apache/cassandra · error · MarshalException

Shoud not have a TTL without an associated local deletion ti

Error message

Shoud not have a TTL without an associated local deletion time

What it means

An expiring cell (a cell with a positive TTL) must also carry a valid localDeletionTime, since that timestamp determines when it expires into a tombstone. A TTL without localDeletionTime makes expiry undefined, so validate() rejects the cell with MarshalException. Note the message contains a typo ("Shoud") in the source.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/db/rows/AbstractCell.java:195

            digest.update(value(), accessor());

        digest.updateWithLong(timestamp())
              .updateWithInt(ttl())
              .updateWithBoolean(isCounterCell());
        if (path() != null)
            path().digest(digest);
    }

    public void validate()
    {
        if (ttl() < 0)
            throw new MarshalException("A TTL should not be negative");
        if (localDeletionTime() < 0)
            throw new MarshalException("A local deletion time should not be negative");
        if (localDeletionTime() == INVALID_DELETION_TIME)
            throw new MarshalException("A local deletion time should not be a legacy overflowed value");
        if (isExpiring() && localDeletionTime() == NO_DELETION_TIME)
            throw new MarshalException("Shoud not have a TTL without an associated local deletion time");

        // non-frozen UDTs require both the cell path & value to validate,
        // so that logic is pushed down into ColumnMetadata. Tombstone
        // validation is done there too as it also involves the cell path
        // for complex columns
        column().validateCell(this);
    }

    public boolean hasInvalidDeletions()
    {
        if (ttl() < 0 || localDeletionTime() == INVALID_DELETION_TIME || localDeletionTime() < 0 || (isExpiring() && localDeletionTime() == NO_DELETION_TIME))
            return true;
        return false;
    }

    public long maxTimestamp()
    {
        return timestamp();

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

Always set localDeletionTime together with TTL: use (now + ttl) in seconds when building cells.
Scrub affected SSTables to drop invalid expiring cells.
Restore affected data from backup.
Fix any custom serializer so ttl<=0 implies NO_DELETION_TIME and ttl>0 implies a real deletion time.

Example fix

// before
cell = factory.cell(col, ts, ttl, NO_DELETION_TIME, value, path);
// after
cell = factory.cell(col, ts, ttl, ttl > 0 ? (int)(nowSec + ttl) : NO_DELETION_TIME, value, path);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (ttl > 0 && ldt == NO_DELETION_TIME) throw new IllegalArgumentException("TTL requires localDeletionTime");

Type guard

boolean hasConsistentExpiry(AbstractCell<?> c) { return !c.isExpiring() || c.localDeletionTime() != NO_DELETION_TIME; }

Try / catch

try { row.validate(); } catch (MarshalException e) { quarantineCorruptRow(e); }

Prevention

When constructing expiring cells always compute ldt = nowSeconds + ttl
Unit-test custom cell factories against validate()
Never persist cells built from partial deserialization

When it happens

Trigger: Deserializing a cell where ttl > 0 but localDeletionTime == NO_DELETION_TIME (corruption or buggy serializer); custom cell factories constructing expiring cells without setting the deletion time.

Common situations: Hand-written or third-party SSTable writers forgetting to set localDeletionTime; corrupted rows after disk issues; incorrectly implemented streaming/paxos payloads.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f9c0cc29a695f755. Report an issue: GitHub.