This is a really interesting backup application to use, it kinda reminds me of git the version controlling tool. I mean restic is not gonna “version control” but it uses the same technology in a way that enables us to backup things without duplication. I’m using restic to backup the files in a sftp server. So this post is gonna cover the sftp aspects.
However, I’m using a mobile phone as an ftp server, and I’m going to be using a weird directory name.
Let’s Initialize the Repository in the sftp server.
Note: Make sure to establish a connection between the
sftpserver and your device.
Let’s establish a connection your mobile FTP server by noting down the IP address & it’s port address. Go to your “Network” folder in file explorer in your Operating System and enter the same address to establish a connection.
After making a successful connection, ssh into the FTP server directory or just “Open a Console” under the directory to get access into server without explicitly mentioning ssh. Use pwd to display the storage address and note it down, because it will be used for specifying the init location of backup.
restic init --repo "/run/user/1000/gvfs/ftp:host=192.168.31.177,port=2221/Server
If the backup is being performed in an actual sftp server, then replace the --repo <address> with sftp:user@host:<directory-location>
How to Backup & Display the Snapshots
All the backups will be stored in snapshots, hence everytime the backup is initiated, it compares the existing file to prevent duplication and only backups the modified or newly created files.
restic -r "/run/user/1000/gvfs/ftp:host=192.168.31.177,port=2221/Server" backup --verbose ~/Documents/ ~/Pictures
To Display the Snapshots
restic -r "/run/user/1000/gvfs/ftp:host=192.168.31.177,port=2221/Server" snapshots
This will display the available snapshots.
restic -r "/run/user/1000/gvfs/ftp:host=192.168.31.177,port=2221/Server" snapshots
enter password for repository:
repository 45b26599 opened (version 2, compression level auto)
ID Time Host Tags Paths Size
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7b6bb481 2025-04-16 23:42:27 fedora /home/iamyaash/.ssh 48.436 KiB
c18b4633 2025-04-16 23:42:50 fedora /home/iamyaash/.gnupg 67.951 KiB
a925118b 2025-04-16 23:53:43 fedora /home/iamyaash/.task 704.182 KiB
/home/iamyaash/.taskrc
980cd67a 2025-04-17 00:06:29 fedora /home/iamyaash/Documents 204.987 MiB
85d5bb7c 2025-04-17 00:12:08 fedora /home/iamyaash/Pictures 127.424 MiB
3452ec11 2025-04-18 19:09:18 fedora /home/iamyaash/Downloads 198.870 MiB
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 snapshots
How to Restory the Backups
Restoring the backup or snapshots is really as easy as it sounds, just use the following the commands to restore the contents of the latest snapshot
restic -r "/run/user/1000/gvfs/ftp:host=192.168.31.177,port=2221/Server" restore a925118b --target /home/iamyaash
restic -r "/run/user/1000/gvfs/ftp:host=192.168.31.177,port=2221/Server" restore latest a925118b --target /home/iamyaash
restore latestwill restore the latest backup of the selected snapshot.
Let’s Cover the Other Features
--dry-run:
Will let you perform backup to see what would happend without actually making backups or modifying the repository.
restic -r "/run/user/1000/gvfs/ftp:host=192.168.31.177,port=2221/Server" --dry-run --verbose | grep added
diff: To compare two existing snapshots in the repository.
restic -r "/run/user/1000/gvfs/ftp:host=192.168.31.177,port=2221/Server" diff 980cd67a 85d5bb7c
mount: This is an interesting method where we’ll mount the snapshot directory instead of extracting the backup.
mkdir /mnt/restic #if the directory doesn't exist
restic -r "/run/user/1000/gvfs/ftp:host=192.168.31.177,port=2221/Server" mount /mnt/restic