- *Prune an existing node:* The already existing blockchain will be pruned, but this will not result in a smaller blockchain. Instead, it will mark parts of the file as free, so that future data will use that free space, causing the file to not grow until free space grows scarce.
Pruned nodes are very useful and preferable to @remote-nodes, but if possible, users should run a full node and opt for pruning only in case if necessary.
The 'database pruning' feature [was added](https://github.com/monero-project/monero/pull/4843) on January 2019. See the [blog post]({{ site.baseurl }}/2019/02/01/pruning.html) for more information.