---
title: "rclone serve restic"
description: "Serve the remote for restic's REST API."
versionIntroduced: v1.40
# autogenerated - DO NOT EDIT, instead edit the source code in cmd/serve/restic/ and as part of making a release run "make commanddocs"
---
# rclone serve restic

Serve the remote for restic's REST API.

## Synopsis

Run a basic web server to serve a remote over restic's REST backend
API over HTTP.  This allows restic to use rclone as a data storage
mechanism for cloud providers that restic does not support directly.

[Restic](https://restic.net/) is a command-line program for doing
backups.

The server will log errors.  Use -v to see access logs.

`--bwlimit` will be respected for file transfers.
Use `--stats` to control the stats printing.

## Setting up rclone for use by restic

First [set up a remote for your chosen cloud provider](/docs/#configure).

Once you have set up the remote, check it is working with, for example
"rclone lsd remote:".  You may have called the remote something other
than "remote:" - just substitute whatever you called it in the
following instructions.

Now start the rclone restic server

```console
rclone serve restic -v remote:backup
```

Where you can replace "backup" in the above by whatever path in the
remote you wish to use.

By default this will serve on "localhost:8080" you can change this
with use of the `--addr` flag.

You might wish to start this server on boot.

Adding `--cache-objects=false` will cause rclone to stop caching objects
returned from the List call. Caching is normally desirable as it speeds
up downloading objects, saves transactions and uses very little memory.

## Setting up restic to use rclone

Now you can [follow the restic
instructions](http://restic.readthedocs.io/en/latest/030_preparing_a_new_repo.html#rest-server)
on setting up restic.

Note that you will need restic 0.8.2 or later to interoperate with
rclone.

For the example above you will want to use "http://localhost:8080/" as
the URL for the REST server.

For example:

```console
$ export RESTIC_REPOSITORY=rest:http://localhost:8080/
$ export RESTIC_PASSWORD=yourpassword
$ restic init
created restic backend 8b1a4b56ae at rest:http://localhost:8080/

Please note that knowledge of your password is required to access
the repository. Losing your password means that your data is
irrecoverably lost.
$ restic backup /path/to/files/to/backup
scan [/path/to/files/to/backup]
scanned 189 directories, 312 files in 0:00
[0:00] 100.00%  38.128 MiB / 38.128 MiB  501 / 501 items  0 errors  ETA 0:00
duration: 0:00
snapshot 45c8fdd8 saved

```

### Multiple repositories

Note that you can use the endpoint to host multiple repositories.  Do
this by adding a directory name or path after the URL.  Note that
these **must** end with /.  Eg

```console
$ export RESTIC_REPOSITORY=rest:http://localhost:8080/user1repo/
# backup user1 stuff
$ export RESTIC_REPOSITORY=rest:http://localhost:8080/user2repo/
# backup user2 stuff
```

### Private repositories

The`--private-repos` flag can be used to limit users to repositories starting
with a path of `/<username>/`.

## Server options

Use `--addr` to specify which IP address and port the server should
listen on, eg `--addr 1.2.3.4:8000` or `--addr :8080` to listen to all
IPs.  By default it only listens on localhost.  You can use port
:0 to let the OS choose an available port.

If you set `--addr` to listen on a public or LAN accessible IP address
then using Authentication is advised - see the next section for info.

You can use a unix socket by setting the url to `unix:///path/to/socket`
or just by using an absolute path name.

`--addr` may be repeated to listen on multiple IPs/ports/sockets.
Socket activation, described further below, can also be used to accomplish the same.

`--server-read-timeout` and `--server-write-timeout` can be used to
control the timeouts on the server.  Note that this is the total time
for a transfer.

`--max-header-bytes` controls the maximum number of bytes the server will
accept in the HTTP header.

`--response-header` can be used to set an HTTP header for all responses,
will overriding existing values. The flag may be repeated to add multiple
headers. Use the format `Header-Name: value`.

`--baseurl` controls the URL prefix that rclone serves from.  By default
rclone will serve from the root.  If you used `--baseurl "/rclone"` then
rclone would serve from a URL starting with "/rclone/".  This is
useful if you wish to proxy rclone serve.  Rclone automatically
inserts leading and trailing "/" on `--baseurl`, so `--baseurl "rclone"`,
`--baseurl "/rclone"` and `--baseurl "/rclone/"` are all treated
identically.

`--disable-zip` may be set to disable the zipping download option.

### Protocol

The server supports HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2.  HTTP/2 is used automatically
for TLS connections.  For non-TLS connections, HTTP/2 cleartext (h2c)
is supported, allowing HTTP/2 without encryption.

### TLS (SSL)

By default this will serve over http.  If you want you can serve over
https.  You will need to supply the `--cert` and `--key` flags.
If you wish to do client side certificate validation then you will need to
supply `--client-ca` also.

When TLS is configured every listener given with `--addr` serves TLS.
An individual listener can be prefixed with `http://` to serve unencrypted
HTTP on that address, or with `tls://` to state explicitly that it must serve
TLS.  Using a `tls://` address without `--cert` and `--key` is an error.

`--cert` must be set to the path of a file containing
either a PEM encoded certificate, or a concatenation of that with the CA
certificate. `--key` must be set to the path of a file
with the PEM encoded private key. If setting `--client-ca`,
it should be set to the path of a file with PEM encoded client certificate
authority certificates.

`--min-tls-version` is minimum TLS version that is acceptable. Valid
values are "tls1.0", "tls1.1", "tls1.2" and "tls1.3" (default "tls1.0").

## Socket activation

Instead of the listening addresses specified above, rclone will listen to all
FDs passed by the service manager, if any (and ignore any arguments passed
by `--addr`).

This allows rclone to be a socket-activated service.
It can be configured with .socket and .service unit files as described in
<https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/systemd.socket.html>.

Socket activation can be tested ad-hoc with the `systemd-socket-activate`command

```console
systemd-socket-activate -l 8000 -- rclone serve
```

This will socket-activate rclone on the first connection to port 8000 over TCP.

### Authentication

By default this will serve files without needing a login.

You can either use an htpasswd file which can take lots of users, or
set a single username and password with the `--user` and `--pass` flags.

Alternatively, you can have the reverse proxy manage authentication and use the
username provided in the configured header with `--user-from-header`  (e.g., `--user-from-header=x-remote-user`).
Ensure the proxy is trusted and headers cannot be spoofed, as misconfiguration
may lead to unauthorized access.

If either of the above authentication methods is not configured and client
certificates are required by the `--client-ca` flag passed to the server, the
client certificate common name will be considered as the username.

Use `--htpasswd /path/to/htpasswd` to provide an htpasswd file.  This is
in standard apache format and supports MD5, SHA1 and BCrypt for basic
authentication.  Bcrypt is recommended.

To create an htpasswd file:

```console
touch htpasswd
htpasswd -B htpasswd user
htpasswd -B htpasswd anotherUser
```

The password file can be updated while rclone is running.

Use `--realm` to set the authentication realm.

Use `--salt` to change the password hashing salt from the default.

```
rclone serve restic remote:path [flags]
```

## Options

```
      --addr stringArray                IPaddress:Port or :Port to bind server to (default 127.0.0.1:8080)
      --allow-origin string             Origin which cross-domain request (CORS) can be executed from
      --append-only                     Disallow deletion of repository data
      --baseurl string                  Prefix for URLs - leave blank for root
      --cache-objects                   Cache listed objects (default true)
      --cert string                     TLS PEM key (concatenation of certificate and CA certificate)
      --client-ca string                Client certificate authority to verify clients with
  -h, --help                            help for restic
      --htpasswd string                 A htpasswd file - if not provided no authentication is done
      --key string                      TLS PEM Private key
      --max-header-bytes int            Maximum size of request header (default 4096)
      --min-tls-version string          Minimum TLS version that is acceptable (default "tls1.0")
      --pass string                     Password for authentication
      --private-repos                   Users can only access their private repo
      --realm string                    Realm for authentication
      --response-header stringArray     Set HTTP header for all responses, overriding existing values
      --salt string                     Password hashing salt (default "dlPL2MqE")
      --server-read-timeout Duration    Timeout for server reading data (default 1h0m0s)
      --server-write-timeout Duration   Timeout for server writing data (default 1h0m0s)
      --stdio                           Run an HTTP2 server on stdin/stdout
      --user string                     User name for authentication
      --user-from-header string         User name from a defined HTTP header
```

See the [global flags page](/flags/) for global options not listed here.

## See Also

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* [rclone serve](/commands/rclone_serve/)	 - Serve a remote over a protocol.


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