How do you restore a Mnesia database from a backup?

mnesia:restore/2 loads data from a backup file back into a running (or freshly initialized) Mnesia instance, with options controlling exactly how the restored data merges with what's already there.

mnesia:restore("/var/backups/mnesia_20260101.bak",
    [{default_op, recreate_tables}]).

The options passed as the second argument matter a lot: recreate_tables drops and rebuilds each table fresh from the backup, while other option combinations can instead merge backup data into existing tables, or skip tables that already exist. Restoring is typically done onto a stopped or freshly started node as a deliberate recovery operation, and it's good practice to verify the restored table sizes and a few sample records afterward rather than assuming the restore silently succeeded.

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