Restic: Lightweight, Secure, and Script-Friendly Backups That Don’t Get in Your Way
What Is It?
Restic is a CLI-based backup tool designed for people who know their way around a terminal and don’t want to babysit backups. It’s small, fast, cross-platform, and — most importantly — built around encryption, deduplication, and simplicity. No central server needed. You run it where you need it, back up what matters, and push it wherever: local disk, SFTP, Wasabi, Backblaze, a mounted drive — anything that talks.
What makes Restic useful isn’t what it includes, but what it doesn’t. No web interface, no agent, no bloat. It just backs stuff up — encrypted, deduplicated, and versioned — and gets out of your way.
Capabilities
| Feature | Description |
| End-to-End Encryption | Everything is encrypted client-side using AES-256 before transmission |
| Content-Aware Deduping | Detects duplicates across files and backups to save storage |
| Cross-Platform Binary | Single executable for Linux, Windows, macOS, FreeBSD |
| Flexible Storage Backends | Supports local, SFTP, REST, AWS S3, Backblaze, Wasabi, and more |
| Snapshot Support | Creates point-in-time views of file trees — browsable and restorable |
| No Daemons | Doesn’t need background services or system-level components |
| Fast Verification | Checks integrity of entire repo via hashes without re-reading all data |
Deployment Notes
– Portable binary: Just drop it somewhere in your $PATH — no install wizard.
– Runs anywhere: Windows Task Scheduler, cron, systemd, whatever works for you.
– No database: Repositories are self-describing — no extra metadata store.
– Fast to set up: init, backup, snapshots, restore. Done.
– No UI out of the box: If you want one, check third-party wrappers (like Resticprofile or Vorta).
Installation Guide
1. Download the Binary
– From https://restic.net or GitHub releases for your OS.
2. Initialize Repository
restic init –repo /mnt/backup –password-file pw.txt
3. Run a Backup
restic -r /mnt/backup backup ~/Documents
4. List Snapshots
restic -r /mnt/backup snapshots
5. Restore Data
restic -r /mnt/backup restore latest –target ~/restored
6. Set Up Scheduling
– Use cron, Task Scheduler, or systemd timer — your call.
Usage Scenarios
– Daily workstation backups pushed to a mounted NAS or SFTP server.
– Lightweight backup solution for remote endpoints without installing software.
– Secure offsite backups to cloud object storage like S3 or Backblaze B2.
– Developers backing up source trees and config directories with version history.
– Air-gapped backups between portable drives — with encryption by default.