Guides
Practical notes on keeping restic and Borg backups restorable — with commands you can use today.
restic
How to test that your restic backups actually restore
Restore a file, compare it, and automate the test with a canary file.
restic check vs --read-data vs --read-data-subset
What each check proves, what it costs, and how to re-read a whole repository over a week.
How to monitor restic backups and get alerts when they stop
What fails silently, and four layers that catch it — from exit codes to a dead man's switch.
Borg Backup
How to test that your Borg backups actually restore
Extract a file, compare it, automate the test with a canary file, and when to run borg check --verify-data.
How Vaultwitness works with Borg and borgmatic
What it checks in a Borg repository, and how it finds your Borg scripts and borgmatic configurations by itself.