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Scheduling

Installing the cron job

sudo ./install.sh --cron

The installer writes /etc/cron.d/restic-backup with this content:

# restic-backup-suite — daily backup at 03:00
# To disable: rm /etc/cron.d/restic-backup
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

0 3 * * * root /usr/local/bin/restic-backup >> /var/log/restic/cron.log 2>&1

The backup then runs daily at 03:00 as root. Output goes to /var/log/restic/cron.log.

• On an already installed system (symlink /usr/local/bin/restic-backup present), --cron only creates the cron job and does nothing else.
• The configuration must be filled in before the first run, otherwise the run ends with Config file not found or a restic error.

Changing the time or turning it off

Edit the time directly in /etc/cron.d/restic-backup. Running install.sh --cron again overwrites the file with 03:00. To turn it off, delete the file: sudo rm /etc/cron.d/restic-backup.

What is not included

• There are no systemd timers or service units. If you prefer a timer, call /usr/local/bin/restic-backup yourself.
• There is no lock against parallel runs. The scripts do not prevent a second run while the first is still active, only restic's own repository locks apply. Schedule runs so that they do not overlap.
• The scripts' log files (backup-YYYY-MM-DD.log in LOG_DIR) are not rotated. See Monitoring.
• There are no failure notifications. Monitoring works through the marker file.