# Setup

> [!WARNING]
> This documentation is the system I've settled on for my own Restic backups.
> I will explain it in detail and if it sounds like something you'd like to replicate,
> it should work the same on your machine.
>
> Your needs may differ from mine, but hopefully you can adapt some of the work here for
> your own needs.
>
> Restic provides a [quickstart guide](https://restic.readthedocs.io/en/latest/010_introduction.html),
> which you should run through at least once to learn the steps.

While you can pass [many options as CLI args to `restic`](https://restic.readthedocs.io/en/latest/manual_rest.html), the setup below sets up a pipeline of sorts for providing `restic` commands with the values it needs.

## .restic dir

Create a directory at `~/.restic`. This is where you will store your Restic configurations.

Create the following directories in `~/.restic`:

- `~/.restic/ignores/`: This directory will store "restic ignore" files, which you can pass with `restic src/ --exclude-file ~/.restic/ignores/ignore_filename`
  - Read more in the [ignore/exclude docs](exclude.md)
- `~/.restic/passwords/`:
  - Storing a repository password in a file is not the most secure, but can be used for smaller/non-sensitive backups, or while you're still learning Restic.
  - When creating a repository, you're prompted for a password. Paste the password you used into a file in `~/.restic/passwords/password_filename` (you can use any filename).
  - You can then set the env var (either in `~/.bashrc` or in a script before executing a `restic` command) `RESTIC_PASSWORD_FILE="~/.restic/passwords/password_filename`
  - Read more in the [handling repository passwords docs](passwords.md)
- `~/.restic/repo/`: (optional) You can create a symlink to your backup directory if you want, so you can use `restic -r ~/.restic/repo`:
  - `ln -s /path/to/restic_repo /home/$USER/.restic/repo`

## .resticrc file

In your `~/.restic` directory, you should also create a `.resticrc` file. This file can be used to provide Restic's env vars to the shell.

```shell title="~/.restic/.resticrc" linenums="1"
## Export path to the file with your repository file
export RESTIC_PASSWORD_FILE="/home/username/.restic/passwords/password_filename"
## Export path to file containing the path to the repository that the password unlocks
export RESTIC_REPOSITORY_FILE="/home/username/.restic/repo_path"

```

After creating your `.resticrc` file, you can source it in your profile, i.e. by adding this to `~/.bashrc`:

```shell title="~/.basrc" linenums="1"
## Other .bashrc entries above

## Source ~/.restic/.resticrc if it exists
if [[ -f "$HOME/.restic/.resticrc" ]]; then
  . "$HOME/.restic/.resticrc"
fi

```

This step is optional, but will let you run `restic` commands directly without needing to provide a `-r/--repository` or `--password-file` parameter.

You can also source this file in a shell script to add the `RESTIC_PASSWORD_FILE` and `RESTIC_REPOSITORY_FILE` to the script's environment.