borg-delete(1)

✨ borg-delete(1) ✨

okay bestie, we're doing the borg backup tool today and this one is borg-delete, which is literally the "get it out of my sight" command. deleting repos, deleting archives, deleting vibes. let's go 💅

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🌸 NAME 🌸

borg-delete — delete an existing repository or archives

like, gone gone. no cap. 💀

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

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

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

This command deletes an archive from the repository, or the complete repository if you're feeling dramatic. Either way, it's giving demolition era.

IMPORTANT, FR FR: when you delete archives, the repository disk space is NOT freed until you run borg compact. not me finding out the hard way 😭 the space is still there, just vibing, unusable. so go run compact after, okay?

When you delete a complete repository, the security info and the local cache for it (if any exist) get yeeted too. alternatively you can delete just the local cache with the --cache-only option, or keep the security info around with the --keep-security-info option. so many little switches, obsessed.

When in doubt (and bestie, you should be in doubt, this is a delete command), use --dry-run --list to see what would be deleted. that's your vibe check before you commit to anything. ✨

When you use --stats, you get some stats about how much data was deleted. the "Deleted data" deduplicated size is the most interesting one, because that's literally how much your repository will shrink. 📉 please note that the "All archives" stats refer to the state after deletion — so, post-glow-up numbers. also --stats can be slow, so if you want something faster, use --quick-stats (it skips the repository-wide "All archives" statistics). heads up though: --stats / --quick-stats and --dry-run are mutually exclusive, you cannot have both, pick a lane queen 💅

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). matching multiple things at once? slay. scary? also yes.

To avoid accidentally deleting archives (especially when you're out here using glob patterns, which is such a dangerous game), it might be helpful to use --dry-run to test out the command without actually making any changes to the repository. the way that --dry-run has your back 🫶

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🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

See borg-common(1) for common options of Borg commands. (those are the shared ones, we're just doing the delete-specific ones here)

💖 arguments 💖

• REPOSITORY_OR_ARCHIVE — the repository or the archive you want to delete
• ARCHIVE — archives to delete (yep, plural, you can list more than one)

⭐ options ⭐

• -n, --dry-run — do not change repository. it's a pretend delete, a dress rehearsal, a "what if" 🎀
• --list — output verbose list of archives
• -s, --stats — print statistics for the deleted archive
• --quick-stats — print only deletion statistics, skipping repository-wide statistics. the fast version, for when you don't have all day
• --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. yes bestie, that's real, you double the force when one force isn't forcing 💀
• --keep-security-info — keep the local security info when deleting a repository
• --save-space — work slower, but using less space. trading time for disk, the eternal bargain
• -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 — so like, it's old, it's tired, use the glob instead 🙈)
• -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

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🔥 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 were 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 that last one? it literally makes you type YES in all caps. it's asking you to mean it. main character energy, honestly 👑

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

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

(run the compact one after, for real, your disk space is waiting bestie)

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💜 Author 💜

The Borg Collective

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<div align="center">✨ that's the whole page, no notes ✨</div>

okay so this was from the borg backup tool, dated 2026-07-18, and it's borg-delete(1) — go forth and delete responsibly, queen 🫶💖🌸