Delete a namespace #

Delete an existing namespace.

Examples #

The following request delete the namespace called website:

DELETE /_namespace/website

Request #

DELETE /_namespace/<name>

/_ns/<name> is accepted as a shorter alias.

Path parameters #

• <name>
  (Required, string) The name of the namespace that you want to delete.

Response #

{ "acknowledged": true }

Trash semantics #

Deleting a namespace moves the WHOLE namespace into the trash: every collection’s data directory is retained under <data_path>/trash/ together with a namespace-level restore snapshot (one snapshot per collection — schemas, shard UUIDs, partition routing, placements). The sweeper physically deletes it after trash.retention_secs.

Until then the namespace can be restored as a unit — with all of its collections — through the cluster trash APIs:

POST /_cluster/trash/<item>/verify   # read-only shard-completeness check
POST /_cluster/trash/<item>/restore  # brings back every collection