NAME

       borg-delete - Delete an existing repository or archives

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

       This command deletes an archive from the repository or the complete repository.

       Important: When deleting archives, repository disk space is not freed until you run borg compact.

       When  you  delete  a  complete  repository,  the  security  info and local cache for it (if any) are also
       deleted. Alternatively, you can delete just the local cache with the --cache-only  option,  or  keep  the
       security info with the --keep-security-info option.

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

       When  using  --stats,  you  will get some statistics about how much data was deleted - the "Deleted data"
       deduplicated size there is most interesting as that is how much your repository will shrink.  Please note
       that the "All archives" stats refer to the state after deletion.

       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).

       To  avoid accidentally deleting archives, especially when using glob patterns, it might be helpful to use
       the --dry-run to test out the command without actually making any changes to the repository.

OPTIONS

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

   arguments
       REPOSITORY_OR_ARCHIVE
              repository or archive to delete

       ARCHIVE
              archives to delete

   options
       -n, --dry-run
              do not change repository

       --list output verbose list of archives

       -s, --stats
              print statistics for the deleted archive

       --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.

       --keep-security-info
              keep the local security info when deleting a repository

       --save-space
              work slower, but using less space

       -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)

       -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

          # 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 was 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 ALSO

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

AUTHOR

       The Borg Collective

                                                   2025-04-18                                     BORG-DELETE(1)