borg backup- how to keep weekly backups

Question

I have a daily cronjob which backs up with borg backup like this:

borg create -v --stats               \
$REPOSITORY::'{now:%Y-%m-%d_%H:%M}'  \
/root                                \
/etc                                 \
/var/www                             \

Then, in the same daily cronjob i do:

borg prune -v --list --keep-daily=7 --keep-weekly=4 --keep-monthly=3 $REPOSITORY

My Question: if i would do prune like this:

borg prune -v --list --keep-daily=3 --keep-weekly=3 --keep-monthly=3 $REPOSITORY

would i get also the weekly and monthly backups? Or do i have to keep 7 days to get to the weekly backup?

Or do I have to create first all daily backups, for example for 3 months, and then run only one time the Borg prune command?

thanks and regards

Answer 1

In both cases:

borg prune -v --list --keep-daily=7 --keep-weekly=4 --keep-monthly=3 $REPOSITORY

borg prune -v --list --keep-daily=3 --keep-weekly=3 --keep-monthly=3 $REPOSITORY

you will get weekly and monthly backups. You don't have to keep 7 daily backups to get the weekly backup.

As borg prune says in the domumentation: "...backups selected by previous rules do not count towards those of later rules."

It is recommended to use

--dry-run

always to test before calling prune.