Hey everyone,
I’ve noticed that when sharing debug logs to troubleshoot issues, restic redacts sensitive info like access keys (which is great!) but leaves file paths completely visible. This can be a privacy issue since paths often contain:
- Usernames (
/home/john/...
) - Sensitive folder names (think “TaxDocuments”, “MedicalRecords”, etc.)
- Sometimes even recovery keys or passwords in filenames
Currently, if I need to share logs, I have to manually go through and redact paths, which is tedious and error-prone. I’m wondering if others have this concern too?
I’m thinking of submitting a feature request for something like a --anonymize-paths
flag that would transform paths like:
/home/john/Documents/FinancialRecords/crypto-keys.txt
into something like:
/path1/path2/path3/path4/file1.txt
This would keep the structure intact for debugging but hide the actual names.
Questions for the community:
- Is this something others would find useful?
- Any suggestions on how this should work?
- Are there existing workarounds you use?
I have already opened a GitHub Issue: [Feature Request] Redact sensitive file paths in debug output · Issue #5430 · restic/restic