# Newbie question re:updating indexes with a river

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/newbie-question-re-updating-indexes-with-a-river/8133>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [June 17, 2012, 10:19am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/newbie-question-re-updating-indexes-with-a-river/8133 "2012-06-17T10:19:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SamTse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@SamTse](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SamTse)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 10:19am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/newbie-question-re-updating-indexes-with-a-river/8133/1 "2012-06-17T10:19:49Z")

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How do rivers work in terms of CRUD..?

I.e are they additive only or can they be used to edit and delete..?

e.g can a stream of messages from rabbitmq be mapped against the current content of an index or does it just overwrite/put ?

Thanks,

J

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**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 10:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/newbie-question-re-updating-indexes-with-a-river/8133/2 "2012-06-17T10:27:03Z")

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It depends on the river.  
CouchDb river support delete.

For twitter, it doesn't make sense.

I don't know about rabbitmq.

HTH  
David 😉  
Twitter : @dadoonet / @elasticsearchfr

Le 17 juin 2012 à 12:19, SamTse [kingjerome@gmail.com](mailto:kingjerome@gmail.com) a écrit :

> How do rivers work in terms of CRUD..?
> 
> I.e are they additive only or can they be used to edit and delete..?
> 
> e.g can a stream of messages from rabbitmq be mapped against the current content of an index or does it just overwrite/put ?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> J

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**Author:** ![SamTse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@SamTse](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SamTse)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 12:12am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/newbie-question-re-updating-indexes-with-a-river/8133/3 "2012-06-18T00:12:23Z")

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thanks. So (with couch db) if you wanted index updates you would delete and add..?

(can you point me at somewhere that will illustrate how indexed items to delete are selected?)

thx,

j

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**Author:** ![dadoonet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dadoonet/32/137187_2.png) [@dadoonet](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dadoonet)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/newbie-question-re-updating-indexes-with-a-river/8133/4 "2012-06-18T02:51:16Z")

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The \_changes Couchdb API provide this information.  
So when ES get a DELETE on ID X, ES delete the document.

You may have a look at the CouchDb documentation.

David 😉  
Twitter : @dadoonet / @elasticsearchfr

Le 18 juin 2012 à 02:12, SamTse [kingjerome@gmail.com](mailto:kingjerome@gmail.com) a écrit :

> thanks. So (with couch db) if you wanted index updates you would delete and add..?
> 
> (can you point me at somewhere that will illustrate how indexed items to delete are selected?)
> 
> thx,
> 
> j

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**Author:** ![SamTse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@SamTse](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/SamTse)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/newbie-question-re-updating-indexes-with-a-river/8133/5 "2012-06-19T13:30:57Z")

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thx 🙂

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 3:23am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/newbie-question-re-updating-indexes-with-a-river/8133/6 "2017-07-06T03:23:24Z")

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