I always thought restic --force re-reads from the repository but it seems I misunderstood the word “target” in “restic help backup”. For me a target is rather a destination but not a source.
Since that help text already mentions “source data” elsewhere, could you please not use the word “target” but rather “source”? Like
force re-reading the source files/directories
last snapshot in the repo that has the same source files/directories
IMHO that would make it clearer and more consistent.
You could even do
restic backup [flags] SOURCE [SOURCE] …
then define what SOURCE is and only use the word “source” in the rest of the help text
Problem is that the source code always uses the term “TARGET” so the source code should probably also be adapted.
If there is a chance for this to be accepted I could prepare a pull request