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What is rustic_core?

rustic_core is a powerful Rust library for creating fast, encrypted, and deduplicated backups. It serves as the core foundation for rustic-rs, a modern backup solution written in Rust. The library implements the restic repository format, making it fully compatible with existing restic repositories while providing a native Rust API for building backup applications.

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Key Features

Fast & Efficient

Parallel processing with rayon, efficient chunking with CDC (Content-Defined Chunking), and optimized cryptographic operations

Encrypted

AES-256-CTR encryption with Poly1305 authentication ensures your data is secure at rest

Deduplicated

Content-defined chunking identifies duplicate data blocks across all snapshots, saving storage space

Restic Compatible

Read and write repositories in the restic format, allowing seamless interoperability

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Core Capabilities

rustic_core provides comprehensive backup operations:
  • Repository Management: Initialize, open, and configure backup repositories
  • Backup Operations: Create snapshots with incremental, deduplicated backups
  • Restore Operations: Restore full snapshots or individual files/directories
  • Snapshot Management: List, filter, group, and forget snapshots with flexible retention policies
  • Repository Maintenance: Check repository integrity, prune unused data, repair index files
  • Multi-Backend Support: Local filesystem, REST server, and more through rustic_backend
  • Virtual File System: Access repository contents through a VFS interface
rustic_core is in active development and its API may change in upcoming releases. We welcome feedback through GitHub Discussions.

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Why rustic_core?

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Built with Rust

Leveraging Rust’s safety guarantees and performance characteristics:
  • Memory safety without garbage collection
  • Thread safety with fearless concurrency
  • Zero-cost abstractions for optimal performance
  • Rich type system preventing common errors at compile time

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Restic Compatibility

rustic_core maintains full compatibility with the restic repository format:
  • Read existing repositories: Access backups created with restic
  • Shared repositories: Use the same repository with both tools
  • Migration path: Transition from restic to rustic_core gradually
  • Battle-tested format: Benefit from restic’s proven repository design
The restic repository format is well-documented and designed for long-term archival, with built-in integrity checking and encryption.

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Architecture Overview

The library is structured around a stateful Repository type: 
Repository::new(&repo_opts, &backends)?
    .open(&credentials)?           // Open state
    .to_indexed_ids()?             // IndexedIds state (for backup)
    .backup(&backup_opts, &source, snap)?  // Returns snapshot
Different repository states enable different operations:
  • Open: Basic operations like listing snapshots, checking repository
  • IndexedIds: Required for backup operations, maintains blob index
  • IndexedTree: Optimized for operations on tree structures
  • IndexedFull: Full index for advanced operations like pruning

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Key Types

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Repository Types

  • Repository<S>: Main entry point, parameterized by state
  • RepositoryOptions: Configure repository access (passwords, hot/cold storage, etc.)
  • RepositoryBackends: Backend storage abstraction

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Configuration Types

  • ConfigOptions: Repository configuration (chunker polynomial, compression, etc.)
  • KeyOptions: Encryption key options
  • BackupOptions: Backup behavior configuration
  • RestoreOptions: Restore behavior configuration
  • PruneOptions: Data pruning configuration

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Data Types

  • SnapshotFile: Represents a backup snapshot
  • Node: File system entry (file, directory, symlink, etc.)
  • Tree: Directory tree structure
  • PackFile: Container for multiple blobs
  • IndexFile: Maps blob IDs to pack files

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Use Cases

rustic_core is ideal for:
  • Building custom backup tools with Rust
  • Integrating backup functionality into Rust applications
  • Creating specialized backup workflows
  • Developing backup automation systems
  • Building backup GUIs or web interfaces

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Resources

GitHub Repository

Source code, issue tracker, and contributions

API Documentation

Complete API reference on docs.rs

Discussions

Ask questions and share ideas

Discord Community

Chat with other users and developers

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License

rustic_core is dual-licensed under:
  • Apache License, Version 2.0
  • MIT License
You may choose either license for your use.

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Next Steps

Installation

Add rustic_core to your project

Quick Start

Create your first backup in minutes

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