borg/docs/man/borg-prune.1

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.TH "BORG-PRUNE" 1 "2024-09-09" "" "borg backup tool"
.SH NAME
borg-prune \- Prune repository archives according to specified rules
.SH SYNOPSIS
.sp
borg [common options] prune [options]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.sp
The prune command prunes a repository by deleting all archives not matching
any of the specified retention options.
.sp
Important: Repository disk space is \fBnot\fP freed until you run \fBborg compact\fP\&.
.sp
This command is normally used by automated backup scripts wanting to keep a
certain number of historic backups. This retention policy is commonly referred to as
\fI\%GFS\fP
(Grandfather\-father\-son) backup rotation scheme.
.sp
If you use \-\-match\-archives (\-a), then only archives that match the pattern are
considered for deletion and only those archives count towards the totals
specified by the rules.
Otherwise, \fIall\fP archives in the repository are candidates for deletion!
There is no automatic distinction between archives representing different
contents. These need to be distinguished by specifying matching globs.
.sp
If you have multiple sequences of archives with different data sets (e.g.
from different machines) in one shared repository, use one prune call per
data set that matches only the respective archives using the \-\-match\-archives
(\-a) option.
.sp
The \fB\-\-keep\-within\fP option takes an argument of the form \(dq<int><char>\(dq,
where char is \(dqH\(dq, \(dqd\(dq, \(dqw\(dq, \(dqm\(dq, \(dqy\(dq. For example, \fB\-\-keep\-within 2d\fP means
to keep all archives that were created within the past 48 hours.
\(dq1m\(dq is taken to mean \(dq31d\(dq. The archives kept with this option do not
count towards the totals specified by any other options.
.sp
A good procedure is to thin out more and more the older your backups get.
As an example, \fB\-\-keep\-daily 7\fP means to keep the latest backup on each day,
up to 7 most recent days with backups (days without backups do not count).
The rules are applied from secondly to yearly, and backups selected by previous
rules do not count towards those of later rules. The time that each backup
starts is used for pruning purposes. Dates and times are interpreted in the local
timezone of the system where borg prune runs, and weeks go from Monday to Sunday.
Specifying a negative number of archives to keep means that there is no limit.
As of borg 1.2.0, borg will retain the oldest archive if any of the secondly,
minutely, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly rules was not otherwise able to
meet its retention target. This enables the first chronological archive to continue
aging until it is replaced by a newer archive that meets the retention criteria.
.sp
The \fB\-\-keep\-last N\fP option is doing the same as \fB\-\-keep\-secondly N\fP (and it will
keep the last N archives under the assumption that you do not create more than one
backup archive in the same second).
.sp
You can influence how the \fB\-\-list\fP output is formatted by using the \fB\-\-short\fP
option (less wide output) or by giving a custom format using \fB\-\-format\fP (see
the \fBborg repo\-list\fP description for more details about the format string).
.SH OPTIONS
.sp
See \fIborg\-common(1)\fP for common options of Borg commands.
.SS optional arguments
.INDENT 0.0
.TP
.B  \-n\fP,\fB  \-\-dry\-run
do not change repository
.TP
.B  \-\-list
output verbose list of archives it keeps/prunes
.TP
.B  \-\-short
use a less wide archive part format
.TP
.B  \-\-list\-pruned
output verbose list of archives it prunes
.TP
.B  \-\-list\-kept
output verbose list of archives it keeps
.TP
.BI \-\-format \ FORMAT
specify format for the archive part (default: \(dq{archive:<36} {time} [{id}]\(dq)
.TP
.BI \-\-keep\-within \ INTERVAL
keep all archives within this time interval
.TP
.B  \-\-keep\-last\fP,\fB  \-\-keep\-secondly
number of secondly archives to keep
.TP
.B  \-\-keep\-minutely
number of minutely archives to keep
.TP
.B  \-H\fP,\fB  \-\-keep\-hourly
number of hourly archives to keep
.TP
.B  \-d\fP,\fB  \-\-keep\-daily
number of daily archives to keep
.TP
.B  \-w\fP,\fB  \-\-keep\-weekly
number of weekly archives to keep
.TP
.B  \-m\fP,\fB  \-\-keep\-monthly
number of monthly archives to keep
.TP
.B  \-y\fP,\fB  \-\-keep\-yearly
number of yearly archives to keep
.UNINDENT
.SS Archive filters
.INDENT 0.0
.TP
.BI \-a \ PATTERN\fR,\fB \ \-\-match\-archives \ PATTERN
only consider archive names matching the pattern. see \(dqborg help match\-archives\(dq.
.TP
.BI \-\-oldest \ TIMESPAN
consider archives between the oldest archive\(aqs timestamp and (oldest + TIMESPAN), e.g. 7d or 12m.
.TP
.BI \-\-newest \ TIMESPAN
consider archives between the newest archive\(aqs timestamp and (newest \- TIMESPAN), e.g. 7d or 12m.
.TP
.BI \-\-older \ TIMESPAN
consider archives older than (now \- TIMESPAN), e.g. 7d or 12m.
.TP
.BI \-\-newer \ TIMESPAN
consider archives newer than (now \- TIMESPAN), e.g. 7d or 12m.
.UNINDENT
.SH EXAMPLES
.sp
Be careful, prune is a potentially dangerous command, it will remove backup
archives.
.sp
The default of prune is to apply to \fBall archives in the repository\fP unless
you restrict its operation to a subset of the archives using \fB\-a\fP / \fB\-\-match\-archives\fP\&.
When using \fB\-a\fP, be careful to choose a good pattern \- e.g. do not use a
prefix \(dqfoo\(dq if you do not also want to match \(dqfoobar\(dq.
.sp
It is strongly recommended to always run \fBprune \-v \-\-list \-\-dry\-run ...\fP
first so you will see what it would do without it actually doing anything.
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.nf
.ft C
# Keep 7 end of day and 4 additional end of week archives.
# Do a dry\-run without actually deleting anything.
$ borg prune \-v \-\-list \-\-dry\-run \-\-keep\-daily=7 \-\-keep\-weekly=4

# Same as above but only apply to archive names starting with the hostname
# of the machine followed by a \(dq\-\(dq character:
$ borg prune \-v \-\-list \-\-keep\-daily=7 \-\-keep\-weekly=4 \-a \(aqsh:{hostname}\-*\(aq
# actually free disk space:
$ borg compact

# Keep 7 end of day, 4 additional end of week archives,
# and an end of month archive for every month:
$ borg prune \-v \-\-list \-\-keep\-daily=7 \-\-keep\-weekly=4 \-\-keep\-monthly=\-1

# Keep all backups in the last 10 days, 4 additional end of week archives,
# and an end of month archive for every month:
$ borg prune \-v \-\-list \-\-keep\-within=10d \-\-keep\-weekly=4 \-\-keep\-monthly=\-1
.ft P
.fi
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
There is also a visualized prune example in \fBdocs/misc/prune\-example.txt\fP\&.
.SH SEE ALSO
.sp
\fIborg\-common(1)\fP, \fIborg\-compact(1)\fP
.SH AUTHOR
The Borg Collective
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