Delete files from backups/pool?

Steve Richards <[email protected]> Mon, 1 Sep 2025 11:37:49 +0100
Newsgroups gmane.comp.sysutils.backup.backuppc.general
Message-ID <[email protected]>
I have accidentally allowed BackupPC to backup some very large files (3 
x ~8GB) from one of my hosts. I don't need them backed up and would like 
to get rid of them from the backup storage. If I understand correctly 
that would mean removing stuff from BackupPC's pool system. Can I do 
that safely?

I found a very old post (20+ years ago) about deleting from the pool but 
I know BackupPC has had at least one major revision in that time and I 
don't know whether the advice back then is still appropriate with 
current versions. The post says:

# cd __TOPDIR__/pc/
# find . -name *.mp3
<you should see a list of your .mp3 files here. if it looks like a good list
(i.e. you didn't typo something that will be painful to fix), go to the next
step.>
# find . -name *.mp3 -exec rm -f {} \;

On my installation (v4.4.0) that doesn't seem to find any files matching 
the search pattern (*.raw in my case), or indeed any identifiable files, 
which makes me wonder if the pooling mechanism and structure might have 
changed. In any case I don't want to mess with anything low-level 
without up to date advice. The "rogue" files were first backed-up only a 
couple of days ago, so I would be happy to delete all backups from that 
date if that would help.

Thanks.

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