Can't Delete HDFS Directory Via Web Interface Because I'm Dr. Who

When you access the Web UI, you are accessing the cluster as Dr.Who, not your user.

Dr. Who doesn't have permission to delete in your dir. It is a user to be used for browsing.

+------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------------+|                              |           | The user name to filter as,on static web filters   || hadoop.http.staticuser.user  |  dr.who   | while rendering content. An example use is the HDFS||                              |           | web UI (user to be used for browsing files).       |+------------------------------+-----------+----------------------------------------------------+

Refer: Who is Dr.Who?

Additional reference: core-default

In case anyone is still looking at this, you can set your user by setting the property in the core-site.xml as such

<configuration>...    <property>        <name>hadoop.http.staticuser.user</name>        <value>youruserhere</value>    </property>...</configuration>

That should override the dr.who default user and allow you to delete/upload from the web interface.