Automated restic backups, to Backblaze B2, from my Mac and Pop_OS PC.
Install restic 0.9.2 or higher: (0.9.2 supports non-master Backblaze keys.)
brew install restic
restic version
Check out this repo somewhere (eg: /Users/zarinozappia/backups) and then go into the mbp directory:
cd /Users/zarinozappia
git clone https://github.com/zarino/backups.git
cd backups/mbp
Copy example-env.conf and fill in the required variables:
cp example-env.conf env.conf
nano env.conf
Since the backup script doesn’t have access to your default shell environment, it won’t know where to find the restic command. This is why the env.conf file contains a RESTIC_BINARY setting. You’ll want to set this to the output of which restic in your default shell.
Run the init script to create the remote restic repository:
script/init
(If this works, you’ll see a message like created restic repository [blah] at [blah]. If it fails with Fatal: create repository at [blah] failed: config already exists don’t panic – that just means the remote repository has already been created, you’ll all set!)
Compile the launchd launch agent and backup-wrapper binary, using make:
make
Grant Full Disk Access permissions to the bin/backup-wrapper binary, via System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access.
Install and load the compiled launch agent:
make install-launch-agent
Your first backup will begin immediately (and will take a very, very long time).
cd <whatever>/backups/mbp
git pull
make
make install-launch-agent
If the bin/backup-wrapper binary has been updated, you will need to re-grant it Full Disk Access permissions, via System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Full Disk Access.
The launch agent directs script output and errors to files in ~/Library/Logs/uk.co.zarino.backups/. A copy of all script output is also saved into a new file per day, in the mbp/logs directory.
The process ID of current backups/maintenances, and the timestamp after which the next backup/maintenance will be performed, are stored in the mbp/cache directory. Removing the timestamp files from this directory will force a backup/maintenance to run the next time the launch agent runs.
You can see when a backup/maintenance will next happen with the script/next shortcut:
mbp/script/next
You can see information about the launch agent with the hilariously user-unfriendly command:
launchctl print gui/$(id -u)/uk.co.zarino.backups
To check the state of the restic repo, use the restic wrapper script, eg:
mbp/script/restic snapshots
mbp/script/restic stats
Backup and maintenance runs at most every 300 seconds, as long as the computer is connected to a power source.
If you want to run it manually, you can:
launchctl kickstart gui/$(id -u)/uk.co.zarino.backups
Install restic 0.9.2 or higher: (0.9.2 supports non-master Backblaze keys.)
sudo apt-get install restic
restic version
Check out this repo at /home/zarino/backups:
cd /home/zarino
git clone https://github.com/zarino/backups.git
cd backups
Copy pop/example-env.conf and fill in the required variables:
cp pop/example-env.conf pop/env.conf
nano pop/env.conf
If the remote restic repo at $RESTIC_REPOSITORY hasn’t been created yet, you can run the init script to create it: (This command will fail if the repo has already been initialised, which is fine.)
pop/script/init
Install the systemd units and timers:
mkdir -p /home/zarino/.config/systemd/user
ln -s {/home/zarino/backups/pop/systemd,/home/zarino/.config/systemd/user}/restic-backup.service
ln -s {/home/zarino/backups/pop/systemd,/home/zarino/.config/systemd/user}/restic-backup.timer
ln -s {/home/zarino/backups/pop/systemd,/home/zarino/.config/systemd/user}/restic-maintain.service
ln -s {/home/zarino/backups/pop/systemd,/home/zarino/.config/systemd/user}/restic-maintain.timer
Enable the systemd timers:
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable restic-backup.timer restic-maintain.timer
And test out the systemd timers by starting them off, and watching the status:
systemctl --user start restic-backup.timer restic-maintain.timer
watch -n 1 systemctl --user list-timers --all
cd /home/zarino/backups
git pull
systemctl --user daemon-reload
To check the status of the systemd timers:
systemctl --user list-timers --all
To check the status of a systemd unit:
systemctl --user status restic-backup
systemctl --user status restic-maintain
To read the log for a systemd unit:
journalctl --user -u restic-backup.service -f
journalctl --user -u restic-maintain.service -f
To check the state of the restic repo:
pop/script/restic snapshots
Assuming you have suitable env.conf files in place, you can use both the mbp/script/restic and pop/script/restic command wrappers to access either of the remote repositories, from any device.
To view snapshots:
pop/script/restic snapshots
To restore an entire directory tree (or indeed, multiple directories) into place, you can use restore. For example, this command restores the latest version of two directories into which Cities Skylines content is saved:
pop/script/restic restore latest --target / --include '/home/zarino/.local/share/Colossal Order' --include '/home/zarino/.local/share/Paradox Interactive'
To pluck a single file or directory (as a .tar) from the backup, you can use dump. For example, this command, run from my Mac, pulled the latest copy of my Pop_OS PC’s bash history, into a text file on my Desktop:
pop/script/restic dump latest '/home/zarino/.bash_history' > ~/Desktop/bash_history.txt
If a restic command ever fails with an exception like:
unable to create lock in backend: repository is already locked by PID…
And you’re sure there are no restic processes running, then you can clear the orphaned lock file with:
script/restic unlock