bup-rm(1)

✨ NAME ✨

bup-rm — bestie, this is the one that removes references to archive content 💅

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

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

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Okay so bup rm takes the branches (aka backup sets) and saves you point at it and removes them. That's it, that's the job. 🎀

But real talk — by itself this command does not delete any actual data, and it does not recover any storage space. What it can do is make it very difficult or impossible to refer to the deleted items ever again, unless there are other references to them hanging around (like tags, bestie — tags are your safety net 🫶).

Then, later, a garbage collection via bup gc may permanently delete data that's no longer reachable from the remaining branches or tags, and reclaim the related storage space. 🗑️✨

Also yes, the same would apply to a git gc on the repository — BUT, and listen closely, the safety of running git gc on a bup repository has not been carefully evaluated, and it should be avoided. Do not do the thing. 🙈

If you already know git(1), here's the vibe check: removing branches is similar to git branch -D BRANCH, and removing saves is like a git-rebase --interactive that removes commits. Same energy, different repo. 😌

WARNING: This is one of the few bup commands that modifies your archive in intentionally destructive ways. Like, on purpose. It's giving "main character who destroys the archive" 💀

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🌸 OPTIONS 🌸

• -v, --verbose — turn the verbosity up ⬆️ (and you can use it more than once, so stack it if you're feeling extra).
• -#, --compress=# — set the compression level to #, a value from 0-9, where 9 is the highest and 0 is no compression. The default is 6. This applies to the rewritten branches (commits). 🔥

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🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

# Delete the backup set (branch) foo and a save in bar.
$ bup rm /foo /bar/2014-10-21-214720

Slay. Two things gone, one command. 👑

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

bup-gc(1), bup-save(1), bup-fsck(1), and bup-tag(1)

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💜 BUP 💜

Part of the bup(1) suite.

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🎀 AUTHORS 🎀

Rob Browning rlb@defaultvalue.org

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And that's the whole page, bestie — bup-rm(1), shipped as part of Bup 0.34 on 2026-09-01. Go be careful with your archive, ily, bye 🫶✨