apache/iceberg · warning

Failed to delete: {}

Error message

Failed to delete: {}

What it means

This is a WARN logged by BaseRewriteDataFilesAction when cleanup of files added by a failed rewrite commit cannot be deleted. After a rewrite commit fails with a CleanableFailure, the action attempts to delete the newly written data files; the onFailure handler logs each per-file deletion error. It does not abort the original exception, which is rethrown after cleanup.

Source

Thrown at core/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/actions/BaseRewriteDataFilesAction.java:318

    return tasksGroupedByPartition.asMap();
  }

  private void replaceDataFiles(
      Iterable<DataFile> deletedDataFiles,
      Iterable<DataFile> addedDataFiles,
      long startingSnapshotId) {
    try {
      doReplace(deletedDataFiles, addedDataFiles, startingSnapshotId);
    } catch (CommitStateUnknownException e) {
      LOG.warn("Commit state unknown, cannot clean up files that may have been committed", e);
      throw e;
    } catch (Exception e) {
      if (e instanceof CleanableFailure) {
        LOG.warn("Failed to commit rewrite, cleaning up rewritten files", e);
        Tasks.foreach(Iterables.transform(addedDataFiles, ContentFile::location))
            .noRetry()
            .suppressFailureWhenFinished()
            .onFailure((location, exc) -> LOG.warn("Failed to delete: {}", location, exc))
            .run(fileIO::deleteFile);
      }

      throw e;
    }
  }

  @VisibleForTesting
  void doReplace(
      Iterable<DataFile> deletedDataFiles,
      Iterable<DataFile> addedDataFiles,
      long startingSnapshotId) {
    RewriteFiles rewriteFiles = table.newRewrite().validateFromSnapshot(startingSnapshotId);

    for (DataFile dataFile : deletedDataFiles) {
      rewriteFiles.deleteFile(dataFile);
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to 86d9c8fc54)

Solutions

1. Inspect the chained exception in the WARN for the actual delete failure cause (permissions, throttling, 404).
2. Check the FileIO/credential configuration used for the table has delete permissions on the table's data location.
3. Re-run the rewrite action; leftover files can also be removed by expireSnapshots/orphan-file cleanup since they were never committed.
4. If 404-style errors, verify no concurrent cleanup job is racing the rewrite.

Example fix

// before
FileIO io = table.io();
// after
// ensure credentials allow delete, or configure a FileIO with correct permissions
HadoopFileIO io = new HadoopFileIO(hadoopConf); // with fs perms granting delete on data dir

// before rewrite
import org.apache.iceberg.ManifestFiles;
// confirm FileIO can delete in data dir (dry-run a harmless op / check perms)
// e.g. verify credentials:
// fileIO io configured with permissions for s3://bucket/table/data

try {
  action.execute();
} catch (Exception e) {
  // cleanup failures are logged and suppressed; inspect logs for 'Failed to delete'
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: execute() of RewriteDataFilesAction starts, writes new data files, the commit throws a CleanableFailure, and then fileIO.deleteFile(location) fails for one or more of the added files (e.g. object-store eventual consistency, permissions, or the file was already removed).

Common situations: S3/GCS permission or throttling during cleanup; a concurrent process already deleted the files; FileIO configured without delete capability; transient network errors during bulk delete.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to write file", "Could not save figure", "Error saving remote file" — file write failed: causes and fixes across languages and libraries — this error's family across 38 libraries.

Related errors

• Failed to delete: {}
• Bulk deletion failed
• Failed to commit rewrite, cleaning up rewritten files
• Deleted only {} of {} files from table {} using bulk deletes
• Failed to delete uncommitted DV {} for table {} task {}

AI-assisted analysis of apache/iceberg@86d9c8fc54 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/953e46817a462d52. Report an issue: GitHub.