truncate table ... 删除所有数据。 truncate table partition (...) 删除特定分区的数据。
目录结构保持不变。
外部表应首先转换为manged，例如

alter table t set tblproperties('EXTERNAL'='FALSE');

当我们完成后，我们可以把它转换回来

alter table t set tblproperties('EXTERNAL'='TRUE');

演示

create table t (i int) partitioned by (x char(1));
set hive.exec.dynamic.partition.mode=nonstrict;
insert into t partition (x) values (1,'A'),(2,'B'),(3,'C');
alter table t set tblproperties('EXTERNAL'='TRUE');

select * from t;

+-----+-----+
| t.i | t.x |
+-----+-----+
|   1 | A   |
|   2 | B   |
|   3 | C   |
+-----+-----+

dfs -ls -R /user/hive/warehouse/t;

drwxrwxrwx   - cloudera supergroup          0 2017-03-28 11:40 /user/hive/warehouse/t/x=A
-rwxrwxrwx   1 cloudera supergroup          2 2017-03-28 11:40 /user/hive/warehouse/t/x=A/000000_0
drwxrwxrwx   - cloudera supergroup          0 2017-03-28 11:40 /user/hive/warehouse/t/x=B
-rwxrwxrwx   1 cloudera supergroup          2 2017-03-28 11:40 /user/hive/warehouse/t/x=B/000000_0
drwxrwxrwx   - cloudera supergroup          0 2017-03-28 11:40 /user/hive/warehouse/t/x=C
-rwxrwxrwx   1 cloudera supergroup          2 2017-03-28 11:40 /user/hive/warehouse/t/x=C/000000_0

truncate table t partition (x='B');

失败：semanticexception[错误10146]：无法截断非托管表t。

alter table t set tblproperties('EXTERNAL'='FALSE');

truncate table t partition (x='B');

select * from t;

+-----+-----+
| t.i | t.x |
+-----+-----+
|   1 | A   |
|   3 | C   |
+-----+-----+

dfs -ls -R /user/hive/warehouse/t;

drwxrwxrwx   - cloudera supergroup          0 2017-03-28 11:40 /user/hive/warehouse/t/x=A
-rwxrwxrwx   1 cloudera supergroup          2 2017-03-28 11:40 /user/hive/warehouse/t/x=A/000000_0
drwxrwxrwx   - cloudera supergroup          0 2017-03-28 11:42 /user/hive/warehouse/t/x=B
drwxrwxrwx   - cloudera supergroup          0 2017-03-28 11:40 /user/hive/warehouse/t/x=C
-rwxrwxrwx   1 cloudera supergroup          2 2017-03-28 11:40 /user/hive/warehouse/t/x=C/000000_0

truncate table t;

+-----+-----+
| t.i | t.x |
+-----+-----+

dfs -ls -R /user/hive/warehouse/t;

drwxrwxrwx   - cloudera supergroup          0 2017-03-28 11:43 /user/hive/warehouse/t/x=A
drwxrwxrwx   - cloudera supergroup          0 2017-03-28 11:43 /user/hive/warehouse/t/x=B
drwxrwxrwx   - cloudera supergroup          0 2017-03-28 11:43 /user/hive/warehouse/t/x=C

alter table t set tblproperties('EXTERNAL'='TRUE');