Cleanup
When using resticprofile for backups, regular cleanup of old snapshots and repository pruning is essential to keep the backup repository manageable and avoid running out of storage.
Restic uses snapshots to save states of your backups over time. Old snapshots can accumulate and consume a lot of space. Cleaning up involves two main steps:
- Forget snapshots according to a retention policy.
- Prune the repository to remove unreferenced data.
!!! tip “Preview operations with –dry-run”
You can add the `--dry-run` flag to most of the commands below to have `resticprofile` show you what it would clean up, without actually performing the operation.
“Difference between ‘prune’ and ‘forget’”
The forget operation deletes snapshot metadata & refs, but it does not delete the actual backup data. This means you can run this operation frequently, as it’s a quick operation that queues up objects for deletion when a prune command is run.
The prune command cleans up the repository by removing the actual data blobs and packs that are no longer referenced by any snapshot. It performs a low-level reorganization of the repository to reclaim storage space by deleting unneeded backup data. This operation is slower and should be run less frequently, i.e. once a week or as-needed when the repository is too large.
Forget Old Snapshots
The forget command removes snapshot metadata & refs when the backup’s forget: conditions are met. The command does not delete any of the actual data in the backups, but it marks them for deletion with the prune command.
resticprofile -c ~/profiles.yaml forgetYou can optionally add --prune to perform a pruning operation at the same time.
Prune backup data
The prune command uses a similar schedule as the forget command, but also deletes the underlying blob data. This operation takes longer than forget, and is destructive.
resticprofile -c ~/profiles.yaml --name profile-name pruneCheck integrity after cleanup
After running a cleanup/forget command, you should run a check to ensure the integrity of your backups:
resticprofile -c ~/profiles.yaml --name profile-name check