borg delete

borg [common options] delete [options] [NAME]

positional arguments

NAME

specify the archive name

optional arguments

-n, --dry-run

do not change repository

--list

output verbose list of archives

Common options

Archive filters — Archive filters can be applied to repository targets.

-a PATTERN, --match-archives PATTERN

only consider archive names matching the pattern. see “borg help match-archives”.

--sort-by KEYS

Comma-separated list of sorting keys; valid keys are: timestamp, archive, name, id; default is: timestamp

--first N

consider first N archives after other filters were applied

--last N

consider last N archives after other filters were applied

--oldest TIMESPAN

consider archives between the oldest archive’s timestamp and (oldest + TIMESPAN), e.g. 7d or 12m.

--newest TIMESPAN

consider archives between the newest archive’s timestamp and (newest - TIMESPAN), e.g. 7d or 12m.

--older TIMESPAN

consider archives older than (now - TIMESPAN), e.g. 7d or 12m.

--newer TIMESPAN

consider archives newer than (now - TIMESPAN), e.g. 7d or 12m.

Description

This command deletes archives from the repository.

Important: When deleting archives, repository disk space is not freed until you run borg compact.

When in doubt, use --dry-run --list to see what would be deleted.

You can delete multiple archives by specifying a matching pattern, using the --match-archives PATTERN option (for more info on these patterns, see borg help patterns).

Examples

# delete all backup archives named "kenny-files":
$ borg delete -a kenny-files
# actually free disk space:
$ borg compact

# delete a specific backup archive using its unique archive ID prefix
$ borg delete aid:d34db33f

# delete all archives whose names begin with the machine's hostname followed by "-"
$ borg delete -a 'sh:{hostname}-*'

# delete all archives whose names contain "-2012-"
$ borg delete -a 'sh:*-2012-*'

# see what would be deleted if delete was run without --dry-run
$ borg delete --list --dry-run -a 'sh:*-May-*'