From a08b058fa06a426d608bd059f2ce496b246e99bc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Thalian Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2020 21:28:40 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] =?UTF-8?q?[DOCS]=20#2929=20=E2=80=93=20Document=20how=20t?= =?UTF-8?q?o=20completely=20delete=20data?= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Add new FAQ entry that lists two ways how to really delete files from archives. fixes #2929 --- docs/faq.rst | 18 +++++++++++++----- 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/faq.rst b/docs/faq.rst index 07bb11a3e..51852e910 100644 --- a/docs/faq.rst +++ b/docs/faq.rst @@ -335,11 +335,19 @@ also supports the ``--glob-archives`` parameter. How do I remove files from an existing backup? ---------------------------------------------- -Say you now want to remove old logfiles because you changed your -backup policy as described above. The only way to do this is to use -the :ref:`borg_recreate` command to rewrite all archives with a -different ``--exclude`` pattern. See the examples in the -:ref:`borg_recreate` manpage for more information. +A file is only removed from a BorgBackup repository if all archives that contain +the file are deleted and the corresponding data chunks are removed from the +repository There are two ways how to remove files from a repository. + +1. Use :ref:`borg_delete` to remove all archives that contain the files. This +will of course delete everything in the archive, not only some files. + +2. If you really want to remove only some specific files, you can run the +:ref:`borg_recreate` command to rewrite all archives with a different +``--exclude`` pattern. See the examples in the manpage for more information. + +Finally, run :ref:`borg_compact` with the ``--threshold 0`` option to delete the +data chunks from the repository. Can I safely change the compression level or algorithm? --------------------------------------------------------