Unraid Restic Plugin

Minimal Unraid 7 plugin that installs and manages the latest stable restic release.

The plugin keeps a persisted copy of the binary on the flash drive, exposes it as /usr/local/bin/restic, and adds a very small settings page that shows:

• installed version
• latest available version
• an install/update button when needed
• a remove button for the managed binary

The goal is simple: make restic available for shell usage and for the User Scripts plugin without dragging in a larger backup UI.

What It Does

• Installs the latest stable restic release from restic/restic on first install
• Persists the binary at /boot/config/plugins/restic/bin/restic
• Restores /usr/local/bin/restic on reboot
• Verifies downloads against the published SHA256SUMS
• Exposes a helper command at /usr/local/sbin/restic-manager
• Adds a small Unraid settings page at Settings -> restic

What It Does Not Do

• It does not configure repositories, schedules, retention policies, or notifications
• It does not add a full backup workflow UI
• The page's Remove restic button removes the managed binary, not the plugin itself

Plugin uninstall is still handled from the Unraid Plugins page.

Repo Layout

source/ Contains the files that go into the plugin package.

templates/restic.plg.in Template used to generate the final .plg.

build.sh Builds the .txz package and renders the .plg.

dist/ Generated output directory for the installable artifacts.

Build

1. Set the base URL that will host the finished files.
2. Run the build script.

Example:

ARTIFACT_BASE_URL="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/<your-user>/<your-repo>/main/dist" \
SUPPORT_URL="https://github.com/<your-user>/<your-repo>" \
./build.sh

That generates:

• dist/restic.plg
• dist/packages/restic-<version>-noarch-1.txz

Publish

Commit and push the generated dist/ artifacts to the URL you used in ARTIFACT_BASE_URL.

If you want the .plg to install from GitHub release assets instead of raw branch files, build like this:

VERSION="$(cat VERSION)"
ARTIFACT_BASE_URL="https://github.com/<your-user>/<your-repo>/releases/download/v${VERSION}" \
PACKAGE_SUBDIR="" \
SUPPORT_URL="https://github.com/<your-user>/<your-repo>" \
./build.sh

In that mode, upload these two files as release assets:

• dist/restic.plg
• dist/packages/restic-<version>-noarch-1.txz

This repo also includes a GitHub Actions workflow at .github/workflows/release.yml that creates or updates the tagged release and uploads those two assets when main is pushed with a matching VERSION and v<version> tag already present.

After that, install the plugin in Unraid from:

https://github.com/<your-user>/<your-repo>/releases/download/v<version>/restic.plg

Runtime Behavior

• First install: downloads the latest stable restic release for the current architecture
• Reboot: recreates /usr/local/bin/restic from the persisted binary
• Update from UI: downloads the current latest stable release and swaps the managed binary
• Remove from UI: removes the managed binary and leaves the plugin installed so you can reinstall later

Commands

Once installed:

restic version
restic-manager status
restic-manager update
restic-manager remove

For User Scripts, restic is available at:

/usr/local/bin/restic

Notes

• This plugin assumes ownership of /usr/local/bin/restic. If that path already contains an unmanaged binary, the plugin refuses to overwrite it.
• Install and update require internet access from the Unraid server and access to GitHub release assets.
• The manager currently supports the common Linux architectures that restic publishes in its release assets.

Sources

• restic releases: https://github.com/restic/restic/releases
• restic installation docs: https://restic.readthedocs.io/en/latest/020_installation.html