How can I delete all records in a database in CouchDB?

Question

Is there any way that I can drop all data from a CouchDB database?

What I'm doing currently is dropping and re-creating the whole database

curl -X DELETE http://localhost:5984/foobar
curl -X PUT    http://localhost:5984/foobar

but I'm not sure if this is the best way to do this.

If it is a dev environment its best approach, I am doing the same. If it is not a dev environment, and a user with regular access is able to do it, then its a serious issue. — GLK, Mar 20 '19 at 03:11

score 8 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 30 '14 at 11:57

8

I found this bookmarklet that adds you features to the Futon view. It adds you select all, delete all buttons and a delete column with delete checkboxes. It could be a good start, but you might want to modify it a bit since it doesn't seem to work all the time.

http://www.elijahmanor.com/couch-potato-bookmarklet-lazy-features-for-couchdbs-futon/

edited Sep 30 '14 at 11:57

Niels Abildgaard

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answered Apr 09 '13 at 14:45

airpaulg

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The URL has been changed to http://www.elijahmanor.com/couch-potato-bookmarklet-lazy-features-for-couchdbs-futon/ – Sparky Sep 16 '14 at 05:12
@Sparky Also now a dead link. – PeterS Feb 02 '23 at 12:36

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 08 '14 at 15:20

5

The code below deletes all databases (not all records!) using Node.js. You need to install nano and after that execute following code:

var nano = require('nano')('http://localhost:5984');

nano.db.list(function(err, body) {
  body.forEach(function(db) {
     nano.db.destroy(db);
  });
});

edited Jan 08 '14 at 15:20

giacecco

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answered Aug 16 '13 at 10:11

Rez

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score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 21 '16 at 09:28

4

There is no way to drop Data except deleting each doc (or updating a bunch of known doc-id's with _rev=xxx and "_deleted:true" in a _bulk)

Deleting and recreating is ok.

edited Dec 21 '16 at 09:28

Devid Farinelli

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answered Mar 12 '12 at 15:21

okurow

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score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 03 '17 at 14:14

3

Here is a python script to do the job:

import couchdb
couch = couchdb.Server('http://localhost:5984/')
couchdb = 'DATABASE'
db = couch[couchdb]
for id in db:
    db.delete(db[id])

answered Nov 03 '17 at 14:14

amagard

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 05 '16 at 21:13

0

I made a command line tool to do some operations on my CouchDB server besides the ones given by Futon. It supports delete, backup and restore of documents for now.

You can find it here.

answered Feb 05 '16 at 21:13

Cristiano Santos

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 04 '16 at 13:39

0

You can use this pouch db plugin. What it does is erase all the documents in your pouch db. It can be used both on server and client side javascript applications. Here is the link : Pouch Db Erase Plugin

answered Nov 04 '16 at 13:39

kartik

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 16 '19 at 13:57

Thanks to amagards' answer, I wrote a small Python script for deleting all documents and compacting the database afterwards:

import couchdb

user = "user"
passwd = "pass"
dbName = "databaseName"

couch = couchdb.Server("http://%s:%s@localhost:5984/" % (user, passwd))
db = couch[dbName]

print("start delete and compact routine")
count = 0
while True:
    print("requesting next 100 documents...")
    items = db.view("_all_docs", limit=100)
    if len(items) == 0:
        print("no documents available")
        break;

    for item in items:
        count += 1
        documentID = item.id.encode("utf-8")
        print ("deleting document: %s (count: %d)" % (documentID, count))
        db.delete(db[documentID])

print("deleted %d documents, requesting compact" % (count))
db.compact();
print("finished");

Shrunk my 10GBs large logging-DB downto 40MB but took a whole night running.

How can I delete all records in a database in CouchDB?

7 Answers7