NAME

       bup-gc - remove unreferenced, unneeded data (CAUTION: EXPERIMENTAL)

SYNOPSIS

       bup gc [-#|--verbose] <branch|save...>

DESCRIPTION

       bup gc  removes  (permanently  deletes) unreachable data from the repository, data that isn't referred to
       directly or indirectly by the current set of branches (backup sets) and tags.  But bear in mind that giv‐
       en deduplication, deleting a save and running the garbage collector might or might  not  actually  delete
       anything (or reclaim any space).

       With  the  current, proababilistic implementation, some fraction of the unreachable data may be retained.
       In exchange, the garbage collection should require much less RAM than might  by  some  more  precise  ap‐
       proaches.

       Typically, the garbage collector would be invoked after some set of invocations of bup rm.

       WARNING:  This  is  one  of  the few bup commands that modifies your archive in intentionally destructive
       ways.  Though if an attempt to join or restore the data you still care about after a gc succeeds,  that's
       a fairly encouraging sign that the commands worked correctly.  (The t/compare-trees command in the source
       tree can be used to help test before/after results.)

OPTIONS

       --threshold=N
              only  rewrite  a  packfile  if it's over N percent garbage; otherwise leave it alone.  The default
              threshold is 10%.

       -v, --verbose
              increase verbosity (can be used more than once).  With one -v, bup prints every directory name  as
              it gets backed up.  With two -v, it also prints every filename.

       -#, --compress=#
              set the compression level to # (a value from 0-9, where 9 is the highest and 0 is no compression).
              The default is 1 (fast, loose compression).

EXAMPLES

              # Remove all saves of "home" and most of the otherwise unreferenced data.
              $ bup rm home
              $ bup gc

SEE ALSO

       bup-rm(1) and bup-fsck(1)

BUP

       Part of the bup(1) suite.

AUTHORS

       Rob Browning <rlb@defaultvalue.org>.

Bup debian/0.29-3                                  2017-04-01                                          bup-gc(1)