_bulk_delete

gistfile1.rb

# Assuming the docs have created_at, delete everything older than 
# 5 minutes. We assume an emit like this: 
#
#     emit(Date.parse(doc.created_at), doc._rev)
#
# Notice that the value in emitted kv pair is the doc's current _rev

old = (Time.now - 300).utc.to_i * 1000
opts = { :startkey => old, :descending => true }

# Directly map the results of the view into a bulk delete items. This
# is fast in that it also doesn't fetch the entire doc. Just the id and
# and the _rev
docs = DB.view 'docs/by_created_at', opts do |row|
    { '_id' => row['id'], '_rev' => row['value'], '_deleted' => true }
end

DB.bulk_delete docs, false