Hey folks, There is a bug when dropping a column that is referenced by older partition specs that has been reported several times(see this <https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/11842#issue-2753620197>) . Dropping such a column breaks the table.
It has an easy repro as seen here <https://github.com/apache/iceberg/issues/10234#issuecomment-2117081412>. It can also be reproduced in core tests as shown in this PR <https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/11842#issue-2753620197>. After chatting with Russell, Amogh and @advancedxy <https://github.com/advancedxy>, we concluded the solution is two parts Part 1: Prevent dropping the column referenced in older specs (# <https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/11842>11842 <https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/11842>) Part 2: Provide a maintenance API for users to remove all unused specs ( #10755 <https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/10755>) My concern is that Part 1 is a big behaviour change i.e we cannot drop any columns part of a partition spec. Also, it requires changing many partition evolution tests. I'm wondering if there is a better approach to this bug. Please take a look at # <https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/11842>11842 <https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/11842> and let me know what you think. Thanks, Anurag Mantripragada
