borg delete

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

positional arguments
	NAME	specify the archive name
options
	-n, --dry-run	do not change the repository
	--list	output a verbose list of archives
Common options
Archive filters — Archive filters can be applied to repository targets.
	-a PATTERN, --match-archives PATTERN	only consider archives matching all patterns. See “borg help match-archives”.
	--sort-by KEYS	Comma-separated list of sorting keys; valid keys are: timestamp, archive, name, id, tags, host, user; default is: timestamp
	--first N	consider the first N archives after other filters are applied
	--last N	consider the last N archives after other filters are 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 soft-deletes archives from the repository.

Important:

• The delete command will only mark archives for deletion (“soft-deletion”), repository disk space is not freed until you run borg compact.

• You can use borg undelete to undelete archives, but only 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 match pattern using the --match-archives PATTERN option (for more information 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-*'