Install restic on Ubuntu 24.04

The restic is a fast, secure, and efficient backup tool via command line designed to back up files and directories. It supports multiple storage backends, including local storage, SFTP, Amazon S3, and other cloud services. The restic is known for its simplicity, encryption by default, and data deduplication features. This tutorial shows how to install restic on Ubuntu 24.04.

Prepare environment

To extract bz2 archive, ensure the bzip2 tool is installed:

sudo apt update

sudo apt install -y bzip2

Install restic

Obtain the most recent restic version from its GitHub repository:

RESTIC_VERSION=$(curl -s "https://api.github.com/repos/restic/restic/releases/latest" | grep -Po '"tag_name": "v\K[0-9.]+')

Download restic archive:

sudo wget -qO /usr/local/bin/restic.bz2 https://github.com/restic/restic/releases/latest/download/restic_${RESTIC_VERSION}_linux_amd64.bz2

Use the following command to extract the binary file from the archive:

sudo bzip2 -d /usr/local/bin/restic.bz2

Set execute permission:

sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/restic

We can verify restic version as follows:

restic version

Testing restic

After installing restic, begin by creating a repository for your backups:

restic init --repo /tmp/backup

Output example:

enter password for new repository:
enter password again:
created restic repository 3414a7b441 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.

Create directory and file for testing:

mkdir ~/myproject

touch ~/myproject/test.txt

To back up the specified directory, run this command:

restic --repo /tmp/backup backup ~/myproject

Output example:

enter password for repository:
repository 3414a7b4 opened (version 2, compression level auto)
created new cache in /home/adminer/.cache/restic
no parent snapshot found, will read all files


Files:           1 new,     0 changed,     0 unmodified
Dirs:            1 new,     0 changed,     0 unmodified
Added to the repository: 658 B (548 B stored)

processed 1 files, 0 B in 0:00
snapshot 31abb0ba saved

Remove directory to test recovery:

rm -rf myproject

View all snapshots saved in the repository:

restic --repo /tmp/backup snapshots

Output example:

enter password for repository:
repository 3414a7b4 opened (version 2, compression level auto)
ID        Time                 Host        Tags        Paths
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
31abb0ba  2024-07-06 04:09:01  ubuntu                  /home/adminer/myproject
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 snapshots

Use this command to restore the backup from the snapshot:

restic --repo /tmp/backup restore 31abb0ba --target ~/

Output example:

enter password for repository:
repository 3414a7b4 opened (version 2, compression level auto)

restoring <Snapshot 31abb0ba of [/home/adminer/myproject] at 2024-07-06 04:09:01.890585611 +0000 UTC by adminer@ubuntu> to /home/adminer/
Summary: Restored 2 files/dirs (0 B) in 0:00

Uninstall restic

If restic is no longer needed, remove related file:

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/restic

Remove cache:

rm -rf ~/.cache/restic