Update by query

Introduced 1.0

You can include a query and a script as part of your update request so OpenSearch can run the script to update all of the documents that match the query.

Example

POST test-index1/_update_by_query
{
  "query": {
    "term": {
      "oldValue": 10
    }
  },
  "script" : {
    "source": "ctx._source.oldValue += params.newValue",
    "lang": "painless",
    "params" : {
      "newValue" : 20
    }
  }
}

copy

Path and HTTP methods

POST <target-index1>, <target-index2>/_update_by_query

URL parameters

All URL parameters are optional.

Parameter	Type	Description
<index>	String	Comma-separated list of indexes to update. To update all indexes, use * or omit this parameter.
allow_no_indices	Boolean	Whether to ignore wildcards that don’t match any indexes. Default is `true`.
analyzer	String	Analyzer to use in the query string.
analyze_wildcard	Boolean	Whether the update operation should include wildcard and prefix queries in the analysis. Default is false.
conflicts	String	Indicates to OpenSearch what should happen if the update by query operation runs into a version conflict. Valid options are `abort` and `proceed`. Default is `abort`.
default_operator	String	Indicates whether the default operator for a string query should be `AND` or `OR`. Default is `OR`.
df	String	The default field if a field prefix is not provided in the query string.
expand_wildcards	String	Specifies the type of index that wildcard expressions can match. Supports comma-separated values. Valid values are `all` (match any index), `open` (match open, non-hidden indexes), `closed` (match closed, non-hidden indexes), `hidden` (match hidden indexes), and `none` (deny wildcard expressions). Default is `open`.
from	Integer	The starting index to search from. Default is 0.
ignore_unavailable	Boolean	Whether to exclude missing or closed indexes in the response. Default is false.
lenient	Boolean	Specifies whether OpenSearch should accept requests if queries have format errors (for example, querying a text field for an integer). Default is false.
max_docs	Integer	How many documents the update by query operation should process at most. Default is all documents.
pipeline	String	ID of the pipeline to use to process documents.
preference	String	Specifies which shard or node OpenSearch should perform the update by query operation on.
q	String	Lucene query string’s query.
request_cache	Boolean	Specifies whether OpenSearch should use the request cache. Default is whether it’s enabled in the index’s settings.
refresh	Boolean	If true, OpenSearch refreshes shards to make the update by query operation available to search results. Valid options are `true` and `false`. Default is `false`.
requests_per_second	Integer	Specifies the request’s throttling in sub-requests per second. Default is -1, which means no throttling.
routing	String	Value used to route the update by query operation to a specific shard.
scroll	Time	How long to keep the search context open.
scroll_size	Integer	Size of the operation’s scroll request. Default is 1000.
search_type	String	Whether OpenSearch should use global term and document frequencies calculating relevance scores. Valid choices are `query_then_fetch` and `dfs_query_then_fetch`. `query_then_fetch` scores documents using local term and document frequencies for the shard. It’s usually faster but less accurate. `dfs_query_then_fetch` scores documents using global term and document frequencies across all shards. It’s usually slower but more accurate. Default is `query_then_fetch`.
search_timeout	Time	How long to wait until OpenSearch deems the request timed out. Default is no timeout.
slices	String or integer	The number slices to split an operation into for faster processing, specified by integer. When set to `auto` OpenSearch it should decides how many the number of slices for the operation. Default is `1`, which indicates an operation will not be split.
sort	List	A comma-separated list of <field> : <direction> pairs to sort by.
_source	String	Whether to include the `_source` field in the response.
_source_excludes	String	A comma-separated list of source fields to exclude from the response.
_source_includes	String	A comma-separated list of source fields to include in the response.
stats	String	Value to associate with the request for additional logging.
terminate_after	Integer	The maximum number of documents OpenSearch should process before terminating the request.
timeout	Time	How long the operation should wait from a response from active shards. Default is `1m`.
version	Boolean	Whether to include the document version as a match.
wait_for_active_shards	String	The number of shards that must be active before OpenSearch executes the operation. Valid values are `all` or any integer up to the total number of shards in the index. Default is 1, which is the primary shard.
wait_for_completion	boolean	When set to `false`, the response body includes a task ID and OpenSearch executes the operation asynchronously. The task ID can be used to check the status of the task or to cancel the task. Default is set to `true`.

Request body

To update your indexes and documents by query, you must include a query and a script in the request body that OpenSearch can run to update your documents. If you don’t specify a query, then every document in the index gets updated.

{
  "query": {
    "term": {
      "oldValue": 20
    }
  },
  "script" : {
    "source": "ctx._source.oldValue += params.newValue",
    "lang": "painless",
    "params" : {
      "newValue" : 10
    }
  }
}

Response

{
  "took": 21,
  "timed_out": false,
  "total": 1,
  "updated": 1,
  "deleted": 0,
  "batches": 1,
  "version_conflicts": 0,
  "noops": 0,
  "retries": {
    "bulk": 0,
    "search": 0
  },
  "throttled_millis": 0,
  "requests_per_second": -1.0,
  "throttled_until_millis": 0,
  "failures": []
}

Response body fields

Field	Description
took	The amount of time in milliseconds OpenSearch needed to complete the operation.
timed_out	Whether any update requests during the operation timed out.
total	Total number of documents processed.
updated	Total number of documents updated.
batches	Number of scroll responses the request processed.
version_conflicts	Number of conflicts the request ran into.
noops	How many update requests OpenSearch ignored during the operation. This field always returns 0.
retries	The number of bulk and search retry requests.
throttled_millis	Number of throttled milliseconds during the request.
requests_per_second	Number of requests executed per second during the operation.
throttled_until_millis	The amount of time until OpenSearch executes the next throttled request. Always equal to 0 in an update by query request.
failures	Any failures that occur during the request.