I'm not sure we can deprecate the column in a library version update, but currently it is marked as optional and I don't think the Apache Java Library even has a way of writing or reading them.
On Tue, Aug 19, 2025 at 10:15 AM Péter Váry <peter.vary.apa...@gmail.com> wrote: > During the last community sync (30/07), we discussed the current state of > the File Format API proposal [1] and found that implementing the writers > for Positional Deletes where the actual row data is provided would > complicate things quite a bit. > > The current Iceberg V2 spec [2] defines two types of position delete files: > > 1. Files that store only the file name and row position. > 2. Files that also store the deleted row data. > > The 1st type of the position deletes are widely used. The 2nd type of > deletes is defined in the spec and some tests exist in the Iceberg > codebase, but we’re not aware of any actual implementation using the second > type (position delete files with row data). Supporting writing V2 tables > via the new File Format API would be simpler if we dropped support for this > feature. > > I would like to hear of any uses of these delete files. If we can not find > use-cases, then *I propose to deprecate position delete files with > embedded row data starting from Iceberg 2.0.* > > Thanks, > Peter > > [1] - https://lists.apache.org/thread/ovyh52m2b6c1hrg4fhw3rx92bzr793n2 > [2] - Position Delete File Spec: > https://iceberg.apache.org/spec/?h=delete#position-delete-files >
