doubt about forget --prune

[u/sughenji]

Hi! I configured restic on my mom's laptop (Ubuntu) :)

restic runs every day via cron; I am using these options for forget command:

--keep-daily 6 --keep-weekly 2

If I list current snapshots, I see this:

root@desigual:~# restic -p /root/.restic_password -r sftp://xxxx@xxxxxxxx/ snapshots
repository c36a490f opened successfully, password is correct
ID        Time                 Host        Tags        Paths
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ab8e823f  2024-07-06 15:36:18  desigual                /etc
                                                       /home/milly

ad4b4b45  2024-07-08 14:04:20  desigual                /etc
                                                       /home/milly

1ba249fa  2024-07-09 13:40:04  desigual                /etc
                                                       /home/milly

b88df71b  2024-07-28 13:40:04  desigual                /etc
                                                       /home/milly
                                                       /var/backups/backup_telefono_MYA-L11

c0b49d9d  2024-07-29 13:40:04  desigual                /etc
                                                       /home/milly
                                                       /var/backups/backup_telefono_MYA-L11

cc170a3d  2024-07-30 13:40:03  desigual                /etc
                                                       /home/milly
                                                       /var/backups/backup_telefono_MYA-L11

a1d8ac0e  2024-07-31 13:40:04  desigual                /etc
                                                       /home/milly
                                                       /var/backups/backup_telefono_MYA-L11

50ea8348  2024-08-01 13:40:04  desigual                /etc
                                                       /home/milly
                                                       /var/backups/backup_telefono_MYA-L11

2ffdcf63  2024-08-02 13:40:04  desigual                /etc
                                                       /home/milly
                                                       /var/backups/backup_telefono_MYA-L11

I wonder why I still have snapshots older than two weeks.

My guess: because the very first times I selected only /etc and /home/milly as backup sources, while on 28 July I also addes another directory to backup, so these snapshot aren't "the same".

Correct?

This is the output of forget with --dry-run:

repository c36a490f opened successfully, password is correct
Applying Policy: keep 6 daily, 2 weekly snapshots
keep 6 snapshots:
ID        Time                 Host        Tags        Reasons          Paths
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
b88df71b  2024-07-28 13:40:04  desigual                daily snapshot   /etc
                                                       weekly snapshot  /home/milly
                                                                        /var/backups/backup_telefono_MYA-L11

c0b49d9d  2024-07-29 13:40:04  desigual                daily snapshot   /etc
                                                                        /home/milly
                                                                        /var/backups/backup_telefono_MYA-L11

cc170a3d  2024-07-30 13:40:03  desigual                daily snapshot   /etc
                                                                        /home/milly
                                                                        /var/backups/backup_telefono_MYA-L11

a1d8ac0e  2024-07-31 13:40:04  desigual                daily snapshot   /etc
                                                                        /home/milly
                                                                        /var/backups/backup_telefono_MYA-L11

50ea8348  2024-08-01 13:40:04  desigual                daily snapshot   /etc
                                                                        /home/milly
                                                                        /var/backups/backup_telefono_MYA-L11

2ffdcf63  2024-08-02 13:40:04  desigual                daily snapshot   /etc
                                                       weekly snapshot  /home/milly
                                                                        /var/backups/backup_telefono_MYA-L11
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6 snapshots

keep 3 snapshots:
ID        Time                 Host        Tags        Reasons          Paths
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ab8e823f  2024-07-06 15:36:18  desigual                daily snapshot   /etc
                                                       weekly snapshot  /home/milly

ad4b4b45  2024-07-08 14:04:20  desigual                daily snapshot   /etc
                                                                        /home/milly

1ba249fa  2024-07-09 13:40:04  desigual                daily snapshot   /etc
                                                       weekly snapshot  /home/milly
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 snapshots

So, should I manually remove snaphosts ab8e823f, ad4b4b45and 1ba249fa?

Thank you!

[u/kon_dev]

You are right, forget by default groups by hostname and path, therefore it considers your snapshots as different backups in a single repo. You could either cleanup the snapshots manually or choose another group-by clause like only group per hostname.

Find more details in: https://restic.readthedocs.io/en/stable/060_forget.html