Permanent deletion: Is there a database command?

[OrkoGrayskull]

With this function, postings/threads can be permanently removed from the database. Depending on the number of deleted postings/threads, however, this can be very time-consuming. Is there a command/script for the database or rails to automate the process?

[Canapin (Coin-coin le Canapin)]

If your wish is to hard-delete all the soft-deleted posts, then you could loop through them with a rails script and use the destroy method.

That might give some info:

How to delete thousands of Private Messages?

Revisiting this old topic, since none of the answers are 100% correct. The rake task rake destroy:private_messages does not hard delete all private messages, it soft deletes them. They can still be seen by an admin and they can be recovered. The Rails code Topic.where(archetype: 'private_message').where("user_id > 0").destroy_all destroys the topics, but not the actual messages. They are still in the database and can be viewed using for instance the data explorer plugin. This code will perma…

[OrkoGrayskull]

I was hoping for a ready-made command that has already been tested. I would not like to start experimenting on a productive platform.

[Stephen]

It’s always prudent to have a testing or staging site rather than experiment on production

[Lhc_fl (Linca)]

Any irreversible operation involving batches is extremely dangerous. I highly recommend that you back it up first, and then write code in a test environment.

I don’t think anyone should dare to guarantee that “my code will permanently delete thousands of posts at a time, and it will never go wrong!”