Delete by query API
editDelete by query API
editDeletes documents that match the specified query.
resp = client.delete_by_query( index="my-index-000001", body={"query": {"match": {"user.id": "elkbee"}}}, ) print(resp)
response = client.delete_by_query( index: 'my-index-000001', body: { query: { match: { 'user.id' => 'elkbee' } } } ) puts response
POST /my-index-000001/_delete_by_query { "query": { "match": { "user.id": "elkbee" } } }
Request
editPOST /<target>/_delete_by_query
Prerequisites
edit-
If the Elasticsearch security features are enabled, you must have the following index privileges for the target data stream, index, or alias:
-
read
-
delete
orwrite
-
Description
editYou can specify the query criteria in the request URI or the request body using the same syntax as the Search API.
When you submit a delete by query request, Elasticsearch gets a snapshot of the data stream or index
when it begins processing the request and deletes matching documents using
internal
versioning. If a document changes between the time that the
snapshot is taken and the delete operation is processed, it results in a version
conflict and the delete operation fails.
Documents with a version equal to 0 cannot be deleted using delete by
query because internal
versioning does not support 0 as a valid
version number.
While processing a delete by query request, Elasticsearch performs multiple search requests sequentially to find all of the matching documents to delete. A bulk delete request is performed for each batch of matching documents. If a search or bulk request is rejected, the requests are retried up to 10 times, with exponential back off. If the maximum retry limit is reached, processing halts and all failed requests are returned in the response. Any delete requests that completed successfully still stick, they are not rolled back.
You can opt to count version conflicts instead of halting and returning by
setting conflicts
to proceed
. Note that if you opt to count version conflicts
the operation could attempt to delete more documents from the source
than max_docs
until it has successfully deleted max_docs
documents, or it has gone through
every document in the source query.
Refreshing shards
editSpecifying the refresh
parameter refreshes all shards involved in the delete
by query once the request completes. This is different than the delete API’s
refresh
parameter, which causes just the shard that received the delete
request to be refreshed. Unlike the delete API, it does not support
wait_for
.
Running delete by query asynchronously
editIf the request contains wait_for_completion=false
, Elasticsearch
performs some preflight checks, launches the request, and returns a
task
you can use to cancel or get the status of the task. Elasticsearch creates a
record of this task as a document at .tasks/task/${taskId}
. When you are
done with a task, you should delete the task document so Elasticsearch can reclaim the
space.
Waiting for active shards
editwait_for_active_shards
controls how many copies of a shard must be active
before proceeding with the request. See Active shards
for details. timeout
controls how long each write request waits for unavailable
shards to become available. Both work exactly the way they work in the
Bulk API. Delete by query uses scrolled searches, so you can also
specify the scroll
parameter to control how long it keeps the search context
alive, for example ?scroll=10m
. The default is 5 minutes.
Throttling delete requests
editTo control the rate at which delete by query issues batches of delete operations,
you can set requests_per_second
to any positive decimal number. This pads each
batch with a wait time to throttle the rate. Set requests_per_second
to -1
to disable throttling.
Throttling uses a wait time between batches so that the internal scroll requests
can be given a timeout that takes the request padding into account. The padding
time is the difference between the batch size divided by the
requests_per_second
and the time spent writing. By default the batch size is
1000
, so if requests_per_second
is set to 500
:
target_time = 1000 / 500 per second = 2 seconds wait_time = target_time - write_time = 2 seconds - .5 seconds = 1.5 seconds
Since the batch is issued as a single _bulk
request, large batch sizes
cause Elasticsearch to create many requests and wait before starting the next set.
This is "bursty" instead of "smooth".
Slicing
editDelete by query supports sliced scroll to parallelize the delete process. This can improve efficiency and provide a convenient way to break the request down into smaller parts.
Setting slices
to auto
chooses a reasonable number for most data streams and indices.
If you’re slicing manually or otherwise tuning automatic slicing, keep in mind
that:
-
Query performance is most efficient when the number of
slices
is equal to the number of shards in the index or backing index. If that number is large (for example, 500), choose a lower number as too manyslices
hurts performance. Settingslices
higher than the number of shards generally does not improve efficiency and adds overhead. - Delete performance scales linearly across available resources with the number of slices.
Whether query or delete performance dominates the runtime depends on the documents being reindexed and cluster resources.
Path parameters
edit-
<target>
-
(Optional, string) Comma-separated list of data streams, indices, and aliases to
search. Supports wildcards (
*
). To search all data streams or indices, omit this parameter or use* or `_all
.
Query parameters
edit-
allow_no_indices
-
(Optional, 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. For example, a request targetingfoo*,bar*
returns an error if an index starts withfoo
but no index starts withbar
.Defaults to
true
. -
analyzer
-
(Optional, string) Analyzer to use for the query string.
This parameter can only be used when the
q
query string parameter is specified. -
analyze_wildcard
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, wildcard and prefix queries are analyzed. Defaults tofalse
.This parameter can only be used when the
q
query string parameter is specified. -
conflicts
-
(Optional, string) What to do if delete by query hits version conflicts:
abort
orproceed
. Defaults toabort
. -
default_operator
-
(Optional, string) The default operator for query string query: AND or OR. Defaults to
OR
.This parameter can only be used when the
q
query string parameter is specified. -
df
-
(Optional, string) Field to use as default where no field prefix is given in the query string.
This parameter can only be used when the
q
query string parameter is specified. -
expand_wildcards
-
(Optional, 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
- Match any data stream or index, including hidden ones.
-
open
- Match open, non-hidden indices. Also matches any non-hidden data stream.
-
closed
- Match closed, non-hidden indices. Also matches any non-hidden data stream. Data streams cannot be closed.
-
hidden
-
Match hidden data streams and hidden indices. Must be combined with
open
,closed
, or both. -
none
- Wildcard patterns are not accepted.
Defaults to
open
. -
-
ignore_unavailable
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
false
, the request returns an error if it targets a missing or closed index. Defaults tofalse
. -
lenient
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, format-based query failures (such as providing text to a numeric field) in the query string will be ignored. Defaults tofalse
.This parameter can only be used when the
q
query string parameter is specified. -
max_docs
-
(Optional, integer) Maximum number of documents to process. Defaults to all
documents. When set to a value less then or equal to
scroll_size
then a scroll will not be used to retrieve the results for the operation. -
preference
- (Optional, string) Specifies the node or shard the operation should be performed on. Random by default.
-
q
- (Optional, string) Query in the Lucene query string syntax.
-
request_cache
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, the request cache is used for this request. Defaults to the index-level setting. -
refresh
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, Elasticsearch refreshes all shards involved in the delete by query after the request completes. Defaults tofalse
. -
requests_per_second
-
(Optional, integer) The throttle for this request in sub-requests per second.
Defaults to
-1
(no throttle). -
routing
- (Optional, string) Custom value used to route operations to a specific shard.
-
scroll
- (Optional, time value) Period to retain the search context for scrolling. See Scroll search results.
-
scroll_size
- (Optional, integer) Size of the scroll request that powers the operation. Defaults to 1000.
-
search_type
-
(Optional, string) The type of the search operation. Available options:
-
query_then_fetch
-
dfs_query_then_fetch
-
-
search_timeout
- (Optional, time units) Explicit timeout for each search request. Defaults to no timeout.
-
slices
- (Optional, integer) The number of slices this task should be divided into. Defaults to 1 meaning the task isn’t sliced into subtasks.
-
sort
- (Optional, string) A comma-separated list of <field>:<direction> pairs.
-
stats
-
(Optional, string) Specific
tag
of the request for logging and statistical purposes. -
terminate_after
-
(Optional, integer) Maximum number of documents to collect for each shard. If a query reaches this limit, Elasticsearch terminates the query early. Elasticsearch collects documents before sorting.
Use with caution. Elasticsearch applies this parameter to each shard handling the request. When possible, let Elasticsearch perform early termination automatically. Avoid specifying this parameter for requests that target data streams with backing indices across multiple data tiers.
-
timeout
-
(Optional, time units)
Period each deletion request waits for active
shards. Defaults to
1m
(one minute). -
version
-
(Optional, Boolean) If
true
, returns the document version as part of a hit. -
wait_for_active_shards
-
(Optional, string) The number of shard copies that must be active before proceeding with the operation. Set to
all
or any positive integer up to the total number of shards in the index (number_of_replicas+1
). Default: 1, the primary shard.See Active shards.
Request body
edit-
query
- (Optional, query object) Specifies the documents to delete using the Query DSL.
Response body
editThe JSON response looks like this:
{ "took" : 147, "timed_out": false, "total": 119, "deleted": 119, "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" : [ ] }
-
took
- The number of milliseconds from start to end of the whole operation.
-
timed_out
-
This flag is set to
true
if any of the requests executed during the delete by query execution has timed out. -
total
- The number of documents that were successfully processed.
-
deleted
- The number of documents that were successfully deleted.
-
batches
- The number of scroll responses pulled back by the delete by query.
-
version_conflicts
- The number of version conflicts that the delete by query hit.
-
noops
- This field is always equal to zero for delete by query. It only exists so that delete by query, update by query, and reindex APIs return responses with the same structure.
-
retries
-
The number of retries attempted by delete by query.
bulk
is the number of bulk actions retried, andsearch
is the number of search actions retried. -
throttled_millis
-
Number of milliseconds the request slept to conform to
requests_per_second
. -
requests_per_second
- The number of requests per second effectively executed during the delete by query.
-
throttled_until_millis
-
This field should always be equal to zero in a
_delete_by_query
response. It only has meaning when using the Task API, where it indicates the next time (in milliseconds since epoch) a throttled request will be executed again in order to conform torequests_per_second
. -
failures
-
Array of failures if there were any unrecoverable errors during the process. If
this is non-empty then the request aborted because of those failures.
Delete by query is implemented using batches, and any failure causes the entire
process to abort but all failures in the current batch are collected into the
array. You can use the
conflicts
option to prevent reindex from aborting on version conflicts.
Examples
editDelete all documents from the my-index-000001
data stream or index:
resp = client.delete_by_query( index="my-index-000001", conflicts="proceed", body={"query": {"match_all": {}}}, ) print(resp)
response = client.delete_by_query( index: 'my-index-000001', conflicts: 'proceed', body: { query: { match_all: {} } } ) puts response
POST my-index-000001/_delete_by_query?conflicts=proceed { "query": { "match_all": {} } }
Delete documents from multiple data streams or indices:
resp = client.delete_by_query( index=["my-index-000001", "my-index-000002"], body={"query": {"match_all": {}}}, ) print(resp)
response = client.delete_by_query( index: 'my-index-000001,my-index-000002', body: { query: { match_all: {} } } ) puts response
POST /my-index-000001,my-index-000002/_delete_by_query { "query": { "match_all": {} } }
Limit the delete by query operation to shards that a particular routing value:
resp = client.delete_by_query( index="my-index-000001", routing="1", body={"query": {"range": {"age": {"gte": 10}}}}, ) print(resp)
response = client.delete_by_query( index: 'my-index-000001', routing: 1, body: { query: { range: { age: { gte: 10 } } } } ) puts response
POST my-index-000001/_delete_by_query?routing=1 { "query": { "range" : { "age" : { "gte" : 10 } } } }
By default _delete_by_query
uses scroll batches of 1000. You can change the
batch size with the scroll_size
URL parameter:
resp = client.delete_by_query( index="my-index-000001", scroll_size="5000", body={"query": {"term": {"user.id": "kimchy"}}}, ) print(resp)
response = client.delete_by_query( index: 'my-index-000001', scroll_size: 5000, body: { query: { term: { 'user.id' => 'kimchy' } } } ) puts response
POST my-index-000001/_delete_by_query?scroll_size=5000 { "query": { "term": { "user.id": "kimchy" } } }
Delete a document using a unique attribute:
resp = client.delete_by_query( index="my-index-000001", body={"query": {"term": {"user.id": "kimchy"}}, "max_docs": 1}, ) print(resp)
response = client.delete_by_query( index: 'my-index-000001', body: { query: { term: { 'user.id' => 'kimchy' } }, max_docs: 1 } ) puts response
POST my-index-000001/_delete_by_query { "query": { "term": { "user.id": "kimchy" } }, "max_docs": 1 }
Slice manually
editSlice a delete by query manually by providing a slice id and total number of slices:
resp = client.delete_by_query( index="my-index-000001", body={ "slice": {"id": 0, "max": 2}, "query": {"range": {"http.response.bytes": {"lt": 2000000}}}, }, ) print(resp) resp = client.delete_by_query( index="my-index-000001", body={ "slice": {"id": 1, "max": 2}, "query": {"range": {"http.response.bytes": {"lt": 2000000}}}, }, ) print(resp)
response = client.delete_by_query( index: 'my-index-000001', body: { slice: { id: 0, max: 2 }, query: { range: { 'http.response.bytes' => { lt: 2_000_000 } } } } ) puts response response = client.delete_by_query( index: 'my-index-000001', body: { slice: { id: 1, max: 2 }, query: { range: { 'http.response.bytes' => { lt: 2_000_000 } } } } ) puts response
POST my-index-000001/_delete_by_query { "slice": { "id": 0, "max": 2 }, "query": { "range": { "http.response.bytes": { "lt": 2000000 } } } } POST my-index-000001/_delete_by_query { "slice": { "id": 1, "max": 2 }, "query": { "range": { "http.response.bytes": { "lt": 2000000 } } } }
Which you can verify works with:
resp = client.indices.refresh() print(resp) resp = client.search( index="my-index-000001", size="0", filter_path="hits.total", body={"query": {"range": {"http.response.bytes": {"lt": 2000000}}}}, ) print(resp)
response = client.indices.refresh puts response response = client.search( index: 'my-index-000001', size: 0, filter_path: 'hits.total', body: { query: { range: { 'http.response.bytes' => { lt: 2_000_000 } } } } ) puts response
GET _refresh POST my-index-000001/_search?size=0&filter_path=hits.total { "query": { "range": { "http.response.bytes": { "lt": 2000000 } } } }
Which results in a sensible total
like this one:
{ "hits": { "total" : { "value": 0, "relation": "eq" } } }
Use automatic slicing
editYou can also let delete-by-query automatically parallelize using
sliced scroll to slice on _id
. Use slices
to specify
the number of slices to use:
resp = client.delete_by_query( index="my-index-000001", refresh=True, slices="5", body={"query": {"range": {"http.response.bytes": {"lt": 2000000}}}}, ) print(resp)
response = client.delete_by_query( index: 'my-index-000001', refresh: true, slices: 5, body: { query: { range: { 'http.response.bytes' => { lt: 2_000_000 } } } } ) puts response
POST my-index-000001/_delete_by_query?refresh&slices=5 { "query": { "range": { "http.response.bytes": { "lt": 2000000 } } } }
Which you also can verify works with:
resp = client.search( index="my-index-000001", size="0", filter_path="hits.total", body={"query": {"range": {"http.response.bytes": {"lt": 2000000}}}}, ) print(resp)
response = client.search( index: 'my-index-000001', size: 0, filter_path: 'hits.total', body: { query: { range: { 'http.response.bytes' => { lt: 2_000_000 } } } } ) puts response
POST my-index-000001/_search?size=0&filter_path=hits.total { "query": { "range": { "http.response.bytes": { "lt": 2000000 } } } }
Which results in a sensible total
like this one:
{ "hits": { "total" : { "value": 0, "relation": "eq" } } }
Setting slices
to auto
will let Elasticsearch choose the number of slices
to use. This setting will use one slice per shard, up to a certain limit. If
there are multiple source data streams or indices, it will choose the number of slices based
on the index or backing index with the smallest number of shards.
Adding slices
to _delete_by_query
just automates the manual process used in
the section above, creating sub-requests which means it has some quirks:
-
You can see these requests in the
Tasks APIs. These sub-requests are "child"
tasks of the task for the request with
slices
. -
Fetching the status of the task for the request with
slices
only contains the status of completed slices. - These sub-requests are individually addressable for things like cancellation and rethrottling.
-
Rethrottling the request with
slices
will rethrottle the unfinished sub-request proportionally. -
Canceling the request with
slices
will cancel each sub-request. -
Due to the nature of
slices
each sub-request won’t get a perfectly even portion of the documents. All documents will be addressed, but some slices may be larger than others. Expect larger slices to have a more even distribution. -
Parameters like
requests_per_second
andmax_docs
on a request withslices
are distributed proportionally to each sub-request. Combine that with the point above about distribution being uneven and you should conclude that usingmax_docs
withslices
might not result in exactlymax_docs
documents being deleted. - Each sub-request gets a slightly different snapshot of the source data stream or index though these are all taken at approximately the same time.
Change throttling for a request
editThe value of requests_per_second
can be changed on a running delete by query
using the _rethrottle
API. Rethrottling that speeds up the
query takes effect immediately but rethrotting that slows down the query
takes effect after completing the current batch to prevent scroll
timeouts.
$params = [ 'task_id' => 'r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619', ]; $response = $client->deleteByQueryRethrottle($params);
resp = client.delete_by_query_rethrottle( task_id="r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619", requests_per_second="-1", ) print(resp)
response = client.delete_by_query_rethrottle( task_id: 'r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619', requests_per_second: -1 ) puts response
res, err := es.DeleteByQueryRethrottle( "r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619", esapi.IntPtr(-1), ) fmt.Println(res, err)
const response = await client.deleteByQueryRethrottle({ task_id: 'r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619', requests_per_second: '-1' }) console.log(response)
POST _delete_by_query/r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619/_rethrottle?requests_per_second=-1
Use the tasks API to get the task ID. Set requests_per_second
to any positive decimal value or -1
to disable throttling.
Get the status of a delete by query operation
editUse the tasks API to get the status of a delete by query operation:
$response = $client->tasks()->list();
resp = client.tasks.list( detailed="true", actions="*/delete/byquery", ) print(resp)
response = client.tasks.list( detailed: true, actions: '*/delete/byquery' ) puts response
res, err := es.Tasks.List( es.Tasks.List.WithActions("*/delete/byquery"), es.Tasks.List.WithDetailed(true), ) fmt.Println(res, err)
const response = await client.tasks.list({ detailed: 'true', actions: '*/delete/byquery' }) console.log(response)
GET _tasks?detailed=true&actions=*/delete/byquery
The response looks like:
{ "nodes" : { "r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A" : { "name" : "r1A2WoR", "transport_address" : "127.0.0.1:9300", "host" : "127.0.0.1", "ip" : "127.0.0.1:9300", "attributes" : { "testattr" : "test", "portsfile" : "true" }, "tasks" : { "r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619" : { "node" : "r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A", "id" : 36619, "type" : "transport", "action" : "indices:data/write/delete/byquery", "status" : { "total" : 6154, "updated" : 0, "created" : 0, "deleted" : 3500, "batches" : 36, "version_conflicts" : 0, "noops" : 0, "retries": 0, "throttled_millis": 0 }, "description" : "" } } } } }
This object contains the actual status. It is just like the response JSON
with the important addition of the |
With the task id you can look up the task directly:
$params = [ 'task_id' => 'r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619', ]; $response = $client->tasks()->get($params);
resp = client.tasks.get( task_id="r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619", ) print(resp)
response = client.tasks.get( task_id: 'r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619' ) puts response
res, err := es.Tasks.Get( "r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619", ) fmt.Println(res, err)
const response = await client.tasks.get({ task_id: 'r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619' }) console.log(response)
GET /_tasks/r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619
The advantage of this API is that it integrates with wait_for_completion=false
to transparently return the status of completed tasks. If the task is completed
and wait_for_completion=false
was set on it then it’ll come back with
results
or an error
field. The cost of this feature is the document that
wait_for_completion=false
creates at .tasks/task/${taskId}
. It is up to
you to delete that document.
Cancel a delete by query operation
editAny delete by query can be canceled using the task cancel API:
$params = [ 'task_id' => 'r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619', ]; $response = $client->tasks()->cancel($params);
resp = client.tasks.cancel( task_id="r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619", ) print(resp)
response = client.tasks.cancel( task_id: 'r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619' ) puts response
res, err := es.Tasks.Cancel( es.Tasks.Cancel.WithTaskID("r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619"), ) fmt.Println(res, err)
const response = await client.tasks.cancel({ task_id: 'r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619' }) console.log(response)
POST _tasks/r1A2WoRbTwKZ516z6NEs5A:36619/_cancel
The task ID can be found using the tasks API.
Cancellation should happen quickly but might take a few seconds. The task status API above will continue to list the delete by query task until this task checks that it has been cancelled and terminates itself.