[Bug] Compacted topic retains keys indefinitely without respecting message TTL or retention policy
- Dominant language
- Java
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Description
### Search before reporting
- [x] I searched in the [issues](https://github.com/apache/pulsar/issues) and found nothing similar.
### Read release policy
- [x] I understand that [unsupported versions](https://pulsar.apache.org/contribute/release-policy/#supported-versions) don't get bug fixes. I will attempt to reproduce the issue on a supported version of Pulsar client and Pulsar broker.
### User environment
java
pulsar 3.3.6
### Issue Description
The current topic compaction mechanism does not respect topic-level data expiration policies (Message TTL and Retention). Once a key is written to the compacted ledger, it persists forever, even if its latest message should have been expired and deleted by the configured TTL/retention rules.
1. During compaction, the latest value for each key is copied into a new, persistent `compactedLedger`.
2. This `compactedLedger` is treated as a separate entity and is not cleaned up by the standard expiration processes that act on regular ledgers.
3. As a result, a key's latest value remains in storage indefinitely after compaction, regardless of TTL or retention settings.
### Error messages
```text
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### Reproducing the issue
1. send k,v message to a topic(retention 5min, ttl 5min)
2. trigger compact
3. we can read the key after 5min.
### Additional information
_No response_
### Are you willing to submit a PR?
- [x] I'm willing to submit a PR!
Contributor guide
Research direction
No source files or tests are named. Reproduce the issue with a compacted topic configured with five-minute retention and message TTL, then trace the topic-compaction path alongside the regular ledger expiration and retention processes. Done means a compacted key is no longer readable after the configured expiration period.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- java
- Domain
- distributed-systems
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100