bup-rm(1) Bup 0.34+

Rob Browning

2026-09-01

NAME

bup-rm - remove references to archive content

SYNOPSIS

bup rm [-#|--verbose] <branch|save…>

DESCRIPTION

bup rm removes the indicated branches (backup sets) and saves. By itself, this command does not delete any actual data (nor recover any storage space), but it may make it very difficult or impossible to refer to the deleted items, unless there are other references to them (e.g. tags).

A subsequent garbage collection by bup gc may permanently delete data that is no longer reachable from the remaining branches or tags and reclaim the related storage space. (The same would apply to a git gc on the repository, but the safety of running git gc on a bup repository has not been carefully evaluated, and should be avoided.)

If you are familiar with git(1), removing branches is similar to git branch -D BRANCH and removing saves is like a git-rebase --interactive that removes commits.

WARNING: This is one of the few bup commands that modifies your archive in intentionally destructive ways.

OPTIONS

-v, --verbose
increase verbosity (can be used more than once).
-#, --compress=#
set the compression level to # (a value from 0-9, where 9 is the highest and 0 is no compression). The default is 6. This applies to the rewritten branches (commits).

EXAMPLES

# Delete the backup set (branch) foo and a save in bar.
$ bup rm /foo /bar/2014-10-21-214720

SEE ALSO

bup-gc(1), bup-save(1), bup-fsck(1), and bup-tag(1)

BUP

Part of the bup(1) suite.