BORG-DELETE(1)                 borg backup tool                 BORG-DELETE(1)

NAME
       borg-delete - Delete an existing repository or archives

SYNOPSIS
       borg [common options] delete [options] [REPOSITORY_OR_ARCHIVE]
       [ARCHIVE...]

DESCRIPTION
       This command deletes an archive from the repository or the complete
       repository.

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

       When you delete a complete repository, the security info and local
       cache for it (if any) are also deleted. Alternatively, you can delete
       just the local cache with the --cache-only option, or keep the security
       info with the --keep-security-info option.

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

       When using --stats, you will get some statistics about how much data
       was deleted - the "Deleted data" deduplicated size there is most
       interesting as that is how much your repository will shrink.  Please
       note that the "All archives" stats refer to the state after deletion.

       You can delete multiple archives by specifying a shell pattern to match
       multiple archives using the --glob-archives GLOB option (for more info
       on these patterns, see borg_patterns).

       To avoid accidentally deleting archives, especially when using glob
       patterns, it might be helpful to use the --dry-run to test out the
       command without actually making any changes to the repository.

OPTIONS
       See borg-common(1) for common options of Borg commands.

   arguments

       REPOSITORY_OR_ARCHIVE
              repository or archive to delete

       ARCHIVE
              archives to delete

   optional arguments

       -n, --dry-run
              do not change repository

       --list output verbose list of archives

       -s, --stats
              print statistics for the deleted archive

       --cache-only
              delete only the local cache for the given repository

       --force
              force deletion of corrupted archives, use --force --force in
              case --force does not work.

       --keep-security-info
              keep the local security info when deleting a repository

       --save-space
              work slower, but using less space

       -c SECONDS, --checkpoint-interval SECONDS
              write checkpoint every SECONDS seconds (Default: 1800)

   Archive filters

       -P PREFIX, --prefix PREFIX
              only consider archive names starting with this prefix.
              (deprecated)

       -a GLOB, --glob-archives GLOB
              only consider archive names matching the glob. sh: rules apply
              (without actually using the sh: prefix), see "borg help
              patterns".

       --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

EXAMPLES

          # delete a single backup archive:
          $ borg delete /path/to/repo::Monday
          # actually free disk space:
          $ borg compact /path/to/repo

          # delete all archives whose names begin with the machine's hostname followed by "-"
          $ borg delete --glob-archives '{hostname}-*' /path/to/repo

          # delete all archives whose names contain "-2012-"
          $ borg delete --glob-archives '*-2012-*' /path/to/repo

          # see what would be deleted if delete was run without --dry-run
          $ borg delete --list --dry-run -a '*-May-*' /path/to/repo

          # delete the whole repository and the related local cache:
          $ borg delete /path/to/repo
          You requested to completely DELETE the repository *including* all archives it contains:
          repo                                 Mon, 2016-02-15 19:26:54
          root-2016-02-15                      Mon, 2016-02-15 19:36:29
          newname                              Mon, 2016-02-15 19:50:19
          Type 'YES' if you understand this and want to continue: YES

SEE ALSO
       borg-common(1), borg-compact(1)

AUTHOR
       The Borg Collective

                                  2024-03-29                    BORG-DELETE(1)