macOS Restic Backup

Bash scripts to automatically run Restic backups when the repository is available.

The script ensures that the specified Restic Repository is available and then initiates a backup process which backs up each directory listed in the configuration file .restic_backup.conf. The script runs as a launchd job every 4 minutes.

Set Up

To install, first create and initialize two restic repositories; one for local backups and another for remote backups. Local backups will provide a higher resolution history of changes while the remote backups will act as a long-term backup. It is important that the password for both repositories is the same, as they will share the use of an environment variable.

restic init --repo /path/to/localrepo
restic init --repo /path/to/remoterepo

Note that this is not the most secure way to store a password, it does however help contain the application and keep things simple.

A modification should be made to com.cbergoon.restic_cleanup_remote.plist, com.cbergoon.restic_cleanup_remote.plist, com.cbergoon.restic_backup_local.plist and, com.cbergoon.restic_backup_remote.plist to point the scripts to proper Restic repository and specify the password to use.

// com.cbergoon.restic_backup_local.plist
...
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/restic_backup.sh</string>
        <string>"/path/to/localrepo"</string>
        <string>testpass</string>
    </array>
...

// com.cbergoon.restic_backup_remote.plist
...
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/restic_backup.sh</string>
        <string>"/path/to/remoterepo"</string>
        <string>testpass</string>
    </array>
...

Lastly, run the install.sh script which will create the LaunchDaemons.

./install.sh