Delete indices

DELETE /{index}

Auth

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 union string | 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 · default: true

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 union oneOf · default: open,closed

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.

Supported values include:

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 expressions are not accepted.

Values: all open closed hidden none

ignore_unavailable boolean · default: false

If false, the request returns an error if it targets a missing or closed index.

master_timeout string · default: 30s

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 · default: 30s

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

Response

application/json

acknowledged boolean required: For a successful response, this value is always true. On failure, an exception is returned instead.
_shards object