[[docs-delete]]
== Delete API

The delete API allows to delete a JSON document from a specific
index based on its id. The following example deletes the JSON document
from an index called `twitter` with ID `1`:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
DELETE /twitter/_doc/1
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[setup:twitter]

The result of the above delete operation is:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
{
    "_shards" : {
        "total" : 2,
        "failed" : 0,
        "successful" : 2
    },
    "_index" : "twitter",
    "_type" : "_doc",
    "_id" : "1",
    "_version" : 2,
    "_primary_term": 1,
    "_seq_no": 5,
    "result": "deleted"
}
--------------------------------------------------
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"successful" : 2/"successful" : 1/]
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"_primary_term" : 1/"_primary_term" : $body._primary_term/]
// TESTRESPONSE[s/"_seq_no" : 5/"_seq_no" : $body._seq_no/]

[float]
[[optimistic-concurrency-control-delete]]
=== Optimistic concurrency control

Delete operations can be made conditional and only be performed if the last
modification to the document was assigned the sequence number and primary 
term specified by the `if_seq_no` and `if_primary_term` parameters. If a
mismatch is detected, the operation will result in a `VersionConflictException`
and a status code of 409. See <<optimistic-concurrency-control>> for more details. 

[float]
[[delete-versioning]]
=== Versioning

Each document indexed is versioned. When deleting a document, the `version` can
be specified to make sure the relevant document we are trying to delete is
actually being deleted and it has not changed in the meantime. Every write
operation executed on a document, deletes included, causes its version to be
incremented. The version number of a deleted document remains available for a
short time after deletion to allow for control of concurrent operations. The
length of time for which a deleted document's version remains available is
determined by the `index.gc_deletes` index setting and defaults to 60 seconds.

[float]
[[delete-routing]]
=== Routing

When indexing using the ability to control the routing, in order to
delete a document, the routing value should also be provided. For
example:

////
Example to delete with routing

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
PUT /twitter/_doc/1?routing=kimchy
{
    "test": "test"
}
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
////


[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
DELETE /twitter/_doc/1?routing=kimchy
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[continued]

The above will delete a tweet with id `1`, but will be routed based on the
user. Note that issuing a delete without the correct routing will cause the
document to not be deleted.

When the `_routing` mapping is set as `required` and no routing value is
specified, the delete API will throw a `RoutingMissingException` and reject
the request.

[float]
[[delete-index-creation]]
=== Automatic index creation

If an <<docs-index_,external versioning variant>> is used,
the delete operation automatically creates an index if it has not been
created before (check out the <<indices-create-index,create index API>>
for manually creating an index).

[float]
[[delete-distributed]]
=== Distributed

The delete operation gets hashed into a specific shard id. It then gets
redirected into the primary shard within that id group, and replicated
(if needed) to shard replicas within that id group.

[float]
[[delete-wait-for-active-shards]]
=== Wait For Active Shards

When making delete requests, you can set the `wait_for_active_shards`
parameter to require a minimum number of shard copies to be active
before starting to process the delete request. See
<<index-wait-for-active-shards,here>> for further details and a usage
example.

[float]
[[delete-refresh]]
=== Refresh

Control when the changes made by this request are visible to search. See
<<docs-refresh>>.


[float]
[[delete-timeout]]
=== Timeout

The primary shard assigned to perform the delete operation might not be
available when the delete operation is executed. Some reasons for this
might be that the primary shard is currently recovering from a store
or undergoing relocation. By default, the delete operation will wait on
the primary shard to become available for up to 1 minute before failing
and responding with an error. The `timeout` parameter can be used to
explicitly specify how long it waits. Here is an example of setting it
to 5 minutes:

[source,js]
--------------------------------------------------
DELETE /twitter/_doc/1?timeout=5m
--------------------------------------------------
// CONSOLE
// TEST[setup:twitter]
