apache/cassandra · error · RuntimeException

Cannot remove temporary or obsoleted files for %s.%s due to

Error message

Cannot remove temporary or obsoleted files for %s.%s due to a problem with transaction log files.

What it means

Like SSTableLevelResetter, SSTableOfflineRelevel cleans unfinished LifecycleTransaction leftovers before releveling. Failure of removeUnfinishedLeftovers(cfs) — typically corrupt or inconsistent transaction log files — raises this RuntimeException identifying the keyspace and table.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/tools/SSTableOfflineRelevel.java:107

        }

        Util.initDatabaseDescriptor();
        ClusterMetadataService.initializeForTools(false);
        boolean dryRun = args[0].equals("--dry-run");
        String keyspace = args[args.length - 2];
        String columnfamily = args[args.length - 1];

        if (Schema.instance.getTableMetadata(keyspace, columnfamily) == null)
            throw new IllegalArgumentException(String.format("Unknown keyspace/table %s.%s",
                    keyspace,
                    columnfamily));

        // remove any leftovers in the transaction log
        Keyspace ks = Keyspace.openWithoutSSTables(keyspace);
        ColumnFamilyStore cfs = ks.getColumnFamilyStore(columnfamily);
        if (!LifecycleTransaction.removeUnfinishedLeftovers(cfs))
        {
            throw new RuntimeException(String.format("Cannot remove temporary or obsoleted files for %s.%s " +
                                                     "due to a problem with transaction log files.",
                                                     keyspace, columnfamily));
        }

        Directories.SSTableLister lister = cfs.getDirectories().sstableLister(Directories.OnTxnErr.THROW).skipTemporary(true);
        SetMultimap<File, SSTableReader> sstableMultimap = HashMultimap.create();
        for (Map.Entry<Descriptor, Set<Component>> sstable : lister.list().entrySet())
        {
            if (sstable.getKey() != null)
            {
                try
                {
                    SSTableReader reader = SSTableReader.open(cfs, sstable.getKey());
                    sstableMultimap.put(reader.descriptor.directory, reader);
                }
                catch (Throwable t)
                {
                    out.println("Couldn't open sstable: "+sstable.getKey().fileFor(Components.DATA));

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Restore referenced-but-missing SSTables from a replica/backup or remove orphaned txn logs after verification
2. Re-run sstableofflinerelevel once the table directory is consistent
3. Check *txn.log files in the table directory for dangling references
4. Back up the directory before manual cleanup

// check for dangling txn logs in the table directory before releveling
if (java.util.Arrays.stream(tableDir.toFile().listFiles()).anyMatch(f -> f.getName().endsWith(".txn.log")))
    LOG.warn("txn logs present; ensure leftover cleanup will succeed before releveling");

try { SSTableOfflineRelevel.main(args); }
catch (RuntimeException e) { LOG.error("leftover cleanup failed: " + e.getMessage(), e); }

When it happens

Trigger: Running `sstableofflinerelevel` on a table with corrupted, partially-written, or dangling txn log files so the temporary/obsoleted SSTable cleanup cannot complete.

Common situations: Node crashed during compaction leaving inconsistent txn logs; SSTable files manually removed while txn logs still reference them; data directory copied while writes were in flight.

Understand the failure class

Background: "This is a bug, please report it": internal invariant violations, unreachable panics, and SNH errors explained — this error's family across 47 libraries.

Related errors

• Cannot remove temporary or obsoleted files for %s.%s due to
• Unknown kind in sstable
• Corrupt flags value for clustering prefix (isStatic flag set
• ERR_WRONG_DISK_STATE
• Unknown column <name> during deserialization

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5690c537584e4cbd. Report an issue: GitHub.