[Bug] Partition expiration stuck in infinite failure loop when HMS drop succeeds but Paimon drop fails due to unhandled MetaException

[GangYang-HX]

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• I searched in the issues and found nothing similar.

Paimon version

Paimon-1.1.1

Compute Engine

Spark-3.5.0

Minimal reproduce step

Executing the "CALL sys.expire_partitions" operation via the Spark engine:

1. Executing partition expire throws an exception after the HMS Drop Partition is completed, preventing subsequent Paimon partition metadata deletion processing.

2. Executing partition expire again will throw an exception.

What doesn't meet your expectations?

Failed to correctly identify the partition not found exception

Anything else?

No response

Are you willing to submit a PR?

• I'm willing to submit a PR!

[GangYang-HX]

Complete exception log

2026/05/25 11:32:13  java.lang.RuntimeException: MetaException(message:java.lang.NullPointerException)
	at org.apache.paimon.hive.HiveCatalog.dropPartitions(HiveCatalog.java:428)
	at org.apache.paimon.table.PartitionHandler$1.dropPartitions(PartitionHandler.java:54)
	at org.apache.paimon.operation.PartitionExpire.doExpire(PartitionExpire.java:153)
	at org.apache.paimon.operation.PartitionExpire.expire(PartitionExpire.java:129)
	at org.apache.paimon.operation.PartitionExpire.expire(PartitionExpire.java:99)
	at org.apache.paimon.spark.procedure.ExpirePartitionsProcedure.lambda$call$2(ExpirePartitionsProcedure.java:105)
	at org.apache.paimon.spark.procedure.BaseProcedure.execute(BaseProcedure.java:88)
	at org.apache.paimon.spark.procedure.BaseProcedure.modifyPaimonTable(BaseProcedure.java:78)
	at org.apache.paimon.spark.procedure.ExpirePartitionsProcedure.call(ExpirePartitionsProcedure.java:85)
	at org.apache.paimon.spark.execution.PaimonCallExec.run(PaimonCallExec.scala:32)
Caused by: MetaException(message:java.lang.NullPointerException)
	at org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.ThriftHiveMetastore$drop_partition_with_environment_context_result$drop_partition_with_environment_context_resultStandardScheme.read(ThriftHiveMetastore.java)
	at org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.ThriftHiveMetastore$drop_partition_with_environment_context_result$drop_partition_with_environment_context_resultStandardScheme.read(ThriftHiveMetastore.java)
	at org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.ThriftHiveMetastore$drop_partition_with_environment_context_result.read(ThriftHiveMetastore.java)
	at org.apache.thrift.TServiceClient.receiveBase(TServiceClient.java:88)
	at org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.ThriftHiveMetastore$Client.recv_drop_partition_with_environment_context(ThriftHiveMetastore.java:2083)
	at org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.ThriftHiveMetastore$Client.drop_partition_with_environment_context(ThriftHiveMetastore.java:2066)
	at org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.HiveMetaStoreClient.dropPartition(HiveMetaStoreClient.java:948)
	at org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.HiveMetaStoreClient.dropPartition(HiveMetaStoreClient.java:935)
	at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:75)
	at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:52)
	at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:580)
	at org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.RetryingMetaStoreClient.invoke(RetryingMetaStoreClient.java:173)
	at jdk.proxy2/jdk.proxy2.$Proxy46.dropPartition(Unknown Source)
	at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:75)
	at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:52)
	at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:580)
	at org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.HiveMetaStoreClient$SynchronizedHandler.invoke(HiveMetaStoreClient.java:2327)
	at jdk.proxy2/jdk.proxy2.$Proxy46.dropPartition(Unknown Source)
	at org.apache.paimon.hive.HiveCatalog.lambda$dropPartitions$5(HiveCatalog.java:405)
	at org.apache.paimon.client.ClientPool$ClientPoolImpl.lambda$execute$0(ClientPool.java:80)
	at org.apache.paimon.client.ClientPool$ClientPoolImpl.run(ClientPool.java:68)
	at org.apache.paimon.client.ClientPool$ClientPoolImpl.execute(ClientPool.java:77)
	at org.apache.paimon.hive.pool.CachedClientPool.execute(CachedClientPool.java:139)
	at org.apache.paimon.hive.HiveCatalog.dropPartitions(HiveCatalog.java:403)
	... 53 more

[lilei1128]

Thank you for contributing this issue. I went to the latest version to reproduce this bug and fix it.