HEAD requests return no body

elasticsearch/client.py

@@ -107,8 +107,11 @@ class InidicesClient(NamespacedClient):
 
         :arg index: A comma-separated list of indices to check
         """
-        status, data = self.transport.perform_request('HEAD', '/' + _normalize_list(index), params=params)
-        return data
+        try:
+            self.transport.perform_request('HEAD', '/' + _normalize_list(index), params=params)
+        except NotFoundError:
+            return False
+        return True
 
 
 class Elasticsearch(object):

elasticsearch/transport.py

@@ -226,5 +226,8 @@ class Transport(object):
                 # resurrected connection didn't fail, confirm it's live status
                 if dead_count:
                     self.connection_pool.mark_live(connection)
-                return status, self.serializer.loads(raw_data)
+                data = None
+                if raw_data:
+                    data = self.serializer.loads(raw_data)
+                return status, data