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Installation and Setup

Restic is written in Go and distributed as a single static binary. This means it has zero dependencies—no Python, no Ruby, no libc version issues. You download it, make it executable, and it works.

Quick Summary

We recommend installing the pre-compiled binary directly from GitHub. Package managers (apt/yum) often lag behind by several versions, missing critical features like compression (V2) or cloud backend fixes.

This method ensures you have the absolute latest version with all features.

Linux / macOS​

  1. Download the latest release: Visit the GitHub Releases page and find the correct asset (usually linux_amd64 or darwin_amd64).

    # Example for Linux AMD64
    wget https://github.com/restic/restic/releases/download/v0.16.2/restic_0.16.2_linux_amd64.bz2

  2. Unzip and Install:

    bunzip2 restic_0.16.2_linux_amd64.bz2
    chmod +x restic_0.16.2_linux_amd64
    sudo mv restic_0.16.2_linux_amd64 /usr/local/bin/restic

  3. Verify:

    restic version
    # Output: restic 0.16.2 compiled with go1.21.3 on linux/amd64

Windows​

  1. Download the .zip file (e.g., restic_0.16.2_windows_amd64.zip).
  2. Extract restic.exe.
  3. Move it to a folder in your %PATH% (e.g., C:\Program Files\Restic\).

Method 2: Package Managers​

While convenient, check the version after installing. If it's older than 0.14.0, uninstall it and use Method 1.

Ubuntu / Debian​

sudo apt update
sudo apt install restic

macOS (Homebrew)​

brew install restic

Windows (Scoop / Chocolatey)​

scoop install restic
# or
choco install restic

Method 3: Self-Update​

Once installed, Restic can update itself (if installed via binary/Method 1).

sudo restic self-update

Repository Initialization (The First Run)​

Unlike rsync, Restic requires a "Repository" to be initialized before you can use it.

# 1. Choose a location (Local disk example)
export RESTIC_REPOSITORY="/var/backups/restic-repo"

# 2. Set a strong password
export RESTIC_PASSWORD="correct-horse-battery-staple"

# 3. Initialize
restic init
Password Security

If you lose this password, your data is gone forever. Restic encryption has no backdoors. Store this password in a secure manager like 1Password or Bitwarden.

Environment Variables (Best Practice)​

To avoid typing passwords in your terminal history, always set environment variables in your .bashrc or systemd service using EnvironmentFile.

# ~/.restic.env
export RESTIC_REPOSITORY="s3:s3.amazonaws.com/my-bucket"
export RESTIC_PASSWORD_FILE="/etc/restic/password"
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="AKIA..."
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="secret..."

Then simply load it:

source ~/.restic.env
restic snapshots

What's Next​

Now that Restic is installed, configure your Professional Strategy or learn the Core Commands.