The disclosed embodiments disclose techniques for deleting a file from a distributed filesystem. Two or more cloud controllers collectively manage distributed filesystem data that is stored in one or more cloud storage systems; the cloud controllers store metadata for the distributed filesystem, and cache and ensure data consistency for the data stored in the cloud storage systems. During operation, a cloud controller receives a request from a client to delete a file from the distributed filesystem. The cloud controller updates a user view of the distributed filesystem to present the appearance of the target file being deleted to the client, and then initiates a background deletion operation to delete the target file without negatively affecting the performance of the other users of the distributed filesystem.