apache airflow: initdb vs resetdb

Question

What precisely is the difference between the \"airflow initdb\" command and the \"airflow resetdb\" command?

Is it really necessary to have 2 different commands?

Answer 1

resetdb will delete all entries from the metadata database. This includes all dag runs, Variables and Connections.

initdb is only run once, when airflow is installed.

Generally we aren't too worried about the dag runs. but the Variables and connections can be annoying to recreate as they often contain secret and sensitive data, which may not be duplicated as a matter of security best practice.