Database Manual / Change Streams / Change Events

delete Event

Synopsis

delete: A delete event occurs when operations remove documents from a collection, such as when a user or application executes the delete command.

Description

Field	Type	Description
`_id`	Document	A BSON object which serves as an identifier for the change stream event. This value is used as the `resumeToken` for the `resumeAfter` parameter when resuming a change stream. The `_id` object has the following form: `{ "_data" : <BinData\|hex string> }` The `_data` type depends on the MongoDB versions and, in some cases, the feature compatibility version (FCV) at the time of the change stream's opening or resumption. See Resume Tokens for the full list of `_data` types. For an example of resuming a change stream by `resumeToken`, see Resume a Change Stream.
`clusterTime`	Timestamp	`clusterTime` is the timestamp from the oplog entry associated with the event. Due to oplog size limits, multi-document transactions may create multiple oplog entries. In a transaction, change stream events staged in a given oplog entry share the same `clusterTime`. Events with the same `clusterTime` may not all relate to the same transaction. Some events don't relate to a transaction at all. Starting in MongoDB 8.0, this may be true for events on any deployment. In previous versions, this behavior was possible only for events on a sharded cluster. To identify events for a single transaction, you can use the combination of `lsid` and `txnNumber` in the change stream event document. Changed in version 8.0.
`collectionUUID`	UUID	UUID identifying the collection where the change occurred. New in version 6.0. The `collectionUUID` field is only included if the change stream is created with the `showExpandedEvents` field set to `true`. For details, see showExpandedEvents.
`documentKey`	document	Document that contains the `_id` value of the document created or modified by the CRUD operation. For sharded collections, this field also displays the full shard key for the document. The `_id` field is not repeated if it is already a part of the shard key.
`lsid`	document	The identifier for the session associated with the transaction. Only present if the operation is part of a multi-document transaction.
`ns`	document	The namespace (database and or collection) affected by the event.
`ns.coll`	string	The name of the collection where the event occurred.
`ns.db`	string	The name of the database where the event occurred.
`operationDescription`	document	Additional information on the change operation. This document and its subfields only appears when the change stream uses expanded events. New in version 6.0.
`operationType`	string	The type of operation that the change notification reports. Returns a value of `delete` for these change events.
`txnNumber`	NumberLong	Together with the lsid, a number that helps uniquely identify a transction. Only present if the operation is part of a multi-document transaction.
`wallTime`	ISODate	The server date and time of the database operation. `wallTime` differs from `clusterTime` in that `clusterTime` is a timestamp taken from the oplog entry associated with the database operation event. New in version 6.0.

Behavior

Document Pre- and Post-Images

Starting in MongoDB 6.0, you see a fullDocumentBeforeChange document with the fields before the document was changed (or deleted) if you perform these steps:

Enable the new changeStreamPreAndPostImages field for a collection using db.createCollection(), create, or collMod.
Set fullDocumentBeforeChange to "required" or "whenAvailable" in db.collection.watch().

Example fullDocumentBeforeChange document in the change stream output:

"fullDocumentBeforeChange" : {
   "_id" : ObjectId("599af247bb69cd89961c986d"),
   "userName" : "alice123",
   "name" : "Alice Smith"
}

For complete examples with the change stream output, see Change Streams with Document Pre- and Post-Images.

Pre- and post-images are not available for a change stream event if the images were:

Not enabled on the collection at the time of a document update or delete operation.
Removed after the pre- and post-image retention time set in expireAfterSeconds.
- The following example sets expireAfterSeconds to 100 seconds on an entire cluster:
```
use admin
db.runCommand( {
   setClusterParameter:
      { changeStreamOptions: {
         preAndPostImages: { expireAfterSeconds: 100 }
      } }
} )
```
- The following example returns the current changeStreamOptions settings, including expireAfterSeconds:
```
db.adminCommand( { getClusterParameter: "changeStreamOptions" } )
```
- Setting expireAfterSeconds to off uses the default retention policy: pre- and post-images are retained until the corresponding change stream events are removed from the oplog.
- If a change stream event is removed from the oplog, then the corresponding pre- and post-images are also deleted regardless of the expireAfterSeconds pre- and post-image retention time.

Additional considerations:

Enabling pre- and post-images consumes storage space and adds processing time. Only enable pre- and post-images if you need them.
Limit the change stream event size to less than 16 mebibytes. To limit the event size, you can:
- Limit the document size to 8 megabytes. You can request pre- and post-images simultaneously in the change stream output if other change stream event fields like updateDescription are not large.
- Request only post-images in the change stream output for documents up to 16 mebibytes if other change stream event fields like updateDescription are not large.
- Request only pre-images in the change stream output for documents up to 16 mebibytes if:
  - document updates affect only a small fraction of the document structure or content, and
  - do not cause a replace change event. A replace event always includes the post-image.
To request a pre-image, you set fullDocumentBeforeChange to required or whenAvailable in db.collection.watch(). To request a post-image, you set fullDocument using the same method.
Pre-images are written to the config.system.preimages collection.
- The config.system.preimages collection may become large. To limit the collection size, you can set expireAfterSeconds time for the pre-images as shown earlier.
- Pre-images are removed asynchronously by a background process.

Important

Backward-Incompatible Feature

Starting in MongoDB 6.0, if you are using document pre- and post-images for change streams, you must disable changeStreamPreAndPostImages for each collection using the collMod command before you can downgrade to an earlier MongoDB version.

Tip

For change stream events and output, see Change Events.
To watch a collection for changes, see db.collection.watch().
For complete examples with the change stream output, see Change Streams with Document Pre- and Post-Images.

Example

The following example illustrates a delete event:

{
   "_id": { <Resume Token> },
   "operationType": "delete",
   "clusterTime": <Timestamp>,
   "wallTime": <ISODate>,
   "ns": {
      "db": "engineering",
      "coll": "users"
   },
   "documentKey": {
      "_id": ObjectId("599af247bb69cd89961c986d")
   }
}

The fullDocument document is omitted as the document no longer exists at the time the change stream cursor sends the delete event to the client.

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