Difference between delete.retention.ms and retention.ms

Clients
1

Hello!
I’m seeing ambiguous information on the actual meaning of these two topic properties.
Which is responsible for the actual retention time in a topic, i.e. for how long the messages are stored?
Thank you,
David

2

The delete.retention.ms property dictates how long to retain tombstones (special messages with null value signifying deletion) in compacted topics, while retention.ms dictates how long to retain “regular” (non-tombstone) messages in topics that have the delete cleanup.policy set.

The topic’s cleanup.policy dictates which property applies:

  • cleanup.policy = delete: only retention.ms applies
  • cleanup.policy = compact: only delete.retention.ms applies
  • cleanup.policy = delete,compact: both retention.ms and delete.retention.ms apply
3

Understood, thank you!