Delete indices
Deleting an index deletes its documents, shards, and metadata. It does not delete related Kibana components, such as data views, visualizations, or dashboards.
You cannot delete the current write index of a data stream. To delete the index, you must roll over the data stream so a new write index is created. You can then use the delete index API to delete the previous write index.
Path parameters
-
Comma-separated list of indices to delete. You cannot specify index aliases. By default, this parameter does not support wildcards (
*
) or_all
. To use wildcards or_all
, set theaction.destructive_requires_name
cluster setting tofalse
.
Query parameters
-
allow_no_indices boolean
If
false
, the request returns an error if any wildcard expression, index alias, or_all
value targets only missing or closed indices. This behavior applies even if the request targets other open indices. -
expand_wildcards string | array[string]
Type of index that wildcard patterns can match. If the request can target data streams, this argument determines whether wildcard expressions match hidden data streams. Supports comma-separated values, such as
open,hidden
. Valid values are:all
,open
,closed
,hidden
,none
. -
master_timeout string
Period to wait for a connection to the master node. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error.
-
timeout string
Period to wait for a response. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error.
curl \
-X DELETE http://api.example.com/{index}
{
"acknowledged": true,
"_shards": {
"failed": 42.0,
"successful": 42.0,
"total": 42.0,
"failures": [
{
"index": "string",
"node": "string",
"reason": {
"type": "string",
"reason": "string",
"stack_trace": "string",
"caused_by": {},
"root_cause": [
{}
],
"suppressed": [
{}
]
},
"shard": 42.0,
"status": "string"
}
],
"skipped": 42.0
}
}