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Building restic
If you are using Mac OS X, you can install restic using the homebrew packet manager:
{% highlight console %} brew tap restic/restic brew install restic {% endhighlight %}
If you are using Linux, BSD or Windows, the only way to install restic on your system right now is to compile it from source. restic is written in the Go programming language and you need at least Go version 1.3. See the Getting started guide of the Go project for instructions how to install Go.
In order to build restic from source, execute the following steps:
{% highlight console %} $ git clone https://github.com/restic/restic [...]
$ cd restic
$ go run build.go [...] {% endhighlight %}
Usage help is available:
{% highlight console %} $ ./restic --help Usage: restic [OPTIONS]
Application Options: -r, --repo= Repository directory to backup to/restore from
Help Options: -h, --help Show this help message
Available commands: backup save file/directory cache manage cache cat dump something find find a file/directory fsck check the repository init create repository key manage keys list lists data ls list files restore restore a snapshot snapshots show snapshots version display version {% endhighlight %}
Subcommand-specific help is there too:
{% highlight console %} $ ./restic backup --help Usage: restic [OPTIONS] backup DIR/FILE [DIR/FILE] [...]
The backup command creates a snapshot of a file or directory
Application Options: -r, --repo= Repository directory to backup to/restore from --cache-dir= Directory to use as a local cache -q, --quiet Do not output comprehensive progress report (false) --no-lock Do not lock the repo, this allows some operations on read-only repos. (false)
Help Options: -h, --help Show this help message
[backup command options] -p, --parent= use this parent snapshot (default: last snapshot in repo that has the same target) -f, --force Force re-reading the target. Overrides the "parent" flag -e, --exclude= Exclude a pattern (can be specified multiple times) {% endhighlight %}
Initialize a repository
First, we need to create a "repository". This is the place where your backups will be saved at.
In order to create a repository at /tmp/backup, run the following command and enter the same password twice:
{% highlight console %} $ restic init --repo /tmp/backup enter password for new backend: enter password again: created restic backend 085b3c76b9 at /tmp/backup Please note that knowledge of your password is required to access the repository. Losing your password means that your data is irrecoverably lost. {% endhighlight %}
Remembering your password is important! If you lose it, you won't be able to access data stored in the repository.
Attention, at the moment restic only supports real Windows console interaction. If you use emulation environments like MSYS2 or Cygwin, which use terminals like Mintty, rxvt, you'll get an password error:
{% highlight console %} $ restic -r /tmp/backup init enter password for repository: unable to read password: Das Handle ist ungültig. {% endhighlight %}
You can workaround this by using a special tool called "winpty" (look here and here for detail information).
{% highlight console %}
install winpty on MSYS2
$ pacman -S winpty $ winpty restic -r /tmp/backup init {% endhighlight %}
For automated backups, restic accepts the repository location in the environment variable RESTIC_REPOSITORY and also the password in the variable RESTIC_PASSWORD.
Create a snapshot
Now we're ready to backup some data. The contents of a directory at a specific point in time is called a "snapshot" in restic. Run the following command and enter the repository password you chose above again:
{% highlight console %} $ restic -r /tmp/backup backup ~/work enter password for repository: scan [/home/user/work] scanned 764 directories, 1816 files in 0:00 [0:29] 100.00% 54.732 MiB/s 1.582 GiB / 1.582 GiB 2580 / 2580 items 0 errors ETA 0:00 duration: 0:29, 54.47MiB/s snapshot 40dc1520 saved {% endhighlight %}
As you can see, restic created a backup of the directory and was pretty fast! The specific snapshot just created is identified by a sequence of hexadecimal characters, 40dc1520 in this case.
If you run the command again, restic will create another snapshot of your data, but this time it's even faster. This is deduplication at work!
{% highlight console %} $ restic -r /tmp/backup backup ~/shared/work/web enter password for repository: using parent snapshot 40dc1520aa6a07b7b3ae561786770a01951245d2367241e71e9485f18ae8228c scan [/home/user/work] scanned 764 directories, 1816 files in 0:00 [0:00] 100.00% 0B/s 1.582 GiB / 1.582 GiB 2580 / 2580 items 0 errors ETA 0:00 duration: 0:00, 6572.38MiB/s snapshot 79766175 saved {% endhighlight %}
You can even backup individual files in the same repository.
{% highlight console %} $ restic -r /tmp/backup backup ~/work.txt scan [/tmp/backup backup ~/work.txt] scanned 0 directories, 1 files in 0:00 [0:00] 100.00% 0B/s 220B / 220B 1 / 1 items 0 errors ETA 0:00 duration: 0:00, 0.03MiB/s snapshot 31f7bd63 saved {% endhighlight %}
In fact several hosts may use the same repository to backup directories and files leading to a greater deduplication.
List all snapshots
Now, you can list all the snapshots stored in the repository:
{% highlight console %} $ restic -r /tmp/backup snapshots enter password for repository: ID Date Source Directory
40dc1520 2015-05-08 21:38:30 kasimir /home/user/work 79766175 2015-05-08 21:40:19 kasimir /home/user/work {% endhighlight %}
Restore a snapshot
Restoring a snapshot is as easy as it sounds, just use the following command to restore the contents of the latest snapshot to /tmp/restore-work:
{% highlight console %} $ restic -r /tmp/backup restore 79766175 --target ~/tmp/restore-work enter password for repository: restoring <Snapshot of [/home/user/work] at 2015-05-08 21:40:19.884408621 +0200 CEST> to /tmp/restore-work {% endhighlight %}
Manage repository keys
The key command allows you to set multiple access keys or passwords per repository. In fact, you can use the list, add, remove and passwd sub-commands to manage these keys very precisely:
{% highlight console %} $ restic -r /tmp/backup key list enter password for repository: ID User Host Created
*eb78040b username kasimir 2015-08-12 13:29:57
$ restic -r /tmp/backup key add enter password for repository: enter password for new key: enter password again: saved new key as <Key of username@kasimir, created on 2015-08-12 13:35:05.316831933 +0200 CEST>
$ restic -r backup key list enter password for repository: ID User Host Created
5c657874 username kasimir 2015-08-12 13:35:05 *eb78040b username kasimir 2015-08-12 13:29:57 {% endhighlight %}
Check integrity and consistency
Imagine your repository is saved on a server that has a faulty hard drive, or even worse, attackers get privileged access and modify your backup with the intention to make you restore malicious data:
{% highlight console %} $ sudo echo "boom" >> backup/index/d795ffa99a8ab8f8e42cec1f814df4e48b8f49129360fb57613df93739faee97 {% endhighlight %}
In order to detect these things, it is a good idea to regularly use the check command to test whether everything is alright, your precious backup data is consistent and the integrity is unharmed:
{% highlight console %} $ restic -r /tmp/backup check Load indexes ciphertext verification failed {% endhighlight %}
Trying to restore a snapshot which has been modified as shown above will yield the same error:
{% highlight console %} $ restic -r /tmp/backup restore 79766175 --target ~/tmp/restore-work Load indexes ciphertext verification failed {% endhighlight %}
Mount a repository
Browsing your backup as a regular file system is also very easy. First, create a mount point such as /mnt/restic and then use the following command to serve the repository with FUSE:
{% highlight console %} $ mkdir /mnt/restic $ restic -r /tmp/backup mount /mnt/restic enter password for repository: Now serving /tmp/backup at /tmp/restic Don't forget to umount after quitting! {% endhighlight %}
Windows doesn't support FUSE directly. Projects like dokan try to fill the gap. We haven't tested it yet, but we'd like to hear about your experience. For setup information see dokan FUSE in dokan's wiki.
Create an SFTP repository
In order to backup data via SFTP, you must first set up a server with SSH and let it know your public key. Passwordless login is really important since restic fails to connect to the repository if the server prompts for credentials.
Once the server is configured, the setup of the SFTP repository can simply be achieved by changing the URL scheme in the init command:
{% highlight console %} $ restic -r sftp://user@host//tmp/backup init enter password for new backend: enter password again: created restic backend f1c6108821 at sftp://user@host//tmp/backup Please note that knowledge of your password is required to access the repository. Losing your password means that your data is irrecoverably lost. {% endhighlight %}
Yes, that's really two slash (/) characters after the host name, here the directory /tmp/backup on the server is meant. If you'd rather like to create a repository in the user's home directory on the server, use the location sftp://user@host/foo/bar/repo. In this case the directory is relative to the user's home directory: foo/bar/repo.
Create an Amazon S3 repository
Restic can backup data to any Amazon S3 bucket. However, in this case, changing the URL scheme is not enough since Amazon uses special security credentials to sign HTTP requests. By consequence, you must first setup the following environment variables with the credentials you obtained while creating the bucket.
{% highlight console %} $ export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<MY_ACCESS_KEY> $ export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<MY_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY> {% endhighlight %}
You can then easily initialize a repository that uses your Amazon S3 as a backend.
{% highlight console %} $ restic -r s3://s3.amazonaws.com/bucket_name init enter password for new backend: enter password again: created restic backend eefee03bbd at s3://s3.amazonaws.com/bucket_name Please note that knowledge of your password is required to access the repository. Losing your password means that your data is irrecoverably lost. {% endhighlight %}
For an S3-compatible repository without TLS available, use the alternative URI protocol s3:http://server:port/bucket_name.
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:
{% highlight console %} $ restic -r /tmp/backup list snapshots d369ccc7d126594950bf74f0a348d5d98d9e99f3215082eb69bf02dc9b3e464c {% endhighlight %}
The find command searches for a given pattern in the repository.
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 its raw content.
{% highlight console %} $ restic -r /tmp/backup 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 } {% endhighlight %}