Common REST parameters

Introduced 1.0

OpenSearch supports the following parameters for all REST operations:

Human-readable output

To convert output units to human-readable values (for example, 1h for 1 hour and 1kb for 1,024 bytes), add ?human=true to the request URL.

Example request

The following request requires response values to be in human-readable format:

  1. GET <index_name>/_search?human=true

Pretty result

To get back JSON responses in a readable format, add ?pretty=true to the request URL.

Example request

The following request requires the response to be displayed in pretty JSON format:

  1. GET <index_name>/_search?pretty=true

Content type

To specify the type of content in the request body, use the Content-Type key name in the request header. Most operations support JSON, YAML, and CBOR formats.

Example request

The following request specifies JSON format for the request body:

  1. curl -H "Content-type: application/json" -XGET localhost:9200/_scripts/<template_name>

Request body in query string

If the client library does not accept a request body for non-POST requests, use the source query string parameter to pass the request body. Also, specify the source_content_type parameter with a supported media type such as application/json.

Example request

The following request searches the documents in the shakespeare index for a specific field and value:

  1. GET shakespeare/search?source={"query":{"exists":{"field":"speaker"}}}&source_content_type=application/json

Stack traces

To include the error stack trace in the response when an exception is raised, add error_trace=true to the request URL.

Example request

The following request sets error_trace to true so that the response returns exception-triggered errors:

  1. GET <index_name>/_search?error_trace=true

Filtered responses

To reduce the response size use the filter_path parameter to filter the fields that are returned. This parameter takes a comma-separated list of filters. It supports using wildcards to match any field or part of a field’s name. You can also exclude fields with -.

Example request

The following request specifies filters to limit the fields returned in the response:

  1. GET _search?filter_path=<field_name>.*,-<field_name>

Units

OpenSearch APIs support the following units.

Time units

The following table lists all supported time units.

UnitsSpecify as
Daysd
Hoursh
Minutesm
Secondss
Millisecondsms
Microsecondsmicros
Nanosecondsnanos

Distance units

The following table lists all supported distance units.

UnitsSpecify as
Milesmi or miles
Yardsyd or yards
Feetft or feet
Inchesin or inch
Kilometerskm or kilometers
Metersm or meters
Centimeterscm or centimeters
Millimetersmm or millimeters
Nautical milesNM, nmi, or nauticalmiles