Deleting "Partial" Backups

1

Is there any way, automatic or manually, of deleting “Partial” backups?

I can delete them using the delete command, but is it possible to auto delete them on the next successful backup or by running a command to delete all backups marked as partial in a set, or is the only way to manually delete them?

I don’t want to stop the ability or partial backups to be created, but I would like them removed with the next successful backup.

2

In some cases, this is supposed to happen. What Backup retention is on your Options screen 5?

I doubt this exists. It would almost certainly be in the delete command, but it’s not in the help text:

Usage: delete <storage-URL> [<options>]

  Marks old data deleted and removes outdated dlist files. A backup is deleted
  when it is older than <keep-time> or when there are more newer versions
  than <keep-versions>. Data is considered old, when it is not required from
  any existing backup anymore.

  --dry-run
    Performs the operation, but does not write changes to the local database
    or the remote storage
  --keep-time=<time>
    Marks data outdated that is older than <time>.
  --keep-versions=<int>
    Marks data outdated that is older than <int> versions.
  --version=<int>
    Deletes all files that belong to the specified version(s).
  --allow-full-removal
    Disables the protection against removing the final fileset

Fix issues related to partial backups #3992 talks about deletion. Maybe one of its posters will help.
I’m having a hard time following what was supposed to happen under some retention, and why so.

On that note, why do you want to delete partial backups? Do you get so many that they harm you?

3

Just out of interest: What are these “partial backup” you’re referring to? Doesn’t ring a bell

4

They’re made when a backup is stopped early. The idea was created for “Stop after current file” work, however there might be other ways to cause them. Here’s an example view of how they’re presented:

image

Stop after Upload has some discussions, and there’s more in GitHub if you really want to look closer…

1 Like
5

Thanks for the replies.

It’s obviously not a massive problem and the partial backups are great.

I didn’t notice that they got purged automatically, I’m not sure if they were ignored or not as part of the auto retention settings I’ve got.

But, in the end, all I did was run the “Delete” command manually for the versions that were partial backups just to tidy things up.

6

IIRC the 2019 discussion was talking about it depending on retention used. I don’t recall design intent.
FWIW my Backup retention is a Custom backup retention, and the partial I made hasn’t purged:

image

which does match the pull request post:

For a “retention rule” (e.g., 1W:1D,4W:1W,12M:1M), partials are not removed, and a full backup will not be discarded in favor of a partial one.

Could you tell us what you’ve got? There is also the statement that:

For “keep a specific number of backups”, a partial backup can be deleted if it is followed by a full backup.

I don’t know if we’ll hear from experts. I’m glad manual tidy worked…

7

I’ve got a custom too “7D:U,1M:1D,1Y:1W,U:1M” and I’m almost certain I had partials where I would normally have expected a ‘normal’ backup to have been purged as part of the rule.

8

If you’re saying that a normal backup will delete the partial before it, that’s not what pull request says.
Here are my job logs, showing finish times of my generally hourly backup. Compare to restore image showing the 2:09 partial and then the 3:50 complete, meaning that 2:50 complete has gotten deleted.
That’s exactly what the pull request says should happen, and I’m not the one to explain why that is…

image