I am using autorestic, but here is the forget policy I have
keep-weekly: 1
keep-monthly: 3
Here is the output of my snapshots
> Executing: /usr/local/bin/restic snapshots --tag ar:location:array
ID Time Host Tags Paths Size
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
92bc5ea8 2022-12-31 02:33:37 EDITH ar:location:array /mnt/user/backup
/mnt/user/backups-appdata
/mnt/user/backups-other
/mnt/user/domains
/mnt/user/downloads
/mnt/user/familia
/mnt/user/isos
/mnt/user/media
/mnt/user/media-ripping
/mnt/user/stash
/mnt/user/isos
/mnt/user/media
/mnt/user/media-ripping
/mnt/user/stash
89130e23 2024-06-30 02:39:50 EDITH ar:location:array /mnt/user/backup
/mnt/user/backups-other
/mnt/user/domains
/mnt/user/downloads
/mnt/user/familia
/mnt/user/isos
/mnt/user/media
/mnt/user/media-ripping
/mnt/user/stash
52f4a058 2024-07-23 02:43:35 EDITH ar:location:array /mnt/user/backup
/mnt/user/backups-other
/mnt/user/domains
/mnt/user/downloads
/mnt/user/familia
/mnt/user/isos
/mnt/user/media
/mnt/user/media-ripping
/mnt/user/stash
858ecc83 2024-08-16 02:44:24 EDITH ar:location:array /mnt/user/backup 7.602 TiB
/mnt/user/backups-other
/mnt/user/domains
/mnt/user/downloads
/mnt/user/familia
/mnt/user/isos
/mnt/user/media
/mnt/user/media-ripping
/mnt/user/stash
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As far as I understand my policy would keep only 3 total snapshots since the keep-weekly: 1 keeps 1 of the keep-monthly: 3 for the month and then only 2 more would be kept correct?
By default, forget policies are grouped by host,path (see restic forget --help), and you have two different path groups. Notice that /mnt/user/backups-appdata is only on the oldest snapshot. If you want to forget this old snapshot, you should use restic forget --group-by host.
You can always use --dry-run to see how different policies work for you. Check the Reasons column to see which policy is applied to each snapshot.
3 Likes
Hi so I ran restic forget --keep-daily 14 --prune --group-by host --verbose
I previously had this many snapshots
ID Time Host Tags Paths Size
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c0611b3a 2024-06-30 02:20:08 EDITH ar:location:important /boot
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
6785eae3 2024-07-21 02:19:29 EDITH ar:location:important /boot
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
bcedf62a 2024-07-23 02:19:48 EDITH ar:location:important /boot
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
65571e1a 2024-08-11 02:34:13 EDITH ar:location:important /boot 1.186 TiB
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
6d91a402 2024-08-16 02:19:52 EDITH ar:location:important /boot 1.190 TiB
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
981cc9cc 2024-08-20 11:35:35 EDITH /mnt/user/nextcloud 929.148 GiB
/mnt/user/storage
6c7e399c 2024-08-20 11:44:57 EDITH ar:location:important /mnt/user/nextcloud 929.148 GiB
/mnt/user/storage
11c69ed7 2024-08-20 11:53:05 EDITH ar:location:important /mnt/user/nextcloud 929.148 GiB
/mnt/user/storage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am transitioning to lower the amount of storage on my cloud provider to lower cost as I now have more storage on a remote server I manage. I changed the path and expected for all these snaphost to be removed. However, after running the command up top i get:
Applying Policy: keep 14 daily snapshots
snapshots for (host [EDITH]):
keep 6 snapshots:
ID Time Host Tags Reasons Paths Size
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c0611b3a 2024-06-30 02:20:08 EDITH ar:location:important daily snapshot /boot
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
6785eae3 2024-07-21 02:19:29 EDITH ar:location:important daily snapshot /boot
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
bcedf62a 2024-07-23 02:19:48 EDITH ar:location:important daily snapshot /boot
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
65571e1a 2024-08-11 02:34:13 EDITH ar:location:important daily snapshot /boot 1.186 TiB
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
6d91a402 2024-08-16 02:19:52 EDITH ar:location:important daily snapshot /boot 1.190 TiB
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
11c69ed7 2024-08-20 11:53:05 EDITH ar:location:important daily snapshot /mnt/user/nextcloud 929.148 GiB
/mnt/user/storage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 snapshots
remove 2 snapshots:
ID Time Host Tags Paths Size
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
981cc9cc 2024-08-20 11:35:35 EDITH /mnt/user/nextcloud 929.148 GiB
/mnt/user/storage
6c7e399c 2024-08-20 11:44:57 EDITH ar:location:important /mnt/user/nextcloud 929.148 GiB
/mnt/user/storage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 snapshots
which gave me
ID Time Host Tags Paths Size
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c0611b3a 2024-06-30 02:20:08 EDITH ar:location:important /boot
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
6785eae3 2024-07-21 02:19:29 EDITH ar:location:important /boot
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
bcedf62a 2024-07-23 02:19:48 EDITH ar:location:important /boot
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
65571e1a 2024-08-11 02:34:13 EDITH ar:location:important /boot 1.186 TiB
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
6d91a402 2024-08-16 02:19:52 EDITH ar:location:important /boot 1.190 TiB
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
11c69ed7 2024-08-20 11:53:05 EDITH ar:location:important /mnt/user/nextcloud 929.148 GiB
/mnt/user/storage
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 snapshots
So still more snapshots that I assumed i would have. I figured i’d only have the last 3 snapshots remaining. Do you happen to know what is going on?
So to make sure I clarify I have changed paths AND changed the forget policy. I did a --parent to backup and then did another backup using autorestic which is nothing more than a wrapper that does the restic commands. I did do this forget policy using restic command directly as I did the --group-by but it didnt’ seem to remove the snapshots I thought it would.
I just did a dry run again on this command: /usr/local/bin/restic forget --tag ar:location:important --prune --dry-run --keep-daily 14
and I get still keeping 6 snapshots, but they do seem to be different based on the paths. Its weird as running a dry run on forget gives me 6 snapshots even if it is just grouping by host.
Are you using some old restic version? Nowadays restic shows “Reason” why specific snapshot is kept e.g.:
$ restic forget --keep-daily 4 --group-by host --dry-run
repository 75d39192 opened (version 2, compression level auto)
Applying Policy: keep 4 daily snapshots
keep 4 snapshots:
ID Time Host Tags Reasons Paths Size
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5ff5da1e 2024-08-17 06:44:46 laptop.local kptsky_backup daily snapshot / 41.847 GiB
ec2c597a 2024-08-18 07:31:07 laptop.local kptsky_backup daily snapshot / 41.847 GiB
2391eb51 2024-08-19 17:39:02 laptop.local kptsky_backup daily snapshot / 41.847 GiB
320a076b 2024-08-20 06:56:24 laptop.local kptsky_backup daily snapshot / 41.847 GiB
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 snapshots
So run the same as before with the latest restic and it will help you with understanding what is going on.
I’m using restic 0.17.0
root@EDITH:/mnt/user/appdata/autorestic# restic forget --keep-daily 14 --prune --group-by host --verbose --dry-run
repository 8eaa6bd7 opened (version 2, compression level auto)
Applying Policy: keep 14 daily snapshots
snapshots for (host [EDITH]):
keep 6 snapshots:
ID Time Host Tags Reasons Paths Size
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
c0611b3a 2024-06-30 02:20:08 EDITH ar:location:important daily snapshot /boot
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
6785eae3 2024-07-21 02:19:29 EDITH ar:location:important daily snapshot /boot
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
bcedf62a 2024-07-23 02:19:48 EDITH ar:location:important daily snapshot /boot
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
65571e1a 2024-08-11 02:34:13 EDITH ar:location:important daily snapshot /boot 1.186 TiB
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
6d91a402 2024-08-16 02:19:52 EDITH ar:location:important daily snapshot /boot 1.190 TiB
/mnt/user/appdata
/mnt/user/nextcloud
/mnt/user/storage
11c69ed7 2024-08-20 11:53:05 EDITH ar:location:important daily snapshot /mnt/user/nextcloud 929.148 GiB
/mnt/user/storage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 snapshots
It could be i’m not understanding, but i figured the dates would come into play and the --keep-daily would only keep the latest 14 as in the last 2 weeks.
Check docs for difference between --keep-daily and --keep-within-daily
and experiment not forgetting about --dry-run
Yea what makes it so confusing is --keep-daily n for the last n days which have one or more snapshots, keep only the most recent one for each day. when it says last n days since 14 here should be last 14 days from today?
It says:
last n days which have one or more snapshots
not
last n days
And yes “last” is not 100% clear english word in this case.
Away from computer so will test this later but do you know off hand if you can couple this with the --keep-within-daily 14d to get a single snapshot per day of the last 14 calendar days?
I do not think so as you are asking for bi-weekly now which is not supported.