Now that I’ve copied two filesets from one zpool to another, let’s delete old snapshots.
In this post:
- FreeBSD 15.0
Freeing up space
I’m still hesitant to delete original data, but I’ll delete the snapshots.
Here’s my list:
[20:25 r730-01 dvl ~] % zfs list -H -o name -r -t snapshot data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15 | grep -v for.data04.0 | less data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-15_00:00:03_daily data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-16_00:00:16_daily data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-17_00:00:07_daily data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-17_19:00:02_hourly data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-17_20:00:02_hourly data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-17_21:00:09_hourly data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-17_22:00:09_hourly data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-17_23:00:11_hourly ... data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/scripts@autosnap_2026-04-19_19:15:13_frequently data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/scripts@autosnap_2026-04-19_19:30:02_frequently data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/scripts@autosnap_2026-04-19_19:45:11_frequently data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/scripts@autosnap_2026-04-19_20:00:01_hourly data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/scripts@autosnap_2026-04-19_20:00:01_frequently
That grep eliminates the snapshot used to send the data to the new zpool. See copied two filesets“>a previous post for more information on that.
From that, I can feed it into zfs destroy:
[20:30 r730-01 dvl ~] % zfs list -H -o name -r -t snapshot data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15 | grep -v for.data04.0 | xargs -n 1 echo zfs destroy | head zfs destroy data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-15_00:00:03_daily zfs destroy data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-16_00:00:16_daily zfs destroy data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-17_00:00:07_daily zfs destroy data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-17_19:00:02_hourly zfs destroy data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-17_20:00:02_hourly zfs destroy data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-17_21:00:09_hourly zfs destroy data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-17_22:00:09_hourly zfs destroy data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-17_23:00:11_hourly zfs destroy data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-18_00:00:09_daily zfs destroy data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@autosnap_2026-04-18_00:00:09_hourly xargs: echo: terminated with signal 13; aborting ...
OK, let’s try.
[20:30 r730-01 dvl ~] % zfs list -H -o name -r -t snapshot data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15 | grep -v for.data04.0 | xargs -n 1 sudo zfs destroy [20:31 r730-01 dvl ~] %
Let’s compare before and after. The following is from a previous post:
[13:45 r730-01 dvl ~] % zfs list -r data02/freshports/dev-ingress01 NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT data02/freshports/dev-ingress01 229G 60.6G 88K none data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/dvl-src 197G 60.6G 197G /jails/dev-ingress01/usr/home/dvl/src data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/freshports 22.9G 60.6G 2.09G /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/freshports data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/freshports/cache 2.30M 60.6G 132K /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/freshports/cache data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/freshports/cache/html 2.07M 60.6G 2.07M /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/freshports/cache/html data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/freshports/cache/spooling 104K 60.6G 104K /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/freshports/cache/spooling data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/freshports/message-queues 20.8G 60.6G 14.4M /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/freshports/message-queues data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/freshports/message-queues/archive 20.8G 60.6G 11.7G /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/freshports/message-queues/archive data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/ingress 5.39G 60.6G 132K /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/ingress data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/ingress/latest_commits 528K 60.6G 108K /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/ingress/latest_commits data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/ingress/message-queues 1.53M 60.6G 628K /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/ingress/message-queues data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/ingress/repos 5.39G 60.6G 120K /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/ingress/repos data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/ingress/repos/doc 549M 60.6G 546M /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/ingress/repos/doc data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/ingress/repos/ports 2.23G 60.6G 2.22G /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/ingress/repos/ports data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/ingress/repos/src 2.63G 60.6G 2.62G /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/ingress/repos/src data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/jails 3.05G 60.6G 104K /jails/dev-ingress01/jails data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/jails/freshports 3.05G 60.6G 405M /jails/dev-ingress01/jails/freshports data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/jails/freshports/ports 2.65G 60.6G 2.65G /jails/dev-ingress01/jails/freshports/usr/ports data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/modules 4.38M 60.6G 4.38M /jails/dev-ingress01/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/FreshPorts data02/freshports/dev-ingress01/scripts 3.30M 60.6G 3.30M /jails/dev-ingress01/usr/local/libexec/freshports
The following is after the zfs destroy completed.
[20:36 r730-01 dvl ~] % zfs list -r data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15 NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15 220G 76.8G 88K none data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src 197G 76.8G 197G /jails/dev-ingress01/usr/home/dvl/src data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/freshports 13.8G 76.8G 2.09G /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/freshports data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/freshports/cache 2.63M 76.8G 132K /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/freshports/cache data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/freshports/cache/html 2.27M 76.8G 220K /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/freshports/cache/html data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/freshports/cache/spooling 176K 76.8G 104K /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/freshports/cache/spooling data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/freshports/message-queues 11.7G 76.8G 14.4M /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/freshports/message-queues data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/freshports/message-queues/archive 11.7G 76.8G 11.7G /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/freshports/message-queues/archive data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/ingress 5.37G 76.8G 124K /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/ingress data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/ingress/latest_commits 168K 76.8G 108K /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/ingress/latest_commits data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/ingress/message-queues 628K 76.8G 628K /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/ingress/message-queues data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/ingress/repos 5.37G 76.8G 88K /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/ingress/repos data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/ingress/repos/doc 546M 76.8G 546M /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/ingress/repos/doc data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/ingress/repos/ports 2.22G 76.8G 2.22G /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/ingress/repos/ports data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/ingress/repos/src 2.62G 76.8G 2.62G /jails/dev-ingress01/var/db/ingress/repos/src data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/jails 3.05G 76.8G 96K /jails/dev-ingress01/jails data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/jails/freshports 3.05G 76.8G 405M /jails/dev-ingress01/jails/freshports data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/jails/freshports/ports 2.65G 76.8G 2.65G /jails/dev-ingress01/jails/freshports/usr/ports data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/modules 4.38M 76.8G 4.38M /jails/dev-ingress01/usr/local/lib/perl5/site_perl/FreshPorts data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/scripts 3.30M 76.8G 3.30M /jails/dev-ingress01/usr/local/libexec/freshports
Not enough gone. So I decided to clean this one up:
[20:36 r730-01 dvl ~] % sudo zfs destroy data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src cannot destroy 'data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src': filesystem has children use '-r' to destroy the following datasets: data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src@for.data04.0 [20:38 r730-01 dvl ~] % sudo zfs destroy -r data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15/dvl-src [20:38 r730-01 dvl ~] %
[20:38 r730-01 dvl ~] % zfs list data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15 NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.DELETE.ME.after.2026.05.15 22.2G 274G 88K none
That’s better.
So is this:
[20:40 r730-01 dvl ~] % zpool list data02 NAME SIZE ALLOC FREE CKPOINT EXPANDSZ FRAG CAP DEDUP HEALTH ALTROOT data02 928G 605G 323G - - 25% 65% 1.00x ONLINE -
Next, I’ll migrate other datasets over, one logical-group at a time. By that, I mean a top-level dataset, like I did for data02/freshports/dev-ingress01.
Cheers.
