You're viewing version 2.6 of the OpenSearch documentation. This version is no longer maintained. For the latest version, see the current documentation. For information about OpenSearch version maintenance, see Release Schedule and Maintenance Policy.
Delete by query
Introduced 1.0
You can include a query as part of your delete request so OpenSearch deletes all documents that match that query.
Example
POST sample-index1/_delete_by_query
{
"query": {
"match": {
"movie-length": "124"
}
}
}
Path and HTTP methods
POST <index>/_delete_by_query
URL parameters
All URL parameters are optional.
| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| <index> | String | Name or list of the data streams, indices, or aliases to delete from. Supports wildcards. If left blank, OpenSearch searches all indices. |
| allow_no_indices | Boolean | Whether to ignore wildcards that don’t match any indices. Default is true. |
| analyzer | String | The analyzer to use in the query string. |
| analyze_wildcard | Boolean | Specifies whether to analyze wildcard and prefix queries. Default is false. |
| conflicts | String | Indicates to OpenSearch what should happen if the delete by query operation runs into a version conflict. Valid options are abort and proceed. Default is abort. |
| default_operator | String | Indicates whether the default operator for a string query should be AND or OR. Default is OR. |
| df | String | The default field in case a field prefix is not provided in the query string. |
| expand_wildcards | String | Specifies the type of index that wildcard expressions can match. Supports comma-separated values. Valid values are all (match any index), open (match open, non-hidden indices), closed (match closed, non-hidden indices), hidden (match hidden indices), and none (deny wildcard expressions). Default is open. |
| from | Integer | The starting index to search from. Default is 0. |
| ignore_unavailable | Boolean | Specifies whether to include missing or closed indices in the response. Default is false. |
| lenient | Boolean | Specifies whether OpenSearch should accept requests if queries have format errors (for example, querying a text field for an integer). Default is false. |
| max_docs | Integer | How many documents the delete by query operation should process at most. Default is all documents. |
| preference | String | Specifies which shard or node OpenSearch should perform the delete by query operation on. |
| q | String | Lucene query string’s query. |
| request_cache | Boolean | Specifies whether OpenSearch should use the request cache. Default is whether it’s enabled in the index’s settings. |
| refresh | Boolean | If true, OpenSearch refreshes shards to make the delete by query operation available to search results. Valid options are true, false, and wait_for, which tells OpenSearch to wait for a refresh before executing the operation. Default is false. |
| requests_per_second | Integer | Specifies the request’s throttling in sub-requests per second. Default is -1, which means no throttling. |
| routing | String | Value used to route the operation to a specific shard. |
| scroll | Time | Amount of time the search context should be open. |
| scroll_size | Integer | Size of the operation’s scroll requests. Default is 1000. |
| search_type | String | Whether OpenSearch should use global term and document frequencies calculating revelance scores. Valid choices are query_then_fetch and dfs_query_then_fetch. query_then_fetch scores documents using local term and document frequencies for the shard. It’s usually faster but less accurate. dfs_query_then_fetch scores documents using global term and document frequencies across all shards. It’s usually slower but more accurate. Default is query_then_fetch. |
| search_timeout | Time | How long to wait until OpenSearch deems the request timed out. Default is no timeout. |
| slices | String or Integer | How many slices to cut the operation into for faster processing. Specify an integer to set how many slices to divide the operation into, or use auto, which tells OpenSearch it should decide how many slices to divide into. If you have a lot of shards in your index, set a lower number for better efficiency. Default is 1, which means the task should not be divided. |
| sort | String | A comma-separated list of <field> : <direction> pairs to sort by. |
| _source | String | Specifies whether to include the _source field in the response. |
| _source_excludes | String | A comma-separated list of source fields to exclude from the response. |
| _source_includes | String | A comma-separated list of source fields to include in the response. |
| stats | String | Value to associate with the request for additional logging. |
| terminate_after | Integer | The maximum number of documents OpenSearch should process before terminating the request. |
| timeout | Time | How long the operation should wait from a response from active shards. Default is 1m. |
| version | Boolean | Whether to include the document version as a match. |
| wait_for_active_shards | String | The number of shards that must be active before OpenSearch executes the operation. Valid values are all or any integer up to the total number of shards in the index. Default is 1, which is the primary shard. |
| wait_for_completion | Boolean | Setting this parameter to false indicates to OpenSearch it should not wait for completion and perform this request asynchronously. Asynchronous requests run in the background, and you can use the Tasks API to monitor progress. |
Request body
To search your index for specific documents, you must include a query in the request body that OpenSearch uses to match documents. If you don’t use a query, OpenSearch treats your delete request as a simple delete document operation.
{
"query": {
"match": {
"movie-length": "124"
}
}
}
Response
{
"took": 143,
"timed_out": false,
"total": 1,
"deleted": 1,
"batches": 1,
"version_conflicts": 0,
"noops": 0,
"retries": {
"bulk": 0,
"search": 0
},
"throttled_millis": 0,
"requests_per_second": -1.0,
"throttled_until_millis": 0,
"failures": []
}
Response body fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| took | The amount of time in milliseconds OpenSearch needed to complete the operation. |
| timed_out | Whether any delete requests during the operation timed out. |
| total | Total number of documents processed. |
| deleted | Total number of documents deleted. |
| batches | Number of scroll responses the request processed. |
| version_conflicts | Number of conflicts the request ran into. |
| noops | How many delete requests OpenSearch ignored during the operation. This field always returns 0. |
| retries | The number of bulk and search retry requests. |
| throttled_millis | Number of throttled milliseconds during the request. |
| requests_per_second | Number of requests executed per second during the operation. |
| throttled_until_millis | The amount of time until OpenSearch executes the next throttled request. Always equal to 0 in a delete by query request. |
| failures | Any failures that occur during the request. |