Configuring HDFS Trash

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. If trash checkpointing is enabled, the Current directory is periodically renamed using a timestamp. Files in .Trash are permanently removed after a user-configurable time delay. Files and directories in the trash can be restored simply by moving them to a location outside the .Trash directory.

Configuring HDFS Trash Using Cloudera Manager

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

Enabling and Disabling Trash

  1. Go to the HDFS service.
  2. Click the Configuration tab.
  3. Select Scope > Gateway.
  4. Select or deselect the Use Trash checkbox.

    If more than one role group applies to this configuration, edit the value for the appropriate role group. See Modifying Configuration Properties.

  5. Click Save Changes to commit the changes.
  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. Select Scope > NameNode.
  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.

    If more than one role group applies to this configuration, edit the value for the appropriate role group. See Modifying Configuration Properties.

  5. Click Save Changes to commit the changes.
  6. Restart all NameNodes.

Configuring HDFS Trash Using the Command Line

See Enabling Trash.