borg-info(1)

📦
version 1.4.5 · 7 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, ubuntu stonking

💖 borg-info — the bestie that tells you what's actually inside your archive 💖

okay so you're here for borg-info, aka the part of the borg backup tool that spills ALL the tea about how much disk space your archive (or repo) is really eating. no cap, this one is iconic. 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

borg [common options] info [options] [REPOSITORY_OR_ARCHIVE]

that's it bestie. one command and the receipts are on the table. 💅

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so this command shows you the detailed info about whatever archive or repository you point it at. everything. all of it. 🔥

but listen — this is the part people get wrong and it's lowkey important. the deduplicated sizes of the individual archives do not add up to the deduplicated size of the repository (the "all archives" one). they mean two totally different things, so don't be out here doing math and getting confused:

  • This archive / deduplicated size = the amount of data stored ONLY for this archive = the unique chunks of this archive.
  • All archives / deduplicated size = the amount of data stored in the repository = all the chunks in the repository.

see? different vibes entirely. 🙈

also, heads up: borg archives can only hold a limited amount of file metadata. how big an archive gets relative to that limit depends on a bunch of stuff — mainly the number of files, the lengths of the paths, and other metadata stored for the files. borg shows you this as the utilization of maximum supported archive size. so that percentage? that's your metadata usage, bestie. 👑

💜 OPTIONS 💜

borg-common(1) has the common options for all borg commands, go check it out if you need those.

🎀 arguments

  • REPOSITORY_OR_ARCHIVE — the repository or archive you want the info on. aka: tell me what to snoop on. 🔍

💅 options

  • --json — format output as JSON. for when you want your data machine-readable and also iconic.

🦋 Archive filters

  • -P PREFIX, --prefix PREFIX — only consider archive names starting with this prefix. (deprecated, bestie — still works, but it's giving legacy.)
  • -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 ⭐

here's what it looks like irl, and yes it does eat:

$ borg info /path/to/repo::2017-06-29T11:00-srv
Archive name: 2017-06-29T11:00-srv
Archive fingerprint: b2f1beac2bd553b34e06358afa45a3c1689320d39163890c5bbbd49125f00fe5
Comment:
Hostname: myhostname
Username: root
Time (start): Thu, 2017-06-29 11:03:07
Time (end): Thu, 2017-06-29 11:03:13
Duration: 5.66 seconds
Number of files: 17037
Command line: /usr/sbin/borg create /path/to/repo::2017-06-29T11:00-srv /srv
Utilization of max. archive size: 0%
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Original size      Compressed size    Deduplicated size
This archive:               12.53 GB             12.49 GB              1.62 kB
All archives:              121.82 TB            112.41 TB            215.42 GB

                       Unique chunks         Total chunks
Chunk index:                 1015213            626934122

and like, if you want the newest one only, --last 1 has your back:

$ borg info /path/to/repo --last 1
Archive name: 2017-06-29T11:00-srv
Archive fingerprint: b2f1beac2bd553b34e06358afa45a3c1689320d39163890c5bbbd49125f00fe5
Comment:
Hostname: myhostname
Username: root
Time (start): Thu, 2017-06-29 11:03:07
Time (end): Thu, 2017-06-29 11:03:13
Duration: 5.66 seconds
Number of files: 17037
Command line: /usr/sbin/borg create /path/to/repo::2017-06-29T11:00-srv /srv
Utilization of max. archive size: 0%
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Original size      Compressed size    Deduplicated size
This archive:               12.53 GB             12.49 GB              1.62 kB
All archives:              121.82 TB            112.41 TB            215.42 GB

                       Unique chunks         Total chunks
Chunk index:                 1015213            626934122

and if you hand it just the repo, no archive at all? it gives you the whole-repo rundown instead:

$ borg info /path/to/repo
Repository ID: d857ce5788c51272c61535062e89eac4e8ef5a884ffbe976e0af9d8765dedfa5
Location: /path/to/repo
Encrypted: Yes (repokey)
Cache: /root/.cache/borg/d857ce5788c51272c61535062e89eac4e8ef5a884ffbe976e0af9d8765dedfa5
Security dir: /root/.config/borg/security/d857ce5788c51272c61535062e89eac4e8ef5a884ffbe976e0af9d8765dedfa5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Original size      Compressed size    Deduplicated size
All archives:              121.82 TB            112.41 TB            215.42 GB

                       Unique chunks         Total chunks
Chunk index:                 1015213            626934122

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

👑 Author

The Borg Collective — the whole squad, fr fr.

and that's the whole page bestie, you're literally an expert now 🧚

this page is from the borg backup tool, version dated 2026-07-18, and it's borg-info(1). go forth and check your disk space, queen. 💖✨
📦 where this page comes from