restic REST Server On Loopback, The Protocol Spoken By Hand
restic's REST backend server from the upstream release (sha256-verified) as a hardened system service on loopback, append-only and private repositories a variable away. No client is installed, so the live test speaks the protocol: creates a repository, writes its config object, reads it back, deletes it and sees it gone. Original role, live-tested on Rocky Linux 10.
Verification
Live-testedReally deployed to a container sandbox, proven idempotent (a second run changes nothing), verified against the role’s assertions, then torn down.
Conformance
- Static validation (yamllint · ansible-lint)
Provenance
- SHA-256 checksum
- Signature (pending)
Functional
- Live-tested - applied, verified, destroyed
Last verified 2026-09-20 · podman 4.9.3 · ansible 2.21.4 · how we verify
Documentation
rest-server
restic's REST backend server from the upstream release (sha256-verified), as a hardened system service on loopback, with append-only and private repositories a variable away. Original role for EL 10, live-tested with podman on Rocky Linux 10.
No package, so the checksum is the whole story. EL 10 carries no
rest-server; restic ships a release with a checksum file beside it. The
role downloads both and has Ansible's get_url refuse the asset unless its
SHA-256 is the one in the vendor's file, then installs the binaries as
root's in /usr/local/bin, pinned by rest_server_version.
A service account, a hardened unit, a loopback listener. rest-server
is a system user with no shell that owns the data directory and nothing
else; the unit runs with NoNewPrivileges, PrivateTmp, ProtectHome and
ProtectSystem=strict. The listener is 127.0.0.1:8000 by default,
for a proxy that authenticates or a client on the same host; the live test
reads the listening sockets and expects loopback only.
The protocol, spoken by hand. No restic client is installed by the
role, so the live test speaks the REST protocol itself: it creates a
repository (POST /<repo>/?create=true), writes the config object, reads
it back, deletes it and sees it gone. That is what restic init and a
backup do over the wire.
Append-only is the setting that matters. With
rest_server_append_only: true every delete is refused with 403, so a
client that is itself compromised cannot destroy the backups it made;
rest_server_private_repos confines each user to the repository named
after it. Authentication is off by default on loopback, for a proxy that
authenticates; rest_server_no_auth: false with a bcrypt htpasswd file
turns the server's own on. The release's binary ships without an
executable bit; the role installs it 0755.
License
Commercial - IaC Bazaar EULA. (c) IaC Bazaar.
Usage code & full reference need an account
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- Variables
- Test
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