theonedev/onedev · error · ExplicitException

Cannot delete yourself

Error message

Cannot delete yourself

What it means

OneDev's deleteUser REST endpoint rejects deleting the currently authenticated user. This prevents an administrator from accidentally removing their own account, which would terminate their session and lock them out of the running deletion script. It is thrown as ExplicitException after the root check.

Source

Thrown at server-core/src/main/java/io/onedev/server/rest/resource/UserResource.java:630

			var newAuditContent = VersionedXmlDoc.fromBean(sshKey).toXML();
			auditService.audit(null, "added ssh key to account \"" + user.getName() + "\" via RESTful API", null, newAuditContent);
		}

		return sshKey.getId();
	}
	
	@Api(order=2300)
	@Path("/{userId}")
    @DELETE
    public Response deleteUser(@PathParam("userId") Long userId) {
    	if (!SecurityUtils.isAdministrator())
			throw new UnauthorizedException();

    	User user = userService.load(userId);
    	if (user.isRoot())
			throw new ExplicitException("Root user cannot be deleted");
    	else if (user.equals(getAuthUser()))
    		throw new ExplicitException("Cannot delete yourself");
    	else
    		userService.delete(user);

		var oldAuditContent = VersionedXmlDoc.fromBean(getData(user)).toXML();
		auditService.audit(null, "deleted account \"" + user.getName() + "\" via RESTful API", oldAuditContent, null);

    	return Response.ok().build();
    }

	public static class UserData implements Serializable {

		private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
		
		@Api(order=5, description="ID of the user")
		private Long id;

		@Api(order=10, description="Whether or not the user is disabled")
		private boolean disabled;

View on GitHub (pinned to d44925c47c)

Solutions

1. Run the deletion script under a service/admin account that is not in the deletion set
2. Filter the authenticated user's id out of the target list (compare against /users/me or the auth principal)
3. If you truly need the account gone, delete it from a different administrator session

Example fix

// before
for (long id : userIds) deleteUser(id);
// after
long me = getAuthenticatedUserId();
for (long id : userIds) if (id != me) deleteUser(id);

User me = getUser("me"); if (targetUserId.equals(me.getId())) throw new SkipException("cannot delete self");

boolean isSelf(User target, User authUser) { return target != null && target.equals(authUser); }

try { deleteUser(userId); } catch (ExplicitException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("yourself")) log.warn("skipped own account"); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling DELETE /users/{userId} where userId equals the authenticated admin's own user id.

Common situations: Admin cleaning up stale accounts whose list accidentally includes their own account; scripts authenticating as the very user they intend to delete.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid state transition" errors: "status must be X, actually Y", "already rejected/charging/uninstalled", "cannot ... while running" — what they mean when a library rejects your call — this error's family across 31 libraries.

Related errors

• Should only enable normal users
• Should only convert normal users to service accounts
• Cannot set queries and watches for disabled user
• Cannot set queries and watches for service or ai account
• Root user cannot be deleted

AI-assisted analysis of theonedev/onedev@d44925c47c (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5f003ee857c52e08. Report an issue: GitHub.