Delete all documents from index/type without deleting type - elasticsearch

Question

I know one can delete all documents from a certain type via deleteByQuery.
Example:
curl -XDELETE 'http://localhost:9200/twitter/tweet/_query' -d '{
"query" : {
"term" : { "user" : "kimchy" }
}
}'
But i have NO term and simply want to delete all documents from that type, no matter what term. What is best practice to achieve this? Empty term does not work.
Link to deleteByQuery

Answer 1

I believe if you combine the delete by query with a match all it should do what you are looking for, something like this (using your example):
curl -XDELETE 'http://localhost:9200/twitter/tweet/_query' -d '{
"query" : {
"match_all" : {}
}
}'
Or you could just delete the type:
curl -XDELETE http://localhost:9200/twitter/tweet
Note: XDELETE is deprecated for later versions of ElasticSearch

Answer 2

The Delete-By-Query plugin has been removed in favor of a new Delete By Query API implementation in core. Read here
curl -XPOST 'localhost:9200/twitter/tweet/_delete_by_query?conflicts=proceed&pretty' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'
{
"query": {
"match_all": {}
}
}'

Answer 3

From ElasticSearch 5.x, delete_by_query API is there by default
POST: http://localhost:9200/index/type/_delete_by_query
{
"query": {
"match_all": {}
}
}

Answer 4

You can delete documents from type with following query:
POST /index/type/_delete_by_query
{
"query" : {
"match_all" : {}
}
}
I tested this query in Kibana and Elastic 5.5.2

Answer 5

Torsten Engelbrecht's comment in John Petrones answer expanded:
curl -XDELETE 'http://localhost:9200/twitter/tweet/_query' -d
'{
"query":
{
"match_all": {}
}
}'
(I did not want to edit John's reply, since it got upvotes and is set as answer, and I might have introduced an error)

Answer 6

Starting from Elasticsearch 2.x delete is not anymore allowed, since documents remain in the index causing index corruption.

Answer 7

Since ElasticSearch 7.x, delete-by-query plugin was removed in favor of new Delete By Query API.
The curl option:
curl -X POST "localhost:9200/my-index/_delete_by_query" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d' { "query": { "match_all":{} } } '
Or in Kibana
POST /my-index/_delete_by_query
{
"query": {
"match_all":{}
}
}

Answer 8

The above answers no longer work with ES 6.2.2 because of Strict Content-Type Checking for Elasticsearch REST Requests. The curl command which I ended up using is this:
curl -H'Content-Type: application/json' -XPOST 'localhost:9200/yourindex/_doc/_delete_by_query?conflicts=proceed' -d' { "query": { "match_all": {} }}'

Answer 9

In Kibana Console:
POST calls-xin-test-2/_delete_by_query
{
"query": {
"match_all": {}
}
}

Answer 10

(Reputation not high enough to comment)
The second part of John Petrone's answer works - no query needed. It will delete the type and all documents contained in that type, but that can just be re-created whenever you index a new document to that type.
Just to clarify:
$ curl -XDELETE 'http://localhost:9200/twitter/tweet'
Note: this does delete the mapping! But as mentioned before, it can be easily re-mapped by creating a new document.

Answer 11

Note for ES2+
Starting with ES 1.5.3 the delete-by-query API is deprecated, and is completely removed since ES 2.0
Instead of the API, the Delete By Query is now a plugin.
In order to use the Delete By Query plugin you must install the plugin on all nodes of the cluster:
sudo bin/plugin install delete-by-query
All of the nodes must be restarted after the installation.
The usage of the plugin is the same as the old API. You don't need to change anything in your queries - this plugin will just make them work.
*For complete information regarding WHY the API was removed you can read more here.

Answer 12

You have these alternatives:
1) Delete a whole index:
curl -XDELETE 'http://localhost:9200/indexName'
example:
curl -XDELETE 'http://localhost:9200/mentorz'
For more details you can find here -https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/indices-delete-index.html
2) Delete by Query to those that match:
curl -XDELETE 'http://localhost:9200/mentorz/users/_query' -d
'{
"query":
{
"match_all": {}
}
}'
*Here mentorz is an index name and users is a type

Answer 13

I'm using elasticsearch 7.5 and when I use
curl -XPOST 'localhost:9200/materials/_delete_by_query?conflicts=proceed&pretty' -d'
{
"query": {
"match_all": {}
}
}'
which will throw below error.
{
"error" : "Content-Type header [application/x-www-form-urlencoded] is not supported",
"status" : 406
}
I also need to add extra -H 'Content-Type: application/json' header in the request to make it works.
curl -XPOST 'localhost:9200/materials/_delete_by_query?conflicts=proceed&pretty' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d'
{
"query": {
"match_all": {}
}
}'
{
"took" : 465,
"timed_out" : false,
"total" : 2275,
"deleted" : 2275,
"batches" : 3,
"version_conflicts" : 0,
"noops" : 0,
"retries" : {
"bulk" : 0,
"search" : 0
},
"throttled_millis" : 0,
"requests_per_second" : -1.0,
"throttled_until_millis" : 0,
"failures" : [ ]
}

Answer 14

Just to add couple cents to this.
The "delete_by_query" mentioned at the top is still available as a plugin in elasticsearch 2.x.
Although in the latest upcoming version 5.x it will be replaced by
"delete by query api"

Answer 15

Elasticsearch 2.3 the option
action.destructive_requires_name: true
in elasticsearch.yml do the trip
curl -XDELETE http://localhost:9200/twitter/tweet

Answer 16

For future readers:
in Elasticsearch 7.x there's effectively one type per index - types are hidden
you can delete by query, but if you want remove everything you'll be much better off removing and re-creating the index. That's because deletes are only soft deletes under the hood, until the trigger Lucene segment merges*, which can be expensive if the index is large. Meanwhile, removing an index is almost instant: remove some files on disk and a reference in the cluster state.
* The video/slides are about Solr, but things work exactly the same in Elasticsearch, this is Lucene-level functionality.

Answer 17

If you want to delete document according to a date.
You can use kibana console (v.6.1.2)
POST index_name/_delete_by_query
{
"query" : {
"range" : {
"sendDate" : {
"lte" : "2018-03-06"
}
}
}
}