How to remove an instance

See also: Instance

This guide demonstrates how to remove an instance, either temporarily or permanently.

Move an instance to the recycle bin

See also: delete, recover

To mark an instance as deleted, run:

multipass delete keen-yak

Now, if you run multipass list to list the instances, you will see that it is actually just marked for deletion (or to put it in other words, moved to the recycle bin):

Name                    State             IPv4             Release
keen-yak                DELETED           --               Not Available

You can move all instances to the recycle bin at once using the --all option:

multipass delete --all

Instances that have been marked as deleted can later be recovered; for example:

multipass recover keen-yak

If you try multipass list again, you’ll see that the instance is no longer marked for deletion:

Name                    State             IPv4             Release
keen-yak                STOPPED           --               Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Remove an instance permanently

See also: delete, purge

If you want to get rid of all instances in Deleted status for good, you can purge them:

multipass delete keen-yak
multipass purge

The purge command does not take an argument. It will permanently remove all instances marked as Deleted.

You can also use the --purge option to permanently delete an instance in a single command; for example:

multipass delete --purge keen-yak

Errors or typos? Topics missing? Hard to read? Let us know or open an issue on GitHub.

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