Installation and Upgrades

After you have downloaded Relica to your computer, you need to install it before you can use it. How this is done depends on your type of computer, or more specifically, its operating system.

The download page has basic instructions for installing Relica on your platform. We recommend following those simple instructions first, then reference this page if you need more guidance or information.

Tip for power users: We have a one-command installer for Linux and macOS at https://relica.run that works entirely in your terminal. With it, you can bypass this entire page.

Installing Relica

It's easy to install Relica, and only needs to be done once per computer.

Installing on Windows

  1. Double-click the .exe file that you downloaded. This launches the installer.
  2. You may be warned that Windows protected your computer. That's because we are not yet code-signed with Windows. Click "More info" and then click the "Run anyway" button to continue.
  3. Go through the installation wizard -- you can click "Next" and accept the defaults on most screens.
  4. When finishing the wizard, Relica should start after a few seconds. It will open in your web browser.

Following the installation, a shortcut icon will (optionally) be placed on your desktop for easy access. When clicked, Relica opens in your web browser.

Note that Relica will always be running, even if your web browser is not open. This is expected, as it is how Relica can back up your files on a regular schedule automatically. (Relica starts in the background when you log into Windows.)

Installing on macOS

  1. Double-click the .dmg file you downloaded. This mounts the application image.
  2. Drag and drop the Relica.app icon into the Applications folder next to it.
  3. Go into the Applications folder and open Relica.app, or press Cmd+Space and type Relica.
  4. You can eject the .dmg image and delete the download when you are done.

The first time you run Relica, macOS might ask if you really want to open it since you downloaded it from the Internet (even though nobody mails CDs with their software on it anymore...). Simply click "Open" to continue.

When you first run Relica, it installs itself as a system service by placing a LaunchAgent manifest in your $HOME/Library folder. This means it starts when you log in, and stops when you log out. It's how Relica can keep your backup schedule automatically.

Installing on Linux

The easiest way to install Relica on Linux is with a single command in the terminal (you may be prompted for sudo privileges):

curl https://relica.run | bash

If you don't have curl, you can use wget -qO- instead.

Alternatively, to install after downloading from our website:

  1. Extract the archive into /opt: sudo tar -xzf relica_*.tar.gz -C /opt
  2. Repermission the application folder: sudo chown -R $(id -u):$(id -g) /opt/relica
  3. Launch Relica: /opt/relica/bin/relica &

Note that systemd 232 or newer (systemctl --version) is required for Relica to install properly on Linux. When you run Relica the first time, it self-installs a user service that starts its daemon when you log in and stops it when you log out. This allows Relica to automatically perform your backups in the background. The name of the systemd service is relica and can be controlled using systemctl --user. You can view logs using journalctl -t relica.

Upgrades

Relica automatically upgrades itself when new stable updates are released. Presuming you installed Relica according to the instructions above, there is nothing you need to do to keep Relica up-to-date.

To upgrade, Relica checks for new versions every so often (approximately once per day or week). If a new version is available, it downloads the file and checks its GPG signature to ensure that file can be trusted. If everything checks out, it extracts the files into its program folder and stops the process. When the process stops, the service manager for the operating system should restart Relica within a few seconds, and it will be running the newer version.