Cancel a task Technical preview; Added in 2.3.0

POST /_tasks/{task_id}/_cancel
Api key auth Basic auth Bearer auth

WARNING: The task management API is new and should still be considered a beta feature. The API may change in ways that are not backwards compatible.

A task may continue to run for some time after it has been cancelled because it may not be able to safely stop its current activity straight away. It is also possible that Elasticsearch must complete its work on other tasks before it can process the cancellation. The get task information API will continue to list these cancelled tasks until they complete. The cancelled flag in the response indicates that the cancellation command has been processed and the task will stop as soon as possible.

To troubleshoot why a cancelled task does not complete promptly, use the get task information API with the ?detailed parameter to identify the other tasks the system is running. You can also use the node hot threads API to obtain detailed information about the work the system is doing instead of completing the cancelled task.

Required authorization

  • Cluster privileges: manage

Path parameters

  • task_id string Required

    The task identifier.

Query parameters

  • actions string | array[string]

    A comma-separated list or wildcard expression of actions that is used to limit the request.

  • nodes array[string]

    A comma-separated list of node IDs or names that is used to limit the request.

  • parent_task_id string

    A parent task ID that is used to limit the tasks.

  • wait_for_completion boolean

    If true, the request blocks until all found tasks are complete.

Responses

  • 200 application/json
    Hide response attributes Show response attributes object
    • node_failures array[object]

      Cause and details about a request failure. This class defines the properties common to all error types. Additional details are also provided, that depend on the error type.

      Hide node_failures attributes Show node_failures attributes object
      • type string Required

        The type of error

      • reason string | null

        A human-readable explanation of the error, in English.

        One of:
        string-1 string string-2 string | null
      • stack_trace string

        The server stack trace. Present only if the error_trace=true parameter was sent with the request.

      • caused_by object

        Cause and details about a request failure. This class defines the properties common to all error types. Additional details are also provided, that depend on the error type.

      • root_cause array[object]

        Cause and details about a request failure. This class defines the properties common to all error types. Additional details are also provided, that depend on the error type.

        Cause and details about a request failure. This class defines the properties common to all error types. Additional details are also provided, that depend on the error type.

      • suppressed array[object]

        Cause and details about a request failure. This class defines the properties common to all error types. Additional details are also provided, that depend on the error type.

        Cause and details about a request failure. This class defines the properties common to all error types. Additional details are also provided, that depend on the error type.

    • task_failures array[object]
      Hide task_failures attributes Show task_failures attributes object
      • task_id number Required
      • node_id string Required
      • status string Required
      • reason object Required

        Cause and details about a request failure. This class defines the properties common to all error types. Additional details are also provided, that depend on the error type.

        Hide reason attributes Show reason attributes object
        • type string Required

          The type of error

        • reason string | null

          A human-readable explanation of the error, in English.

          One of:
          string-1 string string-2 string | null
        • stack_trace string

          The server stack trace. Present only if the error_trace=true parameter was sent with the request.

        • caused_by object

          Cause and details about a request failure. This class defines the properties common to all error types. Additional details are also provided, that depend on the error type.

        • root_cause array[object]

          Cause and details about a request failure. This class defines the properties common to all error types. Additional details are also provided, that depend on the error type.

          Cause and details about a request failure. This class defines the properties common to all error types. Additional details are also provided, that depend on the error type.

        • suppressed array[object]

          Cause and details about a request failure. This class defines the properties common to all error types. Additional details are also provided, that depend on the error type.

          Cause and details about a request failure. This class defines the properties common to all error types. Additional details are also provided, that depend on the error type.

    • nodes object

      Task information grouped by node, if group_by was set to node (the default).

      Hide nodes attribute Show nodes attribute object
      • * object Additional properties
        Hide * attributes Show * attributes object
        • name string
        • transport_address string
        • host string
        • ip string
        • roles array[string]
        • attributes object
          Hide attributes attribute Show attributes attribute object
          • * string Additional properties
        • tasks object Required
          Hide tasks attribute Show tasks attribute object
          • * object Additional properties
            Hide * attributes Show * attributes object
            • action string Required
            • cancelled boolean
            • cancellable boolean Required
            • description string

              Human readable text that identifies the particular request that the task is performing. For example, it might identify the search request being performed by a search task. Other kinds of tasks have different descriptions, like _reindex which has the source and the destination, or _bulk which just has the number of requests and the destination indices. Many requests will have only an empty description because more detailed information about the request is not easily available or particularly helpful in identifying the request.

            • headers object Required
              Hide headers attribute Show headers attribute object
              • * string Additional properties
            • id number Required
            • node string Required
            • running_time string

              A duration. Units can be nanos, micros, ms (milliseconds), s (seconds), m (minutes), h (hours) and d (days). Also accepts "0" without a unit and "-1" to indicate an unspecified value.

            • running_time_in_nanos number

              Time unit for nanoseconds

            • start_time_in_millis number

              Time unit for milliseconds

            • status object

              The internal status of the task, which varies from task to task. The format also varies. While the goal is to keep the status for a particular task consistent from version to version, this is not always possible because sometimes the implementation changes. Fields might be removed from the status for a particular request so any parsing you do of the status might break in minor releases.

            • type string Required
            • parent_task_id string

    • tasks array[object] | object

      One of:
      TaskInfos array[object] TaskInfos object
      Hide attributes Show attributes object
      • action string Required
      • cancelled boolean
      • cancellable boolean Required
      • description string

        Human readable text that identifies the particular request that the task is performing. For example, it might identify the search request being performed by a search task. Other kinds of tasks have different descriptions, like _reindex which has the source and the destination, or _bulk which just has the number of requests and the destination indices. Many requests will have only an empty description because more detailed information about the request is not easily available or particularly helpful in identifying the request.

      • headers object Required
        Hide headers attribute Show headers attribute object
        • * string Additional properties
      • id number Required
      • node string Required
      • running_time string

        A duration. Units can be nanos, micros, ms (milliseconds), s (seconds), m (minutes), h (hours) and d (days). Also accepts "0" without a unit and "-1" to indicate an unspecified value.

      • running_time_in_nanos number

        Time unit for nanoseconds

      • start_time_in_millis number

        Time unit for milliseconds

      • status object

        The internal status of the task, which varies from task to task. The format also varies. While the goal is to keep the status for a particular task consistent from version to version, this is not always possible because sometimes the implementation changes. Fields might be removed from the status for a particular request so any parsing you do of the status might break in minor releases.

      • type string Required
      • parent_task_id string
POST /_tasks/{task_id}/_cancel 
POST _tasks/<task_id>/_cancel

resp = client.tasks.cancel(
    task_id="<task_id>",
)
const response = await client.tasks.cancel({
  task_id: "<task_id>",
});
response = client.tasks.cancel(
  task_id: "<task_id>"
)
$resp = $client->tasks()->cancel([
    "task_id" => "<task_id>",
]);
curl -X POST -H "Authorization: ApiKey $ELASTIC_API_KEY" "$ELASTICSEARCH_URL/_tasks/<task_id>/_cancel"