Prestic

Prestic is a profile manager and task scheduler for restic. It works on all operating systems supported by restic but GUI and keyring functionality may vary by platform.

Installation

Python 3.6+ and pip are required. Then:

• pip install https://github.com/ducalex/prestic/tarball/master#egg=prestic

Note: On Ubuntu you need to add ~/.local/bin to your path if needed and run sudo apt install gir1.2-appindicator3-0.1 for the gui to work.

Note: If you prefer you can also directly download prestic.py and put it somewhere in your PATH (it is standalone).

Start Prestic on login

• Windows: Put a link to prestic-gui.exe in your Startup folder (run where prestic-gui to locate it if needed)
• Linux: Add command prestic --gui to your startup applications

Usage

• Run profile-defined default command: prestic -p profilename
• Run any restic command on profile: prestic -p profilename snapshots
• Start gui and scheduler: prestic --gui
• Start scheduler only: prestic --service

Keyring

The keyring allows you to let your operating system store repository passwords encrypted in your user profile. This is the best password method if it is available to you.

To use, add password-keyring = <name> to your prestic profile, where <name> can be anything you want to identify that password. Then to set a password run the following command: prestic --keyring set <name>.

Configuration file

Configuration is stored in $HOME/.prestic/config.ini. The file consists of profile blocks. You can use a single block or split in multiple blocks through inheritance. For example one profile could contain the repository configuration and then another one inherits from it and adds the backup command.

Lists can span multiple lines, as long as they are indented deeper than the first line of the value.

# default is the profile used when no -p is given (it is optional)
[default]
inherit = my-profile # A single inherit can be used as an alias

[my-profile]
# (string) human-redable description:
description =
# (list) inherit options from other profiles
inherit =
# (string) Run this profile periodically (will do nothing if command not set)
# Format is: `daily at 23:59` or `monthly at 23:59` or `mon,tue,wed at 23:59`. Hourly is also possible: `daily at *:30`
schedule =
# (bool) controls non-essential notifications (errors are always shown)
notifications = on
# (string) sets cpu priority (idle, low, normal, high)
cpu-priority =
# (string) sets disk io priority (idle, low, normal, high)
io-priority =
# (int) Time to wait and retry if the repository is locked (seconds)
wait-for-lock =

# (string) repository uri
repository = sftp:user@domain:folder
# (string) repository password (plain text)
password =
# (string) repository password (retrieve from file)
password-file =
# (string) repository password (retrieve from command)
password-command =
# (string) repository password (retrieve from OS keyring/locker)
password-keyring =
# (int) limits downloads to a maximum rate in KiB/s
limit-download =
# (int) limits uploads to a maximum rate in KiB/s
limit-upload =
# (string) path to restic executable (you may add global flags too)
executable = restic
# (string|list) default restic command to execute (if none provided):
command =
# (list) restic arguments for default command
args =
# (int) be verbose (specify level 0-3)
verbose =
# (regex) ignore lines matching this expression when writing log files
log-filter = ^unchanged\s/
# (string) set the cache directory
cache-dir =

# (string) environment variables can be set:
env.AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = VALUE
env.AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = VALUE

# (string) other flags can be set:
flag.json = true
flag.new-restic-flag = value

Simple configuration example

[my-repo]
description = USB Storage
repository = /media/backup
password-keyring = my-repo

[my-backup]
description = Backup to USB Storage
inherit = my-repo
schedule = daily at 12:00
command = backup
args =
    /home/user/folder1
    /home/user/folder2
    --iexclude="*.lock"

# Where the my-backup profile will run daily at 12:00
# You can also issue manual commands:
# prestic -p my-backup
# prestic -p my-repo list snapshots
# prestic -p my-backup list snapshots # this overrides my-backup's command/args but not global-flags