Tagging Standard --exclude-file file read exclude patterns from a file (can be specified multiple times) --exclude-if-present filename[:header] takes filename[:header], exclude contents of directories containing filename (except filename itself) if header of that file is as provided (can be specified multiple times) --exclude-larger-than size max size of the files to be backed up (allowed suffixes: k/K, m/M, g/G, t/T) --files-from file read the files to backup from file (can be combined with file args; can be specified multiple times) --files-from-raw file read the files to backup from file (can be combined with file args; can be specified multiple times) --files-from-verbatim file read the files to backup from file (can be combined with file args; can be specified multiple times) -f, --force force re-reading the target files/directories (overrides the "parent" flag) -h, --help help for backup -H, --host hostname set the hostname for the snapshot manually. To prevent an expensive rescan use the "parent" flag --iexclude pattern same as --exclude pattern but ignores the casing of filenames --iexclude-file file same as --exclude-file but ignores casing of filenames in patterns --ignore-inode ignore inode number changes when checking for modified files -x, --one-file-system exclude other file systems --parent snapshot use this parent snapshot (default: last snapshot in the repo that has the same target files/directories) --stdin read backup from stdin --stdin-filename filename filename to use when reading from stdin (default "stdin") --tag tags add tags for the new snapshot in the format `tag[,tag,...]` (can be specified multiple times) (default []) --time time time of the backup (ex. '2012-11-01 22:08:41') (default: now) --use-fs-snapshot use filesystem snapshot where possible (currently only Windows VSS) --with-atime store the atime for all files and directories Global Flags: --cacert file file to load root certificates from (default: use system certificates) --cache-dir directory set the cache directory. (default: use system default cache directory) --cleanup-cache auto remove old cache directories --json set output mode to JSON for commands that support it --key-hint key key ID of key to try decrypting first (default: $RESTIC_KEY_HINT) --limit-download int limits downloads to a maximum rate in KiB/s. (default: unlimited) --limit-upload int limits uploads to a maximum rate in KiB/s. (default: unlimited) --no-cache do not use a local cache --no-lock do not lock the repository, this allows some operations on read-only repositories -o, --option key=value set extended option (key=value, can be specified multiple times) --password-command command shell command to obtain the repository password from (default: $RESTIC_PASSWORD_COMMAND) -p, --password-file file file to read the repository password from (default: $RESTIC_PASSWORD_FILE) -q, --quiet do not output comprehensive progress report -r, --repo repository repository to backup to or restore from (default: $RESTIC_REPOSITORY) --repository-file file file to read the repository location from (default: $RESTIC_REPOSITORY_FILE) --tls-client-cert file path to a file containing PEM encoded TLS client certificate and private key -v, --verbose n be verbose (specify multiple times or a level using --verbose=n, max level/times is 3) Subcommands that support showing progress information such as ``backup``, ``check`` and ``prune`` will do so unless the quiet flag ``-q`` or ``--quiet`` is set. When running from a non-interactive console progress reporting is disabled by default to not fill your logs. For interactive and non-interactive consoles the environment variable ``RESTIC_PROGRESS_FPS`` can be used to control the frequency of progress reporting. Additionally, on Unix systems if ``restic`` receives a SIGUSR1 signal the current progress will be written to the standard output so you can check up on the status at will. Manage tags ----------- Managing tags on snapshots is done with the ``tag`` command. The existing set of tags can be replaced completely, tags can be added or removed. The result is directly visible in the ``snapshots`` command. Let's say we want to tag snapshot ``590c8fc8`` with the tags ``NL`` and ``CH`` and remove all other tags that may be present, the following command does that: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo tag --set NL --set CH 590c8fc8 create exclusive lock for repository modified tags on 1 snapshots Note the snapshot ID has changed, so between each change we need to look up the new ID of the snapshot. But there is an even better way, the ``tag`` command accepts ``--tag`` for a filter, so we can filter snapshots based on the tag we just added. So we can add and remove tags incrementally like this: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo tag --tag NL --remove CH create exclusive lock for repository modified tags on 1 snapshots $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo tag --tag NL --add UK create exclusive lock for repository modified tags on 1 snapshots $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo tag --tag NL --remove NL create exclusive lock for repository modified tags on 1 snapshots $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo tag --tag NL --add SOMETHING no snapshots were modified Under the hood -------------- Browse repository objects ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Internally, a repository stores data of several different types described in the `design documentation `__. You can ``list`` objects such as blobs, packs, index, snapshots, keys or locks with the following command: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo list snapshots d369ccc7d126594950bf74f0a348d5d98d9e99f3215082eb69bf02dc9b3e464c The ``find`` command searches for a given `pattern `__ in the repository. .. code-block:: console $ restic -r backup find test.txt debug log file restic.log debug enabled enter password for repository: found 1 matching entries in snapshot 196bc5760c909a7681647949e80e5448e276521489558525680acf1bd428af36 -rw-r--r-- 501 20 5 2015-08-26 14:09:57 +0200 CEST path/to/test.txt The ``cat`` command allows you to display the JSON representation of the objects or their raw content. .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo cat snapshot d369ccc7d126594950bf74f0a348d5d98d9e99f3215082eb69bf02dc9b3e464c enter password for repository: { "time": "2015-08-12T12:52:44.091448856+02:00", "tree": "05cec17e8d3349f402576d02576a2971fc0d9f9776ce2f441c7010849c4ff5af", "paths": [ "/home/user/work" ], "hostname": "kasimir", "username": "username", "uid": 501, "gid": 20 } Metadata handling ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Restic saves and restores most default attributes, including extended attributes like ACLs. Sparse files are not handled in a special way yet, and aren't restored. The following metadata is handled by restic: - Name - Type - Mode - ModTime - AccessTime - ChangeTime - UID - GID - User - Group - Inode - Size - Links - LinkTarget - Device - Content - Subtree - ExtendedAttributes Getting information about repository data ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Use the ``stats`` command to count up stats about the data in the repository. There are different counting modes available using the ``--mode`` flag, depending on what you want to calculate. The default is the restore size, or the size required to restore the files: - ``restore-size`` (default) counts the size of the restored files. - ``files-by-contents`` counts the total size of unique files as given by their contents. This can be useful since a file is considered unique only if it has unique contents. Keep in mind that a small change to a large file (even when the file name/path hasn't changed) will cause them to look like different files, thus essentially causing the whole size of the file to be counted twice. - ``raw-data`` counts the size of the blobs in the repository, regardless of how many files reference them. This tells you how much restic has reduced all your original data down to (either for a single snapshot or across all your backups), and compared to the size given by the restore-size mode, can tell you how much deduplication is helping you. - ``blobs-per-file`` is kind of a mix between files-by-contents and raw-data modes; it is useful for knowing how much value your backup is providing you in terms of unique data stored by file. Like files-by-contents, it is resilient to file renames/moves. Unlike files-by-contents, it does not balloon to high values when large files have small edits, as long as the file path stayed the same. Unlike raw-data, this mode DOES consider how many files point to each blob such that the more files a blob is referenced by, the more it counts toward the size. For example, to calculate how much space would be required to restore the latest snapshot (from any host that made it): .. code-block:: console $ restic stats latest password is correct Total File Count: 10538 Total Size: 37.824 GiB If multiple hosts are backing up to the repository, the latest snapshot may not be the one you want. You can specify the latest snapshot from only a specific host by using the ``--host`` flag: .. code-block:: console $ restic stats --host myserver latest password is correct Total File Count: 21766 Total Size: 481.783 GiB There we see that it would take 482 GiB of disk space to restore the latest snapshot from "myserver". In case you have multiple backups running from the same host so can also use ``--tag`` and ``--path`` to be more specific about which snapshots you are looking for. But how much space does that snapshot take on disk? In other words, how much has restic's deduplication helped? We can check: .. code-block:: console $ restic stats --host myserver --mode raw-data latest password is correct Total Blob Count: 340847 Total Size: 458.663 GiB Comparing this size to the previous command, we see that restic has saved about 23 GiB of space with deduplication. Which mode you use depends on your exact use case. Some modes are more useful across all snapshots, while others make more sense on just a single snapshot, depending on what you're trying to calculate. Scripting --------- Restic supports the output of some commands in JSON format, the JSON data can then be processed by other programs (e.g. `jq `__). The following example lists all snapshots as JSON and uses ``jq`` to pretty-print the result: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo snapshots --json | jq . [ { "time": "2017-03-11T09:57:43.26630619+01:00", "tree": "bf25241679533df554fc0fd0ae6dbb9dcf1859a13f2bc9dd4543c354eff6c464", "paths": [ "/home/work/doc" ], "hostname": "kasimir", "username": "fd0", "uid": 1000, "gid": 100, "id": "bbeed6d28159aa384d1ccc6fa0b540644b1b9599b162d2972acda86b1b80f89e" }, { "time": "2017-03-11T09:58:57.541446938+01:00", "tree": "7f8c95d3420baaac28dc51609796ae0e0ecfb4862b609a9f38ffaf7ae2d758da", "paths": [ "/home/user/shared" ], "hostname": "kasimir", "username": "fd0", "uid": 1000, "gid": 100, "id": "b157d91c16f0ba56801ece3a708dfc53791fe2a97e827090d6ed9a69a6ebdca0" } ] .. _temporary_files: Temporary files --------------- During some operations (e.g. ``backup`` and ``prune``) restic uses temporary files to store data. These files will, by default, be saved to the system's temporary directory, on Linux this is usually located in ``/tmp/``. The environment variable ``TMPDIR`` can be used to specify a different directory, e.g. to use the directory ``/var/tmp/restic-tmp`` instead of the default, set the environment variable like this: .. code-block:: console $ export TMPDIR=/var/tmp/restic-tmp $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo backup ~/work .. _caching: Caching ------- Restic keeps a cache with some files from the repository on the local machine. This allows faster operations, since meta data does not need to be loaded from a remote repository. The cache is automatically created, usually in an OS-specific cache folder: * Linux/other: ``$XDG_CACHE_HOME/restic``, or ``~/.cache/restic`` if ``XDG_CACHE_HOME`` is not set * macOS: ``~/Library/Caches/restic`` * Windows: ``%LOCALAPPDATA%/restic`` If the relevant environment variables are not set, restic exits with an error message. The command line parameter ``--cache-dir`` or the environment variable ``$RESTIC_CACHE_DIR`` can be used to override the default cache location. The parameter ``--no-cache`` disables the cache entirely. In this case, all data is loaded from the repo. The cache is ephemeral: When a file cannot be read from the cache, it is loaded from the repository. Within the cache directory, there's a sub directory for each repository the cache was used with. Restic updates the timestamps of a repo directory each time it is used, so by looking at the timestamps of the sub directories of the cache directory it can decide which sub directories are old and probably not needed any more. You can either remove these directories manually, or run a restic command with the ``--cleanup-cache`` flag.