I was reading the documentation about creating a repository with an empty password:
It’s not completely clear to me whether encryption is still enabled if I do not set a password when initializing the repo. My understanding is that restic always encrypts data, even with an empty password - but I want to confirm.
I have a use case where I am backing up to an already encrypted disk, so I don’t really need restic’s encryption protection. Is it possible to disable encryption completely in restic? Or is restic’s encryption mandatory and always-on?
You are correct. The encryption is active nonetheless, and you can’t disable it.
Please note that encryption uses hardware acceleration in the CPU, so it’s usually not a problem from a performance perspective.
Others have asked for ways to disable it, but as it stands now, encryption is such an integral part of restic that it isn’t on the radar to be able to disable it.
I’d go ahead with the repo on the encrypted disk regardless. Even if you dont feel that you need it, it shouldn’t be a problem performance wise.
