Never mind. Saw the explanation above.
On 2026/05/20 16:31:18 Xiening Dai wrote: > What is the difference from `dropTable` with `purgeRequested` set to false? > > On 2026/05/18 20:48:54 Ryan Blue wrote: > > Hi everyone, > > > > I just opened a PR to add an `unregister` endpoint to the REST spec, #16400 > > <https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/16400>. Unregister is the opposite > > of `register` and allows you to remove a table from a catalog without > > deleting its underlying data and metadata files. The purpose is to allow > > moving from one catalog to another. > > > > I think it was just an oversight that we didn't already have this. I know > > that we've talked about adding a way to unregister a table in the past, but > > I didn't see a previous email thread so I thought I'd start this one. We > > originally assumed that the drop table endpoint would work, but we need a > > different one for two reasons. First, most REST catalogs take care of table > > cleanup (rather than putting the responsibility on the user or engine at > > the time DROP is run) and we need a way to prevent files from being > > removed. Second, DROP doesn't work for concurrent operations. We need to > > return the current table state and metadata location from the `unregister` > > operation and have the assurance that it is the latest state from the > > catalog and that any other operations against the table will fail. > > > > Please take a look and reply. If there aren't many objections, I'll try to > > start a vote thread sometime this week. > > > > Thanks, > > > > Ryan > > >
