tomc@ANB:~/programs/restic-backup$ ./restic -r /media/tomc/usbHD2-lv1/_restic-bkup/hiddensPlusRoot backup /home/tomc/ --exclude-file=restic-excludes-hiddensPlusRoot.txt
open repository
enter password for repository:
repository 498a0239 opened successfully, password is correct
open restic-excludes-hiddensPlusRoot.txt: no such file or directory
The file DOES exist, and is sitting alongside the restic executable.
I decide to look up the exclude or exclude-file flag…and find it doesn’t exist! Huh? They are not in the listed commands or flags.
I’m running restic 0.9.4 compiled with go1.11.4 on linux/amd64
restic help only shows flags that are common to all commands. See restic help backup:
$ restic help backup
The "backup" command creates a new snapshot and saves the files and directories
given as the arguments.
Usage:
restic backup [flags] FILE/DIR [FILE/DIR] ...
Flags:
-e, --exclude pattern exclude a pattern (can be specified multiple times)
--exclude-caches excludes cache directories that are marked with a CACHEDIR.TAG file
--exclude-file file read exclude patterns from a file (can be specified multiple times)
--exclude-if-present stringArray takes filename[:header], exclude contents of directories containing filename (except filename itself) if header of that file is as provided (can be specified multiple times)
--files-from stringArray read the files to backup from file (can be combined with file args/can be specified multiple times)
-f, --force force re-reading the target files/directories (overrides the "parent" flag)
-h, --help help for backup
-H, --host hostname set the hostname for the snapshot manually. To prevent an expensive rescan use the "parent" flag
-x, --one-file-system exclude other file systems
--parent string use this parent snapshot (default: last snapshot in the repo that has the same target files/directories)
--stdin read backup from stdin
--stdin-filename string file name to use when reading from stdin (default "stdin")
--tag tag add a tag for the new snapshot (can be specified multiple times)
--time string time of the backup (ex. '2012-11-01 22:08:41') (default: now)
--with-atime store the atime for all files and directories
Global Flags:
--cacert file file to load root certificates from (default: use system certificates)
--cache-dir string set the cache directory. (default: use system default cache directory)
--cleanup-cache auto remove old cache directories
--json set output mode to JSON for commands that support it
--key-hint string key ID of key to try decrypting first (default: $RESTIC_KEY_HINT)
--limit-download int limits downloads to a maximum rate in KiB/s. (default: unlimited)
--limit-upload int limits uploads to a maximum rate in KiB/s. (default: unlimited)
--no-cache do not use a local cache
--no-lock do not lock the repo, this allows some operations on read-only repos
-o, --option key=value set extended option (key=value, can be specified multiple times)
--password-command string specify a shell command to obtain a password (default: $RESTIC_PASSWORD_COMMAND)
-p, --password-file string read the repository password from a file (default: $RESTIC_PASSWORD_FILE)
-q, --quiet do not output comprehensive progress report
-r, --repo string repository to backup to or restore from (default: $RESTIC_REPOSITORY)
--tls-client-cert string path to a file containing PEM encoded TLS client certificate and private key
-v, --verbose n be verbose (specify --verbose multiple times or level n)
Well, the documentation doesn’t use quotes around the file name, and I had no expectation of needing to unless there was a space in the name. There isn’t.
But I discovered that there WAS a space at the END of the file name. I’ve never seen that before. It was "…txt ". So, the file name I gave truly was NOT a match. Removing the space fixed the problem. The backup is running fine now.
Live and learn…eventually. Thanks for the quick response, and for getting me to look again at the name.
Question: Is this a convention that is understood by those in the Linux world who (unlike some of us!) live on the command line?
Seems to me it would be helpful to explicitly state that a list of flags is “only those common to all commands”. That would have saved me serious time today. A tiny point, unless one trips over it.
Most command-line tools I’ve used (I live in the CLI as well) don’t have subcommands, so your question is a bit flawed in that sense. It would be a bit like expecting every command line tool on the whole system to take exactly the same set of flags, even though the commands serve different purposes.
Likewise, it would make no sense for restic check to accept exactly the same flags as restic backup. But there is a common set of flags (like -r) that make sense for every command to take.
Note at the end of restic help there is this line:
Use "restic [command] --help" for more information about a command.