2 files changed, 3 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/RELEASE_NOTES.md b/RELEASE_NOTES.md
index 7a31e07..dec0b83 100644
--- a/RELEASE_NOTES.md
+++ b/RELEASE_NOTES.md
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 ## 2.06
 
-The purge is managed internally, so there is no longer a need to add a cron job for that.
+The purge is managed internally, so there is no longer a need to add a cron job for that. If you don't want any timeline data to be purged, set `timeline_purge_days` to 0.
 
 ## 2.05
 
diff --git a/data.c b/data.c
index 92e7f45..e179fe3 100644
--- a/data.c
+++ b/data.c
@@ -1028,8 +1028,6 @@ void purge(snac *snac)
 /* do the purge */
 {
     int tpd = xs_number_get(xs_dict_get(srv_config, "timeline_purge_days"));
-    time_t mt = time(NULL) - tpd * 24 * 3600;
-    char *p, *v;
 
     /* purge days set to 0? disable purging */
     if (tpd == 0) {
@@ -1037,8 +1035,10 @@ void purge(snac *snac)
         return;
     }
 
+    time_t mt  = time(NULL) - tpd * 24 * 3600;
     xs *t_spec = xs_fmt("%s/timeline/" "*.json", snac->basedir);
     xs *t_list = xs_glob(t_spec, 0, 0);
+    char *p, *v;
 
     p = t_list;
     while (xs_list_iter(&p, &v)) {