Deleting and restoring a package

Package deletion and restoration support on GitHub

On GitHub if you have the required access, you can delete:

• an entire private package
• an entire public package, if there's not more than 5000 downloads of any version of the package
• a specific version of a private package
• a specific version of a public package, if the package version doesn't have more than 5,000 downloads

On GitHub, you can also restore an entire package or package version, if:

• You restore the package within 30 days of its deletion.
• The same package namespace is still available and not used for a new package.

Packages API support

You can use GraphQL to delete a version of a private package.

Required permissions to delete or restore a package

You can delete a package if you have admin permissions to the repository to which the package is published.

Deleting a package version

Deleting a version of a package on GitHub

To delete a version of a package, you must have admin permissions to the repository that owns the package. For more information, see "Required permissions."

1. On your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, navigate to the main page of the repository.

2. To the right of the list of files, click Packages.

   

3. Search for and select your package.

4. In the top right of your package's landing page, click Package settings.

5. On the left, click Manage versions.

6. To the right of the version you want to delete, click and select Delete version.

7. To confirm deletion, type the package name and click I understand the consequences, delete this version.

Deleting a version of a package with GraphQL

You can use GraphQL to delete a version of a private package.

Use the deletePackageVersion mutation in the GraphQL API. You must use a personal access token with the read:packages, delete:packages, and repo scopes. For more information about personal access tokens, see "About GitHub Packages."

The following example demonstrates how to delete a package version, using a packageVersionId of MDIyOlJlZ2lzdHJ5UGFja2FnZVZlcnNpb243MTExNg.

curl -X POST \
-H "Accept: application/vnd.github.package-deletes-preview+json" \
-H "Authorization: bearer TOKEN" \
-d '{"query":"mutation { deletePackageVersion(input:{packageVersionId:\"MDIyOlJlZ2lzdHJ5UGFja2FnZVZlcnNpb243MTExNg==\"}) { success }}"}' \
HOSTNAME/graphql

To find all of the private packages you have published to GitHub Packages, along with the version IDs for the packages, you can use the packages connection through the repository object. You will need a personal access token with the read:packages and repo scopes. For more information, see the packages connection or the PackageOwner interface.

For more information about the deletePackageVersion mutation, see "deletePackageVersion."

You cannot directly delete an entire package using GraphQL, but if you delete every version of a package, the package will no longer show on GitHub Enterprise Server.

Deleting an entire package

Deleting an entire repository-scoped package on GitHub

To delete an entire repository-scoped package, you must have admin permissions to the repository that owns the package. For more information, see "Required permissions."

1. On your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, navigate to the main page of the repository.

2. To the right of the list of files, click Packages.

   

3. Search for and select your package.

4. In the top right of your package's landing page, click Package settings.

5. Under "Danger Zone", click Delete this package.

6. To confirm, review the confirmation message, enter your package name, and click I understand, delete this package.

Restoring packages

You can restore a deleted package or version if:

• You restore the package within 30 days of its deletion.
• The same package namespace and version is still available and not reused for a new package.

For example, if you have a deleted RubyGems package named octo-package that was scoped to the repo octo-repo-owner/octo-repo, then you can only restore the package if the package namespace rubygem.pkg.github.com/octo-repo-owner/octo-repo/octo-package is still available, and 30 days have not yet passed.

To delete a package, you must also have admin permissions to the repository that owns the deleted package.

For more information, see "Required permissions."

Once the package is restored, the package will use the same namespace it did before. If the same package namespace is not available, you will not be able to restore your package. In this scenario, to restore the deleted package, you must delete the new package that uses the deleted package's namespace first.

Restoring a package in an organization

You can restore a deleted package through your organization account settings, as long as the package was in a repository owned by the organization.

To review who can restore a package in an organization, see "Required permissions."

1. On your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, navigate to the main page of the organization.

2. Under your organization name, click Settings.

   

3. On the left, click Packages.

4. Under "Deleted Packages", next to the package you want to restore, click Restore.

5. To confirm, type the name of the package and click I understand the consequences, restore this package.

Restoring a package version

You can restore a package version from your package's landing page. To review who can restore a package, see "Required permissions."

1. Navigate to your package's landing page.
2. On the right, click Package settings.
3. On the left, click Manage versions.
4. On the top right, use the "Versions" drop-down menu and select Deleted.
5. Next to the deleted package version you want to restore, click Restore.
6. To confirm, click I understand the consequences, restore this version.