# Purge Queue (/sdks/csharp/how-to/management/purge-queue)



## Overview [#overview]

Purging a queue is a management-plane operation for wiping a channel's backlog without receiving and discarding messages one at a time. Reach for it when a bad producer floods a channel, when you need a clean slate between test runs, or when you're resetting a queue during a maintenance window — all without deleting and recreating the channel itself.

`PurgeQueueAsync(channelName)` tells the broker directly to acknowledge and drop every message still pending on the channel, entirely server-side. The returned result's `AffectedMessages` field reports exactly how many messages were removed, so a `0` tells you the queue was already empty.

**Gotchas:** the purge is irreversible — there's no undo once messages are removed. It only reaches messages still waiting in the queue; anything already delivered to and held by an active consumer is untouched, so a purge run right after a receive can still leave stragglers. And purging empties the channel, it doesn't delete it — new messages can be enqueued immediately afterward.

## Prerequisites [#prerequisites]

* KubeMQ server running on `localhost:50000`
* C# SDK installed (`dotnet add package KubeMQ.SDK.CSharp`)

## Code [#code]

```csharp title="Program.cs"
// KubeMQ .NET SDK — Management: Purge Queue
//
// This example demonstrates purging all messages from a queue channel
// using the PurgeQueueAsync API.
//
// Prerequisites:
//   - KubeMQ server running on localhost:50000
//   - dotnet run

using KubeMQ.Sdk.Client;

await using var client = new KubeMQClient(new KubeMQClientOptions
{
    ClientId = "csharp-config-purge-queue-client",
});
await client.ConnectAsync();

Console.WriteLine("Connected to KubeMQ server");

var result = await client.PurgeQueueAsync("csharp-config.purge-queue");
Console.WriteLine($"Purged {result.AffectedMessages} messages");

Console.WriteLine("Done.");

```

## How It Works [#how-it-works]

* `PurgeQueueAsync(channelName)` sends a server-side purge request; the broker atomically removes all pending (unacknowledged) messages from the queue channel.
* The returned result contains `AffectedMessages` — the count of messages that were deleted; a value of `0` means the queue was already empty.
* Purging is irreversible: deleted messages cannot be recovered, so use with care in production.
* The channel itself is not deleted by a purge; new messages can be enqueued immediately after.

## Related [#related]

* [C# SDK Reference](/sdks/csharp/reference)
* [Create Channel](/sdks/csharp/how-to/management/create-channel)
* [Delete Channel](/sdks/csharp/how-to/management/delete-channel)