Development

Canasta: Using Canasta > Backup and restore

Canasta includes integration with restic for automated backups to AWS S3-compatible storage.

Table of contents

Setup

  1. Add these environment variables to your .env file:

    AWS_S3_API=s3.amazonaws.com
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your-access-key
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your-secret-key
AWS_S3_BUCKET=your-bucket-name
RESTIC_PASSWORD=your-restic-password

  2. Initialize the restic repository:

    sudo canasta restic init -i mywiki

Common flags

These flags apply to all restic subcommands:

Flag Short Default Description
--id -i Canasta instance ID
--path -p Current directory Path to the Canasta installation
--verbose -v false Verbose output

canasta restic init

Initialize a restic repository in the configured S3 bucket.

Usage:

canasta restic init [flags]

Example:

sudo canasta restic init -i mywiki

canasta restic take-snapshot

Create a new backup snapshot.

Usage:

canasta restic take-snapshot [flags]

Flags:

Flag Short Description
--tag -t Tag for the snapshot (required)

Example:

sudo canasta restic take-snapshot -t "daily-backup" -i mywiki

canasta restic view

View all available snapshots.

Usage:

canasta restic view [flags]

Example:

sudo canasta restic view -i mywiki

canasta restic restore

Restore from a snapshot.

Usage:

canasta restic restore [flags]

Flags:

Flag Short Description
--snapshot-id -s Snapshot ID to restore (required)
--skip-before-restore-snapshot -r Skip taking a backup before restoring

Example:

sudo canasta restic restore -s abc123def -i mywiki

By default, a backup snapshot is taken before restoring. Use -r to skip this.

canasta restic list

List files in a snapshot.

Usage:

canasta restic list [flags]

Flags:

Flag Short Description
--tag -t Snapshot ID (required)

Example:

sudo canasta restic list -t abc123def -i mywiki

canasta restic forget

Remove a snapshot from the repository.

Usage:

canasta restic forget [flags]

Flags:

Flag Short Description
--tag -t Snapshot ID to forget (required)

Example:

sudo canasta restic forget -t abc123def -i mywiki

canasta restic diff

Show differences between two snapshots.

Usage:

canasta restic diff [flags]

Flags:

Flag Description
--tag1 First snapshot ID (required)
--tag2 Second snapshot ID (required)

Example:

sudo canasta restic diff --tag1 abc123 --tag2 def456 -i mywiki

canasta restic check

Check the integrity of the restic repository.

Usage:

canasta restic check [flags]

Example:

sudo canasta restic check -i mywiki

canasta restic unlock

Remove locks created by other restic processes.

Usage:

canasta restic unlock [flags]

Example:

sudo canasta restic unlock -i mywiki
© 2026 Canasta Project