Make a .Group.Name variable available in the profiles section

[remyzandwijk]

Hi there. First of all, I have been using Restic for a couple of years now and I wrote a (very feature-incomplete) Python wrapper around it. While thinking about a rewrite of that wrapper, I came across Restic Profile and it is exactly what I need. So, thanks for writing it!

As a newcomer, I am fiddling around with trying several configurations. One of the things that came to mind is "I could really use the .Group.Name variable to be available (in profiles)". The use case of the .Group.Name variable would be to load the repository name and key for example, depending on the name of the group.

For example, I have a couple of profiles which should end-up in two different repositories:

version "2"

groups:
  group-a:
    profiles:
      - shared-profile-1
      - shared-profile-2
  group-b:
    profiles:
      - shared-profile-1
      - shared-profile-2

profiles:
  shared-profile-1:
    repository-file: "{{ .ConfigDir }}/{{ .Group.Name }}.repo"
    password-file: "{{ .ConfigDir }}/{{ .Group.Name }}.key"

  ...

So, when running resticprofile group-a.backup for example, the group-a.repo and group-a.key files would be used. And when resticprofile group-b.backup would run, the group-b.repo and group-b.key files would be used.

Would having the .Group.Name variable available make sense?

I was trying to accomplish the above by using templates and inherritance, but I just cannot see how to do it. A workaround would be to supply an environment variable on the command line when starting resticprofile, but where is the fun in that, right? And I wonder if that would work out with adding schedules.

My concrete questions are:

1. Feature request: could the .Group.Name variable be made available in the profiles section?
2. Is there an other way how I could accomplish what I want?

[creativeprojects]

I suppose when using inheritance you would have to duplicate the shared profiles, resulting in specific profiles for each group.

I need to think about the implications of adding a .Group variable. Template variables are not very flexible (the template is resolved only once when loading the configuration)

[remyzandwijk]

Thanks for answering, and I appreciate that you're willing to think about it.

In the meantime, I'll continue experimenting. I'll sleep on it for another night, but for now, I think I'll end up using environment variables. Instead of using 'schedule,' I'll create my own systemd units and timers and put the variables in there.

[creativeprojects]

You can still use the schedule with your own systemd unit and timers: https://creativeprojects.github.io/resticprofile/schedules/systemd/index.html#how-to-change-the-default-systemd-unit-and-timer-file-using-a-template