docs/misc/prune-example.txt
borg prune visualized
=====================
Assume it is 2016-01-01, today's backup has not yet been made, you have
created at least one backup on each day in 2015 except on 2015-12-19 (no
backup made on that day), and you started backing up with borg on
2015-01-01.
This is what borg prune --keep-daily 14 --keep-monthly 6 --keep-yearly 1
would keep.
Backups kept by the --keep-daily rule are marked by a "d" to the right,
backups kept by the --keep-monthly rule are marked by a "m" to the right,
and backups kept by the --keep-yearly rule are marked by a "y" to the
right.
Calendar view
-------------
2015
January February March
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1y 2 3 4 1 1
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
26 27 28 29 30 31 23 24 25 26 27 28 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31
April May June
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
27 28 29 30 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 29 30m
July August September
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1 2 3 4 5 1 2 1 2 3 4 5 6
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
13 14 15 16 17 18 19 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
27 28 29 30 31m 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 28 29 30m
31m
October November December
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1 2 3 4 1 1 2 3 4 5 6
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 14 15 16 17d18d19 20d
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 21d22d23d24d25d26d27d
26 27 28 29 30 31m 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 28d29d30d31d
30m
List view
---------
--keep-daily 14 --keep-monthly 6 --keep-yearly 1
----------------------------------------------------------------
1. 2015-12-31 (2015-12-31 kept (2015-12-31 kept
2. 2015-12-30 by daily rule) by daily rule)
3. 2015-12-29 1. 2015-11-30 1. 2015-01-01 (oldest)
4. 2015-12-28 2. 2015-10-31
5. 2015-12-27 3. 2015-09-30
6. 2015-12-26 4. 2015-08-31
7. 2015-12-25 5. 2015-07-31
8. 2015-12-24 6. 2015-06-30
9. 2015-12-23
10. 2015-12-22
11. 2015-12-21
12. 2015-12-20
(no backup made on 2015-12-19)
13. 2015-12-18
14. 2015-12-17
Notes
-----
2015-12-31 is kept due to the --keep-daily 14 rule (because it is applied
first), not due to the --keep-monthly or --keep-yearly rule.
The --keep-yearly 1 rule does not consider the December 31st backup because it
has already been kept due to the daily rule. There are no backups available
from previous years, so the --keep-yearly target of 1 backup is not satisfied.
Because of this, the 2015-01-01 archive (the oldest archive available) is kept.
The --keep-monthly 6 rule keeps Nov, Oct, Sep, Aug, Jul and Jun. December is
not considered for this rule, because that backup was already kept because of
the daily rule.
2015-12-17 is kept to satisfy the --keep-daily 14 rule - because no backup was
made on 2015-12-19. If a backup had been made on that day, it would not keep
the one from 2015-12-17.
We did not include weekly, hourly, minutely or secondly rules to keep this
example simple. They all work in basically the same way.
The weekly rule is easy to understand roughly, but hard to understand in all
details. If interested, read "ISO 8601:2000 standard week-based year".