restic 0.16.1 has been released! It contains a few usage and cosmetic improvements, but also one bugfix for a very unlikely but still possible data corruption issue when using the max compression level. Please read the changelog for more details and information on how to verify your repository if you used max compression. Please also note that the auto compression level (which is the default) was never affected.

restic is distributed as a standalone binary: download the correct file for your operating system and architecture, extract the file and just run it. If you run into any issues, please report them at the GitHub issue tracker or visit the forum. If you already have restic >= 0.9.4, you can use restic self-update to get the latest version in a secure way.

The binaries released with each restic version are reproducible, which means that you can reproduce a byte identical version from the source code for that release. Instructions on how to do that in the Developer Documentation.

Changelog for restic 0.16.1 (2023-10-24)

The following sections list the changes in restic 0.16.1 relevant to restic users. The changes are ordered by importance.

Summary

• Fix #4513: Make key list command honor --no-lock
• Fix #4516: Do not try to load password on command line autocomplete
• Fix #4523: Update zstd library to fix possible data corruption at max. compression
• Chg #4532: Update dependencies and require Go 1.19 or newer
• Enh #229: Show progress bar while loading the index
• Enh #4128: Automatically set GOMAXPROCS in resource-constrained containers
• Enh #4480: Allow setting REST password and username via environment variables
• Enh #4511: Include inode numbers in JSON output for find and ls commands
• Enh #4519: Add config option to set SFTP command arguments

Details

• Bugfix #4513: Make key list command honor --no-lock

  The key list command now supports the --no-lock options. This allows determining which keys a repo can be accessed by without the need for having write access (e.g., read-only sftp access, filesystem snapshot).

  #4513 #4514

• Bugfix #4516: Do not try to load password on command line autocomplete

  The command line autocompletion previously tried to load the repository password. This could cause the autocompletion not to work. Now, this step gets skipped.

  #4516 #4526

• Bugfix #4523: Update zstd library to fix possible data corruption at max. compression

  In restic 0.16.0, backups where the compression level was set to max (using --compression max) could in rare and very specific circumstances result in data corruption due to a bug in the library used for compressing data.

  Restic now uses the latest version of the library used to compress data, which includes a fix for this issue. Please note that the auto compression level (which restic uses by default) was never affected, and even if you used max compression, chances of being affected by this issue were very small.

  To check a repository for any corruption, run restic check --read-data. This will download and verify the whole repository and can be used at any time to completely verify the integrity of a repository. If the check command detects anomalies, follow the suggested steps.

  To simplify any needed repository repair and minimize data loss, there is also a new and experimental repair packs command that salvages all valid data from the affected pack files (see restic help repair packs for more information).

  #4523 #4530

• Change #4532: Update dependencies and require Go 1.19 or newer

  We have updated all dependencies. Since some libraries require newer Go standard library features, support for Go 1.18 has been dropped, which means that restic now requires at least Go 1.19 to build.

  #4532 #4533

• Enhancement #229: Show progress bar while loading the index

  Restic did not provide any feedback while loading index files. Now, there is a progress bar that shows the index loading progress.

  #229 #4419

• Enhancement #4128: Automatically set GOMAXPROCS in resource-constrained containers

  When running restic in a Linux container with CPU-usage limits, restic now automatically adjusts GOMAXPROCS. This helps to reduce the memory consumption on hosts with many CPU cores.

  #4128 #4485 #4531

• Enhancement #4480: Allow setting REST password and username via environment variables

  Previously, it was only possible to specify the REST-server username and password in the repository URL, or by using the --repository-file option. This meant it was not possible to use authentication in contexts where the repository URL is stored in publicly accessible way.

  Restic now allows setting the username and password using the RESTIC_REST_USERNAME and RESTIC_REST_PASSWORD variables.

  #4480

• Enhancement #4511: Include inode numbers in JSON output for find and ls commands

  Restic used to omit the inode numbers in the JSON messages emitted for nodes by the ls command as well as for matches by the find command. It now includes those values whenever they are available.

  #4511

• Enhancement #4519: Add config option to set SFTP command arguments

  When using the sftp backend, scenarios where a custom identity file was needed for the SSH connection, required the full command to be specified: -o sftp.command='ssh user@host:port -i /ssh/my_private_key -s sftp'

  Now, the -o sftp.args=... option can be passed to restic to specify custom arguments for the SSH command executed by the SFTP backend. This simplifies the above example to -o sftp.args='-i /ssh/my_private_key'.

  #4241 #4519