Schedule Configuration

The schedule configuration consists of a few parameters which can be added on each profile:

​
[profile.backup]
  schedule = "*:00,30"
  schedule-permission = "system"
  schedule-priority = "background"
  schedule-log = "profile-backup.log"
  schedule-lock-mode = "default"
  schedule-lock-wait = "15m30s"
profile:
  backup:
    schedule: '*:00,30'
    schedule-permission: system
    schedule-priority: background
    schedule-log: profile-backup.log
    schedule-lock-mode: default
    schedule-lock-wait: 15m30s
"profile" "backup" {
  "schedule" = "*:00,30"
  "schedule-permission" = "system"
  "schedule-priority" = "background"
  "schedule-log" = "profile-backup.log"
  "schedule-lock-mode" = "default"
  "schedule-lock-wait" = "15m30s"
}
{
  "profile": {
    "backup": {
      "schedule": "*:00,30",
      "schedule-permission": "system",
      "schedule-priority": "background",
      "schedule-log": "profile-backup.log",
      "schedule-lock-mode": "default",
      "schedule-lock-wait": "15m30s"
    }
  }
}

schedule-permission

schedule-permission accepts three parameters: system, user or user_logged_on:

  • system: if you need to access some system or protected files. You will need to run resticprofile with sudo on unixes and with elevated prompt on Windows (please note on Windows resticprofile will ask you for elevated permissions automatically if needed).

  • user: your backup will be running using your current user permissions on files. This is fine if you’re only saving your documents (or any other file inside your profile). Please note on systemd that the schedule will only run when your user is logged in. This mode will ask you for your user password on Windows.

  • user_logged_on: For Windows only - This gives the same permissions as user. This mode is not asking for your user password but will only run while the user is logged on.

  • empty: resticprofile will try its best guess based on how you started it (with sudo or as a normal user). The fallback is system on Windows, and user on the other platforms.

Changing schedule-permission from user to system, or system to user

If you need to change the permission of a schedule, please be sure to unschedule the profile before.

This order is important:

  • unschedule the job first. resticprofile does not keep track of how your profile was installed, so you have to remove the schedule first
  • now you can change your permission (user to system, or system to user)
  • schedule your updated profile

schedule-lock-mode

Starting from version 0.14.0, schedule-lock-mode accepts 3 values:

  • default: Wait on acquiring a lock for the time duration set in schedule-lock-wait, before failing a schedule. Behaves like fail when schedule-lock-wait is “0” or not specified.
  • fail: Any lock failure causes a schedule to abort immediately.
  • ignore: Skip resticprofile locks. restic locks are not skipped and can abort the schedule.

schedule-lock-wait

Sets the amount of time to wait for a resticprofile and restic lock to become available. Is only used when schedule-lock-mode is unset or default.

schedule-log

schedule-log can be used in two ways:

  • Allow to redirect all output from resticprofile and restic to a file. The parameter should point to a file (/path/to/file)
  • Redirects all resticprofile log entries to the syslog server. In that case the parameter is a URL like: udp://server:514 or tcp://127.0.0.1:514

If there’s no server answering on the port specified, resticprofile will send the logs to the default output instead.

schedule-priority (systemd and launchd only)

Starting from version 0.11.0, schedule-priority accepts two values:

  • background: the process shouldn’t be noticeable when working on the machine at the same time (this is the default)
  • standard: the process should get the same priority as any other process on the machine (but it won’t run faster if you’re not using the machine at the same time)

schedule-priority is not available for windows task scheduler, nor crond

schedule

The schedule parameter accepts many forms of input from the systemd calendar event type. This is by far the easiest to use: It is the same format used to schedule on macOS and Windows.

The most general form is:

weekdays year-month-day hour:minute:second
  • use * to mean any
  • use , to separate multiple entries
  • use .. for a range

limitations:

  • the divider (/), the ~ and timezones are not (yet?) supported on macOS and Windows.
  • the year and second fields have no effect on macOS. They do have limited availability on Windows (they don’t make much sense anyway).

Here are a few examples (taken from the systemd documentation):

On the left is the user input, on the right is the full format understood by the system

  Sat,Thu,Mon..Wed,Sat..Sun → Mon..Thu,Sat,Sun *-*-* 00:00:00
      Mon,Sun 12-*-* 2,1:23 → Mon,Sun 2012-*-* 01,02:23:00
                    Wed *-1 → Wed *-*-01 00:00:00
           Wed..Wed,Wed *-1 → Wed *-*-01 00:00:00
                 Wed, 17:48 → Wed *-*-* 17:48:00
Wed..Sat,Tue 12-10-15 1:2:3 → Tue..Sat 2012-10-15 01:02:03
                *-*-7 0:0:0 → *-*-07 00:00:00
                      10-15 → *-10-15 00:00:00
        monday *-12-* 17:00 → Mon *-12-* 17:00:00
     Mon,Fri *-*-3,1,2 *:30 → Mon,Fri *-*-01,02,03 *:30:00
       12,14,13,12:20,10,30 → *-*-* 12,13,14:10,20,30:00
            12..14:10,20,30 → *-*-* 12..14:10,20,30:00
                03-05 08:05 → *-03-05 08:05:00
                      05:40 → *-*-* 05:40:00
        Sat,Sun 12-05 08:05 → Sat,Sun *-12-05 08:05:00
              Sat,Sun 08:05 → Sat,Sun *-*-* 08:05:00
           2003-03-05 05:40 → 2003-03-05 05:40:00
             2003-02..04-05 → 2003-02..04-05 00:00:00
                 2003-03-05 → 2003-03-05 00:00:00
                      03-05 → *-03-05 00:00:00
                     hourly → *-*-* *:00:00
                      daily → *-*-* 00:00:00
                    monthly → *-*-01 00:00:00
                     weekly → Mon *-*-* 00:00:00
                     yearly → *-01-01 00:00:00
                   annually → *-01-01 00:00:00

The schedule can be a string or an array of string (to allow for multiple schedules)

schedule-ignore-on-battery

If set to true the schedule won’t start if the system is running on battery (even if the charge is still at 100%)

schedule-ignore-on-battery-less-than

If set to a number, the schedule won’t start if the system is running on battery and the charge (in %) is less or equal than the number specified.

Example

Here’s an example of a scheduling configuration:

​
[default]
  repository = "d:\\backup"
  password-file = "key"

[self]
  inherit = "default"

  [self.retention]
    after-backup = true
    keep-within = "14d"

  [self.backup]
    source = "."
    schedule = [ "Mon..Fri *:00,15,30,45", "Sat,Sun 0,12:00" ]
    schedule-permission = "user"
    schedule-lock-wait = "10m"

  [self.prune]
    schedule = "sun 3:30"
    schedule-permission = "user"
    schedule-lock-wait = "1h"
default:
  repository: "d:\\backup"
  password-file: key

self:
  inherit: default
  retention:
    after-backup: true
    keep-within: 14d
  backup:
    source: "."
    schedule:
    - "Mon..Fri *:00,15,30,45" # every 15 minutes on weekdays
    - "Sat,Sun 0,12:00"        # twice a day on week-ends
    schedule-permission: user
    schedule-lock-wait: 10m
  prune:
    schedule: "sun 3:30"
    schedule-permission: user
    schedule-lock-wait: 1h
"default" = {
  "repository" = "d:\\backup"
  "password-file" = "key"
}

"self" = {
  "inherit" = "default"

  "retention" = {
    "after-backup" = true
    "keep-within" = "14d"
  }

  "backup" = {
    "source" = "."
    "schedule" = ["Mon..Fri *:00,15,30,45", "Sat,Sun 0,12:00"]
    "schedule-permission" = "user"
    "schedule-lock-wait" = "10m"
  }

  "prune" = {
    "schedule" = "sun 3:30"
    "schedule-permission" = "user"
    "schedule-lock-wait" = "1h"
  }
}
{
  "default": {
    "repository": "d:\\backup",
    "password-file": "key"
  },
  "self": {
    "inherit": "default",
    "retention": {
      "after-backup": true,
      "keep-within": "14d"
    },
    "backup": {
      "source": ".",
      "schedule": [
        "Mon..Fri *:00,15,30,45",
        "Sat,Sun 0,12:00"
      ],
      "schedule-permission": "user",
      "schedule-lock-wait": "10m"
    },
    "prune": {
      "schedule": "sun 3:30",
      "schedule-permission": "user",
      "schedule-lock-wait": "1h"
    }
  }
}