# Curator to delete all indices except index xxx

**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-to-delete-all-indices-except-index-xxx/57151
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [August 3, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-to-delete-all-indices-except-index-xxx/57151 "2016-08-03T21:06:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![dianadijan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/958977/32.png) [@dianadijan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dianadijan)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-to-delete-all-indices-except-index-xxx/57151/1 "2016-08-03T21:06:19Z")

</div>

Hi,

What is the syntax to delete all indices except a particular index  
Curator version: 3.4.1

Thanks

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![theuntergeek](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/theuntergeek/32/44961_2.png) [@theuntergeek](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/theuntergeek)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-to-delete-all-indices-except-index-xxx/57151/2 "2016-08-03T21:24:12Z")

</div>

For Curator 4, the action.yml file might look like this:

```auto
---
actions:
  1:
    action: delete_indices
    options:
      ignore_empty_list: True
    filters:
    - filtertype: pattern
      kind: regex
      value: '^MYINDEXNAME$'
      exclude: True

```

I _highly_ recommend running this with the `--dry-run` flag _before_ actually running it against a production environment as it _will_ delete everything _except_ `MYINDEXNAME`.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![dianadijan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/958977/32.png) [@dianadijan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dianadijan)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2016, 9:58pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-to-delete-all-indices-except-index-xxx/57151/3 "2016-08-03T21:58:31Z")

</div>

@theuntergeek I am using cruator 3.4  
Can you kindly suggest option for the version?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![dianadijan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/958977/32.png) [@dianadijan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dianadijan)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2016, 10:26pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-to-delete-all-indices-except-index-xxx/57151/4 "2016-08-03T22:26:22Z")

</div>

In curator 3.4.1 there is an option called --exclude TEXT to exclude a particular index

How can I exclude a group of indices with certain pattern

Thanks

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![slackorama](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/slackorama/32/3588_2.png) [@slackorama](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/slackorama)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2016, 10:44pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-to-delete-all-indices-except-index-xxx/57151/5 "2016-08-03T22:44:59Z")

</div>

[https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/curator/3.4/exclude.html](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/client/curator/3.4/exclude.html)

so `--exclude '^somepattern.*'` should do the trick.

You can test things out with `curator --dry-run ..`

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![dianadijan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/958977/32.png) [@dianadijan](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dianadijan)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2016, 11:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-to-delete-all-indices-except-index-xxx/57151/6 "2016-08-03T23:38:42Z")

</div>

thank you that helps a lot

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 10:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/curator-to-delete-all-indices-except-index-xxx/57151/7 "2017-07-05T22:30:17Z")

</div>