The following sections list the changes in restic 0.8.1 relevant to restic users. The changes are ordered by importance.
- Fix #1457: Improve s3 backend with DigitalOcean Spaces
- Fix #1454: Correct cache dir location for Windows and Darwin
- Fix #1459: Disable handling SIGPIPE
- Chg #1452: Do not save atime by default
- Enh #1436: Add code to detect old cache directories
- Enh #1439: Improve cancellation logic
- Enh #11: Add the
diff
command
-
Bugfix #1457: Improve s3 backend with DigitalOcean Spaces
-
Bugfix #1454: Correct cache dir location for Windows and Darwin
The cache directory on Windows and Darwin was not correct, instead the directory
.cache
was used. -
Bugfix #1459: Disable handling SIGPIPE
We've disabled handling SIGPIPE again. Turns out, writing to broken TCP connections also raised SIGPIPE, so restic exits on the first write to a broken connection. Instead, restic should retry the request.
-
Change #1452: Do not save atime by default
By default, the access time for files and dirs is not saved any more. It is not possible to reliably disable updating the access time during a backup, so for the next backup the access time is different again. This means a lot of metadata is saved. If you want to save the access time anyway, pass
--with-atime
to thebackup
command. -
Enhancement #1436: Add code to detect old cache directories
We've added code to detect old cache directories of repositories that haven't been used in a long time, restic now prints a note when it detects that such dirs exist. Also, the option
--cleanup-cache
was added to automatically remove such directories. That's not a problem because the cache will be rebuild once a repo is accessed again. -
Enhancement #1439: Improve cancellation logic
The cancellation logic was improved, restic can now shut down cleanly when requested to do so (e.g. via ctrl+c).
-
Enhancement #11: Add the
diff
commandThe command
diff
was added, it allows comparing two snapshots and listing all differences.
The following sections list the changes in restic 0.8.0 relevant to restic users. The changes are ordered by importance.
- Sec #1445: Prevent writing outside the target directory during restore
- Fix #1256: Re-enable workaround for S3 backend
- Fix #1291: Reuse backend TCP connections to BackBlaze B2
- Fix #1317: Run prune when
forget --prune
is called with just snapshot IDs - Fix #1437: Remove implicit path
/restic
for the s3 backend - Enh #1102: Add subdirectory
ids
to fuse mount - Enh #1114: Add
--cacert
to specify TLS certificates to check against - Enh #1216: Add upload/download limiting
- Enh #1271: Cache results for excludes for
backup
- Enh #1274: Add
generate
command, replacesmanpage
andautocomplete
- Enh #1367: Allow comments in files read from via
--file-from
- Enh #448: Sftp backend prompts for password
- Enh #510: Add
dump
command - Enh #1040: Add local metadata cache
- Enh #1249: Add
latest
symlink in fuse mount - Enh #1269: Add
--compact
toforget
command - Enh #1281: Google Cloud Storage backend needs less permissions
- Enh #1319: Make
check
printno errors found
explicitly - Enh #1353: Retry failed backend requests
-
Security #1445: Prevent writing outside the target directory during restore
A vulnerability was found in the restic restorer, which allowed attackers in special circumstances to restore files to a location outside of the target directory. Due to the circumstances we estimate this to be a low-risk vulnerability, but urge all users to upgrade to the latest version of restic.
Exploiting the vulnerability requires a Linux/Unix system which saves backups via restic and a Windows systems which restores files from the repo. In addition, the attackers need to be able to create create files with arbitrary names which are then saved to the restic repo. For example, by creating a file named "..\test.txt" (which is a perfectly legal filename on Linux) and restoring a snapshot containing this file on Windows, it would be written to the parent of the target directory.
We'd like to thank Tyler Spivey for reporting this responsibly!
-
Bugfix #1256: Re-enable workaround for S3 backend
We've re-enabled a workaround for
minio-go
(the library we're using to access s3 backends), this reduces memory usage. -
Bugfix #1291: Reuse backend TCP connections to BackBlaze B2
A bug was discovered in the library we're using to access Backblaze, it now reuses already established TCP connections which should be a lot faster and not cause network failures any more.
-
Bugfix #1317: Run prune when
forget --prune
is called with just snapshot IDsA bug in the
forget
command causedprune
not to be run when--prune
was specified without a policy, e.g. when only snapshot IDs that should be forgotten are listed manually. -
Bugfix #1437: Remove implicit path
/restic
for the s3 backendThe s3 backend used the subdir
restic
within a bucket if no explicit path after the bucket name was specified. Since this version, restic does not use this default path any more. If you created a repo on s3 in a bucket without specifying a path within the bucket, you need to add/restic
at the end of the repository specification to access your repo:s3:s3.amazonaws.com/bucket/restic
-
Enhancement #1102: Add subdirectory
ids
to fuse mountThe fuse mount now has an
ids
subdirectory which contains the snapshots below their (short) IDs. -
Enhancement #1114: Add
--cacert
to specify TLS certificates to check againstWe've added the
--cacert
option which can be used to pass one (or more) CA certificates to restic. These are used in addition to the system CA certificates to verify HTTPS certificates (e.g. for the REST backend). -
Enhancement #1216: Add upload/download limiting
We've added support for rate limiting through
--limit-upload
and--limit-download
flags. -
Enhancement #1271: Cache results for excludes for
backup
The
backup
command now caches the result of excludes for a directory. -
Enhancement #1274: Add
generate
command, replacesmanpage
andautocomplete
The
generate
command has been added, which replaces the now removed commandsmanpage
andautocomplete
. This release of restic contains the most recent manpages indoc/man
and the auto-completion files for bash and zsh indoc/bash-completion.sh
anddoc/zsh-completion.zsh
-
Enhancement #1367: Allow comments in files read from via
--file-from
When the list of files/dirs to be saved is read from a file with
--files-from
, comment lines (starting with#
) are now ignored. -
Enhancement #448: Sftp backend prompts for password
The sftp backend now prompts for the password if a password is necessary for login.
-
Enhancement #510: Add
dump
commandWe've added the
dump
command which prints a file from a snapshot to stdout. This can e.g. be used to restore files read withbackup --stdin
. -
Enhancement #1040: Add local metadata cache
We've added a local cache for metadata so that restic doesn't need to load all metadata (snapshots, indexes, ...) from the repo each time it starts. By default the cache is active, but there's a new global option
--no-cache
that can be used to disable the cache. By deafult, the cache a standard cache folder for the OS, which can be overridden with--cache-dir
. The cache will automatically populate, indexes and snapshots are saved as they are loaded. Cache directories for repos that haven't been used recently can automatically be removed by restic with the--cleanup-cache
option.A related change was to by default create pack files in the repo that contain either data or metadata, not both mixed together. This allows easy caching of only the metadata files. The next run of
restic prune
will untangle mixed files automatically.restic#29 restic#738 restic#282 restic#1040 restic#1287 restic#1436 restic#1265
-
Enhancement #1249: Add
latest
symlink in fuse mountThe directory structure in the fuse mount now exposes a symlink
latest
which points to the latest snapshot in that particular directory. -
Enhancement #1269: Add
--compact
toforget
commandThe option
--compact
was added to theforget
command to provide the same compact view as thesnapshots
command. -
Enhancement #1281: Google Cloud Storage backend needs less permissions
The Google Cloud Storage backend no longer requires the service account to have the
storage.buckets.get
permission ("Storage Admin" role) inrestic init
if the bucket already exists. -
Enhancement #1319: Make
check
printno errors found
explicitlyThe
check
command now explicetly printsNo errors were found
when no errors could be found. -
Enhancement #1353: Retry failed backend requests
The following sections list the changes in restic 0.7.3 relevant to restic users. The changes are ordered by importance.
- Fix #1246: List all files stored in Google Cloud Storage
-
Bugfix #1246: List all files stored in Google Cloud Storage
For large backups stored in Google Cloud Storage, the
prune
command fails because listing only returns the first 1000 files. This has been corrected, no data is lost in the process. In addition, a plausibility check was added toprune
.
The following sections list the changes in restic 0.7.2 relevant to restic users. The changes are ordered by importance.
- Fix #1167: Do not create a local repo unless
init
is used - Fix #1164: Make the
key remove
command behave as documented - Fix #1191: Make sure to write profiling files on interrupt
- Enh #1132: Make
key
command always prompt for a password - Enh #1179: Resolve name conflicts, append a counter
- Enh #1218: Add
--compact
tosnapshots
command - Enh #317: Add
--exclude-caches
and--exclude-if-present
- Enh #697: Automatically generate man pages for all restic commands
- Enh #1044: Improve
restore
, do not traverse/load excluded directories - Enh #1061: Add Dockerfile and official Docker image
- Enh #1126: Use the standard Go git repository layout, use
dep
for vendoring - Enh #1134: Add support for storing backups on Google Cloud Storage
- Enh #1144: Properly report errors when reading files with exclude patterns.
- Enh #1149: Add support for storing backups on Microsoft Azure Blob Storage
- Enh #1196: Add
--group-by
toforget
command for flexible grouping - Enh #1203: Print stats on all BSD systems when SIGINFO (ctrl+t) is received
- Enh #1205: Allow specifying time/date for a backup with
--time
-
Bugfix #1167: Do not create a local repo unless
init
is usedWhen a restic command other than
init
is used with a local repository and the repository directory does not exist, restic creates the directory structure. That's an error, only theinit
command should create the dir. -
Bugfix #1164: Make the
key remove
command behave as documented -
Bugfix #1191: Make sure to write profiling files on interrupt
Since a few releases restic had the ability to write profiling files for memory and CPU usage when
debug
is enabled. It was discovered that when restic is interrupted (ctrl+c is pressed), the proper shutdown hook is not run. This is now corrected. -
Enhancement #1132: Make
key
command always prompt for a passwordThe
key
command now prompts for a password even if the original password to access a repo has been specified via theRESTIC_PASSWORD
environment variable or a password file. -
Enhancement #1179: Resolve name conflicts, append a counter
-
Enhancement #1218: Add
--compact
tosnapshots
commandThe option
--compact
was added to thesnapshots
command to get a better overview of the snapshots in a repo. It limits each snapshot to a single line. -
Enhancement #317: Add
--exclude-caches
and--exclude-if-present
A new option
--exclude-caches
was added that allows excluding cache directories (that are tagged as such). This is a special case of a more generic option--exclude-if-present
which excludes a directory if a file with a specific name (and contents) is present. -
Enhancement #697: Automatically generate man pages for all restic commands
-
Enhancement #1044: Improve
restore
, do not traverse/load excluded directories -
Enhancement #1061: Add Dockerfile and official Docker image
-
Enhancement #1126: Use the standard Go git repository layout, use
dep
for vendoringThe git repository layout was changed to resemble the layout typically used in Go projects, we're not using
gb
for building restic any more and vendoring the dependencies is now taken care of bydep
. -
Enhancement #1134: Add support for storing backups on Google Cloud Storage
-
Enhancement #1144: Properly report errors when reading files with exclude patterns.
-
Enhancement #1149: Add support for storing backups on Microsoft Azure Blob Storage
The library we're using to access the service requires Go 1.8, so restic now needs at least Go 1.8.
-
Enhancement #1196: Add
--group-by
toforget
command for flexible grouping -
Enhancement #1203: Print stats on all BSD systems when SIGINFO (ctrl+t) is received
-
Enhancement #1205: Allow specifying time/date for a backup with
--time
The following sections list the changes in restic 0.7.1 relevant to restic users. The changes are ordered by importance.
- Fix #1115: Fix
prune
, only include existing files in indexes - Enh #1055: Create subdirs below
data/
for local/sftp backends - Enh #1067: Allow loading credentials for s3 from IAM
- Enh #1073: Add
migrate
cmd to migrate froms3legacy
todefault
layout - Enh #1081: Clarify semantic for
--tasg
for theforget
command - Enh #1080: Ignore chmod() errors on filesystems which do not support it
- Enh #1082: Print stats on SIGINFO on Darwin and FreeBSD (ctrl+t)
-
Bugfix #1115: Fix
prune
, only include existing files in indexesA bug was found (and corrected) in the index rebuilding after prune, which led to indexes which include blobs that were not present in the repo any more. There were already checks in place which detected this situation and aborted with an error message. A new run of either
prune
orrebuild-index
corrected the index files. This is now fixed and a test has been added to detect this. -
Enhancement #1055: Create subdirs below
data/
for local/sftp backendsThe local and sftp backends now create the subdirs below
data/
on open/init. This way, restic makes sure that they always exist. This is connected to an issue for the sftp server:restic#1055 restic#1077 restic#1105 restic/rest-server#11 (comment)
-
Enhancement #1067: Allow loading credentials for s3 from IAM
When no S3 credentials are specified in the environment variables, restic now tries to load credentials from an IAM instance profile when the s3 backend is used.
-
Enhancement #1073: Add
migrate
cmd to migrate froms3legacy
todefault
layoutThe
migrate
command for chaning thes3legacy
layout to thedefault
layout for s3 backends has been improved: It can now be restarted withrestic migrate --force s3_layout
and automatically retries operations on error. -
Enhancement #1081: Clarify semantic for
--tasg
for theforget
command -
Enhancement #1080: Ignore chmod() errors on filesystems which do not support it
-
Enhancement #1082: Print stats on SIGINFO on Darwin and FreeBSD (ctrl+t)
The following sections list the changes in restic 0.7.0 relevant to restic users. The changes are ordered by importance.
- Fix #1013: Switch back to using the high-level minio-go API for s3
- Fix #965: Switch to
default
repo layout for the s3 backend - Enh #1021: Detect invalid backend name and print error
- Enh #1029: Remove invalid pack files when
prune
is run - Enh #512: Add Backblaze B2 backend
- Enh #636: Add dirs
tags
andhosts
to fuse mount - Enh #989: Improve performance of the
find
command - Enh #975: Add new backend for OpenStack Swift
- Enh #998: Improve performance of the fuse mount
-
Bugfix #1013: Switch back to using the high-level minio-go API for s3
For the s3 backend we're back to using the high-level API the s3 client library for uploading data, a few users reported dropped connections (which the library will automatically retry now).
-
Bugfix #965: Switch to
default
repo layout for the s3 backendThe default layout for the s3 backend is now
default
(instead ofs3legacy
). Also, there's a newmigrate
command to convert an existing repo, it can be run like this:restic migrate s3_layout
-
Enhancement #1021: Detect invalid backend name and print error
Restic now tries to detect when an invalid/unknown backend is used and returns an error message.
-
Enhancement #1029: Remove invalid pack files when
prune
is runThe
prune
command has been improved and will now remove invalid pack files, for example files that have not been uploaded completely because a backup was interrupted. -
Enhancement #512: Add Backblaze B2 backend
-
Enhancement #636: Add dirs
tags
andhosts
to fuse mountThe fuse mount now has two more directories:
tags
contains a subdir for each tag, which in turn contains only the snapshots that have this tag. The subdirhosts
contains a subdir for each host that has a snapshot, and the subdir contains the snapshots for that host. -
Enhancement #989: Improve performance of the
find
commandImproved performance for the
find
command: Restic recognizes paths it has already checked for the files in question, so the number of backend requests is reduced a lot. -
Enhancement #975: Add new backend for OpenStack Swift
-
Enhancement #998: Improve performance of the fuse mount
Listing directories which contain large files now is significantly faster.
The following sections list the changes in restic 0.6.1 relevant to restic users. The changes are ordered by importance.
- Enh #985: Allow multiple parallel idle HTTP connections
- Enh #981: Remove temporary path from binary in
build.go
- Enh #974: Remove regular status reports
-
Enhancement #985: Allow multiple parallel idle HTTP connections
Backends based on HTTP now allow several idle connections in parallel. This is especially important for the REST backend, which (when used with a local server) may create a lot connections and exhaust available ports quickly.
-
Enhancement #981: Remove temporary path from binary in
build.go
The
build.go
now strips the temporary directory used for compilation from the binary. This is the first step in enabling reproducible builds. -
Enhancement #974: Remove regular status reports
Regular status report: We've removed the status report that was printed every 10 seconds when restic is run non-interactively. You can still force reporting the current status by sending a
USR1
signal to the process.
The following sections list the changes in restic 0.6.0 relevant to restic users. The changes are ordered by importance.
- Enh #957: Make
forget
consistent - Enh #966: Unify repository layout for all backends
- Enh #962: Improve memory and runtime for the s3 backend
-
Enhancement #957: Make
forget
consistentThe
forget
command was corrected to be more consistent in which snapshots are to be forgotten. It is possible that the new code removes more snapshots than before, so please review what would be deleted by using the--dry-run
option. -
Enhancement #966: Unify repository layout for all backends
Up to now the s3 backend used a special repository layout. We've decided to unify the repository layout and implemented the default layout also for the s3 backend. For creating a new repository on s3 with the default layout, use
restic -o s3.layout=default init
. For further commands the option is not necessary any more, restic will automatically detect the correct layout to use. A future version will switch to the default layout for new repositories. -
Enhancement #962: Improve memory and runtime for the s3 backend
We've updated the library used for accessing s3, switched to using a lower level API and added caching for some requests. This lead to a decrease in memory usage and a great speedup. In addition, we added benchmark functions for all backends, so we can track improvements over time. The Continuous Integration test service we're using (Travis) now runs the s3 backend tests not only against a Minio server, but also against the Amazon s3 live service, so we should be notified of any regressions much sooner.