elastic/elasticsearch

Missing ID for an update/delete operation causes the entire bulk to fail

Open

#10428 opened on Apr 4, 2015

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 (6 comments) (0 reactions) (0 assignees)Java (76,700 stars) (25,882 forks)batch import
:Distributed/CRUD>bugTeam:Distributedhelp wanted

Description

If one of the actions from a bulk requires an ID (update/delete) but doesn't have it, the entire bulk fails. For example:

$ cat /tmp/test_bulk 
{"index":{}}
{"name":"test doc"}
{"delete":{}}

$ curl -XPOST localhost:9200/test/test/_bulk?pretty --data-binary @/tmp/test_bulk
{
  "error" : "ActionRequestValidationException[Validation Failed: 1: id is missing;]",
  "status" : 400
}

I would expect the index operation to succeed and the delete/update operation to fail. Or maybe there's a good reason for failing the whole bulk that I don't see?

Contributor guide

Tech stack
java
Domain
backendapi
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
4
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
JavaElasticsearch bulk APIError handling patterns
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
30
Research direction
Investigate the bulk request processing in Elasticsearch, specifically the validation logic that checks for missing IDs in update/delete actions. The relevant code is likely in the BulkRequest class or TransportShardBulkAction. The issue expects per action error handling rather than failing the entire bulk. Examine existing error handling for other validation failures to understand the pattern. The changes would involve catching exceptions for individual actions and collecting errors in the response.