Configuring HDFS Trash

Minimum Required Role: Configurator (also provided by Cluster Administrator, Full Administrator)

The Hadoop trash feature helps prevent accidental deletion of files and directories. If trash is enabled and a file or directory is deleted using the Hadoop shell, the file is moved to the .Trash directory in the user's home directory instead of being deleted. Deleted files are initially moved to the Current sub-directory of the .Trash directory, and their original path is preserved. Files in .Trash are permanently removed after a user-configurable time interval. The interval setting also enables trash checkpointing, where the Current directory is periodically renamed using a timestamp. Files and directories in the trash can be restored simply by moving them to a location outside the .Trash directory.

The Hadoop Trash feature applies to all services in the cluster that use the trash deletion shell function.

Enabling and Disabling Trash

  1. Go to the HDFS service.
  2. Click the Configuration tab.
  3. Click the Gateway Default Group category.
  4. Check or uncheck the Use Trash checkbox.
  5. Click the Save Changes button.
  6. Restart the cluster and deploy the cluster Client Configuration.

Setting the Trash Interval

  1. Go to the HDFS service.
  2. Click the Configuration tab.
  3. Click the NameNode Default Group category.
  4. Specify the Filesystem Trash Interval property, which controls the number of minutes after which a trash checkpoint directory is deleted and the number of minutes between trash checkpoints. For example, to enable trash so that deleted files are deleted after 24 hours, set the value of the Filesystem Trash Interval property to 1440.
  5. Click the Save Changes button.
  6. Restart all NameNodes.