We're very pleased to present you restic 0.13.0! 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 0.13.0 (2022-03-26)

The following sections list the changes in restic 0.13.0 relevant to restic users. The changes are ordered by importance.

Summary

• Fix #1106: Never lock repository for list locks
• Fix #2345: Make cache crash-resistant and usable by multiple concurrent processes
• Fix #2452: Improve error handling of repository locking
• Fix #2738: Don't print progress for backup --json --quiet
• Fix #3382: Make check command honor RESTIC_CACHE_DIR environment variable
• Fix #3518: Make copy command honor --no-lock for source repository
• Fix #3556: Fix hang with Backblaze B2 on SSL certificate authority error
• Fix #3601: Fix rclone backend prematurely exiting when receiving SIGINT on Windows
• Fix #3667: The mount command now reports symlinks sizes
• Fix #3488: rebuild-index failed if an index file was damaged
• Fix #3591: Fix handling of prune --max-repack-size=0
• Fix #3619: Avoid choosing parent snapshots newer than time of new snapshot
• Chg #3641: Ignore parent snapshot for backup --stdin
• Chg #3519: Require Go 1.14 or newer
• Enh #1542: Add --dry-run/-n option to backup command
• Enh #2202: Add upload checksum for Azure, GS, S3 and Swift backends
• Enh #233: Support negative include/exclude patterns
• Enh #2388: Add warning for S3 if partial credentials are provided
• Enh #2508: Support JSON output and quiet mode for the diff command
• Enh #2656: Add flag to disable TLS verification for self-signed certificates
• Enh #3003: Atomic uploads for the SFTP backend
• Enh #3127: Add xattr (extended attributes) support for Solaris
• Enh #3464: Skip lock creation on forget if --no-lock and --dry-run
• Enh #3490: Support random subset by size in check --read-data-subset
• Enh #3541: Improve handling of temporary B2 delete errors
• Enh #3542: Add file mode in symbolic notation to ls --json
• Enh #2594: Speed up the restore --verify command
• Enh #2816: The backup command no longer updates file access times on Linux
• Enh #2880: Make recover collect only unreferenced trees
• Enh #3429: Verify that new or modified keys are stored correctly
• Enh #3436: Improve local backend's resilience to (system) crashes
• Enh #3508: Cache blobs read by the dump command
• Enh #3511: Support configurable timeout for the rclone backend
• Enh #3593: Improve copy performance by parallelizing IO

Details

• Bugfix #1106: Never lock repository for list locks

  The list locks command previously locked to the repository by default. This had the problem that it wouldn't work for an exclusively locked repository and that the command would also display its own lock file which can be confusing.

  Now, the list locks command never locks the repository.

  #1106 #3665

• Bugfix #2345: Make cache crash-resistant and usable by multiple concurrent processes

  The restic cache directory (RESTIC_CACHE_DIR) could end up in a broken state in the event of restic (or the OS) crashing. This is now less likely to occur as files are downloaded to a temporary location before being moved to their proper location.

  This also allows multiple concurrent restic processes to operate on a single repository without conflicts. Previously, concurrent operations could cause segfaults because the processes saw each other's partially downloaded files.

  #2345 #2838

• Bugfix #2452: Improve error handling of repository locking

  Previously, when the lock refresh failed to delete the old lock file, it forgot about the newly created one. Instead it continued trying to delete the old (usually no longer existing) lock file and thus over time lots of lock files accumulated. This has now been fixed.

  #2452 #2473 #2562 #3512

• Bugfix #2738: Don't print progress for backup --json --quiet

  Unlike the text output, the --json output format still printed progress information even in --quiet mode. This has now been fixed by always disabling the progress output in quiet mode.

  #2738 #3264

• Bugfix #3382: Make check command honor RESTIC_CACHE_DIR environment variable

  Previously, the check command didn't honor the RESTIC_CACHE_DIR environment variable, which caused problems in certain system/usage configurations. This has now been fixed.

  #3382 #3474

• Bugfix #3518: Make copy command honor --no-lock for source repository

  The copy command previously did not respect the --no-lock option for the source repository, causing failures with read-only storage backends. This has now been fixed such that the option is now respected.

  #3518 #3589

• Bugfix #3556: Fix hang with Backblaze B2 on SSL certificate authority error

  Previously, if a request failed with an SSL unknown certificate authority error, the B2 backend retried indefinitely and restic would appear to hang.

  This has now been fixed and restic instead fails with an error message.

  #3556 #2355 #3571

• Bugfix #3601: Fix rclone backend prematurely exiting when receiving SIGINT on Windows

  Previously, pressing Ctrl+C in a Windows console where restic was running with rclone as the backend would cause rclone to exit prematurely due to getting a SIGINT signal at the same time as restic. Restic would then wait for a long time for time with "unexpected EOF" and "rclone stdio connection already closed" errors.

  This has now been fixed by restic starting the rclone process detached from the console restic runs in (similar to starting processes in a new process group on Linux), which enables restic to gracefully clean up rclone (which now never gets the SIGINT).

  #3601 #3602

• Bugfix #3667: The mount command now reports symlinks sizes

  Symlinks used to have size zero in restic mountpoints, confusing some third-party tools. They now have a size equal to the byte length of their target path, as required by POSIX.

  #3667 #3668

• Bugfix #3488: rebuild-index failed if an index file was damaged

  Previously, the rebuild-index command would fail with an error if an index file was damaged or truncated. This has now been fixed.

  On older restic versions, a (slow) workaround is to use rebuild-index --read-all-packs or to manually delete the damaged index.

  #3488

• Bugfix #3591: Fix handling of prune --max-repack-size=0

  Restic ignored the --max-repack-size option when passing a value of 0. This has now been fixed.

  As a workaround, --max-repack-size=1 can be used with older versions of restic.

  #3591

• Bugfix #3619: Avoid choosing parent snapshots newer than time of new snapshot

  The backup command, when a --parent was not provided, previously chose the most recent matching snapshot as the parent snapshot. However, this didn't make sense when the user passed --time to create a new snapshot older than the most recent snapshot.

  Instead, backup now chooses the most recent snapshot which is not newer than the snapshot-being-created's timestamp, to avoid any time travel.

  #3619

• Change #3641: Ignore parent snapshot for backup --stdin

  Restic uses a parent snapshot to speed up directory scanning when performing backups, but this only wasted time and memory when the backup source is stdin (using the --stdin option of the backup command), since no directory scanning is performed in this case.

  Snapshots made with backup --stdin no longer have a parent snapshot, which allows restic to skip some startup operations and saves a bit of resources.

  The --parent option is still available for backup --stdin, but is now ignored.

  #3641 #3645

• Change #3519: Require Go 1.14 or newer

  Restic now requires Go 1.14 to build. This allows it to use new standard library features instead of an external dependency.

  #3519

• Enhancement #1542: Add --dry-run/-n option to backup command

  Testing exclude filters and other configuration options was error prone as wrong filters could cause files to be uploaded unintentionally. It was also not possible to estimate beforehand how much data would be uploaded.

  The backup command now has a --dry-run/-n option, which performs all the normal steps of a backup without actually writing anything to the repository.

  Passing -vv will log information about files that would be added, allowing for verification of source and exclusion options before running the real backup.

  #1542 #2308 #3210 #3300

• Enhancement #2202: Add upload checksum for Azure, GS, S3 and Swift backends

  Previously only the B2 and partially the Swift backends verified the integrity of uploaded (encrypted) files. The verification works by informing the backend about the expected hash of the uploaded file. The backend then verifies the upload and thereby rules out any data corruption during upload.

  We have now added upload checksums for the Azure, GS, S3 and Swift backends, which besides integrity checking for uploads also means that restic can now be used to store backups in S3 buckets which have Object Lock enabled.

  #2202 #2700 #3023 #3246

• Enhancement #233: Support negative include/exclude patterns

  If a pattern starts with an exclamation mark and it matches a file that was previously matched by a regular pattern, the match is cancelled. Notably, this can be used with --exclude-file to cancel the exclusion of some files.

  It works similarly to .gitignore, with the same limitation; Once a directory is excluded, it is not possible to include files inside the directory.

  Example of use as an exclude pattern for the backup command:

  $HOME/**/* !$HOME/Documents !$HOME/code !$HOME/.emacs.d !$HOME/games # [...] node_modules *~ *.o *.lo .pyc # [...] $HOME/code/linux/ !$HOME/code/linux/.git # [...]

  #233 #2311

• Enhancement #2388: Add warning for S3 if partial credentials are provided

  Previously restic did not notify about incomplete credentials when using the S3 backend, instead just reporting access denied.

  Restic now checks that both the AWS key ID and secret environment variables are set before connecting to the remote server, and reports an error if not.

  #2388 #3532

• Enhancement #2508: Support JSON output and quiet mode for the diff command

  The diff command now supports outputting machine-readable output in JSON format. To enable this, pass the --json option to the command. To only print the summary and suppress detailed output, pass the --quiet option.

  #2508 #3592

• Enhancement #2656: Add flag to disable TLS verification for self-signed certificates

  There is now an --insecure-tls global option in restic, which disables TLS verification for self-signed certificates in order to support some development workflows.

  #2656 #2657

• Enhancement #3003: Atomic uploads for the SFTP backend

  The SFTP backend did not upload files atomically. An interrupted upload could leave an incomplete file behind which could prevent restic from accessing the repository. This has now been fixed and uploads in the SFTP backend are done atomically.

  #3003 #3524

• Enhancement #3127: Add xattr (extended attributes) support for Solaris

  Restic now supports xattr for the Solaris operating system.

  #3127 #3628

• Enhancement #3464: Skip lock creation on forget if --no-lock and --dry-run

  Restic used to silently ignore the --no-lock option of the forget command.

  It now skips creation of lock file in case both --dry-run and --no-lock are specified. If --no-lock option is specified without --dry-run, restic prints a warning message to stderr.

  #3464 #3623

• Enhancement #3490: Support random subset by size in check --read-data-subset

  The --read-data-subset option of the check command now supports a third way of specifying the subset to check, namely nS where n is a size in bytes with suffix S as k/K, m/M, g/G or t/T.

  #3490 #3548

• Enhancement #3541: Improve handling of temporary B2 delete errors

  Deleting files on B2 could sometimes fail temporarily, which required restic to retry the delete operation. In some cases the file was deleted nevertheless, causing the retries and ultimately the restic command to fail. This has now been fixed.

  #3541 #3544

• Enhancement #3542: Add file mode in symbolic notation to ls --json

  The ls --json command now provides the file mode in symbolic notation (using the permissions key), aligned with find --json.

  #3542 #3573 https://forum.restic.net/t/restic-ls-understanding-file-mode-with-json/4371

• Enhancement #2594: Speed up the restore --verify command

  The --verify option lets the restore command verify the file content after it has restored a snapshot. The performance of this operation has now been improved by up to a factor of two.

  #2594

• Enhancement #2816: The backup command no longer updates file access times on Linux

  When reading files during backup, restic used to cause the operating system to update the files' access times. Note that this did not apply to filesystems with disabled file access times.

  Restic now instructs the operating system not to update the file access time, if the user running restic is the file owner or has root permissions.

  #2816

• Enhancement #2880: Make recover collect only unreferenced trees

  Previously, the recover command used to generate a snapshot containing all root trees, even those which were already referenced by a snapshot.

  This has been improved such that it now only processes trees not already referenced by any snapshot.

  #2880

• Enhancement #3429: Verify that new or modified keys are stored correctly

  When adding a new key or changing the password of a key, restic used to just create the new key (and remove the old one, when changing the password). There was no verification that the new key was stored correctly and works properly. As the repository cannot be decrypted without a valid key file, this could in rare cases cause the repository to become inaccessible.

  Restic now checks that new key files actually work before continuing. This can protect against some (rare) cases of hardware or storage problems.

  #3429

• Enhancement #3436: Improve local backend's resilience to (system) crashes

  Restic now ensures that files stored using the local backend are created atomically (that is, files are either stored completely or not at all). This ensures that no incomplete files are left behind even if restic is terminated while writing a file.

  In addition, restic now tries to ensure that the directory in the repository which contains a newly uploaded file is also written to disk. This can prevent missing files if the system crashes or the disk is not properly unmounted.

  #3436

• Enhancement #3508: Cache blobs read by the dump command

  When dumping a file using the dump command, restic did not cache blobs in any way, so even consecutive runs of the same blob were loaded from the repository again and again, slowing down the dump.

  Now, the caching mechanism already used by the fuse command is also used by the dump command. This makes dumping much faster, especially for sparse files.

  #3508

• Enhancement #3511: Support configurable timeout for the rclone backend

  A slow rclone backend could cause restic to time out while waiting for the repository to open. Restic now offers an -o rclone.timeout option to make this timeout configurable.

  #3511 #3514

• Enhancement #3593: Improve copy performance by parallelizing IO

  Restic copy previously only used a single thread for copying blobs between repositories, which resulted in limited performance when copying small blobs to/from a high latency backend (i.e. any remote backend, especially b2).

  Copying will now use 8 parallel threads to increase the throughput of the copy operation.

  #3593