Backup Radicale to git

Radicale allows for storage hooks to record changes in git. Getting it working in a container is a bit more involved though. You need:

1. A .gitconfig
2. Access to the repository
3. Configuring Radicale

Set up .gitconfig

git requires a global .gitconfig containing at least a name and email to be able to create commits:

[user]
        email = <a@email.address>
        name = <Some name>

This needs to be mounted into the container (this example assumes the root user):

Volume=/var/<somewhere>>/.gitconfig:/root/.gitconfig:Z,ro

Give Radicale access to the repository

ssh is not available in the repository, we have to use https. To keep things simple, you can add the user and password to the repository URL itself:

git remote add origin https://<user>:<password>@<repository>.git

Forgejo supports repository scoped access tokens that are ideal in this case (added to version 15). The token must be used instead of the password and can be restricted to a single repository.

For other git hosts, check what is available and avoid storing your actual user password in plaintext.

Configure Radicale

Add a hook to commit and upload changes to your radicale config:

[storage]
hook = git add -A && (git diff --cached --quiet || git commit -m "Changes by \"%(user)s\"") && git push

2026-05-10