Currently there are two get aliases apis that both have the same functionality, but have a different response structure. The reason for having 2 apis is historic.
The GET _alias api was added in 0.90.x and is more efficient since it only sends the needed alias data from the cluster state between the master node and the node that received the request. In the GET _aliases api the complete cluster state is send to the node that received the request and then the right information is filtered out and send back to the client.
The GET _aliases api should be removed in favour for the alias api
Closes to #4539
* `ignore_unavailable` - Controls whether to ignore if any specified indices are unavailable, this includes indices that don't exist or closed indices. Either `true` or `false` can be specified.
* `allow_no_indices` - Controls whether to fail if a wildcard indices expressions results into no concrete indices. Either `true` or `false` can be specified. For example if the wildcard expression `foo*` is specified and no indices are available that start with `foo` then depending on this setting the request will fail. This setting is also applicable when `_all`, `*` or no index has been specified.
* `expand_wildcards` - Controls to what kind of concrete indices wildcard indices expression expand to. If `open` is specified then the wildcard expression if expanded to only open indices and if `closed` is specified then the wildcard expression if expanded only to closed indices. Also both values (`open,closed`) can be specified to expand to all indices.
Closes to #4436
Martijn van Groningen
Honza Kral