.. Normally, there are no heading levels assigned to certain characters as the structure is determined from the succession of headings. However, this convention is used in Python’s Style Guide for documenting which you may follow: # with overline, for parts * for chapters = for sections - for subsections ^ for subsubsections " for paragraphs ######################### Working with repositories ######################### Listing all snapshots ===================== Now, you can list all the snapshots stored in the repository: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo snapshots enter password for repository: ID Date Host Tags Directory ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 40dc1520 2015-05-08 21:38:30 kasimir /home/user/work 79766175 2015-05-08 21:40:19 kasimir /home/user/work bdbd3439 2015-05-08 21:45:17 luigi /home/art 590c8fc8 2015-05-08 21:47:38 kazik /srv 9f0bc19e 2015-05-08 21:46:11 luigi /srv You can filter the listing by directory path: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo snapshots --path="/srv" enter password for repository: ID Date Host Tags Directory ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 590c8fc8 2015-05-08 21:47:38 kazik /srv 9f0bc19e 2015-05-08 21:46:11 luigi /srv Or filter by host: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo snapshots --host luigi enter password for repository: ID Date Host Tags Directory ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bdbd3439 2015-05-08 21:45:17 luigi /home/art 9f0bc19e 2015-05-08 21:46:11 luigi /srv Combining filters is also possible. Furthermore you can group the output by the same filters (host, paths, tags): .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo snapshots --group-by host enter password for repository: snapshots for (host [kasimir]) ID Date Host Tags Directory ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 40dc1520 2015-05-08 21:38:30 kasimir /home/user/work 79766175 2015-05-08 21:40:19 kasimir /home/user/work 2 snapshots snapshots for (host [luigi]) ID Date Host Tags Directory ---------------------------------------------------------------------- bdbd3439 2015-05-08 21:45:17 luigi /home/art 9f0bc19e 2015-05-08 21:46:11 luigi /srv 2 snapshots snapshots for (host [kazik]) ID Date Host Tags Directory ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 590c8fc8 2015-05-08 21:47:38 kazik /srv 1 snapshots Copying snapshots between repositories ====================================== In case you want to transfer snapshots between two repositories, for example from a local to a remote repository, you can use the ``copy`` command: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo copy --repo2 /srv/restic-repo-copy repository d6504c63 opened successfully, password is correct repository 3dd0878c opened successfully, password is correct snapshot 410b18a2 of [/home/user/work] at 2020-06-09 23:15:57.305305 +0200 CEST) copy started, this may take a while... snapshot 7a746a07 saved snapshot 4e5d5487 of [/home/user/work] at 2020-05-01 22:44:07.012113 +0200 CEST) skipping snapshot 4e5d5487, was already copied to snapshot 50eb62b7 The example command copies all snapshots from the source repository ``/srv/restic-repo`` to the destination repository ``/srv/restic-repo-copy``. Snapshots which have previously been copied between repositories will be skipped by later copy runs. .. important:: This process will have to both download (read) and upload (write) the entire snapshot(s) due to the different encryption keys used in the source and destination repository. This *may incur higher bandwidth usage and costs* than expected during normal backup runs. .. important:: The copying process does not re-chunk files, which may break deduplication between the files copied and files already stored in the destination repository. This means that copied files, which existed in both the source and destination repository, *may occupy up to twice their space* in the destination repository. See below for how to avoid this. The destination repository is specified with ``--repo2`` or can be read from a file specified via ``--repository-file2``. Both of these options can also set as environment variables ``$RESTIC_REPOSITORY2`` or ``$RESTIC_REPOSITORY_FILE2`` respectively. For the destination repository the password can be read from a file ``--password-file2`` or from a command ``--password-command2``. Alternatively the environment variables ``$RESTIC_PASSWORD_COMMAND2`` and ``$RESTIC_PASSWORD_FILE2`` can be used. It is also possible to directly pass the password via ``$RESTIC_PASSWORD2``. The key which should be used for decryption can be selected by passing its ID via the flag ``--key-hint2`` or the environment variable ``$RESTIC_KEY_HINT2``. .. note:: In case the source and destination repository use the same backend, the configuration options and environment variables used to configure the backend may apply to both repositories – for example it might not be possible to specify different accounts for the source and destination repository. You can avoid this limitation by using the rclone backend along with remotes which are configured in rclone. Filtering snapshots to copy --------------------------- The list of snapshots to copy can be filtered by host, path in the backup and / or a comma-separated tag list: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo copy --repo2 /srv/restic-repo-copy --host luigi --path /srv --tag foo,bar It is also possible to explicitly specify the list of snapshots to copy, in which case only these instead of all snapshots will be copied: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo copy --repo2 /srv/restic-repo-copy 410b18a2 4e5d5487 latest Ensuring deduplication for copied snapshots ------------------------------------------- Even though the copy command can transfer snapshots between arbitrary repositories, deduplication between snapshots from the source and destination repository may not work. To ensure proper deduplication, both repositories have to use the same parameters for splitting large files into smaller chunks, which requires additional setup steps. With the same parameters restic will for both repositories split identical files into identical chunks and therefore deduplication also works for snapshots copied between these repositories. The chunker parameters are generated once when creating a new (destination) repository. That is for a copy destination repository we have to instruct restic to initialize it using the same chunker parameters as the source repository: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo-copy init --repo2 /srv/restic-repo --copy-chunker-params Note that it is not possible to change the chunker parameters of an existing repository. Checking 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 the files in your repository with the intention to make you restore malicious data: .. code-block:: console $ echo "boom" > /srv/restic-repo/index/de30f3231ca2e6a59af4aa84216dfe2ef7339c549dc11b09b84000997b139628 Trying to restore a snapshot which has been modified as shown above will yield an error: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo --no-cache restore c23e491f --target /tmp/restore-work ... Fatal: unable to load index de30f323: load : invalid data returned In order to detect these things before they become a problem, it's a good idea to regularly use the ``check`` command to test whether your repository is healthy and consistent, and that your precious backup data is unharmed. There are two types of checks that can be performed: - Structural consistency and integrity, e.g. snapshots, trees and pack files (default) - Integrity of the actual data that you backed up (enabled with flags, see below) To verify the structure of the repository, issue the ``check`` command. If the repository is damaged like in the example above, ``check`` will detect this and yield the same error as when you tried to restore: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo check ... load indexes error: error loading index de30f323: load : invalid data returned Fatal: LoadIndex returned errors If the repository structure is intact, restic will show that no errors were found: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /src/restic-repo check ... load indexes check all packs check snapshots, trees and blobs no errors were found By default, the ``check`` command does not verify that the actual pack files on disk in the repository are unmodified, because doing so requires reading a copy of every pack file in the repository. To tell restic to also verify the integrity of the pack files in the repository, use the ``--read-data`` flag: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo check --read-data ... load indexes check all packs check snapshots, trees and blobs read all data [0:00] 100.00% 3 / 3 items duration: 0:00 no errors were found .. note:: Since ``--read-data`` has to download all pack files in the repository, beware that it might incur higher bandwidth costs than usual and also that it takes more time than the default ``check``. Alternatively, use the ``--read-data-subset`` parameter to check only a subset of the repository pack files at a time. It supports two ways to select a subset. One selects a specific range of pack files, the other selects a random percentage of pack files. Use ``--read-data-subset=n/t`` to check only a subset of the repository pack files at a time. The parameter takes two values, ``n`` and ``t``. When the check command runs, all pack files in the repository are logically divided in ``t`` (roughly equal) groups, and only files that belong to group number ``n`` are checked. For example, the following commands check all repository pack files over 5 separate invocations: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo check --read-data-subset=1/5 $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo check --read-data-subset=2/5 $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo check --read-data-subset=3/5 $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo check --read-data-subset=4/5 $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo check --read-data-subset=5/5 Use ``--read-data-subset=n%`` to check a randomly choosen subset of the repository pack files. It takes one parameter, ``n``, the percentage of pack files to check as an integer or floating point number. This will not guarantee to cover all available pack files after sufficient runs, but it is easy to automate checking a small subset of data after each backup. For a floating point value the following command may be used: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo check --read-data-subset=2.5% When checking bigger subsets you most likely specify the percentage as an integer: .. code-block:: console $ restic -r /srv/restic-repo check --read-data-subset=10%