IT Solutions Technology Blog

Restic – is a backup program that is fast efficient and secure

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~# apt-get install restic
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree… Done
Reading state information… Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
restic
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 7,575 kB of archives.
After this operation, 19.8 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://mirror.pyratelan.org/raspbian/raspbian bullseye/main armhf restic armhf 0.11.0-1 [7,575 kB]
Fetched 7,575 kB in 3s (2,435 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package restic.
(Reading database … 106673 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack …/restic_0.11.0-1_armhf.deb …
Unpacking restic (0.11.0-1) …
Setting up restic (0.11.0-1) …
Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.4-2) …
root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~#

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~#

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~# restic version
restic 0.11.0 compiled with go1.15.7 on linux/arm

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~#

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~# restic self-update
writing restic to /usr/bin/restic
find latest release of restic at GitHub
latest version is 0.19.1
download SHA256SUMS
download SHA256SUMS.asc
GPG signature verification succeeded
download restic_0.19.1_linux_arm.bz2
downloaded restic_0.19.1_linux_arm.bz2
saved 28770466 bytes in /usr/bin/restic
successfully updated restic to version 0.19.1

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~#

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~# restic version
restic 0.19.1 compiled with go1.26.4 on linux/arm

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~#

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~# restic -r /mnt/USB-Stick init
enter password for new repository:
enter password again:
created restic repository c13f3caf1d at /mnt/USB-Stick

Please note that knowledge of your password is required to access
the repository. Losing your password means that your data is
irrecoverably lost.

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~#

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~# restic -r /mnt/USB-Stick backup /resilio-sync.data/USB-Stick
enter password for repository:
repository c13f3caf opened (version 2, compression level auto)
created new cache in /root/.cache/restic
no parent snapshot found, will read all files
[0:00] 0 index files loaded

Files: 20761 new, 0 changed, 0 unmodified
Dirs: 707 new, 0 changed, 0 unmodified
Added to the repository: 6.362 GiB (4.417 GiB stored)

processed 20761 files, 7.314 GiB in 2:41:24
snapshot 0c2f7b54 saved

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~#

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~# restic -r /mnt/USB-Stick snapshots
enter password for repository:
repository c13f3caf opened (version 2, compression level auto)
ID Time Host Tags Paths Size
———————————————————————————————————–
0c2f7b54 2026-09-15 14:19:23 rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01 /resilio-sync.data/USB-Stick 7.314 GiB
———————————————————————————————————–
Timestamps shown in local time
1 snapshots

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~#

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~# restic -r /mnt/USB-Stick restore 6ba46309 –target /tmp/USB-Stick-Recovery
enter password for repository:
repository c13f3caf opened (version 2, compression level auto)
[0:04] 100.00% 16 / 16 index files loaded
restoring snapshot 6ba46309 of [/resilio-sync.data/USB-Stick] at 2026-09-15 19:25:59.638884438 +0200 CEST by root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01 to /tmp/USB-Stick-Recovery
Summary: Restored 21477 files/dirs (7.315 GiB) in 53:47

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~#

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~# restic -r /mnt/USB-Stick forget –keep-daily 7 –keep-weekly 4 –keep-monthly 6 –prune
enter password for repository:
repository c13f3caf opened (version 2, compression level auto)
Applying Policy: keep 7 daily, 4 weekly, 6 monthly snapshots
keep 2 snapshots:
ID Time Host Tags Reasons Paths Size
————————————————————————————————————————————
0c2f7b54 2026-09-15 14:19:23 rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01 oldest daily snapshot /resilio-sync.data/USB-Stick 7.314 GiB
oldest weekly snapshot
oldest monthly snapshot
6ba46309 2026-09-15 19:25:59 rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01 daily snapshot /resilio-sync.data/USB-Stick 7.315 GiB
weekly snapshot
monthly snapshot
————————————————————————————————————————————
Timestamps shown in local time
2 snapshots

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~#

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~# restic -r /mnt/USB-Stick check
using temporary cache in /tmp/restic-check-cache-1548303136
create exclusive lock for repository
enter password for repository:
repository c13f3caf opened (version 2, compression level auto)
created new cache in /tmp/restic-check-cache-1548303136
load indexes
[0:06] 100.00% 16 / 16 index files loaded
check all packs
check snapshots, trees and blobs
[0:14] 100.00% 2 / 2 snapshots
no errors were found

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~#

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~# echo ‚<password>‘ > /root/.restic-pass && chmod 600 /root/.restic-pass

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~# export RESTIC_PASSWORD_FILE=/root/.restic-pass

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~#

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~# crontab -e
…
15 01 * * * ( export RESTIC_PASSWORD_FILE=/root/.restic-pass ; date >> /var/log/restic.log && restic -r /mnt/USB-Stick check && restic -r /mnt/USB-Stick forget –keep-daily 7 –keep-weekly 4 –keep-monthly 6 –prune && date >> /var/log/restic.log ; ) >> /var/log/restic.log 2>&1

05 * * * * ( export RESTIC_PASSWORD_FILE=/root/.restic-pass ; date >> /var/log/restic.log && restic -r /mnt/USB-Stick backup /resilio-sync.data/USB-Stick && date >> /var/log/restic.log ; ) >> /var/log/restic.log 2>&1

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~#

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~# tail -f restic.log
Thu 17 Sep 10:10:01 CEST 2026
using parent snapshot 20842c7c

Files: 0 new, 0 changed, 20785 unmodified
Dirs: 0 new, 0 changed, 707 unmodified
Added to the repository: 0 B (0 B stored)

processed 20785 files, 7.315 GiB in 0:45
snapshot 6a96b591 saved
Thu 17 Sep 10:10:47 CEST 2026

root@rpi-iot-jsho-rslsync-01:~#