yugabyte/yugabyte-db

[DocDB] Return useful tablet metadata as a response to DeleteTablet

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#32,004 opened on Jun 2, 2026

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area/docdbgood first issuekind/enhancementpriority/medium

Description

Jira Link: DB-21691

Description

We recently ran into a case where we saw data of a tombstoned tablet left on disk. Forther a delete_tablet was issued to see it the data goes away, but it didn't, and an rm -rf was done to get rid of the data.

We didn't have enough logs to see what the actual issue was, and since the cluster previously also had duplicate tablet metadata issues, we suspect the stale leftover data of tombstoned had something to do with duplicate tablet metadata or some mount issues.

It would be useful to return the data directories touched as a response of delete_tablet (any also include any other useful information may be).

cc @yamen-haddad

Issue Type

kind/enhancement

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Contributor guide

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
backenddatabase
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-2 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
mostly clear
Prerequisites
C++Distributed SystemsDocDB
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
30
Research direction
Examine the DeleteTablet RPC handler in the DocDB codebase to identify where tablet metadata is dropped and how to include the touched data directories in the response.