apache/iceberg · error · RuntimeException

Interrupted in call to listViews

Error message

Interrupted in call to listViews

What it means

listViews() catches InterruptedException, restores the thread's interrupt flag via Thread.currentThread().interrupt(), and rethrows as a RuntimeException with this message. It means the thread was interrupted while waiting on the Hive Metastore call.

Source

Thrown at hive-metastore/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/hive/HiveCatalog.java:233

      // Retrieving the Table objects from HMS in batches to avoid OOM
      List<TableIdentifier> filteredTableIdentifiers = Lists.newArrayList();
      Iterable<List<String>> viewNameSets = Iterables.partition(viewNames, 100);

      for (List<String> viewNameSet : viewNameSets) {
        filteredTableIdentifiers.addAll(
            listIcebergTables(viewNameSet, namespace, HiveOperationsBase.ICEBERG_VIEW_TYPE_VALUE));
      }

      return filteredTableIdentifiers;
    } catch (UnknownDBException e) {
      throw new NoSuchNamespaceException("Namespace does not exist: %s", namespace);

    } catch (TException e) {
      throw new RuntimeException("Failed to list all views under namespace " + namespace, e);

    } catch (InterruptedException e) {
      Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
      throw new RuntimeException("Interrupted in call to listViews", e);
    }
  }

  @Override
  public String name() {
    return name;
  }

  @Override
  public boolean dropTable(TableIdentifier identifier, boolean purge) {
    if (!isValidIdentifier(identifier)) {
      return false;
    }

    String database = identifier.namespace().level(0);

    TableOperations ops = newTableOps(identifier);
    TableMetadata lastMetadata = null;

View on GitHub (pinned to 86d9c8fc54)

Solutions

1. Treat the interruption as a cancellation signal: stop processing and propagate/cleanup.
2. Inspect the calling executor's lifecycle — why was shutdown/cancel issued.
3. Adjust timeout/cancellation settings if interruption is unintentional.
4. Never swallow InterruptedException; this code already re-interrupts, so rethrow appropriately.

Example fix

// before
try { views = catalog.listViews(ns); } catch (RuntimeException e) { e.printStackTrace(); }
// after
try {
  views = catalog.listViews(ns);
} catch (RuntimeException e) {
  if (Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted() || e.getCause() instanceof InterruptedException) {
    Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
    throw e; // propagate cancellation
  }
  throw e;
}

if (Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
  throw new InterruptedException("Interrupted before listing views");
}

try {
  views = catalog.listViews(ns);
} catch (RuntimeException e) {
  if (e.getCause() instanceof InterruptedException) {
    Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
    throw e; // treat as cancellation
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling catalog.listViews(namespace) from a thread that is interrupted (executor shutdownNow, task cancellation, Spark/Flink task kill) while the metastore RPC is in flight.

Common situations: Cancelling a Spark job or Flink tasklet that was enumerating views; shutting down a thread pool; query timeouts implemented via thread interruption.

Related errors

• Interrupted in call to dropView
• Interrupted in call to dropTable
• Interrupted in call to createDatabase(name) ${namespace} in
• Interrupted in SQL query
• Interrupted during commit

AI-assisted analysis of apache/iceberg@86d9c8fc54 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/135654b774a7adda. Report an issue: GitHub.