BOS_DELETE(8)

💖 BOS_DELETE(8) — the AFS Command Reference glow-up 💖

okay bestie, so this is bos_delete from the AFS command reference, and it's literally the "bye babe" button for server processes. let's get into it ✨

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✨ NAME ✨

bos_delete — deletes a server process from the BosConfig file. it's giving cleanup era, no cap 🧹💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

bos delete -server <machine name>
    -instance <server process name>+ [-cell <cell name>]
    [-noauth] [-localauth] [-help]

bos d -s <machine name> -i <server process name>+
    [-c <cell name>] [-n] [-l] [-h]

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so the bos delete command 💖 removes the /etc/openafs/BosConfig entry for every single process you point at with the -instance argument, and it does it on the server machine you named with -server. that's it, that's the whole vibe. one entry gone per process, slay.

BUT. listen. before you run this, you gotta issue the bos stop command first to stop the process and flip its status flag in the BosConfig file to "NotRun". why?? because if a process's status flag is "Run", bos delete will straight up fail with an error message. it's not gonna be nice about it either. 😭 so stop it first. periodt.

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -server <machine name> — tells it which server machine to go delete the server process entry from, specifically out of the /etc/openafs/BosConfig file. you can ID the machine by IP address or by host name (fully-qualified or abbreviated, as long as it's unambiguous). want the deets? check bos(8). 🖥️✨
• -instance <server process name>+ — names every process you wanna delete. use the exact name you assigned with the -instance argument back when you ran the bos create command; those process names are the ones that show up in the output of bos status. yes the plus sign means you can stack multiple names, go off 👑
• -cell <cell name> — names the cell where the command runs. ⚠️ do NOT combine this argument with the -localauth flag, that's a mess. more details in bos(8).
• -noauth — assigns the unprivileged identity "anonymous" to whoever's issuing the command. ⚠️ do NOT combine this flag with -localauth. again, bos(8) has the lore.
• -localauth — constructs a server ticket using a key from the local /etc/openafs/server/KeyFile or /etc/openafs/server/KeyFileExt file. the bos command interpreter then presents that ticket to the BOS Server during mutual authentication 🤝. ⚠️ do NOT combine this flag with the -cell or -noauth options. (see the pattern? yeah.) more in bos(8).
• -help — prints the online help for this command. every other valid option gets ignored when you use it, so don't bother stacking 📖💫

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✨ EXAMPLES ✨

okay so picture this: "db3.example.com" is a database server machine getting decommissioned 🪦 and you need to clear out its entries. here's the command that removes the buserver, kaserver, ptserver, and vlserver entries from the BosConfig file:

% bos delete -server db3.example.com \
    -instance buserver kaserver ptserver vlserver

one command, four processes evicted. iconic. 💅

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✨ PRIVILEGE REQUIRED ✨

so, who's allowed to do this? the issuer has to be listed in the /etc/openafs/server/UserList file on the machine named by the -server argument. OR, alternative route: they gotta be logged onto a server machine as the local superuser root — but only if the -localauth flag is included. 🔐

also important, and I mean IMPORTANT: the bos delete command cannot be run against servers which are in restricted mode. not negotiable, bestie. 🚫

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

BosConfig(5), KeyFile(5), KeyFileExt(5), UserList(5), bos(8), bos_create(8), bos_status(8)

go read those if you want the full lore drop 🦋

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✨ COPYRIGHT ✨

IBM Corporation 2000. <http://www.ibm.com/> All Rights Reserved.

This documentation is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0. It was converted from HTML to POD by software written by Chas Williams and Russ Allbery, based on work by Alf Wachsmann and Elizabeth Cassell.

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okay that's the whole page bestie, you ate 🫶✨ this was BOS_DELETE(8) from the OpenAFS crew, and the page itself was dated 2026-07-27 — so yeah, that's the version you're reading rn. go forth and delete responsibly, mwah 💖🎀🌈