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borg-delete(1) borg backup tool borg-delete(1)

Name

borg-delete - Deletes archives.

SYNOPSIS

borg [common options] delete [options] [NAME]

DESCRIPTION

This command soft-deletes archives from the repository.

Important:

  • The delete command will only mark archives for deletion ("soft-deletion"), repository disk space is not freed until you run borg compact.
  • You can use borg undelete to undelete archives, but only until you run borg compact.

When in doubt, use --dry-run --list to see what would be deleted.

You can delete multiple archives by specifying a match pattern using the --match-archives PATTERN option (for more information on these patterns, see borg_patterns).

OPTIONS

See borg-common(1) for common options of Borg commands.

arguments

specify the archive name

options

do not change the repository
output a verbose list of archives

Archive filters

only consider archives matching all patterns. See "borg help match-archives".
Comma-separated list of sorting keys; valid keys are: timestamp, archive, name, id, tags, host, user; default is: timestamp
consider the first N archives after other filters are applied
consider the last N archives after other filters are applied
consider archives between the oldest archive's timestamp and (oldest + TIMESPAN), e.g., 7d or 12m.
consider archives between the newest archive's timestamp and (newest - TIMESPAN), e.g., 7d or 12m.
consider archives older than (now - TIMESPAN), e.g., 7d or 12m.
consider archives newer than (now - TIMESPAN), e.g., 7d or 12m.

EXAMPLES

# Delete all backup archives named "kenny-files":
$ borg delete -a kenny-files
# Actually free disk space:
$ borg compact
# Delete a specific backup archive using its unique archive ID prefix
$ borg delete aid:d34db33f
# Delete all archives whose names begin with the machine's hostname followed by "-"
$ borg delete -a 'sh:{hostname}-*'
# Delete all archives whose names contain "-2012-"
$ borg delete -a 'sh:*-2012-*'
# See what would be deleted if delete was run without --dry-run
$ borg delete --list --dry-run -a 'sh:*-May-*'


SEE ALSO

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

Author

The Borg Collective

2025-12-26