DELETE /{index}

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.

Required authorization

  • Index privileges: delete_index

Path parameters

  • index string | array[string] Required

    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 the action.destructive_requires_name cluster setting to false.

Query parameters

  • allow_no_indices boolean

    A setting that does two separate checks on the index expression. If false, the request returns an error (1) if any wildcard expression (including _all and *) resolves to zero matching indices or (2) if the complete set of resolved indices, aliases or data streams is empty after all expressions are evaluated. If true, index expressions that resolve to no indices are allowed and the request returns an empty result.

  • 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.

    Values are all, open, closed, hidden, or none.

  • ignore_unavailable boolean

    If false, the request returns an error if it targets a concrete (non-wildcarded) index, alias, or data stream that is missing, closed, or otherwise unavailable. If true, unavailable concrete targets are silently ignored.

  • 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.

    Values are -1 or 0.

    External documentation
  • timeout string

    Period to wait for a response. If no response is received before the timeout expires, the request fails and returns an error.

    Values are -1 or 0.

    External documentation

Responses

  • 200 application/json
    Hide response attributes Show response attributes object
    • acknowledged boolean Required

      For a successful response, this value is always true. On failure, an exception is returned instead.

    • _shards object
      Hide _shards attributes Show _shards attributes object
      • failed number Required

        The number of shards the operation or search attempted to run on but failed.

      • successful number Required

        The number of shards the operation or search succeeded on.

      • total number Required

        The number of shards the operation or search will run on overall.

      • failures array[object]
        Hide failures attributes Show failures attributes object
        • index
        • node string
        • reason
        • shard number
        • status string
        • primary boolean
      • skipped number
DELETE /{index} 
curl \
 --request DELETE 'http://api.example.com/{index}'