--- name: "borg-list" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "borg" version: "1.4.5-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/borg-list" --- # borg-list(1) List archive or repository contents ## Name borg-list - List archive or repository contents ## SYNOPSIS borg \[common options\] list \[options\] \[REPOSITORY\_OR\_ARCHIVE\] \[PATH...\] ## DESCRIPTION This command lists the contents of a repository or an archive. For more help on include/exclude patterns, see the *borg\_patterns* command output. ## OPTIONS See *[borg-common(1)](/borg-common/1.md)* for common options of Borg commands. ### arguments - **REPOSITORY\_OR\_ARCHIVE** repository or archive to list contents of - **PATH** paths to list; patterns are supported ### options - **--consider-checkpoints** Show checkpoint archives in the repository contents list (default: hidden). - **--short** only print file/directory names, nothing else - **--format** *FORMAT* specify format for file or archive listing (default for files: "{mode} {user:6} {group:6} {size:8} {mtime} {path}{extra}{NL}"; for archives: "{archive:\<36} {time} \[{id}\]{NL}") - **--json** Only valid for listing repository contents. Format output as JSON. The form of **--format** is ignored, but keys used in it are added to the JSON output. Some keys are always present. Note: JSON can only represent text. A "barchive" key is therefore not available. - **--json-lines** Only valid for listing archive contents. Format output as JSON Lines. The form of **--format** is ignored, but keys used in it are added to the JSON output. Some keys are always present. Note: JSON can only represent text. A "bpath" key is therefore not available. ### Archive filters - **-P** *PREFIX,* **--prefix** *PREFIX* only consider archive names starting with this prefix. (deprecated) - **-a** *GLOB,* **--glob-archives** *GLOB* only consider archive names matching the glob. sh: rules apply (without actually using the sh: prefix), see "borg help patterns". - **--sort-by** *KEYS* Comma-separated list of sorting keys; valid keys are: timestamp, archive, name, id; default is: timestamp - **--first** *N* consider first N archives after other filters were applied - **--last** *N* consider last N archives after other filters were applied ### Include/Exclude options - **-e** *PATTERN,* **--exclude** *PATTERN* exclude paths matching PATTERN - **--exclude-from** *EXCLUDEFILE* read exclude patterns from EXCLUDEFILE, one per line - **--pattern** *PATTERN* include/exclude paths matching PATTERN - **--patterns-from** *PATTERNFILE* read include/exclude patterns from PATTERNFILE, one per line ## EXAMPLES ``` $ borg list /path/to/repo Monday Mon, 2016-02-15 19:15:11 repo Mon, 2016-02-15 19:26:54 root-2016-02-15 Mon, 2016-02-15 19:36:29 newname Mon, 2016-02-15 19:50:19 ... $ borg list /path/to/repo::root-2016-02-15 drwxr-xr-x root root 0 Mon, 2016-02-15 17:44:27 . drwxrwxr-x root root 0 Mon, 2016-02-15 19:04:49 bin -rwxr-xr-x root root 1029624 Thu, 2014-11-13 00:08:51 bin/bash lrwxrwxrwx root root 0 Fri, 2015-03-27 20:24:26 bin/bzcmp -> bzdiff -rwxr-xr-x root root 2140 Fri, 2015-03-27 20:24:22 bin/bzdiff ... $ borg list /path/to/repo::root-2016-02-15 --pattern "- bin/ba*" drwxr-xr-x root root 0 Mon, 2016-02-15 17:44:27 . drwxrwxr-x root root 0 Mon, 2016-02-15 19:04:49 bin lrwxrwxrwx root root 0 Fri, 2015-03-27 20:24:26 bin/bzcmp -> bzdiff -rwxr-xr-x root root 2140 Fri, 2015-03-27 20:24:22 bin/bzdiff ... $ borg list /path/to/repo::archiveA --format="{mode} {user:6} {group:6} {size:8d} {isomtime} {path}{extra}{NEWLINE}" drwxrwxr-x user user 0 Sun, 2015-02-01 11:00:00 . drwxrwxr-x user user 0 Sun, 2015-02-01 11:00:00 code drwxrwxr-x user user 0 Sun, 2015-02-01 11:00:00 code/myproject -rw-rw-r-- user user 1416192 Sun, 2015-02-01 11:00:00 code/myproject/file.ext -rw-rw-r-- user user 1416192 Sun, 2015-02-01 11:00:00 code/myproject/file.text ... $ borg list /path/to/repo/::archiveA --pattern '+ re:\.ext$' --pattern '- re:^.*$' -rw-rw-r-- user user 1416192 Sun, 2015-02-01 11:00:00 code/myproject/file.ext ... $ borg list /path/to/repo/::archiveA --pattern '+ re:.ext$' --pattern '- re:^.*$' -rw-rw-r-- user user 1416192 Sun, 2015-02-01 11:00:00 code/myproject/file.ext -rw-rw-r-- user user 1416192 Sun, 2015-02-01 11:00:00 code/myproject/file.text ... ``` ## NOTES ### The FORMAT specifier syntax The **--format** option uses Python's format string syntax \. Examples: ``` $ borg list --format '{archive}{NL}' /path/to/repo ArchiveFoo ArchiveBar ... # {VAR:NUMBER} - pad to NUMBER columns. # Strings are left-aligned, numbers are right-aligned. # Note: time columns except ``isomtime``, ``isoctime`` and ``isoatime`` cannot be padded. $ borg list --format '{archive:36} {time} [{id}]{NL}' /path/to/repo ArchiveFoo Thu, 2021-12-09 10:22:28 [0b8e9a312bef3f2f6e2d0fc110c196827786c15eba0188738e81697a7fa3b274] $ borg list --format '{mode} {user:6} {group:6} {size:8} {mtime} {path}{extra}{NL}' /path/to/repo::ArchiveFoo -rw-rw-r-- user user 1024 Thu, 2021-12-09 10:22:17 file-foo ... # {VAR:NUMBER} - pad to NUMBER columns right-aligned. $ borg list --format '{mode} {user:>6} {group:>6} {size:<8} {mtime} {path}{extra}{NL}' /path/to/repo::ArchiveFoo -rw-rw-r-- user user 1024 Thu, 2021-12-09 10:22:17 file-foo ... ``` The following keys are always available: - • NEWLINE: OS dependent line separator - • NL: alias of NEWLINE - • NUL: NUL character for creating print0 / xargs -0 like output, see barchive and bpath keys below - • SPACE - • TAB - • CR - • LF Keys available only when listing archives in a repository: - • archive: archive name interpreted as text (might be missing non-text characters, see barchive) - • name: alias of "archive" - • barchive: verbatim archive name, can contain any character except NUL - • comment: archive comment interpreted as text (might be missing non-text characters, see bcomment) - • bcomment: verbatim archive comment, can contain any character except NUL - • id: internal ID of the archive - • tam: TAM authentication state of this archive - • start: time (start) of creation of the archive - • time: alias of "start" - • end: time (end) of creation of the archive - • command\_line: command line which was used to create the archive - • hostname: hostname of host on which this archive was created - • username: username of user who created this archive Keys available only when listing files in an archive: - • type - • mode - • uid - • gid - • user - • group - • path: path interpreted as text (might be missing non-text characters, see bpath) - • bpath: verbatim POSIX path, can contain any character except NUL - • source: link target for links (identical to linktarget) - • linktarget - • flags - • size - • csize: compressed size - • dsize: deduplicated size - • dcsize: deduplicated compressed size - • num\_chunks: number of chunks in this file - • unique\_chunks: number of unique chunks in this file - • mtime - • ctime - • atime - • isomtime - • isoctime - • isoatime - • blake2b - • blake2s - • md5 - • sha1 - • sha224 - • sha256 - • sha384 - • sha3\_224 - • sha3\_256 - • sha3\_384 - • sha3\_512 - • sha512 - • xxh64: XXH64 checksum of this file (note: this is NOT a cryptographic hash!) - • archiveid - • archivename - • extra: prepends {source} with " -\> " for soft links and " link to " for hard links - • health: either "healthy" (file ok) or "broken" (if file has all-zero replacement chunks) ## SEE ALSO *[borg-common(1)](/borg-common/1.md)*, *[borg-info(1)](/borg-info/1.md)*, *[borg-diff(1)](/borg-diff/1.md)*, *[borg-prune(1)](/borg-prune/1.md)*, *[borg-patterns(1)](/borg-patterns/1.md)* ## Author The Borg Collective