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Create concept doc for pinning (for ipfs-inactive#94)
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content/guides/concepts/pinning.md

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---
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title: "Pinning"
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menu:
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guides:
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parent: concepts
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---
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## Summary
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IPFS nodes treat the data they store like a cache, meaning that there is no guarantee that the data will continue to be stored. Pinning a CID tells an IPFS server that the data is important and mustn't be thrown away.
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You should pin any content you consider important, to ensure that content is retained long-term. Since data important to someone else may not be important to you, pinning lets you have control over the disk space used by your IPFS nodes.
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## Context
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An IPFS node can store data based on different kinds of user events. For instance, a person may add a file with `ipfs add ...`. Or a piece of unknown IPFS content can be requested, and the node can consult with its peers to find this data - the result will be stored in the local cache. These data can use different policies for managing the cache - `ipfs add ...` will automatically pin the content. Other IPFS commands do not include automatic pinning.
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When garbage-collection is triggered on a node, any pinned content is automatically exempt from deletion. Non-pinned data is otherwise eligible to be deleted to save space (if requested, this data can be re-retrieved from another node.
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## Pinning Services
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If you don't want to run your own IPFS node, you can use a pinning service. Such a service normally trades money for the service of guaranteeing they'll keep your data pinned.
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