Retention, pins and cleanup

A repository keeps every version it is given until you tell it otherwise. The Lifecycle pages of a repository are where you do: Retention & cleanup sets the rules for which versions stay and applies them, and Pins names the versions no rule may touch. Space is given back in a second step, by a collector that removes what nothing refers to any more.

Retention & cleanup

Retention & cleanup shows the rules in force for the repository and lets you change them. A version is kept only if it satisfies every rule that is set; a rule left empty imposes nothing, so a repository with no rules keeps everything, and a pinned version is kept whatever the rules say.

Each rule is a repository setting, so it is set at three levels: for the whole deployment under Settings → Settings, for a tenant's repositories under Settings → Tenant settings, and for one repository here or on its Settings page. The repository's own value wins, then the tenant's, then the deployment's. Reset to default makes the repository inherit again, and none switches a duration rule off for this repository even where a wider level sets one. Durations are written P30D or 30d. Changing a rule needs the editor role.

A new repository is given its rules as it is created, on the wizard's Retention step, and a script sets them with jenrepo retention set <repo> --keep-last 20 --max-age P365D or through the repository settings API.

Below the rules, two buttons act on them:

• Preview cleanup works out which versions the rules would remove, without removing anything, and lists them - how many, and the first of them with the reason for each.
• Run cleanup now removes them, after asking you to confirm and saying what the last preview found.

Both run in the background, however large the repository is. The page shows what is running and refreshes itself, and afterwards shows the outcome of the last preview and the last cleanup, with when each finished.

A cleanup also runs on its own: the deployment walks every repository's store daily at 03:00 UTC and applies each repository's rules. Operations → Walks changes when.

A cleanup removes only what was published into the repository. A copy it cached from an upstream is not a release, and the retention rules never remove it.

Pins

A pin keeps a version whatever the retention rules say - the release in production, the version a customer depends on. Pins lists the pinned versions of the repository and adds new ones: enter the ecosystem, the coordinate and the version, and press Pin a version. Unpin lifts a pin, after confirming; the version is then treated like any other on the next cleanup.

The package page lists, for each version, whether it is pinned.

How space is reclaimed

Removing a version removes the repository's reference to it, not necessarily its bytes: the store keeps each distinct file once, however many versions or formats refer to it. The collector finds the files nothing refers to any more and removes them. It runs on the weekly walk of the store, on Sundays at 03:00 UTC by default, and a file becomes collectable only after a grace period, so an upload in progress is never mistaken for garbage.

When a repository holds data for an ecosystem no installed format can place - because a format was switched off - the collector leaves that whole repository alone rather than guess. Its Overview lists such Absent formats; bring the format back, or Forget ecosystem to retire those records and let the collector proceed.

Other things that expire

A few other things are kept for a limited time, each with its own setting under Settings → Settings: