Refresh API

Refreshes one or more indices. For data streams, the API refreshes the stream’s backing indices.

  1. POST /my-index-000001/_refresh

Request

POST <target>/_refresh

GET <target>/_refresh

POST /_refresh

GET /_refresh

Description

Use the refresh API to explicitly refresh one or more indices. If the request targets a data stream, it refreshes the stream’s backing indices. A refresh makes all operations performed on an index since the last refresh available for search.

By default, Elasticsearch periodically refreshes indices every second, but only on indices that have received one search request or more in the last 30 seconds. You can change this default interval using the index.refresh_interval setting.

Refresh requests are synchronous and do not return a response until the refresh operation completes.

Refreshes are resource-intensive. To ensure good cluster performance, we recommend waiting for Elasticsearch’s periodic refresh rather than performing an explicit refresh when possible.

If your application workflow indexes documents and then runs a search to retrieve the indexed document, we recommend using the index API‘s refresh=wait_for query parameter option. This option ensures the indexing operation waits for a periodic refresh before running the search.

Path parameters

<index>

(Optional, string) Comma-separated list or wildcard expression of index names used to limit the request.

To refresh all indices in the cluster, omit this parameter or use a value of _all or *.

Query parameters

allow_no_indices

(Optional, boolean) If true, the request does not return an error if a wildcard expression or _all value retrieves only missing or closed indices.

This parameter also applies to index aliases that point to a missing or closed index.

Defaults to true.

expand_wildcards

(Optional, string) Controls what kind of indices that wildcard expressions can expand to. Multiple values are accepted when separated by a comma, as in open,hidden. Valid values are:

  • all

    Expand to open and closed indices, including hidden indices.

    open

    Expand only to open indices.

    closed

    Expand only to closed indices.

    hidden

    Expansion of wildcards will include hidden indices. Must be combined with open, closed, or both.

    none

    Wildcard expressions are not accepted.

Defaults to open.

ignore_unavailable

(Optional, boolean) If true, missing or closed indices are not included in the response. Defaults to false.

Examples

Refresh several data streams and indices

  1. POST /my-index-000001,my-index-000002/_refresh

Refresh all data streams and indices in a cluster

  1. POST /_refresh