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Restoring with Restic

Scope: getting files back — a whole snapshot, or one file from last Tuesday. Restoring is the reason the backup exists; learn it while nothing is on fire.

See what you have

restic snapshots

ID        Time                 Host          Tags        Paths            Size
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
f08d32d7  2026-10-16 18:07:39  mylaptop                  /home/you/data   195.407 KiB
61986d36  2026-10-16 18:07:40  mylaptop                  /home/you/data   195.475 KiB
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 snapshots

And what's inside one snapshot, without restoring it:

restic ls latest

snapshot 61986d36 of [/home/you/data] at ...
/home/you/data
/home/you/data/newfile.txt
/home/you/data/notes/todo.txt
/home/you/data/photo.bin
/home/you/data/report.txt

latest means the newest snapshot. Any ID from the list works anywhere latest does.

Restore everything

restic restore latest --target /tmp/restore-here

restoring snapshot 61986d36 of [/home/you/data] ...
Summary: Restored 8 files/dirs (195.475 KiB) in 0:00

restic rebuilds the folder tree under the target, with the original paths nested inside it (so restoring /home/you/data into /tmp/restore-here produces /tmp/restore-here/home/you/data). It never overwrites your live files unless you aim it at them on purpose.

Restore the past, not just the present

The scenario that actually happens: you saved over a document, or deleted something, and the current version is the problem. Restore the older snapshot instead:

restic restore f08d32d7 --target /tmp/restore-old

In the test run, that older snapshot's report.txt came back with its original first draft — the line appended later simply wasn't there yet. Yesterday's version is a first-class citizen, not a compromise.

Restore one file

Point --include at the path, or restore the whole snapshot and pick the file out — for mortal-sized backups the second is honestly simpler. For big ones:

restic restore latest --target /tmp/one-file \
    --include /home/you/data/report.txt

Prove it worked

Trust, but checksum. After the test restore in this guide's lab, the restored files were compared against SHA-256 checksums taken before the backup:

sha256sum -c checksums.txt

report.txt: OK
notes/todo.txt: OK
photo.bin: OK
newfile.txt: OK

All four OK — bit-for-bit identical, not "looks about right." You won't checksum every real restore, but do it once, now, so you've seen your backup produce perfect files. That memory is what keeps you calm later.

The habit to build

Restoring a folder takes under a minute when you know the two commands. Practice on something trivial today, and the day it's your thesis / tax records / photo library, it's a procedure instead of a panic.