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 their common prefix, if they have one,
       using the --prefix PREFIX option. You can also specify a shell pattern to  match  multiple
       archives  using  the  --glob-archives  GLOB  option  (for more info on these patterns, see
       borg_patterns). Note that these two options are mutually exclusive.

       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.

       -a GLOB, --glob-archives GLOB
              only  consider  archive  names  matching  the glob. sh: rules apply, see "borg help
              patterns". --prefix and --glob-archives are mutually exclusive.

       --sort-by KEYS
              Comma-separated list of sorting keys; valid keys are: timestamp, 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 --prefix '{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

                                            2022-08-20                             BORG-DELETE(1)