# How long does it take to expunge deleted documents?
**URL:** https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-expunge-deleted-documents/40678
**Category:** Elasticsearch
**Created:** [February 1, 2016, 10:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-expunge-deleted-documents/40678 "2016-02-01T22:20:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@hwang251](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/hwang251)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2016, 10:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-expunge-deleted-documents/40678/1 "2016-02-01T22:20:57Z")
I'm trying to expunge deleted documents from our cluster. When I try to use the optimize API through curl, I usually get a 504 gateway timeout. And after the call, I usually see my store size grows in size. How long should I expect to wait until my deleted documents are expunged?
---
### Author:  [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2016, 5:33am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-expunge-deleted-documents/40678/2 "2016-02-02T05:33:47Z")
Depends on things like how big the index is, how many deleted docs you have, how big your cluster is, is the data static.
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### Author:  [@yahoo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/yahoo)
#### Post date: [February 10, 2016, 11:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-expunge-deleted-documents/40678/3 "2016-02-10T23:02:35Z")
Hi @warkolm
I deleted 6 indices (I used for learning) each is less than 2 MB, a week ago by:
`$ curl -XDELETE 'http://localhost:9200/logstash-*'`
they do not show up when
`http://127.0.0.1:9200/_cat/indices`
but the folder data still has them.
How to clean the data folder?
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### Author:  [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2016, 2:46am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-expunge-deleted-documents/40678/4 "2016-02-11T02:46:01Z")
> [@yahoo](#):
>
> but the folder data still has them.
Is there anything in them?
---
### Author:  [@yahoo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/yahoo)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2016, 4:33pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-expunge-deleted-documents/40678/5 "2016-02-11T16:33:47Z")
Yes.
There are all the stuff related to indices, with subfolders and plenty of files.
They are available in 4 nodes.
Each folder is 7-14 MB.
For example:
Here is the outcome of the
`tree /f`
for the 4th node
starting form
`cluster/nodes/4/indices/Shakespeare/`
```
-->1
-->index
segments_6
write.lock
_0.cfe
_0.cfs
_0.si
_1.cfe
_1.cfs
_1.si
_2.cfe
_2.cfs
_2.si
-->translog
translog-1.tlog
translog.ckp
-->_state
state-0.st
-->2
-->index
segments_5
write.lock
_0.cfe
_0.cfs
_0.si
_1.cfe
_1.cfs
_1.si
_2.cfe
_2.cfs
_2.si
-->translog
translog-1.tlog
translog.ckp
-->_state
state-0.st
-->_state
state-1.st
```
---
### Author:  [@erikthered](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/erikthered)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2016, 6:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-expunge-deleted-documents/40678/6 "2016-02-26T18:23:57Z")
We need the first six characters of your cluster ID to help you out. Also, what version of Elasticsearch are you running? (I can see the version once I get the cluster ID, but humor me in the mean time).
---
### Author:  [@yahoo](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/yahoo)
#### Post date: [February 29, 2016, 6:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-expunge-deleted-documents/40678/7 "2016-02-29T18:52:47Z")
version[2.1.1], pid[12988], build[40e2c53/2015-12-15T13:05:55Z]
TEST\_my\_app\_clus-dev/rrLop79cRFCuo\_HliN25wA
---
### Author:  [@erikthered](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/erikthered)
#### Post date: [February 29, 2016, 7:51pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-expunge-deleted-documents/40678/8 "2016-02-29T19:51:53Z")
This isn't a Elastic Cloud issue as I re-read the comments; you're able to run commands locally and we don't allow that 🙂
Moving to an appropriate forum.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 5, 2017, 11:12pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/how-long-does-it-take-to-expunge-deleted-documents/40678/9 "2017-07-05T23:12:47Z")