feat: query cancellation via `CancellationToken` on `SessionContext`
Nobody has claimed this yet.
Assessment
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Newbie friendliness
- 45/100
- Issue type
- Feature
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Domain
- api, backend-api-design
Research direction
Start with the JNI blocking sites in native/src/lib.rs and inspect the Java SessionContext, DataFrame, and resource-handle entry points. Compare the proposed token lifecycle and collect/executeStream overloads with the cancellation.rs and query_tracker.rs references. Done means the listed APIs support cancellation and cleanup without changing the existing zero-token methods, with cancellation observable during collection and streaming.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Is your feature request related to a problem or challenge?
A long-running DataFrame.collect(allocator) or DataFrame.executeStream(allocator) call blocks the calling Java thread for the entire duration of the query. Thread.interrupt() does nothing — the JNI thread is parked inside runtime().block_on(...) (native/src/lib.rs), and the interrupt flag is ignored by the Tokio runtime. There is no way to abort an in-flight query, free its native resources early, or unblock the calling thread short of waiting for the query to finish.
For any embedder running multi-tenant workloads — request timeouts, user-cancel actions, node shutdown, leader-election handover — this is a hard operational gap. The OpenSearch analytics backend (OpenSearch/sandbox/plugins/analytics-backend-datafusion/rust/src/cancellation.rs and query_tracker.rs) carries a CancellationToken-based wrapper precisely because upstream offers nothing.
This is complementary to issue #40 (close()/JNI use-after-free race) but distinct: #40 is about safely tearing down a finished handle; this is about signalling an in-flight future to stop. Both eventually share the atomic-handle scaffolding from #40's option 2, so coordination is worthwhile, but the surface lands cleanly without #40 having to merge first.
Describe the solution you'd like
A token-based cancellation API on SessionContext, modeled on Spark 4.0's interruptTag shape (cancel lives on the session, not on the DataFrame). The token is a separate handle from the DataFrame so cancel can fire from a thread that does not hold the DataFrame.
v1 surface
try (SessionContext ctx = new SessionContext();
CancellationToken token = ctx.newCancellationToken();
DataFrame df = ctx.sql("SELECT ... FROM big_table")) {
Future<ArrowReader> fut = pool.submit(() -> df.collect(allocator, token));
// from another thread (timeout watcher, user-cancel handler, ...):
token.cancel();
// fut completes with CancellationException
}
New methods:
SessionContext.newCancellationToken()-- returns a freshCancellationTokenbound to this session.CancellationToken.cancel()-- fires the token; idempotent.CancellationToken.isCancelled()-- non-blocking check.CancellationToken.close()-- releases the native handle; the token isAutoCloseableso try-with-resources handles cleanup.DataFrame.collect(BufferAllocator, CancellationToken)-- overload that takes a token. The existing zero-tokencollect(BufferAllocator)is unchanged.DataFrame.executeStream(BufferAllocator, CancellationToken)-- same overload pattern. Token is held by the returnedArrowReaderfor its full lifetime; cancel mid-stream aborts the nextloadNextBatch().
Describe alternatives you've considered
No response
Additional context
Out of scope
- Tag form. Ship the token primitive first; tag is sugar that can land in a follow-up if a user actually asks for it.
- Sync-API breakage.
df.collect(allocator)keeps working unchanged; the new method isdf.collect(allocator, token)(overload). - Per-operator cancel granularity. Today the cancel point is each
block_onsite; sub-operator cancellation is upstream-DataFusion territory.
- Dominant language
- Java
- Stars
- 32
- Forks
- 12
- PR merge metrics
- No merged PRs in 30d
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
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