# Introduction

Restic is a fast and secure backup program. The following sections present typical workflows, starting with installing, preparing a new repository, and making the first backup.

## Quickstart guide

To get started with a local repository, first define some environment variables:

    export RESTIC_REPOSITORY=/srv/restic-repo
    export RESTIC_PASSWORD=some-strong-password

Initialize the repository (first time only):

    restic init

Create your first backup:

    restic backup ~/work

You can list all the snapshots you created with:

    restic snapshots

You can restore a snapshot by noting the snapshot ID you want and running:

    restic restore --target /tmp/restore-work your-snapshot-ID

It is a good idea to periodically check your repository’s metadata:

    restic check
    # or full data:
    restic check --read-data

For more details continue reading the next sections.