Delete topic in Kafka 0.8.1.1

Question

I need to delete the topic test in Apache Kafka 0.8.1.1.

As expressed in the documentation here, I have executed:

bin/kafka-topics.sh --zookeeper localhost:2181 --delete --topic test

However, this results in the following message:

Command must include exactly one action: --list, --describe, --create or --alter

How can I delete this topic?

Step by step procedure is explained in : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33537950/how-to-delete-a-topic-in-apache-kafka — Ravindra babu, Jul 24 '19 at 10:44

score 130 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 27 '22 at 16:10

130

Deleting topic isn't always working in 0.8.1.1

Deletion should be working in the next release, 0.8.2

kafka-topics.sh --delete --zookeeper localhost:2181 --topic your_topic_name

  Topic your_topic_name is marked for deletion.
  Note: This will have no impact if delete.topic.enable is not set to true.

You may also pass in a bootstrap server instead of zookeeper:

kafka-topics.sh --bootstrap-server kafka:9092 --delete --topic your_topic_name

Is it possible to delete a topic?

Jira KAFKA-1397

edited Jan 27 '22 at 16:10

Archimedes Trajano

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answered Jun 18 '14 at 14:37

frank

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Thanks for the info. Do you know how to clear the entire Kafka and Zookeeper states as indicated? – EmPak5 Jun 18 '14 at 16:09
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@EmPack IIRC, the easiest way to do that (if you don't care about up time) is to shutdown all your brokers, delete your logs for that topic and changing you ZK namespace. – frank Jun 18 '14 at 16:16

Andrea · Answer 2 · 2015-04-12T07:58:18.560

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It seems that the deletion command was not officially documented in Kafka 0.8.1.x because of a known bug (https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/KAFKA-1397).

Nevertheless, the command was still shipped in the code and can be executed as:

bin/kafka-run-class.sh kafka.admin.DeleteTopicCommand --zookeeper localhost:2181 --topic test

In the meantime, the bug got fixed and the deletion command is now officially available from Kafka 0.8.2.0 as:

bin/kafka-topics.sh --delete --zookeeper localhost:2181 --topic test

edited Apr 12 '15 at 07:58

answered Sep 01 '14 at 10:26

Andrea

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From what I read, it might work 0.8.1.1, but it might not... The fix is also in the trunk since a while, so if you took the sources directly from the trunk, it should work – frank Sep 05 '14 at 13:56
I've just tried on 0.8.1.1, it reports "deletion succeeded" but it didn't work. Topic is still there, I can attach a consumer and it will report all previous items as pending. – Elias Dorneles Jan 27 '15 at 12:37
Deleting topics in Kafka 0.8.1.1 does not work. The recently released version 0.8.2.0 should finally have proper deletion support. See http://blog.confluent.io/2014/12/02/whats-coming-in-apache-kafka-0-8-2/. – miguno Feb 19 '15 at 13:01
BTW, the property for delete.topic.enable=true can be located in the server.properties file. It is commented out by default. – Shanemeister Mar 10 '17 at 01:34

score 40 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 16 '15 at 06:24

40

Add below line in ${kafka_home}/config/server.properties

delete.topic.enable=true

Restart the kafka server with new config:

${kafka_home}/bin/kafka-server-start.sh ~/kafka/config/server.properties

Delete the topics you wish to:

${kafka_home}/bin/kafka-topics.sh --delete  --zookeeper localhost:2181  --topic daemon12

answered Dec 16 '15 at 06:24

PradeepKumbhar

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This was not working until I read your comment about restarting the server. Thanks for this. – julianm Mar 19 '21 at 15:27

Liang · Answer 4 · 2014-12-12T22:09:40.133

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Andrea is correct. we can do it using command line.

And we still can program it, by

ZkClient zkClient = new ZkClient("localhost:2181", 10000);
zkClient.deleteRecursive(ZkUtils.getTopicPath("test2"));

Actually I do not recommend you delete topic on Kafka 0.8.1.1. I can delete this topic by this method, but if you check log for zookeeper, deletion mess it up.

edited Dec 12 '14 at 22:09

answered Sep 05 '14 at 18:08

Liang

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Should it also include zkClient.deleteRecursive(ZkUtils.getTopicConfigPath("test2")); and – Sumit Dec 11 '14 at 20:56
@Sumit, and what? I did not use that "getTopicConfigPath". Actually I do not recommend you delete topic on Kafka 0.8.1.1. I can delete this topic by this method, but if you check log for zookeeper, deletion mess it up. – Liang Dec 12 '14 at 22:06
but this is how kafka also does it (the way you suggested): https://apache.googlesource.com/kafka/+/0.8.1/core/src/main/scala/kafka/admin/DeleteTopicCommand.scala – Sumit Dec 14 '14 at 00:21
@Sumit. yes, I found the code from there. I am not sure about that "messy up" thing. Because once I delete a topic on my company server, the deletion generate lots of junk to zookeeper log. But I can not reproduce it in my local. So I do not recommend that.. – Liang Dec 15 '14 at 18:45

score 5 · Answer 5 · edited Sep 29 '21 at 13:00

Steps to Delete 1 or more Topics in Kafka

#To delete topics in kafka the delete option needs to be enabled in Kafka server. 1. Go to {kafka_home}/config/server.properties 2. Uncomment delete.topic.enable=true

#Delete one Topic in Kafka enter the following command

kafka-topics.sh --delete --zookeeper localhost:2181 --topic <your_topic_name>

#To Delete more than one topic from kafka (good for testing purposes, where i created multiple topics & had to delete them for different scenarios)

Stop the Kafka Server and Zookeeper
go to server folder where the logs are stored (defined in their config files) and delete the kafkalogs and zookeeper folder manually
Restart the zookeeper and kafka server and try to list topics,

bin/kafka-topics.sh --list --zookeeper localhost:2181

if no topics are listed then the all topics have been deleted successfully.If topics are listed, then the delete was not successful. Try the above steps again or restart your computer.

Note that for the latest Kafka version at the moment (1.0.0) that option doesn't appears in the ``server.properties`` file. You have to add that line manually. — David Corral, Dec 18 '17 at 10:08

score 4 · Answer 6 · edited Nov 16 '15 at 16:52

4

You can delete a specific kafka topic (example: test) from zookeeper shell command (zookeeper-shell.sh). Use the below command to delete the topic

rmr {path of the topic}

example:

rmr /brokers/topics/test

edited Nov 16 '15 at 16:52

ByteHamster

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answered Nov 16 '15 at 16:30

Yahya

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set delete.topic.enable=true, then delete from kafka then also delete from zookeeper... – minhas23 Oct 05 '16 at 19:33
This does **not** delete topic data on the actual broker – OneCricketeer Sep 29 '21 at 13:01

score 3 · Answer 7 · edited Sep 29 '21 at 13:02

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This steps will delete all topics and data

Stop Kafka-server and Zookeeper-server
Remove the data directories of both services, by default on windows they are C:/tmp/kafka-logs and C:/tmp/zookeeper.
then start Zookeeper-server and Kafka-server

edited Sep 29 '21 at 13:02

OneCricketeer

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answered Feb 10 '15 at 10:01

Venkatesh Boya

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score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Sep 07 '16 at 21:26

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As mentioned in doc here

Topic deletion option is disabled by default. To enable it set the server config delete.topic.enable=true Kafka does not currently support reducing the number of partitions for a topic or changing the replication factor.

Make sure delete.topic.enable=true

edited Sep 07 '16 at 21:26

Eric Leschinski

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answered Feb 17 '15 at 16:46

abmd

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I believe that option is only available in 8.2 – spuder Apr 03 '15 at 21:00

score 2 · Answer 9 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

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The command:

bin/kafka-topics.sh --delete --zookeeper localhost:2181 --topic test

unfortunately only marks topic for deletion.

Deletion does not happen.

That makes troubles, while testing any scripts, which prepares Kafka configuration.

Connected threads:

edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

Community

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answered Apr 28 '16 at 12:37

Seweryn Habdank-Wojewódzki

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score 1 · Answer 10 · answered May 12 '16 at 12:47

Adding to above answers one has to delete the meta data associated with that topic in zookeeper consumer offset path.

bin/zookeeper-shell.sh zookeeperhost:port

rmr /consumers/<sample-consumer-1>/offsets/<deleted-topic>

Otherwise the lag will be negative in kafka-monitoring tools based on zookeeper.

score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 03 '19 at 09:09

1

First, you run this command to delete your topic:

$ bin/kafka-topics.sh --delete --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --topic <topic_name>

List active topics to check delete completely:

$ bin/kafka-topics.sh --list --bootstrap-server localhost:9092

answered Jul 03 '19 at 09:09

yuen26

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score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Feb 22 '22 at 17:07

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This worked for me:

kafka-topics --delete --bootstrap-server localhost:9092 --topic user-commands

I am using Confluent CLI and run this on the directory I installed it.

answered Feb 22 '22 at 17:07

Laura Corssac

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score 0 · Answer 13 · edited Sep 29 '21 at 13:02

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bin/kafka-topics.sh --delete --zookeeper localhost:2181 --topic <topic-name>

edited Sep 29 '21 at 13:02

OneCricketeer

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answered Feb 21 '17 at 02:17

Avinav Mishra

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This **marks** a topic for deletion, not blocks and waits for deletion – OneCricketeer Sep 29 '21 at 13:03
While this code may answer the question, providing additional context regarding how and/or why it solves the problem would improve the answer's long-term value. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center: https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-answer . Good luck – nima Sep 30 '21 at 06:52

score 0 · Answer 14 · edited Jul 07 '18 at 10:58

If you have issues deleting the topics, try to delete the topic using:

$KAFKA_HOME/bin/kafka-topics.sh --delete --zookeeper localhost:2181 --topic your_topic_name

command. Then in order to verify the deletion process, go to the kafka logs directory which normally is placed under /tmp/kafka-logs/, then delete the your_topic_name file via rm -rf your_topic_name command.

Remember to monitor the whole process via a kafka management tool like Kafka Tool.

The mentioned process above will remove the topics without kafka server restart.

score 0 · Answer 15 · edited Sep 29 '21 at 13:04

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Step 1: Make sure you are connected to zookeeper and Kafka running

Step 2: To delele the Kafka topic run kafka-topics script, add the port and --topic with name of your topic and --delete it just delete the topic with success.

# Delete the kafka topic
# it will delete the kafka topic
bin/kafka-topics.sh --zookeeper 127.0.0.1:2181 --topic name_of_topic --delete

edited Sep 29 '21 at 13:04

OneCricketeer

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answered Feb 13 '19 at 12:17

Black_Dreams

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score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Feb 02 '21 at 02:48

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There is actually a solution without touching those bin/kafka-*.sh: If you have installed kafdrop, then simply do:

url -XPOST http://your-kafdrop-domain/topic/THE-TOPIC-YOU-WANT-TO-DELETE/delete

answered Feb 02 '21 at 02:48

ch271828n

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score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Mar 14 '22 at 16:50

Recent Kafka versions are about to remove the Zookeeper dependency. Therefore, you should instead reference the brokers (through --boostrap-server):

kafka-topics \
    --bootstrap-server localhost:9092,localhost:9093,localhost:9094 \
    --delete \
    --topic topic_for_deletion

score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Jun 05 '22 at 17:47

0

for confluent cloud use -

$ confluent kafka topic delete my_topic

answered Jun 05 '22 at 17:47

erptocoding

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Delete topic in Kafka 0.8.1.1

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